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00:00Last year, I crowned the new 15-inch Razer Blade as being one of the best gaming laptops
00:09you could get in that premium segment.
00:11And it's been updated this year with some new RTX hardware with other nice features.
00:15Now, older generations of Razer Blades have often had issues with thermals, because the
00:20company is very focused on making their devices really thin and really nice looking, and when
00:24you do that, it just makes it harder to cool these things properly.
00:27So I was worried that this new GPU, like the new RTX GPUs, would run a little bit hotter,
00:33but it actually doesn't.
00:34Even their top-of-the-line 2080 Max-Q runs at acceptable temperatures.
00:37It's clearly not the coolest running laptop on the market, but it doesn't throttle for
00:41what I would consider, like, average gaming.
00:43Now, if you run in, like, a really warm climate, like if you're running in, like, South America
00:47or just places that are just ambiently really warm, then you're probably gonna get different
00:51results from me.
00:52I live in Canada, it's also the winter right now, but thermally, even the 2080 Max-Q, their
00:57hottest running GPU available, runs perfectly fine.
01:01Performance on this GPU is great, it's pushing at incredibly high frame rates, especially
01:04for a thin and light laptop.
01:05Now, when it comes to pricing or just, like, value and, like, bang for your buck, we'll
01:09get into that discussion a little bit, but I don't feel most people should be getting
01:13the top-of-the-line 2080 Max-Q spec.
01:15I'll explain in a little bit.
01:16When it comes to video production, however, the 2080 Max-Q doesn't give much of a performance
01:21increase over the 1070.
01:22As it currently stands, I wouldn't pick up, like, the RTX devices just for video production.
01:27They're definitely more gaming-oriented.
01:29There are a few other differences between the 2019 and the 2018 model.
01:33The 2019 is fractionally thicker, but it's pretty much imperceptible.
01:37Build quality still remains really good, and you can get in a black finish or a silvery-white
01:41finish that they call Mercury.
01:43I much prefer the silvery-white look, partially because it doesn't have that glowing green
01:47logo up front, but if you like the green snakes, you gotta go for the black one.
01:51The webcam up at the top now supports Windows Hello.
01:54It's got an infrared camera, so you can log into your computer with just facial recognition,
01:58which is nice.
01:59The keyboards also had a little bit of a tweak.
02:00So previously, the Razer Chroma lighting did not light up for the secondary function of
02:06the function keys.
02:07So, like, volume control, brightness control, you couldn't see that stuff in the dark.
02:11It was a little bit annoying if you wanted to adjust any of those things in a completely
02:14dark room, but now you can see all of those function keys.
02:17The trackpad remains unchanged.
02:19The shift button on the keyboard also remains unchanged, and I've said this in previous
02:22videos, but if you're new here, the right shift key is in a weird spot relative to the
02:26arrow keys and the question mark key.
02:28Like, I'll sometimes hit shift up instead of shift question mark, but that's just a
02:32personal thing.
02:33I feel like people that know how to type properly don't use the right shift at all, but I'm
02:37just like that.
02:38I'm a bad typer.
02:39Okay, the rest of the device hasn't changed much physically.
02:42The speakers are still pretty good, and the internals still remain the same.
02:45You still have access to the Wi-Fi card, RAM, and the SSD.
02:49The battery also remains unchanged, 80 watt hours, still getting around five and a half
02:53hours of battery life with the screen at 250 nits.
02:56Now, the question that I think is the most important with this particular video is whether
03:01or not you should get the new 2019 Razer Blade.
03:04Now, I did a video recently that told people basically not to buy the RTX gaming laptops
03:10right now, just because I feel like for most of the market, it's just not a good value
03:15compared to the 10 series devices that are available at relatively cheaper prices.
03:20And that same kind of, I guess, message holds true with the Razer Blade, but there's a little
03:25bit of a, I guess, adjustment when it comes to this particular device.
03:29The configurations of the Razer Blade are currently quite expensive, and particularly
03:33the 2080 Max-Q.
03:34That is a model that is their top of the line flagship device, but the RTX 2060 device is
03:39not bad.
03:40At the very least, I think it's the best value of the bunch for most gamers.
03:42And I say this because that 2060 actually has pretty decent performance even compared
03:48to the 2070 Max-Q.
03:49I think for most gamers, and this is just personal opinion, it may just be the games
03:52that I play and the type of gaming that I enjoy, but most people that I know play their
03:56games at lower quality graphics just to maximize frame rates.
04:00Like, it's much more important for me to see my opponents, to see my teammates, and be
04:03able to identify them really quickly on the screen than to see like a beautiful tree in
04:07the background and notice its shadows and light rays and stuff like that.
04:11That's not as important to me.
04:12And I think for most gamers, they're kind of in the same boat.
04:14So if you take that same game and you crank the graphics, it now looks a little bit better.
04:19It's a lot more demanding on your system, but on a 1080p 15-inch screen, it doesn't
04:24look that different to me in terms of the gameplay.
04:26So I feel like in our current market with 1080p screens and games not really taking
04:30massive advantage of RTX ray tracing capabilities, for most people, they shouldn't be picking
04:35up the 2070 and 2080 Max-Q devices for this new Razer Blade.
04:39The 2060 is a solid option if you want to go Razer Blade.
04:42And the last year's model, the 1070 Max-Q, is still a really good pickup.
04:46Oh, one last thing, a note on the screens.
04:49So if you've followed CES earlier this year, Razer kind of showcased two new screen options
04:55that they could potentially bring into these devices.
04:57A 240Hz panel, which is going to be awesome for games, and a OLED panel that's going to
05:02look amazing, like absolutely amazing for content creation.
05:05I have used OLED panels on laptops.
05:07They look magnificent.
05:09The blacks are really inky black because the pixels are off and the colors are really vibrant.
05:13So if you're interested in picking up one of those future screens, like they aren't
05:16available right now, but if you're interested in future screens, the OLED panel is perfect
05:20for content creation, but they're not great for gaming because the refresh on those are
05:25a little bit lower.
05:26The current 144Hz screens, fantastic for gaming, and even for myself that requires a little
05:30bit of color accuracy on my screen, it's good enough for video editing.
05:34So that's basically it, 2019 Razer Blade, solid device, very expensive, but just make
05:38sure you're picking up the right GPU for your needs.
05:41Okay, hope you guys enjoyed this video, thumbs if you liked it, subs if you loved it, see
05:44you guys next time.