Is the Razer Blade 14 a worthy successor in the ever popular Blade series laptops or is it worth waiting till next year, let’s find out.

Seeing this reminds us of the world’s first keyboard with a linear optical axis – the BENQ Zowie CELERITAS II, using a switch from Flaretech™, a switch we covered in our previous Huntsman review, which allows the full range of 0° to 90°, depending on how deep you press the switch. It’s the same as the trigger button on a gamepad.

And this new ‘analog optical’ technology from Razer features a light intensity design with adjustable trigger depth: 1.5mm to 3.6mm any way you like.

This switch also allows you to employ WASD to simulate the joystick on the handle, truly ‘press as deep as you can and go as far as you can’

The ‘DUAL-STEP ACTUATION’ allows you to instantly multi-task each button, e.g. tap and press to the bottom for different actions, allowing for more consistent moves in FPS or MOBA games and eliminating the need for complex operations with multiple buttons, which can be very effective in improving a player’s EAPM (Effective Actions Per Minute).

The Synapse software allows you to customise the trigger feel to best suit your needs. Different profiles can be activated to enable different trigger depths to be used in different games.

So, let’s dig into the detail!

Package Appearance

Package Front

Package Back

Package Side

Upon opening the package, we find the manuals, stickers and keyboard main body

Product Analysis

Keyboard Main body looking. Topcase is made of aluminium

The Razer magnetic plush leatherette wrist rest – RGB included

6 non-slip foot pads under the hand rest

The new hand rest is more flexible and made of smoother material than the Razer Blackwidow Elite hand rest

The dual USB connectors are coloured green

The type-c header comes with a Type C-A adapter

Take off a keycap, we can find the actual Razer Analog optical switch

This keyboard has three different height adjustment levels:

Level 1 – Normal height

Level 2 – Higher height

Level 3 – Highest height

There is a USB Type-A port on the left side of the keyboard, making it easy for players to access their devices and use a USB stick or joystick is still relatively convenient. Unfortunately, this generation is not equipped with a cable management slot, the cable outlet is fixed on the upper left side because there are two cables so there is no way to manage the cable freely, both cables are made of braided material, resistant to pulling and soft enough, the length is around two meters, which is perfectly sufficient for players to use for cabling.

Keyboard status indicators

The media control keys and the volume knob

This time Razer has used double-shot PBT keycaps to prevent oiling, adding a thicker surface and a frosted feel to the keys to give them more texture and reduce wear and tear, but also increases the thickness of the keycaps, which slightly affects light transmission

The satellite keycap uses the contact clip type inside the top case

Backlight effects

Software Usability

We can find the Huntsman v2 analog keyboard under Razer Synapse 3

The main keyboard controller interface
We can switch the mode between ‘Standard’ and ‘Hypershift’
‘Gaming mode’ can be turned on and off to enable the no-disturb mode

The ‘Quick remapping’ function is to simulate the controller joystick by using ‘WASD’ keys

We can change the Chroma effect for this keyboard and setup the per-key RGB

The customised profile can be saved as a different name and transferred to the keyboard

Macro setting

Usage Experience

The switch feels strange on this keyboard, the pressure count doesn’t give us the impression that it’s only 40g. although we can change the trigger distance in the software, the first part of the trigger stroke is still heavy, very much in the style of a Cherry white shaft, but after the trigger and all the way to the bottom of the press, the feel is even heavier. The good thing is that this very flexible linear switch allows for very good control of the downward pressure, which is good for controlling the paddle press in SIM type games. In <Forza: Horizon 4>, the throttle control was very smooth and could be controlled more precisely by lowering the trigger and increasing the length of the linear control; in <Lock On: Flaming Cliffs 2>, the mapping of the Throttle Lever and rudder paddle was done well and tested to be very useful. It doesn’t have the feel and force feedback of a physical controller, but it still controls the force perfectly. It has to be said that this keyboard is instead amazing in drop-based music games. In <DJMAX: Respect V>, where you couldn’t Full combo some ‘Maximum’ or ‘Super Core’ difficulty songs with the Razer yellow switch before, after switching to this keyboard, BOOM! ALL FULL COMBO! The accuracy has also improved.

