We received the base model gaming Laptop from RAZER, their Blade Base 15. What exactly do the modern configuration and a 95W RTX3070 performance bring to the table? Check out the video below! Please ‘like’ and subscribe to my channel, and don’t forget to click the ‘bell’ icon to get the latest video updates.

We have a raffle at the end of the video, please take part, thank you!

The overall moulding is similar to the Pro 17  version, with an all-metal body and Macbook-like design

So let’s dig into the details.

Product Specification

2021 RAZER BLADE BASE 15 Tech Specs from Official Website
CLICK HERE

Product Unboxing

Package Appearance
The outer packaging is packed with a black recycled carton

All internal packaging has inflatable and shock-proof protection

The AC adapter manufactured by Shenzhen Hornor Electronics is 19.5V 11.8A 230W total with the specially designed header

The weight of the AC adapter is 859g plus the power cable

The black internal box with a huge fancy golden Razer logo

Opening the box, we can see an eco-tag leading by Razer: #GoGreenwithRazer
In recent years, Razer has made a concerted effort to support the environment saving, and not to be as extravagant as other brands with their packaging. The first step is to reduce the size of the packaging, then is to keep the accessories simple, with no extra unnecessary accessories or cables available, and the last is to use as much recycled paper as possible for internal support to reduce the use of plastic. It has to be said that Razer didn’t do this out of sheer cheapness, but rather than buying accessories that may not be used once, Razer was able to cut costs and give back to its customers, while achieving a win-win situation.

The second layer is the accessories box with the familiar sticker, greeting card, support card, manual and a microfibre cloth

Product Analysis

The main looking of RAZER BLADE BASE 15
The dimensions of this laptop are 355 x 235 x 20mm

The 10th gen Intel i7 and the THX®️ Spatial Studio sticker

The specification badge

The 2K 165Hz screen badge

The thin-bezel design

The single-zone RGB Keyboard keycaps are designed with no wobbling from side to side

The backlit of this keyboard is quite bright and level adjustable, fn-key welcome design

The 720p IR HD camera on the top of the B cover is supporting Windows Hello

The laptop front side – Smooth design without any indicator

The laptop rear side – The heat sink has a Macbook-like design and is completely invisible from the rear side

The laptop right side – 1 x Type-C(Thunderbolt™3,20V PD3.0), 1 x Type-A(3.2 Gen2), 1 x (4K @ 120Hz) HDMI 2.1, 1 x Kensington Lock port

The laptop left side – Power port, 1 x 1Gb Lan Port, 1 x Type-A(3.2 Gen2), 1 x Type-C(3.2 Gen2, 20V PD3.0), 1 x Mic/Headphone combo jack

The opening angle of the screen is approximately 120°

The laptop weight: 2.11KG, around 2.96KG total with AC adapter and power cable

Screen Calibration
RAZER BLADE BASE 15 is using a 15 inchs QHD 165Hz panel from Chi Mei, model:N156KME-GNA(CMN152A)
d

Calibration result: Average △E≈0.06, Maximum △E≈0.54
After calibration, we have a 132.9% of sRGB, 95.9% of Adobe RGB and 98.6% of DCI P3 coverage

Calibration Curves

Gamut

Tone Response Curves

Hardware Introduction

HWiNFO64 System detail – Intel 10th gen i7-10750H with Nvidia RTX3070 Laptop

HWiNFO64 WIFI & LAN detail
WIFI Card – Intel Wifi6 AX 201 with Bluetooth v5.1
LAN Card – Realtek RTL8168 1Gb LAN card

HWiNFO64 Ram detail

HWiNFO64 Smart Battery detail

CPU-Z snapshots

Run-time Benchmark Test

Before the test, we make sure the Ultimate Power Performance has been activated in Win10. All available updates for this windows version are patched already.

