Razer Blade Stealth (2020) now has a 120Hz display, more powerful hardware

One of the more exciting aspects of Razer’s popular 13-inch Blade Stealth Ultrabook has been watching it evolve from gamer-esque to a real gaming laptop. That progression culminates today with the brand new early-2020 model of the Blade Stealth, which results in it being the only true 13-inch gaming Ultrabook around.

A higher-wattage processor, latest NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti, and a dazzling 120Hz full HD display make the new Blade Stealth one of the most exciting Ultrabooks on the market. Here are all the changes:

In September 2019 at IFA, Razer showed the new Blade Stealth. Gone was the anemic NVIDIA MX250 graphics chip and in its place a real graphics card with the GeForce 1650.

Unfortunately, two things kept that model from being an actual baller laptop. First, the full HD display was a ho-hum 60Hz panel, which looked great, but frame-capped your games to just 60 frames-per-second (FPS). The other was the processor, which was limited to just 15-watts for the 10th Gen Intel Core i7-1065G7.

Confusing the situation Razer offered a Mercury White model, which had the same Core i7-1065G7 GPU, but it ran at 25-watts, giving some extra CPU punch. But that model lacked the GeForce 1650 graphics card. You really couldn’t have it all.

For 2020, that all changes. Here is what the new Blade Stealth improves upon:

• 120 Hz full HD display
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti (Max-Q Design)
• 25W Intel Core i7-1065G7
• 16GB LPDDR4X at 3733MHz
• Full-sized shift key, smaller top/bottom directional arrow keys

With a slightly improved GTX 1650 Ti graphics card, higher wattage i7 processor, and that 120Hz panel, the Blade Stealth is now a serious gaming laptop. Toss in that faster LPDDR4x (and power-friendly) RAM and improved keyboard design, and there is a lot to like here.

Blade Stealth (early-2020) Full specs

Razer is still offering multiple models of the Blade Stealth for early 2020. The Mercury White starter version with a 60Hz full HD display, i7-1065G7 with Iris Plus graphics, remains the same ($1,299).

The two top-tier models, however, are refreshed, including the 60Hz 4K version with a touch screen.

Due to the more power-hungry processor, the charger jumps from just a 65-watt one to 100-watts, but for gaming, the trade-off is worth it.

Razer also notes that because the Blade Stealth supports Thunderbolt 3 and its existing Core X line of eGPUs you could still push the Blade Stealth higher with a much more powerful desktop graphics processor.

The other notable change is the keyboard. While it is still a single-zone Chroma RGB, Razer has now fixed the key layout. Previous designs had full-sized direction arrow keys, which makes sense, but those keys came at the expense of a halved shift key. That is no longer the case as there is now a full shift key, which typists will appreciate.

Overall, I think this is a noteworthy upgrade. A more powerful CPU, faster GPU, and a 120Hz display all in a 13.3-inch Ultrabook at just three pounds is killer. Combined with Razer’s minimalist design and $1,800 starting price, this laptop should appeal to mid-level gamers who also design a small Ultrabook design.

Price and availability

The early-2020 Razer Blade Stealth 13 will start at $1,799.99 USD / 1,999.99€ MSRP and will be available on April 21st at Razer.com and through select retailers in the United States and Canada.

The Razer Blade Stealth 13 will come soon to Europe, China, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East.