4Key mode: THE ONE(SC)

6Key mode: ANIMA(Maximum)

6Key mode: BLACK MIND(Maximum)

6Key mode: AXION(SC)

6Key mode: AXION(Maximum)

Of course, the feel is a matter of opinion, because there is no such thing as “perfect compatibility” in the world. When it comes to the typing aspect, this keyboard is one of the two extremes. Some people who write very long texts daily prefer an extremely short trigger stroke and enjoy the feeling of their fingers “floating” across the keyboard, while some programmers who code 24 hours a day prefer a more flexible keyboard with a slightly longer stroke. The Razer Huntsman V2 Analog is closer to the latter, and the adjustable trigger length accommodates those who prefer shorter triggers, so it satisfies a lot of people’s pain points!

SUMMARY

In 2018, we did a review of Razer’s first Huntsman keyboard with an Optical switch, where we said ‘The Razer Opto-Mechanical™ switch did not meet our expectations’, and also did a comparison of several Optical switches, including of course the big name ‘Flaretech’. But today, we can say that Razer’s Analog switch has done a better job than the Flaretech switch, with a pleasing design of two-stage triggering and analogue joystick functionality that is refreshing to gamers, and many difficult gameplay techniques can be easily achieved with this keyboard. Overall, this sincere keyboard not only brings a lot of novelty to the user but also a hefty price tag? AU$380 is officially priced at a significant premium to even Corsair’s flagship keyboard, the K95 Platinum, but instead of dwelling on the price, the new features bring an experience that no other brand can bring anytime soon. At a time when money is hard to come by for a graphics card, how about a peripheral upgrade?

EPIC PC RATE SCORE : 95.5/100

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

RAZER HUNTSMAN OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

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

We received the latest flagship gaming Laptop from Razer, their Blade Pro 17. What exactly does the top configuration and performance bring to the table? Check out the video below! Please subscribe, like, share and turn on the little bell.

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

Subscribe to our channel

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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 processors are available in Core i7-1165G7 and Core i5-1135G7 versions, the former with 16GB of RAM and the latter with 8GB, both dual-channel LPDDR4x-4267 with Intel Iris Xe high-performance core graphics and up to 512GB NVMe SSD. According to Razer, the touch screen versions are using CORNING® GORILLA® GLASS 6, 100% sRGB colour gamut on all versions of the screen, Windows Hello function support, and Razer Chroma RGB per-key backlighting keyboard.

The version we got this time is the i7 with FHD 60Hz touch screen version. So let’s dig in.

Product Specification

RAZER BOOK 13 Tech Specs from Official Website
https://www2.razer.com/au-en/store/razer-book-13

Product Unboxing

Package Appearance

The outer packaging is packed with a black recycled cardboard

Inside the outer packaging, is the real package of the laptop, it has the same design with the outer packaging

The AC adapter has an ultra-slim design

The AC adapter is a total of 65W and manufactured by Shenzhen Hornor Electronics includes PD settings are:
5V 3A 15W total
9V 3A 27W total
15V 3A 45W total
20V 3.25A 65W total

The total weight of the AC adapter includes the power cable is only 0.29KG

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, and not to be as extravagant as other brands with their packaging. The first step is to reduce the size of the packaging, keeping 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 by end users, Razer was able to cut costs and give back to its customers.

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

Product Analysis

The main look of RAZER BOOK 13

The overall weight of the laptop body is only 1.38KG, plus the AC adapter and power cord together is 1.67KG in total

The 11th gen Intel i7 and THX Spatial audio sticker
The Intel EVO badge represents that this laptop has passed the Intel EVO platform certification

1080P with Touch screen badge

The thin-bezel design

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

The 720p IR HD camera on the top of the B cover is supporting Windows Hello
This time, Razer uses a 4 mics array with more directional radio and enhanced noise cancellation

The maximum opening angle is about 120 degrees

The laptop front side – Smooth design with power led indicator on the right corner

The laptop rear side – We don’t see any air vents

The laptop right side – 1 x Type-C(Thunderbolt™4,20V PD3.0), 1 x HDMI 1.2, 1 x Micro SD slot

The laptop left side – 1 x Type-C(Thunderbolt™4,20V PD3.0), 1 x Type-A(3.2 Gen2)，1 x Mic/Headphone combo jack

Screen Calibration
RAZER BOOK 13 is using a 13.4″ FHD Sharp LQ134N1JW48 touch panel

