Introduction, specifications and prices
With each new generation of CPU, the Razer Blade is a laptop that we can not wait to implement, as it is a benchmark for the gaming laptop market.
This year, we have a few more new features for the Blade 15, the big upgrade that comes from DDR5 memory and Alder Lake CPUs, but these new platforms also include high-upgrade panels with OLED technology.
Specifications
Our sample Blade 15 Adv is the top central unit. It retails for $ 2,999, while consumers can go for a high-end or lower-end SKU if they want. We are working with the Core i7-12800H, a 6P8E design, with a total of 20 threads and hyper-threading enabled. DDR5 is paired with this new platform, our unit has 16GB of 4800 MHz installed and storage is 1 TB for all available platforms.
The additional specification includes a 15 “240Hz 1440p 100% color DCI-P3 panel compatible with NVIDIA GSync, and with this support GSync comes the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti portable GPU with 8 GB of GDDR6. I / O includes the newest Wi-Fi Killer AX1690, Intel 2×2 solution that supports Double Connect We also have standard USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, five in total, two USB-C that support 15W power along with a single Thunderbolt 4 port.
The Razer Blade 15 Advanced warranty has one year for the laptop and two years for the battery.
Overview of the notebook
Overview of Razer Blade 15 Adv (2022).
SEE GALLERY – 33 IMAGES
The packaging of the Blade is kept with the iconic snake theme.
The Blade itself has a dual box, the second box houses the laptop with the separate power adapter.
The power adapter is a 230 w unit that offers 19.5 to 11.8 amps.
When you open the box, the blade is firmly packed by a retainer. The top of the notebook houses the famous Razer logo.
Taking the blade out of the box, we have a 15-inch platform with what looks like a soft aluminum exterior finish.
The bottom offers two vents for the cooling fans to supply air along with a few more below. We have four rubber feet to plant the Blade on your desk and prevent it from slipping.
Entering the ports, the left side houses the power input along with two USB 3.2 ports, Thunderbolt 4 with Type C and the 3.5mm headphone jack.
On the right side, things are similar, although an HDMI port starts things up and USB 3.2 and Thunderbolt ports end things up.
With the laptop open, the keyboard is embedded in the chassis, while the trackpad with its glass-like finish occupies a good amount of real estate and is centered on the chassis.
When we open the Blade, we have access to the memory right in front of us, the battery occupies most of the lower half of the chassis. Wi-Fi is off on the left and m.2 storage on the right. Upstairs, we have two good-sized cooling batteries that are mixed with a heat pipe.
In this image, we take a good look at the Blades lighting, by key on the keyboard itself.
BIOS / UEFI and software
UEFI
The BIOS of this Blade is very simple, with five tabs at the top. The first menu is the main menu that gives information about the laptop hardware. Advanced allows you to configure the CPU and power settings. In addition, you can also manage Thunderbolt and NVMe storage here.
The chipset menu allows Intel VMD for those who want to run multiple drives in RAID or switch GPU mode only between dynamic and discrete.
Software
The software included is Synapse 3.0.
Synapse customization options include support for game mode, fn, and media keys, along with the ability to turn off lighting and effects.
Performance modes include balanced and customized for fans. GPU mode can then be switched between Optimus and dedicated GPU mode.
Chroma Studio is software that lets you customize keyboard key lighting and additional accessories. In our case, we also have a mouse configuration.
System / CPU benchmarks
Cinebench
Cinebench is a long-standing rendering benchmark that Intel and AMD have relied heavily on to highlight their newest platforms during presentations. The benchmark has two tests, a single-core workload that will use a thread or 1Q. There is also a multi-threaded test that uses all the threads or nT of a tested CPU
With the Blade 15 Adv just our second laptop, our field of comparison is the MSI Raider we reviewed in January and last year’s Blade 15 Adv. In a single thread, the Blade 15 took 1800 points, about 350 compared to last year’s model. Multiple threads, we saw 9839 of the Blade 15.
AIDA64 memory
Memory bandwidth increases considerably with the move to DDR5, with the new Blade grabbing 57K read, 58K write and 52K copy.
BAPCo CrossMark
CrossMark ™ is an easy-to-run native cross-platform benchmark that measures overall system performance and system responsiveness using real-world application models. CrossMark ™ supports devices with Windows, iOS and macOS platforms.
CrossMark showed a decent increase in performance over last year’s Blade 15 Adv. We got 1578 on this stage, which was a little over 100 points better.
UL Procyon
With Procyon, our only comparison is the MSI, as we weren’t testing with this benchmark when the Blade 2021 was at home. That said, the 12800H didn’t lag behind, with 7475 in Photo, 5435 in Video, and 6979 in Office.
Graphics, system I / O, battery and games
System I / O performance
3DMark
The CPU profile showed similar performance among the 11th and 12th generation H series CPUs. The 12800H is about 1000 points better at the maximum thread than the 11th generation and a single thread about 15 points better.
Timespy again showed better performance. In general, the score difference is one touch more than 1100 points.
With 3DMark storage, we see a pretty impressive difference in the drives that include these laptops. The Blade enjoys the Samsung units that gave us a 504 score.
Battery life, while not a big deal for a laptop that will be on the network for most of its life, did see decent numbers, including 83 minutes of play and 286 minutes of work. of office.
Finally, we have our game test with Cyberpunk 2077, high configuration. At 1440p, the Blade 15 produced 52.7 FPS. If we move the system to 1080p, we see a small increase to 76.5 FPS.
Thermal and final reflections
Thermal
With our Seek thermal camera, we got some good images of the Blade 15 Adv during testing. This showed a definite hot spot in the fold, with maximum temperatures around 48 ºC. You can also see two cold areas on the keyboard where the fans draw air.
Final thoughts
With the new Blade 15 Advanced 2022 using the same chassis as last year’s platform, build quality remains excellent with an all-metal chassis design. Added to this is a soft matte black chassis design and a large touchpad with a glass surface. Finally, we have RGB per key to dress the notebook with Chroma Studio, and the Razer logo on the cover also lights up.
Year after year, an increase in performance should be noted. With the Blade 15 Adv, we consumed a jump of 400 points in single-thread operations in R23 and 1500 points in multifilaments. Memory had a considerable increase with the move to DDR5. Overall, we saw about 13,000 MB / s more memory bandwidth on the 12th generation platform.
CrossMark showed a considerable increase, 100 points more than last year, and as we dived into Procyon, we saw solid top-down performance. The CPU profile showed gains from a single 16-wire, the new Blade 15 Adv pulled out about 100 16-wire points. The storage performance was fantastic. Since Samsung is the preferred drive, we got 504 MB / s and testing with 3DMark Storage Benchmark.
Synapse worked very well during our testing of the Blade 15 Adv and provided us with a solid software platform to manage the Blade during testing. We were able to customize the keystroke lighting along with our mouse in Chrome Studio and even adjust the laptop on the fly for our gaming scenarios.
Overall, I find this to be a well-built platform with extensive external connectivity, keeping an upgrade path open through the use of connected memory and PCIe 4.0 storage.