Razer's new MacBook Pro slayer has no gimmicky Touch Bar
Razer, the company behind that crazy triple-screen laptop concept, will not stop until all other PC makers are its dust.
At this year's E3 gaming expo, Razer refreshed its littlest laptop, the Blade Stealth, with the latest specs, and announced a new, toned down version with a larger screen (but the same dimensions) that ditches the brand's neon green.
Is Razer finally growing up and shedding its gamer badge? Heck no. But at least you'll be able to take your Stealth Blade to class or a meeting without looking like a total douchebag.
The Blade Stealth wowed us immediately with its stealthy compact aluminum design, 12-inch 4K-resolution IGZO touchscreen, solid Chroma-glowing keyboard and trackpad, and myriad ports.
It wasn't much of a gaming laptop, but if you bolted on the Razer Core external GPU enclosure, you could definitely get desktop-class gaming performance out of it.
The new Blade Stealth has all of the things that made the original great, but now it's got the latest seventh-generation Intel Core i7-7500U processors, better Intel HD Graphics 620, 16GB of RAM, up to 1TB of PCie SSD storage, and up to nine hours of battery life. All these specs will also hit your wallet kinda hard; a 512GB machine costs $1,599 and a 1TB $1,999.
If the 12.5-inch Blade Stealth screen's a little too cramped for your liking, you might want to consider the more affordable 13.3-inch Blade Stealth, which starts at $1,399. It's got a larger screen, but the body's the exact same size as the 12.5-inch model, thanks to its slimmer bezels.
The 13.3-inch Blade Stealth has the same processor, RAM, and graphics as its smaller-sized brother, but it comes with one big difference: screen resolution. Whereas the 12.5-inch has a 3,840 x 2,160 (4K) touchscreen, the 13.3-inch only has a 3,200 x 1,800 (QHD+) touchscreen. Will you see much of a difference? Not at all.
The larger-screened laptop also comes in two colors: black and gunmetal.
Black comes with your standard Chroma-lit keyboard capable of glowing in 16.8 million colors per key, glowing green triple-headed snake logo, and green-colored USB ports.
Gunmetal, however, is boardroom and classroom-ready. The backlit keyboard only lights up in white, the Razer logo on the lid is a more subtle polished gray, and the USB ports are standard silver.
Some might find the gunmetal version dull (if you're buying a Razer laptop, you're not afraid to shout from rooftops you drink the green glow), but I personally prefer it over the standard black and green version. It's too bad about the keyboard, though. I really wish it still had the Chroma keyboard.
I've only had a few days to poke around with a pre-production gunmetal version, and so far it's been pretty speedy.
You just don't realize how convenient it is to have full-sized USB and HDMI ports on your laptop until you've used laptops, like the new MacBook Pro, that don't have them. That said, it's also great to see a Thunderbolt USB-C port on the Blade Stealth, so you still get the best of both worlds.
Based on first impressions, I'd say the new 13.3-inch Blade Stealth is a better buy than the 12.5-inch version. The larger screen, despite its lower resolution, is roomier than the 12.5 despite having the same dimensions, and you get the same performance. Plus, no gimmicky Touch Bars.
Topics Windows
Raymond Wong is Mashable's Senior Tech Correspondent. He reviews gadgets and tech toys and analyzes the tech industry. Raymond's also a bit of a camera geek, gamer, and fine chocolate lover. Before arriving at Mashable, he was the Deputy Editor of NBC Universal's tech publication DVICE. His writing has appeared on G4TV, BGR, Yahoo and Ubergizmo, to name a few. You can follow Raymond on Twitter @raywongy or Instagram @sourlemons.
