The 2015 Razer Blade Review

Final Words

For 2015, we have a new Razer Blade, which on the outside is a dead ringer for last year’s model. We have the same design, the same keyboard, trackpad, strong aluminum body, and fantastic QHD+ display. All of those features were already excellent on the previous model, so Razer stayed conservative and kept all of it the same. Razer builds one of the best looking, most polished, and high quality gaming laptops on the market, so it makes sense not to rock the boat.

For 2015, what we have is more inside. You cannot see it from afar, but once you start using the new Blade, the new power becomes readily apparent. The GTX 970M is a perfect addition to this laptop, and we have seen sometimes up to 50% better performance than the 2014 model. The new card is much better at driving the 3200x1800 display, and with the new 1080p model sharing the same GPU, performance should be excellent.

The GTX 970M is somewhat of an obvious upgrade though. The 2014 model had the 870M, so it only makes sense that the new model would get the replacement for that card. What was a nice surprise for the 2015 model is both the new CPU, and the increased system memory. For the memory, the outgoing model’s 8 GB of RAM was a sore spot for me on a premium priced laptop. The move to 16 GB of DDR3L-1600 should satisfy most users’ needs for quite a while. It is extra important that Razer outfits the laptop with this because the RAM is soldered to the motherboard, so user upgrades are out of the question. And just to be clear, the review unit we received, and all of the 3200x1800 models will come with 16 GB of memory, but the 1080p model will be limited to 8 GB. The extra system RAM really opens the Razer Blade up to be more of a general purpose computer, with enough RAM for a couple of virtual machines to be running at any one time, or other memory intensive software.

The CPU is a very big boost as well, which could easily be overshadowed by the new graphics card. The move the 47 watt CPU gives a sharp boost in performance for all tasks, and the cooling system does not seem to be strained at all with the extra heat. With four cores at 2.6 GHz, hyperthreading, and boost clocks of 3.6 GHz, the CPU is quite a big upgrade. Once again, this opens the door to more non-gaming workloads for this device, which should increase its appeal.

Razer has added all of these internal upgrades, but one more thing that was not changed was the price. With a faster CPU, more RAM, and an upgraded GPU, the 2015 Razer Blade comes in at exactly the same price as last year’s model. Yes, they still offer the silly 128 GB SSD version, which you should really avoid if you are considering this device and are not comfortable replacing the SSD. Companies like to charge a lot for upgrades, and Razer is no exception, with the 256 GB model being $200 more than the 128 GB model. The 512 GB model is another $300 above that.

The base price of the 1080p model with a 256 GB SSD comes in at just under $2000, and the 1800p versions are priced at $2200 for 128 GB, $2400 for 256 GB, and $2700 for 512 GB. It is a lot of money for a 14” gaming laptop. Luckily the quality of the components really are top notch. For the money, you get a great display, good keyboard, excellent trackpad, and powerful internals wrapped in a thin machined aluminum body. It is a lot of money, but it is also a great experience.