- Back in June I showed you folks
the Razer Blade Stealth, all refreshed for 2017.
Today, I'm going to tell you if it's worth the wait.
Stay tuned.
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So, quick story behind the Razer Blade Stealth,
this device was the first Razer product
I ever heard of but I never bought one myself.
In fact, every time I went to the Microsoft
store to go check it out I always kind of
cringed at the display and the bezels.
It just never spoke to me.
That's why I was super-excited back in June
when Razer contacted me and told me what's new
with this device.
I think it's finally here.
It's not perfect, this is the Razer Blade Stealth
I can actually get behind.
So, the biggest change here for 2017 is the display.
To me, it actually just looks normal now,
but that is a 50% bezel reduction,
and how Razer achieved that is pretty simple.
This device still does have a 12.5 inch
4k version, which is still available if you want that,
I actually do not recommend it.
This version though is 13.3 inches, so, of course,
all they did was put a bigger display panel
in there, which then made those bezels
a little bit smaller, actually 50% smaller,
and, to me, like I said, it just looks like
a normal laptop now.
These aren't thin bezels at all by 2017 standards,
but they look really nice.
Now, this is also a QHD display, so it's
3,200 by 1,800 resolution.
Now, looking at the color calibration,
it's very good, this is 98% SRGB or 77% Adobe.
Now, the display is not the brightest in the world,
we're talking about a little bit over 300 nits,
it's fine for gaming indoors,
not something you really want to use outdoors,
but, then again, not something that you'd
really be crazy about anyway.
It is a glossy display, but, on the scale
of one to 10 of glossiness I'd say it's
about an 8, it's not the most glossy display,
and I do find this overall just better
than the original Razer Blade Stealth.
It's also, of course, a touchscreen,
so not something you're gonna use all the time,
you can't use a pen with it, but, if you like
having touch and that ability to do it,
it's actually a very nice touch display.
Coming down to the main body itself, of course,
this is the black version, so, if you've seen
Razer Blade Stealths before, this is nothing new.
There is also a gunmetal gray version which is
really nice, so I will talk about that
in a few seconds, but first I'll talk about
the normal features here.
You're talking about a regular size keyboard,
which is really nice, it is only one millimeter
of travel, which is on the shallow side
if you don't know about keyboard buttons.
1.2 to 1.5 millimeter is usually what
you aiming for for a laptop.
One millimeter is on the shallow side.
Having said that, the actuation on here
and the feel of the keys, their response,
is very good, and, so, I'm kind of torn on this keyboard.
It's one of those, it's very shallow,
so as you're typing your fingers are gonna
bounce back quickly.
But, overall, it's a really nice experience.
Of course, you have really nice back lighting here,
you get that chroma back lighting with a whole
range of brightness displays, so you can
configure that however you want including
on power or AC.
When it comes to the gunmetal gray version,
you don't get the chroma option, so it's
just gonna be back lit with white keys.
So, that's one of the main difference there.
The gunmetal gray version, it can be thought
of as for professionals or people who don't
want a flamboyant laptop.
It's gunmetal gray, the logo on the back
is not green for the snakes, it's just black,
and you do get just regular keyboard lighting
so pretty nice.
Coming now to the track pad, I'm very excited
about this, finally Razer is getting a board.
They did this with the Razer Blade Pro,
now the Razer Blade Stealth, we are talking
a precision touch pad.
It's a very good touch pad, it's very smooth,
I love the feel of it.
The click is pretty good, too, takes a little
bit of effort, but, of course, you can do taps.
You do have right and left click,
not dedicated buttons, but they are zones,
works very well, the precision drivers
are excellent on this, I'm so happy to see
Razer getting on board with that.
And, you can pretty much bet, I'm going to assume,
the new Razer Blade, whenever that comes out
will also have precision touch drivers,
so kudos to Razer for getting on board with that.
For audio, you also have top firing speakers,
so, this, of course, looks very much like
a Mac, it's been considered a black Mac
by many people.
I love this design, these speakers are very good,
I'm very happy with them.
Not tinny at all, you get some pretty good bass there.
I just love top firing speakers.
Of course, you can use this for gaming,
you'll probably end up using dedicated headphones
anyway, but, still, very good speakers.
