The 2017 Razer Blade makes a great case for itself as a great alternative to the MacBook Pro. As a matter of fact, it just may be better than Apple's popular flagship laptop.
Razer is known for making innovative yet expensive gaming laptops. The company has successfully carved its niche in the gaming industry with its consistently impressive products that cater to every whim of many a serious gamer. The 2017 Razer Blade is no different. Razer packed some serious features and capabilities into one beautifully designed hardware and came up with a gaming laptop that only the MacBook Pro can rival.
Design and Display
Razer thought its previous all-black, brushed aluminum design was perfect so it did not change anything. Tech Radar did mention that it would be nice to make the Blade look more like Apple's premium laptop. The Full HD Blade is thin and weighs only 1.88 kg though it climbs a bit to 1.95 kg for the 4K touchscreen model. The 2017 Razer Blade sports a 14-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) matte screen.
Performance
One thing gamers will immediately notice upon using the new razer Blade is its improved game performance. It is powered by the 2.8GHz Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU which can go up to 38GHz with Turbo Boost. The new Blade also comes with the new Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GPU with 6GB memory, PCle M.2 solid-state drive (SSD) storage, and 16GB of RAM. As The Verge stressed, these specs are the best available specs that one can get when building their own gaming laptop from scratch.
Battery
Gamers need their laptops available as long as possible. This is why battery life is essential to such devices. The 2017 Razer Blade does not fail in this category. According to PCMark 8, its battery life lasted for 4 hours and 8 minutes at 50 percent screen brightness and doing basic tasks. That's a 30-minute improvement from the previous Blade. When Tech radar tested the laptop, it lasted for 7 hours and 29 minutes which is two hours more than the last Razer Blade. This is one category in which the Blade is clearly better than the MacBook Pro albeit by 5 minutes. The Razer Blade also outdueled other laptops in the same battery test.
Price
The base price for the 2017 Razer blade with non-touch FHD screen and 256GB SSD is $1,899. The price goes up to $2,399 if the buyer prefers an Ultra HD display, 512GB SSD, and Intel's latest CPU. For $2,799, the Blade gets a 4K touch and the memory climbs up to a whopping 1TB SSD.
