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

MSI GP76 LEOPARD Tech Specs from Official Website
https://au.msi.com/Laptop/GP76-Leopard-10UX

Product Unboxing

Package Appearance
The outer packaging is the MSI classic black background with their logo

On the top of the box is the slogan of MSI “True Gaming”

Opening the package we can see the laptop, AC adapter, and a plastic bag with the user manual and warranty card, etc

The AC adapter has an output of 20V 11.5A, a total of 230W, and manufactured by Delta

The power header has a special flat design, the same as GE76’s

The weight of the AC adapter is 0.77KG plus the power cable

Product Analysis

The main look of GP76 Leopard

The chamfered corners are slightly rounded and without sharp edges

The thin-bezel design

It has the same keyboard as the GE76 from Steelseries. The touch is easier to trigger than before and the rebound is crisp, making it difficult to press by mistake

The Keyboard per-key backlight

The benefits badge

The 10th Gen Intel and Nvidia RTX Logo badges

The 240Hz display benefits badge

The 720p camera on the top of the B cover is next to the built-in directional noise reduction microphone

The laptop front side – Smooth design without any indicator

Since the GP76 uses a similar housing design to the GE76, the IO at the rear of the machine has been retained. The IOs allocation on the back is thicker display and power cable connectors, which is much more convenient for the user and effectively avoids the thick cables that difficult to bend being allocated to the left and right sides and blocking the hands.

The laptop rear side – Symmetrical design with a large-sized opening area
1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 with DP1.4, 1 x 2.5Gb Ethernet port, 1 x HDMI (supports 4K @ 60Hz), Power jack

The laptop left side – Kensington lock port, Battery/charge indicator, 1 x Type-A 3.2 Gen2, 1 x Audio Combo port, 2W side speaker

The laptop right side – 2 x Type-A 3.2 Gen 1, 2W side speaker

The laptop weight: 2.8KG, around 3.57KG total with AC adapter and power cable

Screen Calibration
MSI GP76 LEOPARD is using a high refresh rate FHD 240Hz IPS-Level panel, manufactured by Sharp, model no. LQ173M1JW05(SHP14EC)

This is a wide-angle screen with a 100% sRGB colour gamut and a 3ms high-speed G to G response time. Many manufacturers that focus on the top of the gaming laptop choose this panel.

Calibration result: Average △E≈0.09, Maximum △E≈1.45, RMS 0.24
After calibration, we have a 106.7% of sRGB, 73.5% of Adobe RGB, and 75.6% of DCI P3 coverage

Calibration Curves

Gamut

Tone Response Curves

Software & Hardware Introduction

The Steelseries control panel
Main Menu

Per-key RGB and function setup

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

HwINFO Network detail
WIFI Card – Intel Wifi6 AX201 with Bluetooth v5.1

LAN Card – Intel I225V 2.5Gb LAN

CPU-Z snapshots

CPU-Z RAM snapshots

HwINFO Memory detail

GPU-Z Snapshots

HwINFO SSD Detail
1TB Samsung PM981a PCIe Gen3 SSD

HwINFO Battery Detail

Run-time Benchmark Test

Before the benchmark, we have changed the power plan to the ‘Ultimate Power Performance’ in Win10. All tests are based on the ‘Extreme performance’ mode in the settings of MSI Dragon Centre

Cinebench R15 Single & Multicore

Cinebench R20 Single & Multicore

Cinebench R23 Single & Multicore

PCMark10 | 6,072

3DMARK – Port Royal | 6,500

3DMARK – Time Spy | 10,189

3DMARK – Time Spy Extreme | 4,912

3DMARK – Fire Strike | 21,500

3DMARK – Fire Strike Extreme | 12,559

3DMARK – Fire Strike Ultra | 6,843

3DMARK – DirectX Raytracing feature test | 16.07 Average FPS

3DMARK – Mesh Shader feature test | OFF: 64.05 FPS, ON: 364.48 FPS

3DMARK – VRS: Tier 1 | OFF: 638.28 FPS, ON: 945.69 FPS

3DMARK – DLSS v1.3 | OFF: 30.13 FPS, ON: 43.51 FPS

AIDA64 CACHE

AIDA64 GPGPU

FURMARK FHD ｜ 165 Average FPS

CPU-Z Benchmark

BLENDER Benchmark

7ZIP 128MB Dictionary Size

VRAY Benchmark

X264 Benchmark

TxBENCH SSD Benchmark

Gaming Benchmarks
Final Fantasy XV | High-Quality @ FHD | 10,527

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided | Ultra @ FHD | 103.4 FPS Average

GTAV | Very High @ FHD | 4xMSAA + TXAA | 113 FPS Average

The Witcher 3 | Ultra @ FHD | 128 FPS Average

CS:GO | Ultra @ FHD | 310 FPS Average

Cyberpunk 2077 FHD Settings

Cyberpunk 2077 FHD + DLSS Ultra Performance | 59-77 FPS Average

Thermal Tests

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

Test room temperature: 23℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature: 37℃±2℃
GPU idle temperature: 34℃±2℃

With Auto FAN profile and non-OC settings:
Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, this Intel i7-10750H is partial throttling down @ 3.85GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 92℃±2℃

Under the AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is running normally @ 4.17GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 80℃±2℃

Under AIDA64 CPU + Memory & Furmark GPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is partial throttling down @ 4.17GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 85℃±6℃
The GPU temperature is around 74℃

The cooling efficiency of this 6 heat pipe heatsink is really high, it can steadily keep the CPU and GPU temperature down without turning on Cooler Boost mode, allowing the game to run smoothly.

