Razer Cuts Cost Of Blade Pro With New 1080p Display, GTX 1060 Configuration

Razer announced that its Blade Pro gaming laptop would now come in a new configuration with a 1080p display, a GeForce GTX 1060 GPU, and a lower price than the previously available decked out version of the device.

The new configuration of the Razer Blade Pro is identical in appearance to the Blade Pro that we know and love, with a 17.3” display and a sleek black chassis emblazoned with the company logo. It even sports the same processor, an Intel Core i7-7820HK. However, Razer made the new Blade Pro more on the conservative side, making several changes to the components, both the visible ones and those found under the hood.

Most notably, the display has been changed to a 1920 x 1080 120Hz panel, whereas the original Blade Pro features a 4K IGZO screen. Razer also cut the memory down to 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4-SODIMM memory (originally 32GB), moved to a single 256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD (previously configured, at minimum, with two 256GB SSDs in RAID 0 for a 512GB volume), and backed off the graphics horsepower (previously a GTX 1080) with a GTX 1060 6GB GPU. You can still get to 32GB of memory with the slotted SODIMM RAM by upgrading on your own, but there is only one M.2 interface in this version of the Blade Pro, so RAID 0 SSDs is out. However, the new Blade Pro retained the same amount of 2.5” drive bays; one occupied with a 2TB HDD and the other remaining open for an upgrade down the line.

There are also less-obvious changes to the new configuration of the Blade Pro that make the 17” Razer gaming laptop more affordable, including changes to the keyboard, power adapter, and battery. The new version’s keyboard has the same layout (and unorthodox touchpad placement) as its predecessor, but it features scissor-switch keys instead of low-profile mechanical switches. However, it still has LED backlighting controlled by Chroma, Razer’s RGB control software.

The power adapter is also smaller and less powerful than the beefier version of the Blade Pro, with a 165W adapter instead of the larger version’s huge 260W block. The battery of the new GTX 1060-equipped Blade Pro (70WH) also comes in slightly less powerful than its GTX 1080-equipped counterpart, which features a 99WH battery. However, the less juicy (is that an appropriate term?) power adapter and battery shouldn’t affect your unplugged runtime, with Razer claiming that it achieves roughly the same battery life as its GTX 1080 brethren.

Connectivity remains the same, with three USB 3.0 ports, an SD card reader, and an HDMI 2.0 port for display output. There’s also a USB 3.1 (Gen 2) Type-C port capable of 40 Gb/s data rates with Thunderbolt 3, and the interface is officially certified for the Razer Core. Previously the Blade Pro wasn’t advertised as being compatible with the external graphics amplifier (even though it was) due to the fact there was a GTX 1080 under the hood. However, with a GTX 1060 driving the display of the new version, the possibility of better GPU horsepower exists if you want something even more powerful while parked at a desk.

As a result of the slimmed-down component set, the new Razer Blade Pro weighs about a pound less than its predecessor, checking in at 6.78 lbs. Despite the drop in weight, the profile still measures in at 0.88".

All of these major hardware changes undoubtedly play a role to the lower price tag, and a new, less-powerful version of the 17” laptop is appealing to those who liked the original Blade Pro’s size, but couldn’t quite swing the $3,999 for the original premium configuration. With the new version, graphics performance, memory and storage capacities, display resolution, power ceilings, and the keyboard are tuned down in order to offer the Blade Pro at a more reasonable $2,299. We should see the new configuration hit the Razerstore sometime during Q3 of this year.