Calibration result: Average △E≈0.08, Maximum △E≈1.31
After calibration, we have a 103.4% of sRGB, 71.2% of Adobe RGB and 73.2% of DCI P3 coverage

Calibration Curves

Gamut

Tone Response Curves

Hardware & Software Introduction

HWiNFO64 System detail – Intel 11th gen i7-1165G7 with Intel Iris Xe graphics

GPUZ – Intel Iris Xe graphics

HWiNFO64 WIFI detail
WIFI Card – Intel Wifi6 AX 201 with Bluetooth v5.1

HWiNFO64 SSD detail

HWiNFO64 Smart Battery detail

CPU-Z snapshots

RAM Detail – 16 GB LPDDR4X

Razer Desktop Wallpaper

Run-time Benchmark Test

Cinebench R15 Single core & Multi core

Cinebench R20 Single core & Multi core

Cinebench R23 Single core & Multi core

PCMark10 | 4,649

3DMARK – Time Spy | 1,680

3DMARK – Fire Strike | 5,020

3DMARK – Fire Strike Extreme | 2,356

3DMARK – Night Raid | 16,267

TxBENCH

BLENDER

7-ZIP

CPU-Z

X.264 Benchmark

X.265 Benchmark

The Witcher 3 @ FHD Medium | Average 36 FPS

GTA V @ FHD Normal | Average 59 FPS

Deus EX Mankind divided @ FHD Low | Average 31.3 FPS

CS:GO @ FHD High | Average 54 FPS

Genshin Impact @ FHD High | Average 58 FPS

Thermal Tests

We are pressure testing this laptop by using AIDA64, PRIME95 and furmark.

Test room temperature: 25℃±2℃
CPU/GPU Idle temperature: 40℃±2℃

We are adjusting the power mode to ‘Performance’ under Razer Synapse
Fan setting is kept in ‘auto’ mode

Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, this Intel i7-1165G7 is partially throttling down to 3.32GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 99℃±1℃, Overheated

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-1165G7 is running normally @ 4.07GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 89℃±11℃

Under AIDA64 CPU，Memory & GPU pressure test, this Intel i7-1165G7 is throttling down to 2.07GHz
The CPU/GPU package temperature is around 74℃±18℃

We adjusted the Fan setting to ‘Manual’ mode and left it in a maximum speed of 5500rpm

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-1165G7 is running normally @ 4.09GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 88℃±11℃

Under AIDA64 CPU，Memory & GPU pressure test, this Intel i7-1165G7 is throttling down to 2.27GHz
The CPU/GPU package temperature is around 73℃±6℃

The thermal snapshots under PRIME95 pressure test
Front – A panel | It’s around 33℃ in the top middle of the panel, around 45℃ next to the 2 exhausting vents

Front – C panel | It’s around 45℃-51℃ in the middle and top middle of the keyboard, 37℃ around the touchpad

Bottom – D panel | It’s around 50℃-52℃ in the middle and the bottom of the panel, around 39℃ at the exhausting vents,

AC Adapter | It’s around 51℃ in the middle, around 45℃ average

The Noise level of maximum 5600RPM dual-fan spinning is around 47.7dBA

Overall, the Razer book 13 doesn’t do a very good job of controlling temperatures under heavy pressure. The lightweight design results in a thin CPU heat sink, and the heat spikes after the integrated graphics card starts up, especially when the AVX command set is called, the upper area of the keyboard is exceptionally hot. Also, that pitiful slim charger, which can act as a hand warmer under high loads. However, as a thin and light Laptop officially labelled as an “office machine”, there is no way users can expect this type of machine to meet the high standards of gaming machines. Daily office loads and light entertainment won’t put this Laptop under much pressure, on the contrary, it will be handled with ease and the user will not be frustrated by it.

Power consumption & Battery life

The power consumption of the Razer Book 13 varies from 3W to 8W depending on the brightness of the screen at idle. The Razer Book 13 also has a much longer battery life under WLAN conditions, it can reach almost 15 hours of real-world battery life.

With the original adapter, it takes about 90 minutes to charge from 0% to 100%. A nice detail is that the USB-C ports on both sides of the body support quick charging, users can easily choose their convenient sides.

Disassembling analysis

Opening the back panel is very easy, just unscrew some hexagonal screws. There are no disposable and fragile snaps on edges.

