The Razer Blade 15 Advanced Model is a perennial favorite, having proven its build quality and gaming chops to us across several iterations (though previous generations were called “Advanced Edition” instead of “Advanced Model”). What we’re reviewing here is an update to the early 2021 version (the new system starts at $2,299.99) that bumps up the processor to Intel’s 11th Generation “Tiger Lake-H” Core i7, boosts the webcam to 1080p resolution, and sports a new fingerprint-resistant coating. It still offers Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 Series graphics and a choice of high-refresh-rate displays (our $2,699.99 configuration combines an RTX 3070 and a 360Hz full HD panel) while maintaining the sleek and light all-metal build. The Blade’s battery life has taken a hit, no longer leading the pack, but that’s the only real negative to this premium-priced favorite. The bottom line: If you’re going to buy this elite gaming laptop today, it may as well be this newest version.
The Blade Design: As Sharp as Ever
In terms of physical design, this Razer Blade 15 matches the model we reviewed earlier this year. As an internal component and features update, its chassis and build quality remain at the same superb level, a slim and premium machine that stands out even among high-end competitors.
In exact terms, it measures 0.67 by 14 by 9.3 inches and weighs 4.4 pounds, one of the lightest top-end gaming rigs around. The new Alienware x15 is a hair thinner at 0.62 inch, but it’s heftier at 5 pounds. The Blade 15’s all-metal design looks and feels great, setting the benchmark for the category, especially as many competitors use plastic builds.
With the build unchanged, I hardly need to mention that the touchpad remains one of the best on any Windows laptop, exceeded only by Apple’s solution for its MacBooks. The keyboard is less of a standout, but still of fine quality. I think the keys could use more feedback (they’re a bit shallow), but there’s little room for complaint. Alienware’s low-profile mechanical laptop keyboard, co-developed with keymaker Cherry, has frankly spoiled us, but the Blade’s keys are good enough among non-mechanical solutions. The keyboard does offer Razer’s signature per-key customizable RGB backlighting, which you can play with using the included Synapse software.
The port offerings are also unchanged, but everything you should need is included. The left flank holds two USB 3.1 Type-A ports, a USB-C port with Thunderbolt 4 support, the power port, and the headphone jack. On the right, there’s another USB-A port, another USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 port, an HDMI video output, and an SD card reader.
So, besides the processor (which we’ll get to), what’s new in this update? There are a few small things that may make your experience better, but there’s no denying the refreshed CPU is the main draw. As mentioned, the Advanced Model now wears a more fingerprint-resistant coating, and the webcam has been upgraded from 720p to 1080p.
While neither of those changes is titanic, they do make a difference. The Blade 15 was notoriously prone to accumulate finger smudges, and cleaning them off was difficult. Now, fingerprints don’t seem to leave as clear a mark, and they can be wiped away more easily. Our photographer is no doubt grateful. By the same token, webcam images look much better. The picture isn’t remarkably clear (in less-bright environments, it’s a bit grainy), but the general quality is noticeably sharper than a 720p camera still.
Configurations: Fast GPUs and Screens Galore
Looking at the specs, let’s start with the display. There are two panel options for this Blade 15: a full HD (1,920-by-1,080-pixel) screen with a 360Hz refresh rate, and a QHD-resolution (2,560-by-1,440-pixel) panel with a 240Hz refresh rate and Nvidia G-Sync. Our review unit features the first, so with a less demanding resolution it should be able to make use of its blistering fast frame rate. We’ll see exactly how it fares in the performance section below, but it’s a good combination and a nice-looking screen.
Displays are tied to certain configurations. The base version of the Blade 15 Advanced Model is priced at $2,299.99 with an Intel Core i7-11800H processor, 16GB of memory, a 1TB solid-state drive, a GeForce RTX 3060 GPU, and the QHD display. The next step up is $2,599.99 with the same specs except for an RTX 3070. Intel’s “Tiger Lake-H” CPUs are the main attraction here, as the early 2021 models used 10th Generation chips.
The next model up is what we were sent for review. For $2,699.99, it features the same Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB SSD, but pairs the GeForce RTX 3070 GPU with the 360Hz full HD display. This version also has a free, user-upgradable M.2 slot for additional storage. Above it is an RTX 3080 unit with 32GB of memory, priced at $3,099.99 (QHD).
I’m sure you noted that the starting price for the Blade 15 Advanced Model is rather high, but it’s not the only flavor of this laptop. The Blade 15 Base Model is a thicker, less sophisticated laptop that starts at $1,699.99. It’s a valid option for gamers who are drawn to the general design but want a somewhat more reasonable price point. Razer also offers a 165Hz QHD display in some models.
Some may raise an eyebrow that our review unit didn’t include a higher-resolution display, but based on our extensive testing, 1440p and 4K resolutions are still a challenge for even high-end GPUs, and if you really want to make the most of a high refresh rate, good old 1080p is still arguably the smart choice. QHD screens do look sharp, but our advice for laptop gaming when looking at the results of demanding titles is often to dial it down.
As for the GeForce RTX 3070 versus 3080, we’ve found diminishing returns with the mobile RTX 30-Series as you move up the stack. The RTX 3070 has generally delivered more bang for the buck, nearly matching the average performance we’ve seen from RTX 3080 laptops for a lower cost. The 1TB storage capacity across all but the cheapest models is also a plus; we’ve dinged pricey competitors like the Alienware x15 for not offering enough space for today’s game libraries.
Performance Testing: A Top-End Gaming Showdown
Below is a list of alternatives we’ll be pitting against the Blade 15 Advanced Model, including the previous Blade 15 Advanced Edition. The Alienware x15 is the most direct competitor, while the Alienware x17 is on paper the most potent option with its larger chassis and RTX 3080 GPU. On the flip side, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 shows what a smaller chassis (and AMD Ryzen chip) can do, but you should expect less from its RTX 3060.
Productivity Tests
The main benchmark of UL’s PCMark 10 simulates a variety of real-world productivity and content-creation workflows to measure overall performance for office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheeting, web browsing, and videoconferencing. We also run PCMark 10’s Full System Drive test to assess the load time and throughput of a laptop’s storage. (See more about how we test laptops.)
Three benchmarks focus on the CPU, using all available cores and threads, to rate a PC’s suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon’s Cinebench R23 uses that company’s Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene, while Primate Labs’ Geekbench 5.4 Pro simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning. Finally, we use the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to convert a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution (lower times are better).
Our final productivity test is workstation maker Puget Systems’ PugetBench for Photoshop, which uses the Creative Cloud version 22 of Adobe’s famous image editor to rate a PC’s performance for content creation and multimedia applications. It’s an automated extension that executes a variety of general and GPU-accelerated Photoshop tasks ranging from opening, rotating, resizing, and saving an image to applying masks, gradient fills, and filters.
On average there isn’t much separating these systems, but there are some valleys for the new Blade’s CPU performance (and not many peaks). The Razer tends to blend into the pack rather than lead it in our processor tests, though it does trend toward the end of the group in a few spots. The gap isn’t big, with results largely falling in the same ballpark—good for media and content creation tasks, but not in the tier of specialized pro machines. If this is your main purpose, a specialized creator laptop or mobile workstation is recommended.
One result that does jump out here is the Advanced Model’s storage speed. Modern SSDs are normally grouped tightly, but the latest Razer’s drive gets a noticeable jump on the rest. Enjoy the benefits of even quicker boot and load times, which will help everyday use and gaming.
Graphics and Gaming Tests
We test Windows PCs’ graphics with two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL’s 3DMark: Night Raid (more modest, suitable for laptops with integrated graphics) and Time Spy (more demanding, suitable for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs).
In addition, we run three real-world game tests using the built-in benchmarks of F1 2021, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and Rainbow Six Siege. These represent simulation, open-world action-adventure, and competitive esports shooter games respectively. Valhalla and Siege are run twice (the former at Medium and Ultra quality presets, the latter at Low and Ultra quality), while F1 2021 is run twice at maximum settings, once with Nvidia’s performance-boosting DLSS anti-aliasing turned off and once with it on.
The Blade 15 Advanced Model and its RTX 3070 look good in our graphics tests, muscled out by the 17-inch Alienware x17 and trading blows with the x15, which seems to have more raw graphics power based on synthetic tests. The earlier Razer Blade 15 we reviewed boasts an RTX 3080 GPU, so superior graphics numbers are to be expected.
The x15 may have a slight performance edge and be minutely slimmer, but it’s hard not to appreciate the fact the Blade 15 Advanced Model is noticeably lighter and more nicely built. The tradeoff of a couple of frames per second (really just in Valhalla; the Razer performed better in F1 and especially Siege) has us favoring the Blade. Both 15.6-inch laptops even hung close to the x17 in the most demanding title, Valhalla.
Separate from specific head-to-heads, these frame rates show the new Blade 15 is a great enthusiast gaming machine for both AAA and competitive titles. Like the Asus G14, it’s legitimately portable, but delivers a higher tier of performance (one that, of course, you have to pay for).
Battery and Display Tests
We test laptops’ battery life by playing a locally stored 720p video file (the open-source Blender movie Tears of Steel) with display brightness at 50% and audio volume at 100% until the system quits. We make sure the battery is fully charged before the test, with Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting turned off. We also use a Datacolor SpyderX Elite to measure notebook screens’ coverage of the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 color gamuts and their brightness in nits (candelas per square meter) at 50% and 100% brightness.
The one downside to the new Razer is its drop in battery life, which is surprising. The 11th Gen processor shouldn’t make that much of a difference, and while a 360Hz display can drain the battery, the Razer software is set to reduce frame rate to 60Hz on battery power. I ran the battery test several times, confirming the frame rate switch, but the Advanced Model always showed subpar stamina, a marked turn from the above-average result of most Razer laptops.
A Worthy Update
Briefer battery life aside, this is a welcome update to the perennial-favorite Razer Blade 15. A new processor adds a bit of pep, there are a load of fast and sharp display options, the webcam is improved, and unsightly finger smudges are greatly reduced.
Otherwise, the Blade 15 is the same great-performing and still highly portable gaming flagship we’ve praised plenty over the years. The diminished battery life hurts and the price remains lofty, but this is a premium product going up against premium competitors. This relatively minor refresh isn’t quite worthy of an Editors’ Choice award as the first 2021 model was, but it’s still one of the best and most portable high-end gaming laptops available.