Cinebench R15 Single core & Multi core

Cinebench R20 Single core & Multi core

Cinebench R23 Single core & Multi core

PCMark10 | 5,850

3DMARK – Port Royal | 5,485

3DMARK – Time Spy | 8,374

3DMARK – Time Spy Extreme | 3,949

3DMARK – Mesh Shader(4K) | OFF: 57.15 FPS, ON: 312.47 FPS

3DMARK – DirectX Raytracing(2K) | Average 23.49 FPS

3DMARK – VRS Tier2(2K) | OFF: 104.98 FPS, ON: 153.25 FPS

3DMARK – DLSS(2K) | OFF: 25.46 FPS, ON: 62.93 FPS

FURMARK @ 2K ｜ Average 78 Fps

CPUZ Benchmark

AIDA64 Cache Benchmark

AIDA64 GPGPU Benchmark

7ZIP Benchmark

X264 Benchmark

VRAY Benchmark

BLENDER Benchmark

TxBENCH

Gaming Benchmarks
The Witcher 3 @ 2K Ultra | Average 68 FPS

Final Fantasy XV Benchmark @ 2K HQ | 6902 High

Deus EX Mankind divided @ 2K Ultra | Average 64.0 FPS

GTAV @ 2K Very High | Average 73 FPS

CSGO @ 2K Very High | Average 185 FPS

Cyberpunk 2077 @ 2K Ultra RT with DLSS | Average 50 FPS

Thermal Tests

We are pressure testing this laptop by using AIDA64 and furmark.

Test room temperature: 25℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature: 48℃±3℃
GPU idle temperature: 44℃±3℃

Fan setting is kept in ‘auto’ mode

Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, this Intel i7-10750H hits the power limit wall and drops straight to 2.68Ghz
The CPU package temperature is around 57℃

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H hits the power limit wall and drops straight to 3.46Ghz
The CPU package temperature is around 62℃

Under AIDA64 CPU & FURMARK test
the Intel i7-10750H hits the power limit wall and drops straight to 3.39Ghz
The CPU package temperature is around 79℃±10℃
The GPU temperature is around 66.8℃±10℃

Since Razer doesn’t have a built-in overclocking setting in Synapse, we didn’t continue with the measurement. When we switch the setting to Creator mode, the CPU’s power limitation wall is unblocked, very similar to the Pro 17’s Performance mode.

The thermal snapshots under FULL pressure test
Front – A panel | It’s around 35.6℃ in the middle, around 50℃ next to the 2 exhausting vents

Front – C panel | It’s around 48℃ in the middle of the keyboard, around 62℃ next to the 2 exhausting fans, the temperature of the elbow part is about 43℃

Bottom – D panel | It’s around 50℃ in the middle of the panel, around 45-62℃ at the exhausting vents

AC adapter – It’s around 57.7℃ in the middle and average of 52℃

Test room noise level: 36.6dBA±1dBA
Under silence mode, the noise level is around 38.9dBA

Under lightly use mode, the noise level is around 47.9dBA

Under maximum fan speed mode, the noise level is around 54.9dBA

The cooling performance of this new RAZER BLADE BASE 15 is in ‘Average’ condition. Because the Base model’s bespoke cooler has only three heat pipes, unlike the Advanced model, which uses the Vapor Chamber cooling system, and has to take into account the cooling of the RTX3070, the power and temperature walls have been set very conservatively, but unfortunately, the C-Panel is still very hot, and the wrist part is noticeably hot, not to mention the middle of the keyboard and the part near the air vents, which is even hotter.

Disassembling analysis

The back cover of the Razer laptop is very easy to remove. After unlocking all the Torx screws, users can remove the back cover with a gentle downward push

The D-panel black plate

The main inside look

The C-panel inside look

The keyboard controller board adopted with NXP LPC11U37F solution, its ARM Cortex-M0 architecture is the same processor as the K70 series from Corsair and the KM870 mechanical keyboard from Gskill

The Left & Right Stereo speakers are THX Certified

The bespoke 3 heat pipes copper heatsink, the slim copper sheet makes this heatsink look very weak

The main exhausting fans are DFS5K121142621 EP(DC 5V 0.5A) and DFS501105PR0T EP(DC 5V 0.5A) manufactured by FCN

Battery, 4221mAh manufactured by Shenzhen BYD, 4 cells 65Wh

The Main motherboard front and backside

The 10th Gen INTEL i7-10750H

The GPU chip from Nvidia, GN20-E5-A1 which is the Nvidia RTX3070 Laptop with 8GB GDDR6 VRAM from Samsung