The main inside look

The back plate look

Interestingly, the inner part near the battery is covered with a whole sheet of aluminium to dissipate heat from the front surface of the battery

The full disassembled parts list

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 support Dolby Atmos

The slim-designed full copper heatsink

The exhausting fans are 2 x DFS150305780T(DC 5V 0.5A) and DFS150005780T(DC 5V 0.5A) manufactured by FCN

Battery, 4762mAh manufactured by Shenzhen BYD, 4 cells 55Wh

A special feature is that the back of the battery is covered with a sheet of aluminium for easy heat dissipation, which is a very smart design. Combined with the back cover, it provides adequate heat dissipation to the battery and extends the usage

SSD: 256GB PM981a NVMe SSD by Samsung
It has to be said here that Razer is slightly stingy, 256G will be stretched in any usage environment

The Main motherboard front and backside

The 11th Gen INTEL i7-1165G7 with PCH chip together

The 16GB LPDDR4X NAND chip ‘K4UBE3D’ by Samsung with a particularly fancy angle arrangement

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

The Intel Thunderbolt™4 JHL8040R controller chip

The 75DP159 HDMI IC control chip from Texas Instruments

The ALC298 Audio chip and ALC1306 Amp chip from Realtek

The Realtek RTS-5260 SD 6.0/UHS-III Controller & Card reader chip

The Screen and camera/microphone BTB socket

SUMMARY

Overall, although this is the first time Razer has made a non-gaming related laptop because they have a clear idea of what they are doing, bringing top quality hardware while putting more effort into polishing the details. If you compare it to the Blade series, the main difference is not in the discrete graphics, but the ‘level of refinement’.

The Razer Book 13 is a thin and light laptop with a focus on the business workforce, the attempt also revealed Razer’s ambition to enter the professional laptop area, with the Book series being the latest to hit the high-end office market.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 89/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC RECOMMENDED

RAZER BOOK 13 OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

The version we got this time is the 1080P with 60Hz touchscreen, and Australia doesn’t have the 4K touchscreen version this time. So let’s dig in.

Product Specification

RAZER BLADE 15 ADVANCED 2020 Tech Specs from Official Website
https://www2.razer.com/au-en/gaming-systems/razer-blade-stealth

Product Unboxing

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

Inside the outer packaging, is the real package of the laptop, it has the same design with the outer packaging

All laptop and accessories packaging have inflatable and shock-proof protection

The AC adapter manufactured by Shenzhen Hornor Electronics includes PD settings are:
5V 3A 15W total
9V 3A 27W total
15V 3A 45W total
20V 5A 100W total

The weight of the AC adapter is 0.57KG

The black laptop 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, keeping 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 by end users, Razer was able to cut costs and give back to its customers.

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 STEALTH 13 2020

The 11th gen Intel i7 and THX Spatial audio sticker

The specification badge

1080P with Touch screen badge

Thunderbolt 4 label, the right-sided USB type-c is actually the Thunderbolt 4 port

The thin-bezel design

The Single Zone RGB Keyboard keycaps are designed with no wobbling from side to side

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

The laptop front side – Smooth design with power led indicator on the right-side

The laptop rear side – We don’t see any air vents

The laptop right side – 1 x Type-A(3.2 Gen2), 1 x Type-C(Thunderbolt™4,20V PD3.0)

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

The laptop weight: 1.48KG, around 2.05KG total with AC adapter and power cable

Screen Calibration
RAZER BLADE STEALTH 13 2020 is using a FHD Samsung ATNA33XC01-0 touch panel

It’s an awesome OLED touch screen with 60Hz refresh rate that supports HDRX, and a 97.7% DCI-P3 colour gamut. Protected with Corning Gorilla Glass

Calibration result: Average △E≈0.07, Maximum △E≈0.59
After calibration, we have a 176.5% of sRGB, 121.6% of Adobe RGB and 125.0% of DCI P3 coverage

Calibration Curves

Gamut

Tone Response Curves

Hardware & Software Introduction

HWiNFO64 System detail – Intel 11th gen i7-1165G7 with Intel Iris Xe graphics

GPUZ – Nvidia GTX1650Ti Max-Q & Intel Iris Xe graphics

HWiNFO64 WIFI detail
WIFI Card – Intel Wifi6 AX 201 with Bluetooth v5.1

HWiNFO64 Ram detail

CPUZ Ram detail – It shows Quad-channel and cannot detect any slot

HWiNFO64 SSD detail

CPU-Z snapshots

Razer Desktop Wallpaper

Razer Synapse
Razer Synapse – Dashboard, the laptop has been recognised by the software

