
Review: Razer Blade Pro 17 (2020) stuns in all the right ways
Source: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central
As bezels and chassis continue to shrink, it only makes sense to see 17-inch laptops come back into popularity. After all, most are now roughly the size of yesteryear’s 15-inch gaming machines. While the Razer Blade Pro 17 is not new – Razer’s been making it for years – the refreshed version for 2020 sets the bar for a premium gaming mobile desktop.
Starting at $2,600, the Blade Pro 17 is by no means cheap, but if you can only have one PC (for desktop and travel), this should be it.
Replace your desktop
Razer Blade Pro 17
Pros
- 4K 120Hz is living the dream
- Outstanding performance for a laptop
- Excellent audio
- Windows Hello IR
- Plenty of ports
Cons
- Super expensive
- Heavy
- 300Hz display is a bit gimmicky
- No Xbox Wireless support
At a glance
Razer Blade Pro 17 design and features
For graphics and CPU, Razer is offering up to an NVIDIA RTX 2080 Super (Max-Q) and a powerful, eight-core Intel Core i7-108750H (Turbo Boost to 5.1GHz). Sorry, fans of AMD, not this year. RAM can go up to 64GB DDR4, which is typical these days, and up to 2TB of PCIe SSD can be configured for storage. If that’s still not enough, there’s a second PCIe/SATA slot to add another drive.
Although Razer has been using this refreshed chassis since April 2019, it’s a great choice. The very blocky design is perfectly symmetrical and minimalist to the extreme. Some will say Razer still borrows a lot from Apple, but that’s not a bad thing.
Category | Specification |
---|---|
Processor | Intel Core i7-108750H (Turbo Boost to 5.1GHz) |
Display | 17.3-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) at 300Hz, 100% sRGB 17.3 4K (3840 x 2160) TFT touch display at 120Hz, 100% Adobe RGB |
Storage | 512GB to 2TB PCIe SSD Open M.2 Slot (PCIe, SATA) |
RAM | 16GB (8GB x2) dual-channel DDR4 Upgradable to 64GB with Intel XMP Support |
GPU | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q |
Keyboard | Anti-ghosting, per-key RGB Chroma keyboard |
OS | Windows 10 Home 64-bit |
Networking | Intel AX201 (Wi-Fi 6) Bluetooth 5.0 |
Ports | 3x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C (shared with TB3) 1x Thunderbolt 3 RJ45 Ethernet (2.5Gb) One power port One HDMI 2.0b One UHS-III SD Card reader |
Audio | Built-in stereo speakers Dolby Atmos 7.1 Codec support (via HDMI) 3.5mm headphone/microphone port Array microphone |
Webcam | HD webcam 720P with Windows Hell IR |
Battery | 70.5 WHr lithium polymer battery Compact 230W Power Adapter |
Weight | 6.06 lbs (2.75 kg) |
Dimensions | 19.9 mm (H) / 395 mm (W) / 260mm (D) 0.78 in x 15.55 in x 10.24 in |
Finish | Anodized Matte Black |
Price | $2,600 $3,200 $3,800 |
Availability | Now |
Simply gorgeous
Razer Blade Pro 17 display and camera
Razer promises factory calibration for its display now, and I am happy to report it’s not just hype. Color accuracy came in at 100 percent AdobeRGB, 100 percent sRGB, and 95 percent DCI-P3 – exceptional for a gaming PC.
Brightness is also particularly good, peaking at 434 nits at the maximum setting and 22 nits at zero percent. Of course, I will suggest to Razer what I do for all companies who are not Dell these days and recommend they add an anti-reflective coating, which retains the vibrancy and minimizes light glare.
There is some good news, however, as Razer is now using infra-red facial recognition with Windows Hello for fast, seamless logins to Windows 10 without needing a password. Razer was slow to adopt bio-authentication technology, but its solution here is excellent.