The PCH Bridge chip

The PCIe SSD slot

The ITE IT8390E-256 EC chip

The Intel Thunderbolt™3 JHL7340 controller chip

The USB Type-C bi-directional retimer chip PS8802 from Parade

USB Type-C & USB PD Controller chip TPS65987D from Texas Instruments

The ALC256 operational amplifier IC chip from Realtek

The MP2949A Tri-Loop Digital Multi-Phase Controller chip from MPS

SSD: PM981a 512GB m.2 NVMe SSD by Samsung

Samsung DDR4 3200 2 x 8GB: M471A1K43DB1 – CWE

WIFI & Bluetooth card: Intel AX201NGW, Wifi6 2.4G/5G, 160MHz channels, Bluetooth v5.1

SUMMARY

Overall, we were impressed with this new 2021 Razer Blade Base 15 model laptop. Externally, the body is made of all aluminium and feels great to the touch, the downside is that it is prone to fingerprints. Performance-wise, the RTX 3070 Laptop GPU is a credit to the new Ampere architecture that doubles the RT Core capability and doubles the Tensor Core as well. This greatly enhances a gamer’s experience when ray tracing is turned on. The 2K 165Hz refresh rate screen and RTX 3070 can be considered a perfect match, not wasting the GPU’s performance at all, while the near 100% Adobe RGB and DCI P3 colour gamut transform this laptop into a productivity tool. A wide range of ports allows for not only external professional monitors and TVs but also professional design development with Razer’s docking station. In terms of price, Razer’s AU$3,399 is too expensive compared to similar products such as the i7-10870H Gigabyte Aero 15XC and MSI GP66 10UG which are priced at around AU$2,799 and AU$2,999 respectively. Of course, Razer’s products have always been a touch more expensive than other brands in the same category, which comes from the brand’s popularity and the recognition of Razer by the general public. Razer has released a number of new peripherals over this period of time, so stay tuned as we’ll be updating them one after another.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 85/100

EPIC REWARD: DESIGN AWARD

 

2021 RAZER BLADE BASE 15 OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

So let’s dig into the details.

Product Specification

2021 RAZER BLADE PRO 17 Tech Specs from Official Website
CLICK HERE

Product Unboxing

Package Appearance
The outer packaging is still packed with a black recycled carton

All internal packaging has inflatable and shock-proof protection

The AC adapter manufactured by Shenzhen Hornor Electronics is 19.5V 11.8A 230W total with the specially designed header

The weight of the AC adapter is 765g around

The black internal box with a huge fancy golden Razer logo

Opening the box, we can see an eco-tag leading by Razer: #GoGreenwithRazer
In recent years, Razer has made a concerted effort to support the environment saving, and not to be as extravagant as other brands with their packaging. The first step is to reduce the size of the packaging, then is to keep the accessories simple, with no extra unnecessary accessories or cables available, and the last is to use as much recycled paper as possible for internal support to reduce the use of plastic. It has to be said that Razer didn’t do this out of sheer cheapness, but rather than buying accessories that may not be used once, Razer was able to cut costs and give back to its customers, while achieving a win-win situation.

The second layer is the accessories box with the familiar sticker, greeting card, support card, manual and a microfibre cloth

Product Analysis

The main looking of RAZER BLADE 17 PRO
The dimensions of this laptop are 397 x 261 x 20mm

The 10th gen Intel i7 and the THX®️ Spatial Studio sticker

The specification badge

The 4K 120Hz Touch screen badge

The thin-bezel design

The chamfered corners are slightly rounded and without sharp edges

The Per-key RGB Keyboard keycaps are designed with no wobbling from side to side

The backlit of this keyboard is quite bright and level adjustable, fn-key welcome design

The 720p IR HD camera on the top of the B cover is supporting Windows Hello

The chamfered corners are slightly rounded and without sharp edges

The laptop front side – Smooth design without any indicator

The laptop rear side – The heat sink has a Macbook-like design and is completely invisible from the rear side

The laptop right side – 1 x SD Card Reader(up to UHS-III), 1 x Type-C(Thunderbolt™3,20V PD3.0), 1 x Type-A(3.2 Gen2), 1 x (4K @ 120Hz) HDMI 2.1, 1 x Kensington Lock port

The laptop left side – Power port, 1 x 2.5Gb Lan Port, 2 x Type-A(3.2 Gen2), 1 x Type-C(3.2 Gen2, 20V PD3.0), 1 x Mic/Headphone combo jack

The laptop weight: 2.94KG, around 3.7KG total with AC adapter and power cable

Screen Calibration
RAZER BLADE 17 PRO is using a 17 inchs UHD 120Hz touch panel from AUO, model:B173ZAN03.3(AUOA988)

It’s a powerful touch screen with 3840×2160 resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, 1200:1 contrast ratio, and a 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut.

