Shopping for a gaming notebook tin can exist tough, especially if you're looking to supplement a beefy desktop auto. On one hand, yous can get all out with a massive organisation that rivals your trusty desktop but and then over again, who wants to booty effectually a x+ pound brick all 24-hour interval? Conversely, there are enough of slim notebooks to choose from but finding 1 that's even halfway decent at gaming is a claiming.

With Razer'due south refreshed Blade notebook, the gaming peripheral specialist aims to strike a blend of portability and ability in a chassis that anyone would be proud to own. It's not the fastest gaming notebook on the planet but at but iv.5 pounds with a contour that's thinner than a dime standing on its side, you'll have no trouble tossing it in your backpack as yous walk out the door.

The 2016 Razer Blade ships with a 14.0-inch IGZO QHD+ (3,200 x one,800 resolution, 16:9 ratio) LED backlit brandish with capacitive multi-touch. In my opinion, multi-touch a traditional notebook – ane that can't transform into a tablet – is simply as worthless as a multi-bear on a full-size AIO.

The panel looks incredible although given its high resolution, you'll well-nigh certainly want to scale it up a bit unless you have a penchant for tiny text. This is incredibly easy to exercise in Windows ten by but right-clicking on the desktop and selecting "display settings." Here, you tin can adjust the scaling on-the-fly past dragging a slider. I tried a couple of different settings earlier settling on 175 percentage.

Perhaps the only thing non to like about the screen is that it'south glossy and has a high reflection factor.

Powering the new Razer Blade is Intel'due south sixth generation Skylake Cadre i7-6700HQ processor with Intel HD Graphics 530, a quad-core, 8-thread chip that runs at 2.6GHz (Turbo upwards to three.5GHz). Information technology's paired with 16GB of dual-channel DDR4 (2133MHz) that's soldered to the motherboard, Nvidia GeForce GTX 970M graphics with 6GB of GDDR5 VRAM and 256GB or 512GB of PCIe M.2 solid state storage.

Nvidia's Optimus technology switches betwixt integrated and discrete graphics based on awarding need. In my experience, information technology does a fine task at it although yous can e'er get in into the Nvidia Control Panel and assign a specific GPU to handle private programs as y'all see fit.

If you lot're familiar with Razer's Blade line of notebooks, you lot'll feel right at home. In terms of design and styling, the Blade is more or less a larger version of the Blade Stealth nosotros looked at a few months ago. Forth the correct edge of the system, you'll find a Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) port, a traditional USB 3.0 port, an HDMI 1.4b port and Kensington Lock slot. On the opposite side is the Air-conditioning charging port, ii additional USB 3.0 ports and a combination sound jack with a single activity LED along the front end border. Nether the hood, you lot've got a Killer Wireless-Ac 1535 NIC (802.11 a/b/m/northward/air conditioning + Bluetooth 4.1).

The inclusion of a Thunderbolt 3 port is a welcome one. If y'all're unfamiliar, this versatile port offers 40Gbps of bandwidth (twice as much equally Thunderbolt 2) but what's well-nigh impressive here is that it utilizes the USB Type-C interface and can do many things at in one case. With a single reversible cable, for example, y'all tin drive two 4K monitors, recharge the system and transfer data all at the aforementioned time. It makes single-cable docking for workstations a reality and truly is the "one cablevision to rule them all."

On the bottom of the Blade are ii anti-sideslip pads that run the length of the organisation, two vents hiding intake fans and x screws which concur the cover in place. Past using long strips of anti-skid pads rather than the typical 4 minor feet, the Blade has an incredible grip and won't skate around on your desk.

Since the RAM is soldered in place and the bombardment is of the integrated blazon, the only reason you'd e'er need to get inside would be to supervene upon or upgrade the solid state drive.

Speaking of, the Blade ships with a 70Wh rechargeable lithium-ion polymer bombardment that Razer says is good for up to five hours in their testing. Included with the system is a 165 watt ability adapter measuring 5.9 x 2.36 10 0.87 inches that shouldn't take up besides much space in your travel bag.

Razer has positioned its familiar snake logo in the center of the lid. I did observe that if you push down on or around the backlit logo, there'south a lot of flex which is a bit concerning. Fortunately, this doesn't seem to affect the display on the other side, even when a good deal of forcefulness is applied.

Opening the lid, you'll detect the xiv.0-inch QHD+ display framed past a moderately thick bezel, both of which sit behind the display's drinking glass. This gives the illusion that the bezel isn't as broad as it actually is and is more than aesthetically pleasing than a solid, separate bezel. Atop the display is a two.0-megapixel webcam with dual microphone array should you desire to some Skyping.

The total-size anti-ghosting keyboard is slightly recessed and comes alive courtesy of Razer's Chroma backlighting system which features individually lit multi-color keys. With information technology, you become access to sixteen.8 one thousand thousand colors per key equally well as several different lighting furnishings like breathing, reactive, wave, static and and so on.

Yous can create multiple profiles for different moods and even different game types with the ability to go online and download specific profiles for games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Overwatch. If you're into custom lighting, Chroma will exist right upwards your alley and if non, you can simply disable the backlighting or gear up it to a static, single color and call it a day.

The keyboard itself is more than than adequate for a gaming notebook and the layout leaves nothing to be desired. That's worth some merit as it's surprisingly like shooting fish in a barrel to screw up a keyboard past just rearranging a couple of keys. There's nigh zero flex in the board and so it doesn't experience like y'all're typing on mushy Clot-O. If I had to single out 1 shortcoming, it would be that the key travel is a tiny bit shallow, though this probable stems from my dear of mechanical keyboards and Razer'south want to produce a thin machine.

At iv and ane/8 inches broad, the touchpad is plenty large for a arrangement of this size. Rather than integrate the mouse click buttons direct into the touchpad, Razer went with physical click buttons, a practice that isn't nearly as common every bit it used to be. This will ultimately come down to personal preference although considering its intended target, I suspect virtually serious gamers will rely primarily on a standalone mouse or maybe even a gamepad.

A set up of stereo speakers covered by pinhole grills flank the keyboard with the power button located centrally to a higher place the keyboard. The wrist residue surface area is spacious and only gets lukewarm during intense gaming sessions. This is due in function to Razer'south dual-fan cooling system -- more on that in a flake.

The new Bract packs a lot of technology into a slim and lightweight chassis measuring 0.seventy (height) ten xiii.6 (width) ten 9.iii (depth) inches and iv.five pounds. Our toll as configured hither today is $one,999. Should you opt for the larger 512GB SSD, expect to pay $2,199.

Read on for more than details on performance and usage impressions.