Let’s type
Razer Blade Pro 17 keyboard and trackpad
Typing is on the shallow end, which is surprising considering the size, but it’s quite good and reliable whether playing a game or writing a term paper. The keycaps are on the smaller size, however, and with all the space on this deck and key spacing, I would not mind seeing Razer make the keys a bit larger.
All the sound
Razer Blade Pro 17 audio
Volume at just 50 percent hits 72 dBA, which is just below that of playing a live piano. Of course, being a 17-inch laptop, you hope that Razer would stick in quality speakers that can reach such heights, and I am glad it has delivered.
Of course, hardcore gamers may prefer to use higher precision gaming headphones, and there is a 3.5mm headphone jack for that purpose (or plenty of Type-A ports for digital connections).
bring the power
Razer Blade Pro 17 power and performance
The Blade Pro 17 does very well in overall performance with the i7-108750H getting similar results to the Dell XPS 15 (9500) on Geekbench.
More sustained and demanding tasks like 3DMark Night Raid the Blade Pro 17 yielded a respectable 42,699 placing it just below a full gaming desktop PC for 2020 (49,855). On Fire Strike, the Blade Pro 17 pulled in 18,070, and 8,209 on Time Spy (the thermally constrained XPS 15 could only eke out 3,936 for comparison).
3DMark
Fire Strike (Higher is better)
Laptop | GPU | Score |
---|---|---|
Razer Blade Pro 17 | RTX 2080 SUPER Max-Q | 18,070 |
MSI GS66 Stealth | RTX 2080 SUPER Max-Q | 17,260 |
Maingear Vector | GTX 1660 Ti | 14,052 |
Lenovo Legion Y740 15 | RTX 2070 Max-Q | 14,669 |
Lenovo Legion Y740 17 | RTX 2080 Max-Q | 16,303 |
Dell XPS 15 (7590) | GTX 1650 Max-Q | 7,763 |
Lenovo Legion Y730 | GTX 1050 Ti | 6,890 |
Lenovo Legion Y7000 | GTX 1060 | 10,137 |
Razer Blade 15 | GTX 1070 | 13,560 |
Acer Predator Triton 700 | GTX 1080 | 14,572 |
HP Omen 15 | GTX 1060 | 8,722 |
PCMark
PCMark 10
Device | Score |
---|---|
Razer Blade Pro 17 i7 | 6,587 |
Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i 15 | 4,757 |
Lenovo Legion 5i 15 | 5,118 |
ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 | 5,707 |
Acer Spin 3 (SP314-54N) | 3,674 |
HP ENVY x360 | 4,755 |
Acer Swift 3 | 4,861 |
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 14 | 4,759 |
Surface Laptop 3 15 (AMD) | 4,006 |
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 14 | 3,202 |
Surface Book 3 15 | 4,393 |
Samsung Galaxy Book Flex | 3,924 |
Dell XPS 13 (9300) | 4,524 |
Surface Laptop 3 15 (Intel) | 4,604 |
Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 | 4,554 |
Surface Pro 7 (i5) | 3,992 |
Geekbench 5
Geekbench 5.0 (CPU) (Higher is better)
Device | CPU | Single core | Multi core |
---|---|---|---|
Razer Blade Pro 17 | i7-10750H | 1,314 | 6,164 |
Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i 15 | i7-10750H | 1,271 | 5,172 |
Lenovo Legion 5i 15 | i7-10750H | 1,226 | 5,993 |
ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 | Ryzen 9 4900HS | 1,221 | 7,982 |
Acer Spin 3 (SP314-54N) | i5-1035G1 | 1,185 | 3,524 |
HP ENVY x360 | Ryzen 5 4500U | 1,100 | 4,564 |
Acer Swift 3 | Ryzen 7 4700U | 1,131 | 4,860 |
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 14 | Ryzen 5 4500U | 1,087 | 4,570 |
Surface Laptop 3 15 | Ryzen 5 3580U | 769 | 2,720 |
Lenovo ThinkPad L13 Yoga | i5-10210U | 1,069 | 3,754 |
Lenovo Yoga C640 | i3-10110U | 1,015 | 2,111 |
Lenovo Yoga C740 14 | i5-10210U | 1,094 | 3,767 |
Samsung Galaxy Book Flex | i7-1065G7 | 1,317 | 4,780 |
Dell XPS 13 (9300) | i7-1065G7 | 1,284 | 4,848 |
Surface Laptop 3 15 | i7-1065G7 | 1,336 | 4,893 |
HP Elite Dragonfly | i7-8665U | 1,125 | 2,942 |
Surface Laptop 3 13.5 | i5-1035G7 | 1,177 | 4,413 |
HP Spectre x360 13 | i7-1065G7 | 1,006 | 3,402 |
Surface Pro X | SQ1 | 725 | 2,819 |
Galaxy Book S | SD 8cx | 685 | 2,681 |
SSD
CrystalDiskMark (Higher is better)
Device | Read | Write |
---|---|---|
Razer Blade Pro 17 | 3,023 MB/s | 2,375 MB/s |
MSI GS66 Stealth | 3,247 MB/s | 2,711 MB/s |
Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i 15 | 2,170.35 MB/s | 1,082.21 MB/s |
Lenovo Legion 5i 15 | 3,308 MB/s | 2,960 MB/s |
ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 | 1,907 MB/s | 1,751 MB/s |
Acer Spin 3 (SP314-54N) | 1,630 MB/s | 885 MB/s |
HP ENVY x360 | 1,530 MB/s | 864 MB/s |
Acer Swift 3 | 2,161.99 MB/s | 1,214.84 MB/s |
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 14 | 2,199.10 MB/s | 1,017.07 MB/s |
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 14 | 3,405 MB/s | 1,512 MB/s |
Lenovo ThinkPad L13 Yoga | 3,188.82 MB/s | 1,685.61 MB/s |
Lenovo Yoga C640 | 1,906.78 MB/s | 970.69 MB/s |
Samsung Galaxy Book Flex | 3,376 MB/s | 2,983 MB/s |
Dell XPS 13 (9300) | 3,000 MB/s | 1,217 MB/s |
HP Spectre x360 (Optane) | 2,092 MB/s | 515 MB/s |
Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 | 2,400 MB/s | 1,228 MB/s |
HP Elite Dragonfly (Optane) | 2,124 MB/s | 548 MB/s |
Lenovo Yoga C740 | 3,408 MB/s | 2,982 MB/s |
LG gram 17 (2020) | 3,477 MB/s | 2,900 MB/s |
Surface Laptop 3 15 | 2,028 MB/s | 806 MB/s |
Surface Laptop 3 13.5 | 2,338 MB/s | 1,583 MB/s |
Acer Swift 5 (SF514-54T) | 1,641 MB/s | 1,025 MB/s |
Cinebench
Cinebench (R20) (Higher is better)
Device | CPU | Range |
---|---|---|
Razer Blade Pro 17 | Core i7-10750H | 2,623 to 2,681 |
Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i 15 | Core i7-10750H | 2,771 to 2,818 |
Lenovo Legion 5i 15 | Core i7-10750H | 2,736 to 2,826 |
ASUS ROG ZEPHYRUS G14 | Ryzen 4900HS | 4,197 to 4,390 |
Dell XPS 15 (7590) | Core i9-9980HK | 3,174 to 3,283 |
HP ENVY 32 AIO | Core i7-9700 | 2,906 to 3,073 |
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme (Gen 2) | Core i7-9850H | 1,730 to 2,495 |
Dynabook Portégé X30-F | Core i7-8665U | 1,242 to 1,313 |
Lenovo ThinkPad P53 | Xeon E-2276M | 2,686 to 2,701 |
Surface Laptop 3 13.5 | Core i5-1035G4 | 1,584 to 1,606 |
Surface Laptop 3 15 | Core i7-1065G7 | 1,703 to 1,745 |
Running Cinebench multiple times in a row can show whether or not a laptop’s CPU is going to suffer from thermal throttling. Not much of a performance dip at all for multiple runs.
The 1TB SSD also delivers excellent results with 3,023 MB/s sequential read and 2,375 MB/s write, matching current high-end laptops in this class. Those speeds are necessary to lessen any bottlenecks while gaming. Users can also add in a second SSD should they wish to expand storage abilities.
Turning to some real-world gaming with that 4K 120Hz display and the Blade Pro 17 holds up quite well. On Doom: Eternal and Destiny 2, you can undoubtedly game at full 4K on high graphics settings while doing around 70 to 90 frames-per-second (FPS) depending on the scene. If you want the full glory of 120 FPS, merely dropping to a 2K resolution will get you that and be consistent too. It’s a sight to behold especially at 17 inches. Of course, you’ll want the Blade Pro 17 plugged in for this task.
Finally, I don’t want to harp on battery too much here. The 70WHr is actually on the small size considering the size and weight of this PC. If you’re going to use this as a mobile computer for web and email, you’re looking at five hours. If you want to game, knock that down to two hours, depending on how you configure the processor usage. Something like the Dell XPS 17 is a better “on the move” 17-inch laptop, unlike the Blade Pro 17, which is meant to be utilized plugged in and at a desk.
Premium Pick
Should you buy the Razer Blade Pro 17?
Who it’s for
- Those who want serious, premium gaming in a stunning laptop
- Those with money to buy the best
- Gamers who also may edit video (or vice versa)
- Those who need a portable desktop replacement
Who it isn’t for
- Those on a budget
- Those who prioritize portability over performance
- Those who need just a secondary laptop
The Blade Pro 17 is a stunning achievement. I feel this way about most 17-inch laptops in 2020 as they are effectively yesteryear’s 15-inch workstations. If you were OK with a six-pound notebook back in 2014, then the Blade Pro 17 is all of that plus outstanding performance and a stunning display. Sitting behind a 17-inch 120Hz screen to the game is significantly better than 15-inch, and given a choice, I go with a 17-inch model all the time.
Independent of this review, our game’s editor Jez Corden bought the 300Hz full HD edition. He is blown away by it, call it a “beast,” and considers it a worthy upgrade from his Blade 15 from 2019. Corden is also planning to use it 95-percent of the time at home in the UK but bringing it with him when he visits Germany. He is getting near-desktop PC performance, but it all can go with him by closing the lid. This choice makes more sense than an eGPU and Blade 15, as taking an eGPU with you on a flight is a weighty pain.
While the 300Hz full HD display is the more affordable option beginning at $2,400, I genuinely believe the 4K 120Hz model ($3,600) is a more exciting purchase. Compared to the $2,400 starter price, the extra $1,200 gets you a 4K 120Hz touch screen, RTX 2080 Super (up from RTX 2070), and double the storage at 1TB. I find 300Hz displays a bit gimmicky, but if that is what you can fit in your budget and are OK with full HD, then you’ll be fine. There’s no real downside to a 300Hz display; it’s just not something I often see being utilized.
There are not many 17-inch laptops to choose from, especially the premium-tier made for gaming. In that sense, the Blade Pro 17 is an easy recommendation. It’s expensive and massive, but it also does what it sets out to do and does with style. Any gamer or video editor would appreciate what the Blade Pro 17 brings to the table – literally. For those who are less about gaming and more about professional work, Dell’s XPS 17 is a worthy alternative. While not as powerful, it puts productivity first with longer battery life, better speakers, and a lower price ($1,400 starting).
Overall, Blade Pro 17 is a significant milestone. It combines nearly all the best there is right now in the laptop space into one portable machine. While there are some minor drawbacks like the web camera or just sheer volume of the device and charger, it’s an excellent option for a gaming-focused desktop replacement.
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