Calibration result: Average △E≈0.07, Maximum △E≈1.53
After calibration, we have a 150.6% of sRGB, 103.8% of Adobe RGB and 106.7% of DCI P3 coverage

Calibration Curves

Gamut

Tone Response Curves

Hardware & Software Introduction

HWiNFO64 System detail – Intel 10th gen i7-10875H with Nvidia RTX3080 Laptop

GPUZ

HWiNFO64 WIFI & LAN detail
WIFI Card – Intel Wifi6E AX 210 with Bluetooth v5.2
LAN Card – Realtek RTL8125 2.5Gb LAN card

HWiNFO64 Ram detail

HWiNFO64 SSD detail

HWiNFO64 Smart Battery detail

CPU-Z snapshots

Razer wallpaper – Neon Arrows

Razer wallpaper – Razer Cityscape

Run-time Benchmark Test

Before the test, we make sure the Ultimate Power Performance has been activated in Win10. All available updates for this windows version are patched already.

Cinebench R15 Single core & Multi core

Cinebench R20 Single core & Multi core

Cinebench R23 Single core & Multi core

PCMark10 | 5,475

3DMARK – Port Royal | 6,339

3DMARK – Time Spy | 9,796

3DMARK – Time Spy Extreme | 4,544

3DMARK – Fire Strike | 19,797

3DMARK – Fire Strike Extreme | 11,966

3DMARK – Fire Strike Ultra | 6,587

3DMARK – Mesh Shader(4K) | OFF: 58.56 FPS, ON: 330.13 FPS

3DMARK – DirectX Raytracing(4K) | Average 16.99 FPS

3DMARK – VRS Tier2 | OFF: 65.77 FPS, ON: 110.09 FPS

3DMARK – DLSS(4K) | OFF: 13.66 FPS, ON: 36.82 FPS

SPECviewperf 13

FURMARK @ 4K ｜ Average 46 Fps

CPUZ Benchmark

AIDA64 Cache Benchmark

AIDA64 GPGPU Benchmark

7ZIP Benchmark

X264 Benchmark

VRAY Benchmark

BLENDER Benchmark

TxBENCH

Gaming Benchmarks
The Witcher 3 @ 4K Ultra | Average 47 FPS

Final Fantasy XV Benchmark @ 4K HQ | 4754 Fairly High

Deus EX Mankind divided @ 4K Ultra | Average 41.2 FPS

GTAV @ 4K Very High | Average 52 FPS

CSGO @ 4K Very High | Average 230 FPS

Cyberpunk 2077 @ 4K Ultra with DLSS | Average 48-54 FPS

Thermal Tests

We are pressure testing this laptop by using AIDA64 and furmark.

Test room temperature: 24℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature: 47℃±3℃
GPU idle temperature: 42℃±3℃

None OC Test
Fan setting is kept in ‘auto’ mode
OC settings are kept in ‘Normal’ mode

Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, this Intel i7-10875H hits the power limit wall and drops straight to 2.3Ghz
The CPU package temperature is around 56℃±4℃

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10875H hits the power limit wall and drops straight to 3.11Ghz
The CPU package temperature is around 60℃±6℃

Under AIDA64 CPU & FURMARK test
the Intel i7-10875H hits the power limit wall and drops straight to 3.06Ghz
The CPU package temperature is around 66℃±7℃
The GPU temperature is around 72℃±0℃

We opened the Intel XTU to look at the CPU’s power and temperature policy settings and found that both settings were activated.

