Review of the laptop Razer Blade Stealth (2019) mobility-oriented

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Razer Blade Stealth in terms of gamingperformance never had enough stars from the sky, the updated 2019 model should change that. The laptop received an additional graphics processor MX150 4 GB, which gives hope that now you can play something serious on it.

Price for the basic version of Blade Stealth (2019)starts from 92 000 r. If you definitely need discrete graphics from Nvidia, then add another 13,000 rubles. But, no matter what you choose, in front of you is a laptop with a mobile design.

The competition in this niche is pretty serious. Opponents Razer becomes fantastic Dell XPS 13 and inexpensive Asus ZenBook 13. However, let's take a closer look at the capabilities of the new Blade Stealth.

Design and construction

Ports and connectors

Keyboard and touchpad

Laptop display

Speaker sound

Performance

SSD

How is he in the games?

Graphics and autonomy

Are there alternatives?

Should I buy?

Design by Razer Blade Stealth (2019)

Previous model Razer Blade Stealth todaylooks frankly outdated. Therefore, the version of 2019 has undergone tremendous changes. Thick front panels disappeared along with rounded edges, ribs on the lid and a common silver finish. The new Stealth has been completely upgraded to match the look and feel of the best laptops. And this is what Razer did.

At first glance, this is one of the cutest13-inch laptops, of course, will always be leaders MacBook, but its design has long been copied and even improved. I can still remember the Dell XPS 13 - a great laptop with great performance, especially in white and golden color. There is also the Huawei MateBook X Pro, which stands out for its ultra-thin faceplates and a sleek polished aluminum case.

Still Razer Blade Stealth (2019)stands out for its exquisite simplicity, which is rare. I like its stylish black case with the Razer logo on the cover. The body is made from a single piece of machined aluminum. At the same time there is not even a hint that somewhere the body will bend. Everything is done to the conscience and even the keyboard resists bending and pressing. The only thing I did not like was fingerprints on the matte surface.

The frames around the display are as narrow as possible - only 4.9 mm, although the top is slightly thicker so that you can place a webcam above the screen. Even the keyboard and the enlarged touchpad are copied from the Razer Blade. Everything looks fantastic.

Ports and connectors

As for the ports, the new Blade Stealth(2019) is similar to the previous generation, with one exception, one HDMI port was removed here, and a second USB-C was added instead. We get an almost perfect set with two USB-A ports and two USB-Cs. Perhaps you will miss the HDMI port and slot for microSD cards, but according to statistics every day they are used less and less.

Keyboard and touchpad

Razer Blade Stealth (2019) inheritedkeyboard blade that's not bad. The key travel is short, you get used to it very quickly, it is convenient to type text. But, there is one problem - its location. The extreme keys here are cut in size, worse than that, the Razer Blade Stealth (2019) got the layout of the predecessor. But, there are already full-size up / down arrow keys, which is very convenient for games, however, the up arrow key is between Shift and “/?”, You have to get used to it.

The keyboard received the Chroma RGB backlight, however, not every key is highlighted, but the entire zone. With the Razer Synapse application, you can easily customize the backlight to suit your mood or occupation.

The touchpad Blade Stealth (2019) is almost perfect. It is spacious, occupies the maximum space under the keyboard, and the click is not too loud. There is support for multi-touch gestures, thanks to Windows Precision.

Laptop display

There are two versions of the Razer Blade Stealth (2019): with Full HD and 4K display. I got a review with a 1080p resolution on the review - this is a high-quality matte screen with wide viewing angles. The color scheme is good, but if you compare this panel with a MacBook Pro, the difference will be immediately noticeable.

The display shows high contrast, howeverhere, even the closest competitor in the face of Huawei MateBook X Pro was better. The only thing that impresses in the new Blade Stealth is the brightness margin; here it is more than 400 nits. This is what a premium laptop should be.

Speaker sound

Razer Blade Stealth (2019) got decentspeakers. Due to their location, the sound is clear and loud. Of course, there are no such clear bass, as in a separate speaker system, but still the sound is better than that of most competitors.

System performance

It took time to embed in laptopsthe latest Intel Whiskey Lake processors, but the wait was worth it. Let the 8th generation of new processors not become a huge leap forward, yet we get excellent performance, Razer Blade Stealth (2019) runs on Core i7, and in all configurations.

