Razer Blade 15

When most people think of computers, the last thing that comes to mind is luxury is a high-end gaming laptop, especially one with a glitzy light bar and a dot matrix screen built into the lid. The Razer Blade 15 seems like it’s crossed the line into portable gaming extravagance with its fantastic performance, superb build quality, discreet design, and extremely premium pricing.

Pros and Cons

What’s good

• Excellent build quality
• Lots of config/screen options
• Strong performance
• New 1080p webcam
• Great port selection

What’s bad

• Pricey
• Just OK battery life
• Proprietary power plug

Design

True, the 2022 Blade 15 appears almost comparable to previous generations, with some thinking it needs a facelift. Despite this, I admire the Blade 15’s sleek looks and solid aluminum chassis. However, I wish Razer would provide complete RGB support for the lighted logo on the lid. I realize neon green is Razer’s thing, but it seems odd that you can’t alter it to whatever hue you want on such a high-end system.

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The Blade boasts a large glass trackpad inside, one of the nicest you can buy on a Windows laptop. Larger keycaps and Razer’s distinctive per-key Chroma illumination are new for 2022. This year’s Razer laptops also have up-firing speakers. Still, instead of a dedicated cutout for them, Razer used lasers to carve the grille directly into the deck, which adds rigidity without sacrificing the sleek, discreet aesthetic that has been its hallmark. There’s also a new 1080p webcam for 2022, an improvement over the 720p cams seen on prior systems. Finally, there are two USB-C ports (one of which supports Thunderbolt 4), three USB-A ports, HDMI, a headphone jack, and even a full-size SD card reader.

Display

A 15.6-inch 240Hz QHD display on our $3,700 evaluation device provides an excellent blend of size and resolution. I only wish it were a little brighter. According to Razer, all Blade’s LCD panels should be approximately 300 nits radiant. Using a light meter, though, I measured closer to 275 nits. That’s good for most scenarios. However, colors may seem somewhat washed out in a bright room. Razer also offers variants with 144Hz and 360Hz screens. And just last week, Razer unveiled a new 240Hz OLED version, so there are plenty of options.

Performance and Gaming

Regarding performance, Razer provides the newest 12th-generation Intel H-series CPUs and Nvidia RTX 30-series GPUs.The 2022 Blade 15 starts at $2,500 with an i7-12800H, 16GB of RAM, and graphics RTX 3060 Ti, and it can go up to $4,000 with an i9 processor, 32GB of RAM, and an RTX 3080 Ti.

Now, I should tell you that configurations are limited to 1TB of storage. For those who want even more space, the Blade 15 has two M.2 slots, one of which is pre-populated. Tossing in another drive should be simple if you’re prepared to remove the laptop’s bottom panel and SSD cover. Remember to use single-sided modules; double-sided M.2 sticks will not fit.

However, you get what you paid for since the Blade 15 can compete with their best. Even with the $1,400 mobile graphics dock, our Core i7, RTX 3080 Ti device only managed 124 frames per second in Shadow of the Tomb Raider at the highest graphics settings and 1920 by 1080 resolution. (For that keeping score, that’s a grand total of $3,200.) The Blade 15 achieved 86 frames per second in Metro Exodus on high settings and 81 frames per second in Forza Horizon 5 on Ultra.

Battery Life

Aside from its price, the Razer Blade 15’s battery life is its biggest drawback. It lasted only 5 hours and 42 minutes on our local video rundown test. That’s comparable to what we received from the Asus Flow Z13 (5:38), a PC gaming tablet. However, the Blade 15 lasted just 4 hours less than the Asus Zephyrus G14 and 3 hours less than the Alienware x14 (both of which are more conventional opponents) (9:45). The situation is far worse in person. The Blade 15 struggled to play two games of Teamfight Tactics back-to-back, which amounted to about an hour and 15 minutes of light-duty gaming. I should also mention that while using the battery, the Blade’s performance suffers, with framerates in Shadow of the Tomb Raider dipping to approximately 45 fps.

The charging brick from Razer is another irritation. Even though the right-angle shape of the proprietary connector is logical given the 230-watt power adapter, it will prevent access to one or potentially two of the laptop’s USB-A ports if inserted incorrectly. High-wattage power distribution through USB-C cannot arrive fast enough.

Wrap-up

A vast, elegant choice is intriguing, even though the Blade 15 isn’t as slim or portable as the existing 14-inch gaming machines. Sure, it’s pricey, and with a 15.6-inch screen and 4.4-pound body, it might not fit in your standard messenger bag. But it has high-quality components, a robust frame with virtually no flex, and outstanding performance in a clean and (comparatively) understated appearance, aside from the enormous luminous logo.

In some ways, the Blade 15 is a beautiful modern desktop replacement, particularly for those like me who don’t want to haul about a massive 17-inch system. You can get maximum framerates without buying an external graphics dock as you would with the ROG Flow Z13. You can also leave all of your dongles and adapters home owing to many ports. So, while the Blade 15 isn’t for everyone on a tight budget, this machine is a beautiful pleasure if you have the money.

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