Our detailed handling
Renewed every year, the Blade 15 returned in early 2022 in unchanged form, but with new components. On board, the latest Intel processors “Alder Lake” mobile (12th generation), but also the RTX 3000 “Ti” graphics cards, announced at CES 2022 on PC portables.
It doesn’t take much more for this flagship of Razer to develop demonic performance, but wouldn’t all these beautiful people come to be too hot in a compact chassis which, for its part, has not moved an inch? iota? Here are some answers, pending a full test from the Lab.
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Getting started on an “advanced” Blade 15 loaned by the manufacturer, equipped with a Core i7-12800H, 16 GB of RAM, a GeForce RTX 3070 Ti and 1 TB of SSD storage.
Design and ergonomics
It’s hard to fault Razer for anything serious when it comes to design. True to form, the Singaporean manufacturer gives us a machine with idyllic sobriety (except perhaps for the somewhat kitsch backlit logo on the hood), benefiting from a level of finishes that is still as impressive as ever.
With its machined aluminum chassis, the Blade 15 almost looks like a MacBook Pro. This flawless assembly quality and this super polished look, which combines finesse (16.99 mm only) and solidity, once again seduce right out of the box. The impression of dealing with a very top-of-the-range product is also omnipresent… Which seems quite normal on such an expensive machine: depending on the configuration chosen, its price fluctuates between 3,100 and 4,500 euros.
As usual, Razer makes sure to offer a generous selection of connectors. There is thus a USB-C Thunderbolt 4 port, a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 input and three USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports. HDMI 2.1 and an SD card reader (UHS-II) which should make life easier for photographers and videographers. On the other hand, we regret the rather regrettable removal of the Ethernet port (RJ-45) that was still found last year on certain models.
Well centered in the middle of the chassis, between two bands reserved for the speakers, the keyboard of the Blade 15 is rather (very) good. The travel of the keys is voluntarily short and the return fast, without being too firm. It’s a pity, however, that typing isn’t quieter and that the backlight stubbornly omits half of the symbols and characters engraved on the keys. Yellow card for Razer on this point: typing text at night can quickly become painful.
The touchpad is excellent. In addition to a nice gliding surface, it benefits from very precise clicks. We are familiar – almost – with the quality of the trackpads offered by Apple… and that’s something. Razer also makes great efforts on the webcam. Compatible with facial identification with Windows Hello, it offers good sharpness thanks to its Full HD definition and benefits from a very welcome wide-angle aperture. Perfect for participating in the video calls that increasingly punctuate our professional daily life.
screen
On the Blade 15, the options are numerous in terms of the screen, whether in terms of definition, refresh rate or even display technology (it is in particular possible to opt for OLED). Our loan model was equipped with a 1080p IPS LCD panel, capable of going up to a frequency of 360 Hz. On a diagonal of 15.6 inches, the Full HD definition (1,920 by 1,080 pixels) offers a pixel density still a bit tight in 2022 in our opinion, but let’s see if this screen makes up for it on the rest.
We will of course let the Lab’s probes judge the quality of this slab precisely, but at first glance the finding is generally positive, without being rave reviews. The LCD panel of our test unit looks good in contrast and benefits from colors that make a good impression on the naked eye. Nothing startling however, besides Razer only evokes on this model a “simple” coverage of the sRGB color space – and nothing more. The brightness of the panel also seems reasonable, enough to allow it to remain perfectly readable in most situations. On this point, it nevertheless owes a lot to its anti-reflective coating.
In reality, this screen mainly shines with its very high refresh rate. If the 360 Hz will not often be used in games, this characteristic above all allows the panel to display a response time of 2 ms… and therefore increased responsiveness compared to the majority of laptop screens. A great asset in game or for certain advanced uses, even if the majority of players can quite be satisfied with a 144 Hz refresh.
Overall, let’s just say that while our Blade 15’s screen is quality, it doesn’t impress. Given the price of the device, we were entitled to expect better.
Performance and speed
As you can imagine, with what it has under the hood, the Blade 15 has no trouble developing sufficient computing power to animate any AAA in Full HD with the settings pushed to the limit and a solid framerate .
A priori confirmed on Cyberpunk 2077. With its Intel Core i7-12800H processor (14 cores / 20 threads capable of reaching a peak frequency of 4.80 GHz, 45 W TDP), its 16 GB of RAM (DDR5 at 4800 MHz) and its Nvidia GeForce graphics card RTX 3070 Ti (8 GB of GDDR6, 110 W of TGP), the machine does not tremble in the face of the gluttony (and the still questionable optimization) of the futuristic RPG signed CD Projekt RED.
With all the settings pushed to ultra, including ray tracing, which is very demanding in graphic resources, the DLSS adjusted in “Auto” mode and the default field of vision, the title was propelled between 50 and 65 FPS depending on the environments traveled and the more or less stirring scenes with which we were confronted. Of course, by cutting back on certain superfluous and very greedy graphic effects, it is possible to stabilize at more than 60 constant fps for increased fluidity in game, but we preferred to simply take it easy.
This intensive use also allowed us to gauge the performance of the dissipation system used by our Blade 15. In this case, the results are mixed. Much quieter than its little brother the Blade 14, the device spins its two large fans rather slowly to reduce the temperature of the components without breaking our ears too much. A rather commendable price, even if, to the touch, the chassis is quickly very hot in strategic places: the hinge, the flat surface above the keyboard and the underside of the shell. Fortunately, this heat is never really felt at the keyboard itself. We will see at the Lab if this impression of significant but localized heat is confirmed.
On a daily basis, the firepower of the Blade 15 is more than appreciable. The launch of applications is instantaneous and the overall responsiveness of the system thunderous. Nothing too surprising on such a well equipped machine, but it is clear that this extra power brings comfort and satisfaction.
Autonomy
Like most gaming laptops, the Blade 15 isn’t much of a battery life champion. The machine is however equipped with an 80 Wh battery (rather average compared to its competitors of the same size), but the latter struggles to ensure really significant endurance. Moreover, Razer is careful not to announce any autonomy estimate on the official page of its product.
We will wait for our Lab to establish more precise and elaborate measurements, but as it stands we were not able to work for long on the Blade 15. In video playback on YouTube, the device also requires its charger (230 W ) after 4 to 5 hours according to our observations.