In Geekbench 4, I saw an increaseperformance in both single-core and multi-core test. Compared to last year’s model, productivity increased by 11% and 8%, respectively. She grew up in real-world problems. The video encoding in Handbrake took 1 minute less. This is a good result. But, it is worth considering that in my test laptop was 8 GB of RAM more than last year's Blade Stealth.

SSD-drive and memory

Razer uses ultra-fast memory in Stealth. This time, SSD LiteOn CA3 M.2 is installed, which shows a speed of more than 2000 MB / s when reading and slightly less than 1000 MB / s when writing.

This allows the Razer Blade Stealth to bypass allcompetitors, but this model is limited to 256 GB. If you want a larger SSD, you will have to buy a laptop with a 4K screen, and it costs about 125,000 rubles.

How is he in the games?

There was a lot of information about the gaming potential.this system, especially with discrete graphics. In my case, Blade Stealth (2019) got a MX150 - 25-watt video card with 4 GB of memory, it should show itself well in games.

But, the results were not very convincing. The laptop really shows a slight increase in performance compared with competitors. In 3DMark Fire Strike, the gap was 13-19%. This is not bad, but in real games the situation may be different.

In the Civilization VI or Fortnite laptop issuedmore than 30 fps at medium settings, although the picture quality is low, however, you can play. If you play shooters, then it becomes clear - this is not for Razer Blade Stealth (2019). To make Battlefield 1 playable, you have to put a low resolution. The only name that started and showed a smooth image is Rocket League - at high settings over 60 fps.

In general, it is quite possible to play the new Blade Stealth, but not all games and not with the best quality. In addition, to get a discrete graphics card will have to pay. Unsure that it is worth it.

I'm glad Razer is experimenting with graphics on13-inch laptop, but the dream of a compact 13-inch laptop has not yet come true. If you really want to get a gaming device, then it's better to take a 15-inch Razer Blade with GTX 1060 Max-Q graphics.

Graphics and autonomy

I initially had high expectationsThe autonomy of this Razer notebook, since there have been significant improvements in this area lately. But, even by the standards of 2017, the battery life of Blade Stealth (2019) is somewhat disappointing.

Despite the statements of Razer that the laptop can withstand 11 hours, I had about 4-5 hours in mixed mode. In tests, the battery of the new Stealth lags far behind its competitors.

When looping video with1080p resolution to full discharge laptop worked 7.5 hours. In the same test, the Dell XPS 13 lasted more than 13.5 hours. Huawei MateBook X Pro with a higher resolution screen and low-power MX150 graphics worked for more than 4 hours.

In network tests, the situation was even worse. Razer Blade Stealth (2019) was able to hold out for less than 5 hours. In Basemark, the result was 2 hours and 48 minutes, in which the MateBook X Pro worked for several hours longer. In general, all the results were worse than the previous Blade Stealth model showed. In this new Intel processors are considered more energy efficient. What is the problem?

In Stealth (2019) the battery is set to 53Watt / hour, as in the previous version. The battery is the same size as in the base model, which is in the version with discrete graphics. It turns out that the problem is in the MX150.

But, the laptop uses technology NvidiaOptimus to automatically switch between integrated and discrete graphics. This should increase battery life. However, a discrete video card consumes energy, even when it is not involved. In theory, a version without discrete graphics should last a few hours longer.

Alternatives to Blade Stealth (2019)

There are dozens of great 13-inch laptops, butThe best, in my opinion, is the Dell XPS 13. It is not only cheaper, but also has better performance and significantly longer battery life.

If you are looking for something with a similar graphicprocessor, Huawei MateBook X Pro is a good alternative. It offers the best battery life, and a touch screen. A 10-watt GPU is not as good, but definitely better than nothing.

You can consider the basic model of 15-inchRazer Blade as an alternative to the Blade Stealth model with graphics. It costs the same, but it has significantly better performance with the GTX 1060 Max-Q video card and even something big, thanks to improvements in the new version.

Total

At first glance, Razer Blade Stealth (2019) -dream come true. The laptop has shown that ultrabook-class laptops may well become gaming. This model will be able to cope with games such as LoL, Overwatch, Fortnight and Rocket League, but something more serious will have to run at medium or minimum settings.

The model has drawbacks: RGB backlighting is not configured individually for each key, RAM is soldered on the motherboard, side buttons on the keyboard are trimmed and there is no HDMI output. But despite this, Blade Stealth (2019) is the most powerful ultrabook.