Razer Synapse – Lightning – Controlling Razer Chroma RGB devices

Razer Synapse – Lightning – Razer Chroma Studio

Razer Synapse – Customise – Per-key RGB will allow users to set lightning profiles for different software and gamess

Razer Synapse – Performance – lets users manage the system performance, change the screen refresh rate and change monitor colour profile

Run-time Benchmark Test

Cinebench R15 Single core & Multi core

Cinebench R20 Single core & Multi core

Cinebench R23 Single core & Multi core

PCMark10 | 5,186

3DMARK – Time Spy | 3,370

3DMARK – Time Spy Extreme | 1,525

3DMARK – Fire Strike | 7,880

3DMARK – Fire Strike Extreme | 3,891

3DMARK – Fire Strike Ultra | 1,848

TxBENCH

BLENDER – BMW & Classroom

7-ZIP

CPU-Z

FURMARK

The Witcher 3 @ FHD Medium | Average 35 FPS

GTA V @ FHD High | Average 60 FPS

Deus EX Mankind divided @ FHD Medium | Average 59.1 FPS

CS:GO @ FHD High | Average 105 FPS

Genshin Impact @ FHD High | Average 57 FPS

Thermal Tests

We are pressure testing this laptop by using AIDA64, PRIME95 and furmark.

Test room temperature: 23℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature: 46℃±3℃
GPU idle temperature: 31℃

Fan setting is kept in ‘auto’ mode
Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, this Intel i7-1165G7 is partially throttoling down to 3.07GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 90℃±3℃

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-1165G7 is running normally @ 4.09GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 76℃±7℃

Under AIDA64 CPU，Cache & FURMARK GPU pressure test, this Intel i7-1165G7 is throttoling down to 2.6GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 80℃±10℃
The GPU temperature is around 76℃±0℃

The thermal snapshots under PRIME95 pressure test
Front – A panel | It’s around 33℃ in the top middle of the panel, around 53℃ next to the 2 exhausting vents

Front – C panel | It’s around 44℃ in the middle and top middle of the keyboard, around 51℃ next to the 2 exhausting fans

Bottom – D panel | It’s around 50℃ in the middle of the panel, around 57℃ at the exhausting vents

The Noise level of maximum 5600RPM dual-fan spinning is around 52.1dBA

Overall, as a 13-inch machine, the Razer Blade Stealth 13’s temperature control is okay, but based on the overall thermal architecture design and small heatsink area, it is not recommended to overclock to improve performance.

Disassembling analysis

Opening the back panel is very easy, just unscrew some hexagonal screws. There are no disposable and fragile snaps on edges.

The main inside look

The back plate 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 support Dolby Atmos

The full copper heatsink

The exhausting fans are 2 x EG50040S1-C180(DC 5V 0.42A) and EG50040S1-C170(DC 5V 0.42A) manufactured by SUNON

Battery, 4602mAh manufactured by Shenzhen BYD, 4 cells 53Wh

SSD: 512GB PM981a NVMe SSD by Samsung

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

The Main motherboard front and backside

The 11th Gen INTEL i7-1165G7 with PCH chip together

The 16GB LPDDR4 RAM by Micron

The GPU chip from Nvidia, N18P-G62-A1 which is the Nvidia GTX1650Ti Max-Q with 4GB GDDR6

Vram from Samsung

The Intel Thunderbolt™4 JHL8040R controller chip

The USB Type-C bi-directional retimer chip PS8811 from Parade

The ALC298 Audio chip and ALC1306 Amp chip from Realtek

The uP9512Q controller chip is responsible for controlling the Vram power supply

The NCP45491 from ON Semiconductor is used to monitor the bus voltage

SUMMARY

Overall, this laptop features a lightweight, high performance design that can support light gaming, office and entertainment usage. the Razer Blade Stealth 13 takes care of it all very well. The decent battery life and the portable design of the multi-purpose charger not only allow users to open up to receive emails or work on images or photos whenever they travel, but also to open up a game after work and relax. It’s not the ultimate in performance, but it can be done with calm and ease. The matte black design is more than capable of reflecting a touch of geeky attitude, and with Chroma’s illusionary design, users can fully unleash their personality. However, the $3699 pricing is a bit high and hopefully Razer will reconsider its pricing strategy.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 88.5/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC RECOMMENDED

RAZER BLADE STEALTH 13 2020 OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

The Razer Blade series has always focused on design, and the new 2020 model brings the same ethos with enhanced portability. The aluminium body is textured and anodized, continuing the series’ skinny design. The iconic, illuminated “Razer” logo remains on the front.

So let’s dig in the details.

Product Specification

RAZER BLADE 15 ADVANCED 2020 Tech Specs from Official Website
https://www2.razer.com/au-en/gaming-systems/razer-blade

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 230.1W total

The end header still has the special design

The weight of the AC adapter is 705g

The black internal box with a huge 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 environmental sustainability, and not be as extravagant as other brands with their packaging. The first step is to reduce the size of the packaging, 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 look of RAZER BLADE 15 ADVANCED 2020

The 10th gen Intel i7 sticker

The specification badge

4K Touch screen badge

The thin-bezel design

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

Like other designs from Razer, there are two large speaker fences on both sides

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

The chamfered corners are slightly rounded and without sharp edges

The laptop front side – Smooth design with power led indicator on the right-side

The laptop rear side – Symmetrical design with a narrow exhaust opening

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 @ 60Hz) HDMI 2.0B, 1 x Kensington Lock port

The laptop left side – Power 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: 2.18KG, around 2.9KG total with AC adapter and power cable

Screen Calibration
RAZER BLADE 15 ADVANCED 2020 is using a UHD Samsung SDCA029 OLED touch panel

It’s an awesome OLED touch screen with 3840×2160 resolution, 60Hz refresh rate, 120,000:1 contrast ratio and HDR10 support, and a 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut. Protected with Corning Gorilla Glass

Calibration result: Average △E≈0.15, Maximum △E≈0.94
After calibration, we have a 165.0% of sRGB, 113.7% of Adobe RGB and 116.9% of DCI P3 coverage

Calibration Curves

Gamut

Tone Response Curves

Hardware & Software Introduction

HWiNFO64 System detail – Intel 10th gen i7-10875H with Intel UHD Integrated Graphics

GPUZ – Nvidia RTX2080 Super Max-Q

HWiNFO64 WIFI detail
WIFI Card – Intel Wifi6 AX 201 with Bluetooth v5.1

HWiNFO64 Ram detail

HWiNFO64 SSD detail

CPU-Z snapshots

Razer Synapse
Razer Synapse – Dashboard, the laptop has been recognised by the software

Razer Synapse – Lightning – Controlling Razer Chroma RGB devices

Razer Synapse – Customise – Per-key RGB will allow users to set lightning profiles for different software and games

Razer Synapse – Performance – allows user to manage the system performance and overclocking, change the screen refresh rate and change monitor colour profile

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

PCMark10 | 4,735

3DMARK – Port Royal | 4,417

3DMARK – Time Spy | 7,083

3DMARK – Time Spy Extreme | 3,256

3DMARK – Fire Strike | 15,290

3DMARK – Fire Strike Extreme | 8,499

3DMARK – Fire Strike Ultra | 4,481

3DMARK – VRS T2 | OFF: 44.87 FPS, ON: 78.03 FPS

3DMARK – DLSS | OFF: 20.36 FPS, ON: 49.35 FPS

TxBENCH

The Witcher 3 @ 4K Ultra | Average 34 FPS

Watch Dogs 2 @ 4K Ultra | Average 36 FPS

Deus EX Mankind divided @ 4K Ultra | Average 28.7 FPS

Thermal Tests

We are pressure testing this laptop by using AIDA64, PRIME95 and furmark.

Test room temperature: 26℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature: 39℃±3℃
GPU idle temperature: 36℃±3℃

None OC Test
Fan setting is kept in ‘auto’ mode
Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, this Intel i7-10875H is running normally
The CPU package temperature is around 68℃±4℃

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10875H is running normally
The CPU package temperature is around 70℃±6℃

Under AIDA64 CPU & GPU pressure test
The CPU package temperature is around 83℃±7℃
The GPU temperature is around 76℃±0℃

We manually switch the fan to maximum speed
Under AIDA64 CPU & GPU pressure test
The CPU package temperature is around 74℃±6℃
The GPU temperature is around 68℃±8℃

The thermal snapshots under PRIME95 pressure test
Front – A panel | It’s around 36℃ in the middle and top middle of the panel, around 40℃ next to the 2 exhausting vents

Front – C panel | It’s around 52℃ in the middle and top middle of the keyboard, around 37℃ next to the 2 exhausting fans, at the top right vent is around 60℃

Bottom – D panel | It’s around 50℃ in the middle of the panel, around 64℃ at the exhausting vents

Rear – Left and Right vent temperature | It’s around 53℃ at the Left and Right vent
If we move the thermal camera close to the vents, we can see the temperature on the heatsink is around 67℃

OC Test
We manually maximised the fan speed to 5300rpm and change the performance to ‘BOOST’ and ‘HIGH’ mode

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10875H is running normally
The CPU package temperature is around 74℃±14℃

Under AIDA64 Single GPU pressure test, the Nvidia 2080 Super Max-Q is running normally
The CPU package temperature is around 71℃±5℃

Under AIDA64 CPU & GPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10875H is running normally
The CPU package temperature is around 81℃±2℃
The GPU temperature is around 74℃±1℃

Under FURMARK 4K Pressure test, the Nvidia 2080 Super Max-Q is running normally
The CPU package temperature is around 81℃±2℃
The GPU temperature is around 73℃±4℃

Under PRIME95 Pressure test, the Intel i7-10875H is running normally
The CPU package temperature is around 70℃±1℃

Under PRIME95 & FURMARK 4K Pressure test, the Intel i7-10875H is running @ 1.89GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 81℃±2℃
The GPU temperature is around 75℃±4℃

Under maximum fan speed mode, the noise level is around 55dBA

Overall, the cooling performance of this 2020 RAZER BLADE 15 ADVANCED model is quite good, this should be attributed to the large-sized heatsink, which not only covers the CPU and GPU perfectly but also covers all of the power supply MOSFETs.

Disassembling analysis

The main inside look

All parts tear-down

The C-panel inside looking

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 support Dolby Atmos

The large-sized full copper heatsink

The exhausting fans are 2 x FLDO(DC 5V 0.5A) and FLDH(DC 5V 0.5A) manufactured by FCN

Battery, 5209mAh manufactured by Shenzhen BYD, 4 cells 80Wh

The eDP cable module

SSD: 1TB NVMe SSD by SOLID STATE STORAGE TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION(SSSTC, A subsidiary of LITE-ON Group)

Samsung DDR4 3200 2 x 8B: M471A1K43DB1 – CWE

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

The Main motherboard front and backside

The 10th Gen INTEL i7-10875H

The GPU chip from Nvidia, N18E-G4R-A1 which is the Nvidia RTX2080 Super Max-Q with 8GB GDDR6

The Graphics card power supply MOSFETs

The PCH Bridge chip

The Intel Thunderbolt™3 JHL7340 controller chip

The DP multiplexing chip PS8461E from Parade

The USB Type-C bi-directional retimer chip PS8802/8811 from Parade

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

The HDMI ReDriver chip from Diodes

The ALC298 Audio chip from Realtek

SUMMARY

Overall, the Razer Blade 15 Advanced 2020 is as thin and slim as ever and offers the same great performance as the previous model. With the Thunderbolt 3 expandable interface, users can connect external screens or use a docking station for expansion. The redesigned keyboard layout that allows users for more logical and comfortable gaming experiences, and the signature CNC aluminium unibody, which keeps it relatively compact while providing refined and sturdy build quality and more, overall from a hardware perspective, this laptop is well-rounded that can both play games and engage in creative endeavours.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 92.5/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC RECOMMENDED

RAZER BLADE 15 ADVANCED 2020 OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

Razer pays tribute to the famous Koss Pro-4AA in design — an 1970’s headset, cute round-shaped shell, sponge earmuffs, dual-sided height adjustment rods, the position of the volume potentiometer and the wire connector are almost the same. This visual impact is similar to a colour-contrasting design, which is abrupt but harmonious, and also bringing a touch of elegance to the intensive Esports.

KOSS PRO-4AA

Razer Blackshark V2 X

The Package Appearance

Razer Blackshark V2 X Tech Specs from Official Website
https://www2.razer.com/au-en/gaming-audio/razer-blackshark-v2-x

Package Front

Package Back

Package Sides

The headset main body and the accessories include:
User manual, Razer 7.1 surround sound activation card, sticker

Audio splitter cable and the collection bag

The main body of Razer Blackshark V2 X has an old fashion design on the outside.