OC Test
We manually maximised the fan speed to 4300rpm and change the performance to ‘BOOST’ and ‘HIGH’ mode

Test room temperature: 24℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature: 48℃±3℃
GPU idle temperature: 45℃±3℃

Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10875H is partially throttled to 3.21Ghz
The CPU package temperature is around 78℃±15℃

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10875H is running normally
The CPU package temperature is around 80℃±0℃

Under AIDA64 CPU & FURMARK test, the Intel i7-10875H is running normally
The CPU package temperature is around 86℃±5℃
The GPU temperature is around 70.6℃±1℃

We tested and found that this RTX 3080 Laptop was set to 100W TGP, and with Razer’s built-in overclocking software, we got a very good performance boost.

PCMARK10 OC | 6,719 +19%
– Essentials: 8,139 +6%
– Productivity: 9,102 +10%
– Digital Content Creation: 10,147 +30%

According to the detailed data, after overclocking, the display-related performance reaches a significant 30% increase, thanks not only to the heat control of the 30-series RTX cards but also to the cooling efficiency of the large area of cooling heatsink from Razer.

3DMARK Port Royal OC | 6,581 +3%

3DMARK Time Spy OC | 10,561 +7%

3DMARK Time Spy Extreme OC | 4,960 +8%

3DMARK Fire Strike Ultra OC | 6,922 +5%

3DMARK Mesh Shader OC | 335.54 FPS +2%

3DMARK DirectX Raytracing OC | 17.69 FPS +4%

3DMARK VRS Tier 2 OC | 114.49 FPS +4%

3DMARK DLSS OC | 38.43 FPS +4%

The thermal snapshots under FULL pressure test
Front – A panel | It’s around 40℃ in the middle, around 47℃ next to the 2 exhausting vents

Front – C panel | It’s around 39℃ in the middle of the keyboard, around 56℃ next to the 2 exhausting fans

Bottom – D panel | It’s around 44℃ in the middle of the panel, around 50-60℃ at the exhausting vents

AC adapter – It’s around 52℃ in the middle and average of 48℃

Under maximum fan speed mode, the noise level is around 59.3dBA

The cooling performance of this new RAZER BLADE 17 Pro is in ‘good’ condition. Of course, the CPU on this laptop is theoretically capable of unlocking the power and temperature walls. We tried to use Intel XTU to perform a voltage reduction operation on the CPU, but unfortunately, the voltage adjustment remained greyed out regardless of whether the latest or previous version was installed. We ended up trying to increase the power consumption of Turbo Boost. Under stress testing, the CPU derating problem was alleviated but still existed. We also used MSI Afterburner to overclock the graphics card further and found that this 3080 could boost the Core clock and Memory Clock again to a small extent and the cooling could be kept within manageable limits. Unfortunately, we were unable to test the limits of this laptop with an adjustable power supply due to the rated input of the AC adapter and the high heat generation, and the special connector used by Razer. Overall, the Laptop does retain some strength and we judge that Razer’s strategy should be to allow users to use the laptop with ease and not at its limits every day, which would not only add to the stress of using it but also give rise to distrust.

Disassembling analysis

The back cover of the Razer laptop is very easy to remove. After unlocking all the Torx screws, users can remove the back cover with a gentle downward push

The D-panel black plate

The main inside look

The C-panel inside look

The keyboard controller board adopted with NXP LPC11U37F solution, its ARM Cortex-M0 architecture is the same processor as the K70 series from Corsair and the KM870 mechanical keyboard from Gskill

The Left & Right Stereo speakers are THX Certified

The large-sized full copper heatsink

The main exhausting fans are EG75070S1-C470-S91(DC 5V 0.45A) and EG75070S1-C470-S91(DC 5V 0.45A) manufactured by SUNON

Battery, 4583mAh manufactured by Shenzhen BYD, 4 cells 70.5Wh
This battery has arguably been shrunk by around 15% compared to previous models, as a small set of turbofans are embedded in the middle to aid cooling

This set of auxiliary cooling fans consists of two EG50050S1-CF11-S9A(DC 5V 0.57A) manufactured by SUNON

The Main motherboard front and backside

The 10th Gen INTEL i7-10875H

The GPU chip from Nvidia, GN20-E7-A1 which is the Nvidia RTX3080 Laptop with 16GB GDDR6 VRAM from Samsung

