Razer is refreshing its Blade 15 Advanced model with Intel's Tiger Lake-H, its 11th Gen, 35-65W processors for gaming. The new lineup starts at $2,299 and will go as high as $3,399 when it ships in June. It's pricey, but the previous release was one of the best gaming laptops.
The majority of Razer's configurations will include the Intel Core i7-11800H, an 8-core processor with a 4.2 GHz max boost clock. The top-of-the-line version will use the Core i9-11900H with a 4.9-GHz max boost. None of them uses Intel's overclockable Tiger Lake-H chips. Graphics range from the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 on the intro model and go up to the RTX 3080 with 16GB of VRAM.
| Razer Blade 15 | $2,299 | $2,599 | $2,699 | $2,999 | $3,099 | $3,399 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | 11th Gen Intel Core i7-11800H | 11th Gen Intel Core i7-11800H | 11th Gen Intel Core i7-11800H | 11th Gen Intel Core i7-11800H | 11th Gen Intel Core i7-11800H | 11th Gen Intel Core i9-11900H |
| GPU | Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 (8GB) | Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 (8GB) | Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 (8GB) | Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 (8GB) | Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 (8GB) | Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 (16GB) |
| Display | QHD, 240 Hz | FHD, 360 Hz | QHD, 240 Hz | QHD, 240 Hz | FHD, 360 Hz | 4K, OLED, Touch |
| Storage | 1TB (PCIe) | 1TB (PCIe) with one open M.2 slot | 1TB (PCIe) with one open M.2 slot | 1TB (PCIe) with one open M.2 slot | 1TB (PCIe) with one open M.2 slot | 1TB (PCIe) with one open M.2 slot |
| Memory | 16GB DDR4-3200 | 16GB DDR4-3200 | 16GB DDR4-3200 | 32GB DDR4-3200 | 32GB DDR4-3200 | 32GB DDR4-3200 |
| Battery | 80 WHr | 80 WHr | 80 WHr | 80 WHr | 80 WHr | 80 WHr |
| Networking | Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2 | Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2 | Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2 | Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2 | Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2 | Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2 |
| Webcam | 1080p webcam with IR for Windows Hello | 1080p webcam with IR for Windows Hello | 1080p webcam with IR for Windows Hello | 1080p webcam with IR for Windows Hello | 1080p webcam with IR for Windows Hello | 1080p webcam with IR for Windows Hello |
At 13.98 x 9.25 x 0.67 inches, there's no real change in profile beyond a few fractions of a millimeter of thickness shaved off. Still, Razer claims that the CNC aluminum notebook is the smallest 15-inch gaming laptop with RTX graphics.
There are other technical improvements internally including faster memory clocked at 3,200 MHz and support for PCIe Gen 4 storage (up to 4TB). On models that don't use the RTX 3060, there's a second PCIe slot that lets you stack storage in the laptop's minimal space. Finally, there's a 1080p webcam with IR support for Windows Hello, both of which will be welcome for those using the Blade 15 to work from home.
It's still keeping its Choma keyboard, of course. One might argue it wouldn't be a Razer laptop without it.
Razer has only provided information about the Advanced Model. The company did not make it clear when 11th Gen Core processors may come to the normal Razer Blade 15 or the Studio Edition.
If it's as good as the Blade 15 has historically been, the new version will be worth looking forward to. But there are a lot of gaming laptops with 11th Gen Core and Nvidia RTX being announced today, so it will surely be in a crowded field.
