Razer Blade 15 Base Edition (2021) review | Laptop Mag
Our Verdict
The Razer Blade 15 Base Edition (2021) offers peachy graphics power and a colorful 1440p panel, but information technology suffers from middling CPU performance and a dim display.
For
- Solid graphics performance
- Colorful 1440p panel
- Smooth glass touchpad
Against
- Medicore CPU performance
- Display could be brighter
- Meh keyboard
- Pricey
Laptop Mag Verdict
The Razer Bract xv Base of operations Edition (2021) offers great graphics ability and a colorful 1440p panel, but it suffers from middling CPU operation and a dim brandish.
Pros
- +
Solid graphics operation
- +
Colorful 1440p panel
- +
Shine glass touchpad
Cons
- -
Medicore CPU performance
- -
Display could be brighter
- -
Meh keyboard
- -
Pricey
What I didn't expect when I opened upwardly the Razer Blade xv Base of operations Edition (2021) was a lot of requite and take. That'due south not very appealing when you're paying $2,199 for a gaming laptop. Let me explain what'south going on hither.
On i side, the graphics functioning from the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 is solid, but on the other paw, the Intel Cadre i7-10750H processor produced middling marks against the competition. The 15.half-dozen-inch, 1440p panel is brilliant,, merely information technology's much dimmer than the average premium gaming laptop. And so when I tested the keyboard, I was baffled by how squishy and tightly packed the keys were, though the glass touchpad is an absolute dream.
By no means is the Razer Blade 15 winning any best gaming laptops awards, simply it'due south decent if you like Razer products and can overlook its downsides.
Razer Blade xv Base Edition (2021) price and configuration options
Razer Blade 15 Base of operations Edition specs
Cost: $2,199
CPU: Intel Core i7-10750H
GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 512GB SSD
Display: fifteen.6-inch, 2560 x 1440, 165Hz
Battery: 4:36
Size: 14.0 10 9.iii ten 0.eight inches
Weight: 4.6 pounds
The Razer Blade 15 I reviewed is considered a base edition model, which costs $two,199 and comes with an Intel Cadre i7-10750H processor, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 GPU with 8GB of VRAM, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD and a 15.6-inch, 2560 x 1440-pixel, 165Hz display.
The cheapest model costs $i,699, and drops down to a GTX 1660 Ti GPU, a 256GB SSD and a 1080p, 144Hz display. However, if you wanted to upgrade to the most advanced edition, yous'll go a Core i7-10875H CPU, an RTX 3080 GPU, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and a 4K OLED display.
No thing which Razer Blade y'all go with, you're going to be paying over $1,000, so if you want something cheaper, we recommend checking out our best cheap gaming laptops.
Razer Blade 15 Base Edition (2021) design
Not much has changed with the Razer Blade xv'due south design. It sports the aforementioned black aluminum chassis accompanied past the sleeky dark-green Razer logo on its lid. It would be nice to see Razer experiment with some new designs.
The interior also features a standard black aluminum deck that holds room for a small keyboard surrounded by top-firing speakers and a big touchpad. Even with the webcam placed on top, the display bezels are impressively thin.
At 4.6 pounds and 14.0 x 9.3 ten 0.8 inches, the Razer Blade 15 is relatively lightweight and thin for a gaming creature. Information technology'south lighter than the Alienware m15 R4 (v pounds, 14.2 x 10.ix ten 0.7~0.8 inches) and Gigabyte Aorus 15G (2021, RTX 3070) (four.7 pounds, 14.0 10 9.half dozen ten 0.9 inches), but the Asus TUF Dash F15 (2021, RTX 3070) (four.four pounds, fourteen.ii x 10 x 0.8 inches) managed to shave off a few ounces.
Razer Blade 15 Base of operations Edition (2021) ports
Razer packed in a decent assortment of ports into the Blade 15, but it would've been nice to come across a Mini DisplayPort.
On the left side, in that location's the power jack, an Ethernet port, one USB Type-A port, i USB Type-C port and a headphone jack, while the right side features a security lock slot, an HDMI port, ii USB Type-A ports and one USB Type-C port.
If you need more ports, check out our all-time laptop docking stations and best USB Type-C hubs pages.
Razer Bract 15 Base of operations Edition (2021) display
The Razer Bract xv'due south 15.six-inch, 2560 x 1440-pixel, 165Hz display delivers solid vibrant colors, simply it's but not vivid plenty.
In the trailer for Pixie, the titular character's blood-red button-up glowed on the Razer Blade 15'southward display. It was as well precipitous enough to spot each strand of hair flowing out of her head. Even so, during the dark shot when they wait into the trunk, it was difficult to suss out half of the detail on the screen because information technology was so nighttime.
In Assassin'southward Creed Valhalla, the orange, yellow and green trees that encompassed the countryside of England were vibrant with life. However, in that location was glare hitting the Blade 15'southward matte display when walking through a town at dusk, which made it difficult to come across while camped at my desk-bound near the window. When I turned the graphics downwards, I got to experience the smoothen 165Hz refresh charge per unit as I dashed toward my enemy with an ax in manus and bloody murder on the brain.
According to our colorimeter, the Razer Blade 15 covered 87.iii% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut, which is only a few percentage points short of the premium gaming laptop average (90.vii%). It still surpassed the Aorus 15G (76.vii%) and Nuance F15 (77.9%), but couldn't come close to the Alienware m15 R4 (149.5%).
However, averaging just 271 nits of effulgence, the Blade 15 is incredibly dim, falling far from the 342-nit category boilerplate. Again, information technology managed to beat the Aorus 15G (259 nits) and Dash F15 (265 nits), but it was crushed by the Alienware m15 R4 (362 nits).
Razer Blade 15 Base Edition (2021) keyboard and touchpad
Unfortunately, the Razer Blade 15 Base Edition does not come with Razer'due south optical keyboard because typing on this machine was rough. I felt like I was bottoming out half of the time and the keys didn't feel like they were elevated high enough above the deck, causing me to mistype multiple times. The keys were non only tightly spaced, but they had low fundamental travel and required very little force to actuate.
I hit simply 68 words per minute on the 10fastfingers.com typing test, which is far beneath my 78-wpm average.
The Base Edition features a one-zone RGB-lit keyboard, and so even though y'all're paying over $two,000, you're getting a cheap gaming laptop'due south keyboard. You tin customize the single-zone of lighting via the Lighting tab in Razer Synapse.
The 5.1 x 3.1-inch touchpad is made out of glass and it is oh, and then, smooth. The clickers made a soft but deep audio, and the touchpad itself worked well with Windows 10 gestures, like two-finger scrolling and three-finger tabbing.
Razer Bract 15 Base Edition (2021) audio
I take mixed feelings about the Razer Blade 15'southward speakers. They sound decent for music, merely not then much for gaming.
I listened to Diamante and Breaking Benjamin's embrace of "Iris," and the opening guitar was present and full. When the vocals jumped in, they were loud and crisp admitting a bit sharp at times. At that place wasn't too much in the way of bass, but the percussion had its moments throughout the song. Occasionally, the instruments clashed and got noisy or muddy.
In Assassin's Creed Valhalla, I was breaching the gate to a fortress with a ram, only each time information technology slammed against the door, the speakers produced a weak, muffled sound. When I charged in and started cutting down foes with my axes, the slashing sounds were sharp but non deep or present enough to feel like I was actually the one attacking. However, the voices in the game came off clear and well-baked.
Razer included the THX Spatial Audio for PCs app, which includes presets for Music, Movie theater, Game, Vocalisation and Custom. Each one has an blaster in it and, apart from the Custom one, the EQs are already tuned. Changing the preset made a noticeable effect on the audio, merely it was tough to become something that made games sound expert.
Razer Bract 15 Base of operations Edition (2021) gaming, graphics and VR
Cached below layers of aluminum is an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 GPU (95W) with 8GB of VRAM. With that kind of hardware, the Razer Blade 15 permit me coast forth the shores of England, hunting for my side by side raid, at 51 frames per second in Assassin's Creed Valhalla (Ultra, 1440p).
On the Assassinator'due south Creed Odyssey benchmark (Ultra, 1080p), the Razer Bract xv striking 64 fps, just sliding past the average premium gaming laptop (62 fps). With the aforementioned GPU every bit its competitors, the Blade xv surpassed the Aorus 15G (62 fps) and Dash F15 (51 fps), but fell brusk confronting the Alienware m15 R4 (67 fps). At 1440p, the Blade 15 averaged 54 fps.
The Razer Blade 15 got 78 fps on the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark (Highest, 1080p), climbing over the category average (75 fps). It matched the Aorus 15G (78 fps), and still beat the Alienware m15 R4 (77 fps) and Dash F15 (69 fps). When clocked in at 1440p, the Blade 15 net 53 fps.
On the Far Cry New Dawn benchmark (Ultra, 1080p), the Razer Bract fifteen scored 86 fps, which is simply brusque of the 88-fps premium gaming laptop average. It flew past the Dash F15 (lxx fps), but couldn't catch upwards to the Alienware m15 R4 (91 fps) or Aorus 15G (93 fps). Meanwhile, the Bract 15 could nail 76 fps at 1440p.
The Razer Blade 15 averaged 64 fps on the Reddish Expressionless Redemption 2 benchmark (Medium, 1080p), which cuts past the category average (57 fps). It took out the Dash F15 (52 fps) and the Aorus 15G (59 fps), but was once more surpassed by the Alienware m15 R4 (69 fps). At 1440p, the Blade 15 hit 46 fps.
Razer Blade 15 Base Edition (2021) performance
The Razer Blade 15 is toting an Intel Core i7-10750H processor with 16GB of RAM, which is sort of old news at this point. Withal, information technology yet managed to juggle xl Google Chrome tabs and five 1080p YouTube videos while Assassin's Creed Valhalla was running in the background.
On the Geekbench 5.3 overall performance examination, the Blade fifteen scored five,564, which doesn't match up against the boilerplate premium gaming laptop (7,029). Information technology did surpass the Dash F15's Cadre i7-11375H CPU (5,166), just was crushed by the Cadre i7-10870H CPU in the Alienware m15 R4 (7,636) and Aorus 15G (8,009).
The Blade xv transcoded a 4K video to 1080p in x minutes and 57 seconds on our HandBrake criterion, which took longer than the category average (viii:02) every bit well as the Alienware m15 R4 (7:07), Aorus 15G (8:05) and Nuance F15 (10:40).
Razer'south 512GB SSD isn't really upwardly to par with the premium standard, either, as it landed a transfer charge per unit of 602 megabytes per 2nd. It'southward slower than the average premium gaming laptop (843 MBps), the Alienware m15 R4 (1,147 MBps), the Aorus 15G (928 MBps) and the Dash F15 (ane,003 MBps).
Razer Blade fifteen Base Edition (2021) battery life
Battery life and gaming laptops are learning to live meliorate with each other every year, but the Bract xv could utilise some work. It did last 4 hours and 36 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test, which is actually only a few minutes away from the iv:44 premium gaming laptop average. Information technology's corking, but there's room for improvement. The Alienware m15 R4 (4:01) died first, but the Aorus 15G (4:48) and Dash F15 (6:53) lasted longer than the Blade 15.
Razer Bract 15 Base of operations Edition (2021) webcam
You lot'd exist hard-pressed to find a 720p shooter that actually produces expert photos, and unfortunately, the Blade 15 falls into the standard crap category.
Offset, there are the typical RGB blotches coated across the test shot I took, and then in that location are the illegible words on the poster behind me. The contrast was balanced on my face, merely the window behind me was completely blown out. As someone obsessed with playing D&D online with friends, I always try to find the best webcams to non but bear witness my appearance but too my microexpressions and mannerisms. This is not it.
Razer Blade 15 Base of operations Edition (2021) rut
The Razer Bract 15 can get a little warm under the hood when it's under pressure. Afterwards playing a game for fifteen minutes, the underside striking 115 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 20 degrees above our 95-degree comfort threshold. The center of the keyboard and touchpad hit 107 and 92 degrees, respectively. The hottest the machine got was 119 degrees on the underside, forth the SN sticker.
Information technology's relatively cool when not gaming, however. After streaming a 15-minute video, the underside reached 96 degrees, the keyboard hitting 92 degrees, and the touchpad measured 84 degrees.
Razer Blade 15 Base Edition (2021) software and warranty
The simply software Razer really with the Blade 15 is the Razer Synapse app. Through this app, yous tin can customize the performance, lighting and keyboard functions. For meliorate or worse, there'south not much in the fashion of warranty or support settings onboard the laptop.
Notwithstanding, in that location are still Windows 10 bloatware apps like Hidden City, Hulu and Roblox.
The Blade 15 comes with a one-year limited warranty. Meet how Razer performed on our Tech Support Showdown and All-time and Worst Brands ranking.
Bottom line
Reviewing the Razer Blade fifteen Base Edition (2021) was like going on a roller coaster ride -- there are a lot of ups and downs. You're getting solid graphics functioning, a colorful and precipitous brandish as well as a satisfying glass touchpad. However, you're also stuck with below-average CPU performance, a panel that'southward as dim as a upkeep automobile'south, and a keyboard that'south too squishy.
If you are already willing to pay over $two,000, you lot might also get the Alienware m15 R4 ($2,499). For $300 actress, you'd be getting better all-around functioning, a drib-dead gorgeous brandish and a punchy keyboard.
Razer makes good gaming laptops, only this configuration isn't up to par, so I recommend reconsidering how much you lot want to pay for one or look at another laptop altogether. Overall, the Bract 15 is a decent gaming laptop, but the price compounds the problems information technology has.
Source: https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/razer-blade-15-base-edition-2021
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