The PCIe SSD slot

The PCH Bridge chip

The ITE IT8390VG-256 EC chip

The Intel Thunderbolt™3 JHL7340 controller chip

The USB Type-C bi-directional retimer chip PS8802 from Parade

USB Type-C & USB PD Controller chip TPS65987D from Texas Instruments

The ALC1306 operational amplifier IC chip from Realtek

The RTL8125 2.5Gb LAN chip operational amplifier IC chip from Realtek

The RTS5260 SD 6.0/UHS-III Controller chip from Realtek

The MP2949A Tri-Loop Digital Multi-Phase Controller chip from MPS

SSD: PM981a 1TB m.2 NVMe SSD by Samsung

Samsung DDR4 3200 2 x 16GB: M471A2K43DB1 – CWE

WIFI & Bluetooth card: Intel AX210NGW, Wifi6E 2.4G/5G/6G, 160MHz channels, Bluetooth v5.2

SUMMARY

Overall, the Razer Blade Pro 17 laptop is indeed designed for gaming as Razer says, and is perfectly capable for most tasks. Configuration-wise, given the massive heat generated by i9, using i7 not only effectively keeps the price down, but gaming performance won’t be significantly affected either. With a 1TB NVMe SSD, 32GB 3200Mhz of RAM, RTX3080 Laptop graphics and a 4K 120Hz 106.7% DCI-P3 colour gamut touchscreen, this flagship configuration doesn’t require a large body design, as Razer’s minimalist design still maintains a Mac-like industrial style, understated, luxurious and substantial.

The Razer laptop is designed to be as thin and light as possible, with a full-size HDMI port, a full-size LAN port, an SD card slot and a USB type-c port supporting Thunderbolt™ 3 video output. And the inclusion of a WIFI6E network card allows this Laptop to support the latest 6GHz WIFI connectivity. Unfortunately, the keyboard design is somewhat scaled-down compared to the previous generation BLADE PRO 17, especially the directional keys, which were kept full size up and down in the previous generation, have been changed back to a narrow cramped design in this generation, making it easy for users with slightly thicker fingers to accidentally press down. The battery capacity has also shrunk considerably due to the auxiliary cooling fan module, with less than 2 hours of gaming life at 4K resolution makes users having to connect the charger to get full performance.

It’s also important to mention that both the second NVMe SSD slot and the dual-channel memory slot supporting up to 64GB are very easy to swap out, and with Razer’s own Core X docking station and third-party HQ VR devices, this laptop can be instantly transformed into a heavily immersive gaming station or professional design platform. Not only allowing users to play AAA games with high effects, but it is also a productivity tool that is comparable to professional graphics and audio workstation in terms of usability, expandability and portability.

In terms of price, AU$6,299 is flagship level pricing, Razer BLADE PRO 17 2021 is over $100 cheaper than the Alienware m17 R4 with the same configuration but only a 60Hz non-touchscreen display and 2933MHz RAM. We have to say that this model offers good value for money in the same price range.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 94.5/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC RECOMMENDED, DESIGN AWARD, EPIC EXTREME POWER

2021 RAZER BLADE PRO 17 OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

The latest Razer Blade 15” still maintains Razers ambitious portable formula and when compared to MSIs GS65 or Gigabytes Aero 15x, its easy to see how this approach can be beneficial. Measuring in with a 5mm ultra-thin bezel and a 16.8mm thin body, it feels more like a Macbook than a gaming laptop.

Product Specification

RΛZΞR BLADE 15″ 2018 Tech Specs from Official Website
https://www2.razer.com/au-en/comparisons/blade-15

Product Unboxing

Package
It’s interesting that Razer has opted for a plain outer box when compared to some of their other products, which have a much flashier exterior box

The exterior has a small label that contains the laptop details

Inside the box, there are terms & conditions printed on the middle layer of the box

A greeting message has been printed on the accessory box. The Razor laptop is below it.

