Razer Blade 15: a PC mastered, but not without faults

Presentation

The Californian brand Razer continues its adventure in the world of laptops and this year offers new versions of its famous Blade. Dedicated above all to players who are not afraid to break their piggy bank, the Blade 15 of 2019 seeks to offer a gaming PC as thin as it is powerful.

The Blade exists in two different models: the basic model and the advanced model, the latter is thinner and has an Oled screen. It is the basic model, all the same endowed with solid characteristics, which passed in our labs. A computer built for gaming with its 15-inch 144 Hz screen and its Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card.

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Screen

The Razer Blade 15 has a 15.6 inch screen with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 px. This IPS panel has a refresh rate of 144 Hz and Razer has also worked on the thin edges. The screen / facade ratio here is 83%, which is above the market average estimated at 80%. The upper strip of the screen is however wide enough to accommodate a webcam.

The Razer Blade 15 has a good slab. Respect for colors is there. The average delta E has indeed been measured at 2.7, which is excellent and shows very faithful colors displayed on the screen. Only the greens and the reds are faulted, but this remains imperceptible for an untrained eye. The color temperature is also good, since it is 6,900 K, which is relatively close to 6,500 K of the video standard. That is, neither too hot nor too cold. In practice, the screen does not draw red or blue when a blank page is displayed. Finally, we measured a contrast at 1040: 1, which is fine for a laptop - but far from exceptional.

The screen has an excellent remanence calculated at 6 ms. No visible "fuzzy streaks" during movements, which is very pleasant in nervous games which can reach 144 fps. The brightness, amounting to 290 cd / m², is correct for a laptop. It is combined with a matt slab not very prone to reflections. A very good screen, therefore, which however does not reach the rating of five stars because of its barely good contrast.

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Performances

The Razer Blade 15 is equipped with an Intel Core i7-9750H processor (6 cores, 12 threads, base frequency of 2.6 GHz, turbo frequency of 4.5 GHz) supported by 16 GB of RAM in dual-channel. The storage is made up of a 512 GB M.2 SSD.

During our new test protocol (video compression, file compression, audio, 3D calculation), the PC was inferior to other models with the same processor, such as the Legion Y540 or the Asus Strix Scar 3. This is actually explained by the management of the processor frequency in "balanced" mode (in the Razer Synapse application) activated by default by the manufacturer. In this mode, the processor delivers an average frequency of 2.9 GHz in work, against 3.1 GHz for the other models mentioned. However, this lack of performance can easily be overcome by going into "creator" mode via Synapse. The processor increases its speed to 3.3 GHz, catching up with the competition. In either mode, the user will in any case have enough power to run the most compute-intensive software.

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Games

The Razer Blade 15 has an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card with 6 GB of memory. A card very well exploited by the PC which runs all the games in our new test panel perfectly. In fact, none of them went below 60 i / s during our sessions with the graphics set to the maximum (with a definition of 1,920 x 1,080 px and vertical synchronization disabled).

The RTX 2060 also allows you to activate ray-tracing effects on compatible games. However, this technology drastically drops the number of frames per second under the same conditions. We cannot advise too strongly not to activate them on compatible games. The refresh rate of 144 Hz allows you to make the most of very nervous games focused on movement such as Overwatch. G-Sync technology is not on the program, however. Finally, it should be noted that the GPU frequency can gain a few hundred megahertz by selecting the "gaming" mode in the Synapse application.

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Mobility / Autonomy

If the Razer Blade 15 is relatively thin with a thickness of 20 mm, it is nonetheless a gaming PC. It weighs 2.03 kg, less weight than most gaming PCs, but it is without rely on his diet, which weighs 700 g. In transport, the user will therefore have to carry almost 3 kg in his bag, which is not ideal for daily travel.

The Razer Blade 15 does very well in terms of autonomy. During our usual test protocol (Netflix in Chrome, headphones plugged in, backlight off and brightness set to 200 cd / m²), the PC lasted 6 h 43 min. An excellent result for a gaming PC, almost worthy of a mobility-oriented PC.

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Audio

Something rare enough to be noted, the speakers of the Razer Blade 15 are placed on the front, left and right of the keyboard. This is the best possible investment; the sound is directed directly to the user and does not depend on the surface on which the PC is placed. However, the sound from the Blade's speakers is somewhat disappointing. The sound is overwritten due to the discrete dynamic compression, but which could disturb the most discerning ears. It is also shorter in low and lower mid range compared to what we were entitled to expect. In fact, it gives nasal voices. These small flaws taint the experience, which remains satisfactory for a laptop.

The headphone jack delivers very good results. It should be noted all the same a very high power which will allow you to connect any hi-fi or monitoring headphones to the Blade.

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Conclusion

The Razer Blade 15 of 2019 offers a pleasant experience with its comfortable keyboard, its well calibrated screen or its very correct autonomy. However, we can regret a lack of control concerning the diffusion of heat through the chassis, an aspect which can go as far as the discomfort of the user during long gaming sessions. This is a defect that we had already seen on previous versions of the Blade, and which therefore still did not find a solution. This concession aside, the promise of a powerful, sober and mobile gaming PC remains fulfilled.

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