15/06/2017
Razer grows up with the updated Razer Blade Stealth
Razer has been making great laptops for a while with its Blade line. But whether you’re looking at the more portable Razer Blade Stealth or hefty Razer Blade Pro, Razer’s computers all share a similar flaw: the neon green accents, rainbow LED lights, and giant glowing snake logo. While the hardware may match up to other high-end laptops, the Blade line tends to look like a toy compared to offerings from Apple, Microsoft, or Dell.
"Razer is giving the Blade Stealth a more professional look"
But at E3 this year, Razer is announcing an updated version of the Blade Stealth that not only fixes the problem of presentability, but also almost every other issue that plagued Razer’s smallest laptop.
The most obvious change to the new Blade Stealth is both the least and most important: Razer is giving the range a new, more professional look. The gunmetal gray variant ditches the glowing Razer logo for a more subtle two-tone one, and swaps the rainbow backlight keys for regular white ones. Razer says that the gunmetal version is specifically designed for customers who want a more professional look from their computers, and, having been able to see a pre-production model of the new color in person, it certainly looks more suited to a work setting than Razer’s original version.
But Razer is also upgrading the Blade Stealth on the hardware front, too. The Blade Stealth now comes in two screen configurations: a full 4K 12-inch panel, which Razer had previously offered, and a new 3200 x 1800, 13.3-inch display that cuts the large bezels in half while keeping the rest of the body of the laptop the same size. The trackpad, which was a particular pain point on the earlier models, has finally been replaced with a Windows Precision Trackpad, which should make the experience of using it better. And Razer is boosting the RAM as well — the Blade Stealth now offers 16GB as standard, instead of only on the top configuration.
The 13.3-inch model starts at $1,399 for a 256GB model and tops out at $1,999 for a 1TB version, while the 12-inch, 4K version offers a choice between a $1,599 computer with 512GB of storage and a 1TB version at $1,999. All models of the updated Stealth offer a seventh-generation Intel Core i7 7500U processor clocked at 2.7GHz, and feature integrated Intel HD Graphics 620.
Between the new hardware that addresses most, if not all of the pain points of the previous model, and a new design that acknowledges that people may want to use Razer’s laptops in a professional setting, the updated Blade Stealth is a good sign from Razer that it’s finally growing up.
The updated Razer Blade Stealth will be available in the standard black color scheme in both the 12-inch and 13.3-inch models on June 14th, with the gunmetal variants arriving later this summer.