The whole package contains only 2 boxes, Razer has continued to follow their ‘simple’ packaging approach for this laptop

Let’s take a look at the accessory box. It contains the power adapter and a power cable. It’s a bit funny that the power cable has been protected by another simple box

Taking everything out from the box

The power adapter has an output of 19.5V 11.8A total 230W

All the parts have a special Razer design, which tends to be more unrepairable

The power cable is manufactured by I-SHENG(Taiwan), 10A 250V standard

Compared with the Razer Phone, the size of the power adapter is not that big

In traditional ‘Razer Style’, the laptop has a big Razer logo

The other sides of this package sport ‘Razer Green’ highlights

Open the package, we can actually see the laptop with a protective layer

Remove the protector sheet, the laptop body is still being protected by a plastic sheet

After taking out the laptop, there is another small box underneath the laptop

Inside this small package, we can find the typical ‘Razer Greeting Card’, user manual, Razer Chroma Sticker, and a laptop fingerprint fiber cleaning cloth. There is a small Razer logo on the cloth

A/D Panel

The A panel is fully black with a classic Razer light-up logo in the middle, the unibody is full aluminum

The bottom side, this time Razer opted for 2 hollow-carved designed vents

B/C Panel

The screen bezel is only 5mm wide, it’s nearly invisible

The screen refresh rate is 144Hz, IPS matte panel, C panel is extremely similar to the dark version MacBook Pro 15 inch, especially the large-sized design of the touchpad. Speakers are located at both left and right side, Keyboard has no numeric keypad per-key RGB backlight and nice touch feeling

The built-in microphone and webcam are located in the middle of the top bezel. If you are doing online streaming or like to do an HQ video chat, a Razer Kiyo is a definitely better choice

There is an unusual tiny little intel 8-gen chip sticker located at the right side of the corner

I/O Analysis

The front view of the laptop, there is no I/O port locate on this side

The rear view of the laptop, there is a full-width cooling vent located here

The left side I/O of this laptop includes the power jack, 2x USB 3.1 Type-A ports and a standard 3.5mm combo audio port

The right side I/O of this laptop contains the Kensington lock port, a mini DP v1.4 port, a HDMI 2.0b port, a USB 3.1 Type-A port and a USB 3.1 Type-C with Thunderbolt™ 3 port

Screen Analysis

This laptop uses a 15.6 inch, 16:9 144Hz Full-HD IPS Matt screen, manufactured by LG.

Subpixel geometry

Screen Calibration
We are using the Datacolor Spider 4 Elite for doing screen calibration, the screen temperature is under 6500K

Before & after calibration

The Gamut test result, this panel comes in with 97% of sRGB, 73% of AdobeRGB and 67% of NTSC

The Tone Response test result

The Brightness & Contrast tests result

The OSD Settings result

The Screen Uniformity tests result
Colour Uniformity for Brightness 50% & 100%

Luminance Uniformity for Brightness 50% & 100%

Colour Accuracy test result, Average ΔE≈1.35

Hardware & Software Brief Introduction

BIOS details, powered by AMI, Main view – 1

BIOS details, Main view – 2, contains CPU details, MEM details and MTB chipset

BIOS details, Advanced CPU details

BIOS details, Advanced SSD details

BIOS details, Chipset details

BIOS details, Boot setup menu

UEFI booting screen with a bright looking Razer logo

WIN10 is pre-installed. After booting up, we try to enable the ultimate power plan



Activation for new power plan fails because the win10 is not the latest version

Razer has their customised desktop wallpaper

Razer Synapse settings
We have to say; the Razer Synapse software is not easy to use and not that user-friendly. The user must sign-up to a Razer account, connect to internet and sign-in to use the software or load device drivers. After these steps, they will be able to change the performance and appearance.

Razer Synapse Lighting Profile

Razer Synapse RGB lighting setup

Razer Synapse Laptop Performance setup

Razer Synapse Laptop Performance setup – Gaming Mode

The maximum speed of these cooling fans is 5000rpm

Razer Synapse Screen Refresh Rate Setting

Audio Chipset – Realtek ALC298

SSD – 512GB SAMSUNG OEM PM981 MZVLB512HAJQ-00000

WIFI Card – Intel Wireless-AC 9260 with Bluetooth v5

Power Management

Razer OS Recovery Mode. Razer has customized the recovery mode and makes it really easy to use