As I mentioned earlier, here is the Razer logo,
it does, of course, glow, you can toggle that
in settings, which is always a nice feature.
If you get the gunmetal gray version,
it will be blended in and a lot more
conservative looking.
The device is still a fingerprint magnet,
so you will probably have to wipe this down
a few times, you may want to put a sticker
on there as well if you want to protect it.
That is silver underneath if you do scratch it,
but, overall, pretty solid design.
Turn to the side here, you do get HDMI 2.0
and a USB 3.1 port.
Turn around to the other side, of course,
you have a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack,
another USB-A port and there is a USB type C
full thunderbolt three specifications
with the four PCI lane dedication.
That is going to be for an EGPU, the Razer Core,
which I'll talk about a little bit later on.
Really nice port selection here,
I love Razer's ports, I think they do
the best balance between everything.
Looking at the bottom here, you have,
of course, two vents for the fans.
One's intake, one's exhaust, that is
to help cool the Intel Core I7-7500U processor,
so, that is, of course, the latest Kaby Lake
version, seventh generation.
You also get now 16 gigabytes of RAM
versus the previous 8 gigabytes, so that should
make a lot of people happy.
For an SSD, you do get a PM-961 by Samsung,
that is also known as a 960 EVO.
Very performant drive, you're talking about
1,400 megabits per second for read and write speeds.
This version here is the one terabyte version,
but you can also get it in 512 or 256.
Let's talk a little bit about gaming.
So, the Razer Blade Stealth is actually
not really a gaming laptop although it looks like one.
So, it looks a lot like the Razer Blade,
but you were talking on a dual core processor
and no dedicated GPU.
For gaming, though, you can, of course,
use the Razer Core, an external GPU solution.
Razer will gladly sell you this unit for $399,
and then you, of course, still need
to supply your own video card,
in this one I happen to have a GTX-1080TI,
which is pretty awesome, but that's about
an extra $1,000.
Still, it gives you a full desktop experience
and it's all done through the magic of USB
type C and thunderbolt three which is
super-impressive.
So, you just plug it in to the side of the
Razer Blade Stealth, and now you're going
to have a full desktop experience.
You plug it in and the Razer Core
just kicks in and then will handle
all the display output for you.
It also charges the Blade Stealth,
which is awesome, and you can even handle
ethernet and a few more external displays
and a USB port, so you get a lot
of power through this one unit
and this one cable,
and I tell you, it's super-neat and convenient.
So, you may be wondering, what can a dual-core
ultra book actually do with a 1080TI?
Well, it's pretty impressive.
Playing Gears of War Four at 2560x1440
resolution on full ultra I was able
to hit 62 frames per second.
That's pretty impressive.
Forza Horizons Three also looked great
as well as Call of Duty.
So, this is a very expensive solution,
but it is super-convenient.
I can't stress that enough.
You can have a very clean desktop setup.
If you're the kind of person who wants
to game at home but have a professional laptop
at work, well, this may be your best choice.
Alright, let's bring it all in.
I really like the Razer Blade Stealth,
I think they did a fantastic job here
answering a lot of my concerns for the previous version.
A new display at 13.3 inches is the sweet spot.
I also like that gunmetal gray option
in case you want a more conservative laptop.
You also get a really good keyboard
and a precision touch pad, 16 gigs of RAM
and between 256 and one terabyte
of performant SSD storage.
So far, so good.
Battery life is alright, it's between six and seven
hours, it's not the best in the world,
but it is pretty solid.
Don't forget, you do get USB type C charging there,
which is really nice, it's a tiny charger,
and at 2.9 pounds and 1.3 kilograms,
this isn't a heavy laptop.
I also really just enjoy the build quality.
Now, don't forget, this is not a tablet,
so you can't rotate it around, you can't
use a pen with it.
It is a traditional laptop.
Some people are fine with that.
I'm actually one of those people,
but, don't forget, there are other choices
out there including HP Specter X360,
but, if you're going to get an EGPU
and you just really like Razer's aesthetic,
I happen to like the Blade Stealth a lot,
and give it a recommendation.
So, there's my video review
of the Razer Blade Stealth, which is now available.
If you want more information about this device,
make sure you head to Windows Central
for my full review.
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Thanks for watching, take care, everybody.