Overclock test
Test room temperature: 24℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature: 47℃±2℃
GPU idle temperature: 43℃±2℃

With Cooler Boost FAN profile and Full OC settings:

3DMARK Time Spy OC | 10,933 +7%

3DMARK Time Spy Extreme OC | 5,357 +8%

3DMARK Fire Strike Extreme OC | 13,375 +6%

3DMARK Fire Strike Ultra OC | 7,340 +7%

3DMARK Fire Strike Ultra OC | 7,340 +7%

3DMARK Port Royal OC | 7,044 +8%

3DMARK Mesh Shader OC | 375.48 +3%

Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, this Intel i7-10750H is partial throttling down @ 3.99GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 74℃±22℃

Under AIDA64 Single CPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is running normally @ 4.17GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 73℃±2℃

Under AIDA64 CPU + Memory & Furmark GPU pressure test, the Intel i7-10750H is running normally @ 4.17GHz
The CPU package temperature is around 74℃±10℃
The GPU temperature is around 66℃

The thermal snapshots under the MAX pressure test(AIDA64 + Furmark)
Front – Top of the C panel | It’s around 39-42.8℃ on both side of the vents and 36.3℃ on the average of the keyboard

Bottom – D panel | It’s around 37.8℃ crossing the CPU and GPU between the two exhausting fans and around 48-50℃ on both two vents

Rear – Left and Right vent temperature | It’s around 48-58℃ on both sides of the vents

Sides – Left and Right vent temperature | It’s around 47-60℃ on both sides of the vents

AC adapter – It’s around 48.3℃ average on the surface and the hottest spot is 55℃

Under Cooler Boost mode, the noise level is around 56.4dBA

Disassembling analysis

The back panel with its large number of cooling holes is easy to take out, just remove all the screws on the back

The D-Panel

The main inside look
The intuitive design makes it extremely easy to upgrade, just disconnect the battery and handle a few screws to easily add a hard drive and replace the memory

The C-Panel inside looking

The 2 x 2W Speakers left and right

The Touchpad inside looking, the controller is using S910ZB from Synaptics

Battery, 4160mAh manufactured by Simplo, 4-cell 61.2Wh

The powerful 6 heat-Pipes Cooler Boost 5 heatsink, the same model used as GE76.
The exhausting fans are PABD1A010SHL(DC 12V 0.6A) and PABD1A010SHR(DC 12V 0.6A) manufactured by Aavid Thermalloy

The Motherboard front and back main looking

The M.2 SSD Slots, both only support NVMe SSDs

The Intel i7-10750H CPU

The GPU chip from Nvidia, GN20-E5-A1 which is the Nvidia RTX 3070 Laptop with 18GB GDDR6, based on GA104 die

The PCH chip

The STM32F072 Mainstream Arm Cortex-M0 USB line MCU from STMicroelectronics

The ENE KB9028G Keyboard controller IC

The ALC298 Audio chip and ALC1306 Amp chips from Realtek

The Intel I225-V LAN controller chip

The 2 x USB Type-A expansion board, like the GE76, the GP76 also comes with an expansion board but cut out the SD card slot and control chip

The ribbon cable for connecting the expansion board and motherboard

SSD: 1TB Samsung PM981a NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen3 x 4)

Samsung DDR4 3200 2 x 8GB: M471A1K43DB1 – CWE

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

SUMMARY

Overall, in terms of appearance, the GP76 uses a similar casing to the GE76, and also inherits many advantages from it: Supercar body with a modern feel, more space for cooling, and reasonable distribution of IO interfaces. All of these are effective in improving the user experience, and the full-size keyboard from Steelseries is also a big advantage of this laptop.

In terms of performance, the GP series had to be left open as it had to make way for the flagship GE series, after all, the positioning is different and the price will be much better. But the GP76 only uses an FHD 240Hz panel, which is obviously a waste of the vast majority of the RTX 3070 performance, and MSI also uses a full version of the 140W model, if you can match the 144Hz refresh rate of 2K panel, the overall experience will be perfect. In terms of heat dissipation, not to be outdone by the use of the same GE76 case and heat dissipation, GP76 for i7-10750H and RTX 3070 heat generation is completely stress-free. It should be noted that when the machine has a large power consumption, the charger’s heat dissipation should also be considered, after all, the 230W power rating is indeed a little less than adequate for this graphics card with 140W power consumption.

In terms of price, this laptop is currently JB-HIFI exclusive, AU$3389 for a 140W RTX3070 is very good value, because the current mainstream laptops equipped with RTX3070 are only Lenovo’s Savior R9000 series and Mechrevo’s Deepsea Titan X10 Pro, the former is not yet available, the latter only for the Chinese and North American markets.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 92/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC RECOMMENDED, DESIGN AWARD

MSI GP76 LEOPARD OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE