[Hardware]Razer Blade Pro 17 (2020) Review: Premium Looks, Premium Price

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Easy on the eyes, but it needs more storage space.

 

 

Today's best Razer Blade Pro 17 Gaming Laptop 2020 and deals

 

 

The Razer Blade Pro has long been one of the more mature-looking gaming laptops on the market, eschewing heavy RGB and space-age decoration for a minimal look that would be as at home in an office as it would in a basement. 2020’s refresh of the Razer Blade Pro 17 ($2,599 to start, $3,199 as tested) continues the Blade line’s trend of offering sleek visual appeal and a thin form factor, this time adding new CPU and GPU options to the laptop’s specs. Its Intel Core i7-10875H processor and optional Nvidia Geforce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q graphics card give it respectable gaming performance for its small footprint, though it only offers a middling amount of storage unless you pay up for a 4K display. 

 

This time around, there are a few new tricks, including the 300 Hz screen we’ve started to see on some of the best gaming laptops, as well as a redesigned keyboard with a more sensible layout. However, unless you buy the top-of-the-line model, you're stuck with only 512GB of storage (unless you upgrade).

 

Razer Blade Pro 17 (2020) Specs

 

 

Design of Razer Blade Pro 17

 

 

The Razer Blade Pro 17 maintains the sleek, professional look of the Blade line of laptops, with the only features visually distinguishing it from most thin and lights being the green detailing on the USB ports and the green triple snake logo on the back. Aside from these features, the Blade Pro comes encased in an otherwise blank matte black metal case that feels sturdy to the touch. The laptop’s fans are relegated entirely to its underside.

 

Opening the Razer Blade Pro 17 preserves its minimal aesthetic. There’s little decoration to speak of here, with the stereo speakers and full per-key RGB keyboard being the only deviations from an otherwise obelisk-like appearance. To keep up this aesthetic, the computer’s power button is even hidden among the right speaker grills. This year’s Blade Pro 17 does feature a redesigned hinge with vents pumping out air just beneath the screen, but even this doesn’t intrude on the design, as the vents aren’t in view when using the laptop.

 

The Razer Blade Pro 17's ports are spread evenly across the laptop’s left and right sides. The left side has two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type A ports, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type C port, RJ-45 Ethernet  and a 3.5mm combination headphone and microphone jack. It also plays home to the charging connection. 

The right side, then, houses an additional USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type A port, Thunderbolt 3, one HDMI 2.0B port and a UHS-III SD card reader. It’s also got a slot for a Kensington laptop lock.

 

Razer advertises the Blade Pro 17 as an ultraportable, thanks to its 15.6 x 10.2 x 0.8 inch dimensions. That makes it much smaller than other powerful gaming machines like the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 G732, which comes in at a thicker 15.7 x 11.05 x 1 inches, and the Alienware m17 R3, which is 15.7 x 11.6 x 0.9 inches. Still, it has strong competition from other thin laptops like the MSI GS66 Stealth, which has an even smaller 14.2 x 9.7 x 0.7 inch footprint, though that’s a 15-inch laptop.

 

 

Gaming Performance of Razer Blade Pro 17

The Razer Blade Pro 17 unit we reviewed makes a few compromises to its power to earn its thin size, but still comes in strong enough to compete with other dedicated premium gaming laptops. That’s thanks to its Intel core i7-10875H processor (which is the same across all configurations, see below) and its Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q GPU. It’s also got 16GB of DDR4 RAM and a single 512GB M.2 SSD, which seems paltry given the price.

 

An RTX GPU means ray tracing support, so I started my testing on the Blade Pro by playing Control on high settings at 1080p for about a half hour. Without ray tracing on, I maintained a pretty steady 80 fps regardless of the level of activity on screen. Turning the high ray tracing preset on lowered this to a range of 40 - 50 fps depending on how many effects were present on screen.

 

Moving on to benchmarks, the Razer Blade Pro 17 generally landed around the middle of the pack when put up against other gaming machines. This meant its performance stats were usually lower than the thicker Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 G732 and Alienware M17 R3 gaming laptops, both of which pack a Core i9-10980HK processor, a full-size RTX 2080 Super GPU and 32GB of DDR4 memory. Still, the Pro did tend to beat MSI GS66 Stealth, another slim computer that uses a Core i7-10750H CPU, an RTX 2080 Super Max-Q GPU and 32GB of DDR4 RAM.