Run-time Benchmark Test

CPU-Z snapshot, INTEL i7 8750H, and CPU-Z benchmark

Intel XTU

Intel XTU Advance Tuning, we actually found that the PL1 has been set to 60W and PL2 at 80W

After the 1st benchmark, the CPU hits the wall and throttles down and up several times

Due to this problem, we have to switch the cooling setting to MAX, then test again

Even when we turned the cooling to max performance, The CPU still throttles down

Cinebench R15 Result

AIDA64 Memory & Cache benchmark

GPU-Z snapshot – we found the Nvidia driver was outdated

For more accrued benchmark result, we updated the Nvidia driver to the latest version

AIDA64 GPGPU Benchmark

FURMARK Stress test

FURMARK Stress test with 8X MSAA

SSD Details – Samsung Magician

SSD Benchmark – Samsung Magician R/W : 2,078/1,849 MB/S | 230,712/196,533 IOPS

SSD Benchmark – AS SSD R/W : 822/1,847 MB/S

SSD Benchmark – Blackmagicdesign Disk Speed Test R/W : 1,070/1,821 MB/S

3DMark Time Spy : 5,447

3DMark Sky Diver : 34,762

3DMark Fire Strike : 14,522

3DMark Fire Strike Extreme : 7,347

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra : 3,781

Unigine Heaven : 2,130 | Avg FPS : 84.6

Unigine Vally : 3,663 | Avg FPS : 87.6

Unigine Superposition : 10,106 | Avg FPS : 75.59

Unigine Superposition High : 7,200 | Avg FPS : 53.85

Unigine Superposition Extreme : 2,844 | Avg FPS : 21.28

Thermal and Noise Tests

Test room temperature : 20℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature : 45℃±2℃
GPU idle temperature : 46℃
AIDA64 Extreme full load stress test CPU&FPU: 87℃
Furmark full load stress test GPU: 71℃

The surface temperature during full load:

The Noise level under balance mode : around 34 dB

The Noise level under Max Cooling mode : around 55-65 dB

Disassembling analysis

There are 10 screws mounting on the back D panel, it’s quite easy to disassemble the back plate

The back panel looking

The Innovative Vapor Chamber Cooling System. There are total of 3 important cables crossing over to the Ram

The Northbridge chip has been cooled by the edge of the Vapor Chamber cooling pad with thermal paste

Battery, manufactured by BYD, 80Wh

After we removed the eDP and other cables, we are able to remove the Ram
Ram : M471A1K43CB1 – CTD from Samsung, 8G DDR4, 1Rx8 2666

SSD ONLY : PM981 from Samsung OEM, 512G, MZVLB512HAJQ-00000

WIFI & Bluetooth card : 9560NGW from Intel, 2.4G/5G, 300Mbps+1730Mbps, 160MHz channels, Bluetooth v5

The Chipset Heatsink. It’s not a traditional thick copper one-piece heatsink, to be honest, we are surprised that this design brings good cooling performances

North Bridge chip

CPU & GPU

Cooling Fans are manufactured by FCN, a Thermal Solution Specialist company. Model No : DFS501105PLOT 5V 0.5A

SUMMARY

Ultra Fast. Ultra Small. Ultra Powerful. According to Razer, the 2018 Blade 15 has lots of benefits that users have come to expect. Exquisite Design, with 16.8mm ultra-thin body and 5mm thin bezel and fancy RGB Chroma integration. Modern crafted shape and texture give this laptop an element of luxury, just like a piece of art. Lightweight and quiet, for gamers who want to bring this beast into everyday life. An 80Wh battery is still powerful, and the charger is actually well weight. If under the integrated graphics card mode, the laptop can last around 5 hours. 144Hz FHD screen also brings smooth gaming and movie performance, plus the active cooling system and the aluminum body ensures that it will never overhead (a problem that plagued earlier models of the Razer Blade). This time, Razer has impressed us with the new cooling system and nice appearance features blended into this new Razer Blade 2018. We highly recommended this laptop to everyone who wants to blend high-performance computing, with great looks.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 92.5/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC RECOMMENDED, EDITOR’S CHOICE & DESIGN AWARD

RAZER BLADE 15″ 2018 OFFICIAL WEBSITE: https://www2.razer.com/au-en/gaming-systems/razer-blade/