Hardware and peripheral maker Razer have made a name for themselves in the gaming PC market in the last decade, giving competitors like Alienware a run for money with high-end hardware and sleek exterior design. Another year means a product refresh and the 2018 Razer Blade is here. At 15.6″ and 0.66″, it’s Razer’s thinnest 15-incher yet, but don’t its small stature fool you into thinking they’ve had to skimp on specs.
So let me just blast you with all the dot-pointed specs from the press release and then we’ll talk about why its pretty dope on paper.
- 8th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-8750H Processor (6 Cores/12 Threads, 2.2 GHz/4.1 GHz)
- 15.6-inch IPS Full HD (1920 x 1080) matte up to 144Hz, individually color calibrated
- 15.6-inch IPS 4K (3840 x 2160) capacitive multi-touch, individually color calibrated
- NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 Max-Q Design
- NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1070 Max-Q Design
- 16GB Dual-Channel system memory (DDR4, 2667MHz), 32GB maximum support
- Up to 512GB PCIe SSD, 2TB maximum support
- Built-in 80 Wh rechargeable lithium-ion polymer battery, NVIDIA® Optimus™ support
- [GeForce GTX 1060] 0.66 in. / 16.8 mm (Height) x 14 in. / 355 mm (Width) x 9.3 in. / 235 mm (Depth)
- [GeForce GTX 1070] 0.68 in. / 17.3 mm (Height) x 14 in. / 355 mm (Width) x 9.3 in. / 235 mm (Depth)
- [Full HD] approx. 4.56 lbs. / 2.07 kg
- [4K] approx. 4.73 lbs. / 2.15 kg
Alright so if you’re a PC geek, chances are you’re looking at those specs and giving it a bit of the old Not Bad face. From the 8th gen i7 processor to the Nvidia GTX 1060 graphics card, this is a pretty ridiculous machine. Honestly, its packing specs most people aim for in a gaming desktop or streaming rig, and that’s not a co-incidence. It’ll even output to 144hz if you go for the matte screen or 4K if you go for the touch screen. There’s plenty of upgradable componentry too — the hard drive is upgradable up to 2TB, you can upgrade the graphics card to a GTX 1070 if you wish.
Along with the chassis changes, the Blade has had a rethink in its approach to heat dispersal with heat sinks throughout the undercarriage. You can also connect it to the Razer Core X for a major graphics boost, turning your laptop into something approaching a modular desktop.
For those looking to pick up the new Razer Blade, you’ll want to start saving your pennies because they aren’t typically super cheap. That said, we don’t have confirmed Australian pricing at the time of writing so Razer may yet surprise us. We’re sure Razer will be making an announcement around that any day now.
What’s also TBD is a local street date. While multiple regions around the world will have stock available for purchase by the time you read this, Australians are going to be waiting a little longer. If we had to guess, we’d imagine Razer AU will be racing to get these machines on shelves before the end of financial year so keep your ear to the ground.
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