The head beam angle cannot be twisted. The head beam part is made by a thick and single-layered form pad, which can fully stick to the head and provides comfortable pressure.

The material inside the earmuffs is officially described as breathable memory foam

The volume potentiometer

The Razer Hyperclear cardioid microphone

The microphone mute button

The headset comes with a 3.5mm combo header, an extension splitter cable also provided
The material of these cables are the standard rubber cable

The total weight of Razer Blackshark V2 X is 270g includes the extension cable (30g around)

The Product Disassembling

The Razer Blackshark V2 X has used a pair of 50mm 3 in 1 driver which has a 12 Hz – 28 kHz frequency response, 32Ω at 1 kHz impedance and Sensitivity at 1khz is 100 dB SPL/mW

The 50mm TriForce unit
This customised unit has integrated with three individual high, mid and low audio frequencies replications

The I/O connector boards

The earmuffs

The height adjustment rods

Software Analysis

The RAZER SYNAPSE software is not supported, we have to use the Razer 7.1 Surround Sound software to enable the full performance of this headset.

User should visit https://www.razer.com/71-surround-sound to download the software and use the activation code to unlock the features. It’s like an upgraded version of the previous Razer Surround software, but if the user wants to customise the position of the virtual speakers, a paid upgrade called ‘Razer THX SPATIAL AUDIO’ is also available. Unfortunately, this upgrade only supports under US and Singapore store

The Hearing Analysis

MUSIC MODE
7.1 Surround Sound MODE OFF
Turn off the 7.1 Surround Sound mode will keep the headset under stereo mode. However, this ‘tri-band’ unit is specially designed for playing games, the high-freq level is a bit sharp and crispy. The mid-freq is quite good but also been limited, the human voice will be pulled very thin, resonance and reverberation will be infinitely lowered to ensure the purity. Also, the low-freq is basically nothing.

7.1 Surround Sound MODE ON
Turn on the 7.1 Surround Sound mode will increase the sound field a little bit but not really improved a lot. It will bring the human voice to the back.

GAMING MODE
7.1 Surround Sound MODE OFF
Turn off the 7.1 Surround Sound mode will narrow the background music down for some AAA games, it’s not designed for enjoying the elaborated musical composition for full orchestra.

7.1 Surround Sound MODE ON
Under the virtual surround mode, this headset will exert its Esports power. Simple design, precise positioning and lightweight is the Blackshark V2 X’s designing language. When we playing CS:GO, this headset can quickly and accurately feedback the enemy’s footsteps and the volume of the distance, experienced players can judge the approximate location of the enemy on the map and the type of the guns they used through the echo of the gunshots in the distance.

MOBILE PHONE EXPERIENCE
Most of the MOBA or PUBG liked games on the mobile phone are not supporting 7.1 or virtual 7.1 channels headset, plus, the decent phones are getting rid of the headphone jack unless you using an adapter. However, playing FPS game on a phone with the Razer Blackshark V2 X headset, compared with the ordinary Bluetooth earbuds or wired earphone, the unique comfort of the headset, no delay without the wireless transmissions and the clear game sound effect brought by the large 50mm unit will get a larger sound field for precise positioning. Also, the noise reduction microphone will allow players to communicate with their teammates to enhance the gaming experience.

Overall

First of all, we think the Razer Blackshark V2 X is a good Esports headset. Putting aside some design flaws, the appearance is classic enough. Although there is no RGB effect, it is not a problem to attract a wave of fans.

At the same time, the only 240g overall weight and the comfortable wearing experience are also highlights that deserve recognition. And from the perspective of sound performance, the quality of the unit is also quite good. Although the gaming performance is not perfect at all, because it’s designed for Esports, there’s nothing more to be complaints about.

Finally, is this headset worth buying? In Australia, you can get it for only $99! and this will be the Razer’s most cost-effective gaming headset in the retail market. With the traditional analogue connection, players can use it on most of the gaming devices, mobile phones, PC and laptops etc. If you want to buy a cheap and practical Esports designed product, the Razer Blackshark V2 X is actually a perfect device to consider.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 93.5/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC RECOMMENDED, DESIGN AWARD, BEST VALUE

Razer Blackshark V2 X OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE