Razer Blade 15 Advanced (2020) review: A performance monster at a monster price
A TEST REPORT from Nils Ahrensmeier 
on October 19, 2020, 10:00 p.m. | Write a comment
With the Razer Blade 15 Advanced 4K, Razer would like to put the best gaming hardware currently available on the market in a mobile laptop. I tested the laptop for you.
The Razer Blade 15 is designed like a classic notebook should be, but has its "gaming peculiarities". A Razer logo is engraved on the black back, of course in green, which is illuminated with an LED when in operation. In addition, the USB ports are also painted in Razer green. The design doesn't look embarrassing or thrown together in any way. I like to compare it to a MacBook.
Everything else is made of aluminum, which is high quality, but attracts fingerprints, as you can see in the pictures below. On the back there are two grilles for the fans and one grill for the loudspeaker. In addition, it is not exactly light at 2,15 kg.
In summary: I like the design of the Razer Blade 15 Advanced. The combination of the dark black and the bright green give the device a gaming character. However, at two kilograms, the notebook is not really light. The high-quality workmanship can also be expected in such a high price segment.
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- The design and workmanship of the laptop are of very high quality (picture: TechnikNews)
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- On the back are the grilles for fans and speakers (picture: TechnikNews)
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- The logo of the laptop on the back lights up green (picture: TechnikNews)
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Keyboard and touchpad
The keyboard is illuminated in Razer style, which can be adjusted in Razer's "Synapse" program. Although the keyboard is not mechanical, I was still able to leave my Bluetooth keyboard out because I was able to write long texts without any problems. The touchpad is a comfortable size and responded to all inputs. Multi-touch also works proflawless.
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- The Razer Blade 15 Advanced keyboard and touchpad turned off (Image: TechnikNews)
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- I really liked the touchpad of the Razer Blade 15, as there were no incorrect entries (Image: TechnikNews)
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- The Razer Blade 15's RGB keyboard can be customized (Image: TechnikNews)
Connections
The Razer offers 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (USB-A) ports, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type C with Power Delivery 3.0, 1x HDMI 2.0, an SD card reader and one Thunderbolt 3.0 (USB-C). So you can really connect everything important to the laptop, but Ethernet can only be connected via a USB-C dongle. The laptop also has a 3,5 mm jack connection. Otherwise nothing was missing from connections.
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- On the left side, the notebook has two USB-A ports, the headphone jack and the charging port (picture: TechnikNews)
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- On the right side there is a USB-A port, a USB-C, HDMI and the SD card reader (picture: TechnikNews)
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- Here is a detailed picture of the connections (picture: TechnikNews)
Display
The display is fantastic and the best display I've ever seen in a laptop. The display has a diagonal of 15 inches and a 4K OLED resolution, which covers 99 percent of the DCI-P3 and 96 percent of the Adobe RGB color space. When you buy it, you can choose whether you want the 4K display or, for less money, a 300Hz Full HD display. I loved editing videos, editing photos, or just gaming or watching films on this display. Above all, you suddenly experience games in a completely different way. Together with the RTX graphics card and a corresponding mod, Los Santos in GTA suddenly looks much better.
In my opinion, the 4K display is the better choice for films and non-competitive games, but if you play more competitive games such as CS: GO, Overwatch or LOL, you should use the Full-HD 300 Hz display.
The display also supports touch input, but since it cannot be "bent" like a 2in1, I rarely used it.
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- The Razer Blade 15 Advanced has either a 4K OLED display with 60Hz or Full HD with 300 Hz. (Image:TechnikNews)
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- The OLED display shines especially when playing games or films. (Image:TechnikNews)
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- I really liked the combination of the OLED display and the RGB keyboard. (Image:TechnikNews)
Specs and performance
The processor is an 8-core Intel tenth generation processor, which together with 16 GB RAM (can be upgraded to 32) and an RTX 2080 Super Max-Q ensures very good performance. I will spare you all the benchmarks, as they usually don't correspond to everyday applications anyway. Our test version has a 1 TB SSD.
Games run in 4K 60 without any problems. Whether it's GTA or a newer game like Flight Simulator. I never had any performance problems, and the video editing was like a knife cutting butter. You only have performance problems if you want to use the flight simulator to its full capacity, and then the fan becomes unpleasantly loud. Otherwise it's pleasantly quiet for most games, but after several hours of Overwatch the temperature got warm.
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- Any game can be played with the Razer Blade 15 Advanced. (Image: TechnikNews)
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- The new flight simulator 2020 also runs smoothly on high settings (Image: TechnikNews)
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- The fan is not too loud and the device is only slightly warm; this changes if the settings are too high. (Image: TechnikNews)
Battery life
At full capacity, I was able to work in the “Office” for 5 hours, i.e. write in Word, surf on Twitter or watch YouTube videos. For gaming, the battery life is "only" sufficient for two hours of full power. You can extend the battery life with energy-saving modes, but then you also throttle the performance. The battery life is long enough for a train journey without a socket, but if you really work a lot on the move, you should always have the 230W power supply with you to recharge the 80 Wh battery.
Software and speakers
Windows 10 runs on the device with little additional software. Only Razer Synapse is pre-installed, but you need that to control the LEDs anyway. The speaker is great, music can also be turned up and the sound was realistic even with films and games.
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- With the software, for example, the keyboard colors can be adjusted (picture: TechnikNews)
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- The speakers of the Razer Blade 15 Advanced are very powerful (Image: TechnikNews)
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- You can also hear / watch music or films through these speakers (picture: TechnikNews)
Conclusion
The Razer Blade 15 Advanced starts at EUR 2.899 MSRP. That's a lot of money that you have to put on the table for a starter model, our test sample costs 3.699 euros RRP. But for this money you get a desktop PC for on the go. The 4K OLED display is ideal for all creative minds who prowant to work professionally with Photoshop or Premiere Pro or just want to play a round of flight simulator. This is supported by the new SD card slot, which was not available in the 2019 model. With a 1 TB M.2 SSD I was able to edit well on the go, but for 4K that could quickly become tight. You can connect an SSD using the Thunderbolt 2 port.
The OLED display is ideal for single-player games, but for shooters you should save money and use the Full-HD 300Hz variant. Games always ran smoothly, but there is definitely room for improvement. The flight simulator could not be played comfortably in the highest setting and other games were also heavily used at maximum settings. A Max-Q variant of the RTX 3000 series could solve this in the future, but you have to wait a while until then.
Anyone who has the money and would like to work on the go will be happy with the Razer Blade 15 Advanced.
If you are looking for a cheaper blade, David got the cheaper Blade 15 last year tested.
Buy the Razer Blade 15 Advanced
- Razer Blade 15 Advanced buy on amazon
- buy directly from Razer