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Transcript
00:00Hey, how's it going, Dave2D here, and this is the 13-inch Razer Blade Stealth, and this
00:07is kind of exciting for a lot of people that know about this product because when it launched,
00:11it was a great product, but those bezels were extra thick, and I guess Razer listened, so
00:16now we have this.
00:18It has the same external dimensions and finish, it's got great build quality, one of the better
00:22built Ultrabooks, the black finish is really nice, but I highly recommend putting a skin
00:26on the Stealth.
00:27I'm using the Black Dragon from dbrand, and I know the skin looks nice and all, but the
00:31big thing for me is protection.
00:33A scratch on a black laptop looks extra ugly.
00:36I nicked my old one, and it sucks.
00:38I'll link these skins below.
00:40Now, there is another color called Gunmetal Gray.
00:42It's a very muted look, it's all gray, there's no light-up logo, and even the RGB keyboard
00:47is gone.
00:48It's only white backlighting.
00:49I will take a look at the gray one in a couple weeks, but if you want RGB lights, you gotta
00:53go with this one, the black version.
00:55The ports also haven't changed, there's one HDMI, two USB-A ports, and a Thunderbolt 3
00:59port that's also used for charging.
01:01The internals look pretty much the same.
01:03The RAM is soldered on again, but this time it has 16 gigs of RAM, which is very roomy
01:07and something that a lot of enthusiasts were asking for.
01:10The SSD is replaceable, you just gotta remove the ribbon cable again, but sadly, it's still
01:14using the PM951 drives, which have relatively slow write speeds at the lower capacities.
01:19It's not a terrible drive, it's just that there are so many better drives out there
01:22that they could have used, it's kind of disappointing.
01:25The battery size remains the same at 53.6 watt-hours, but I'm getting less battery life.
01:30Running the same loop as usual, it's clocking in at a little over 7 hours.
01:34Still very good, but it's about 40 minutes less than the older model, and I think it's
01:37just because the screen is bigger, there's just a larger surface area to light up.
01:41Now speaking of screens, there's two screen sizes available, the older 12.5-inch panels
01:45and the new 13.3-inch panel.
01:47I have a strong preference for this one.
01:49It's got great color gamut, and the accuracy is also pretty good after calibration.
01:53I do wish it was brighter.
01:55It's perfectly fine indoors, but especially with that glossy screen, it's not ideal for
01:59bright environments.
02:00But that bezel, it's shrunken down, and it just looks so much better.
02:04I mean, a lot of you guys have complained about the older thick bezels, and they did
02:07something about it, which is awesome.
02:09Another thing they've changed is the trackpad.
02:11It seems to be the same size, and it's got the same glass texture.
02:14The button mechanism feels slightly different to me than the older one, that one had a more
02:18pronounced click, but the tracking on this new one is so much better.
02:22Windows Precision Drivers, finally.
02:23I never loved the trackpad on the original Stealth.
02:26This new one is great.
02:28Performance is as expected.
02:29It's a Kaby Lake i7, and with 16 gigs of RAM, it'll crush any kind of media consumption,
02:34work, or school stuff that you throw at it.
02:36Video editing on 1080p footage will be pretty decent if you have an external drive.
02:404K footage is going to be gnarly, but it's an ultrabook.
02:43Now one of the things I need to make clear is that the Razer Blade Stealth is not a gaming
02:47laptop.
02:48I mean, it's made by Razer, but it's not designed to play games on its own.
02:51It's running an HD 620, the integrated graphics chip from Intel, and I mean, you can play
02:55some light games and still get reasonable frame rates if you turn everything down and
02:59play at the lowest resolution.
03:01But the Razer Blade Stealth was one of the first laptops to support external GPUs over
03:05Thunderbolt 3, and even in mid-2017, this is still one of the best setups for the job.
03:10I connected to the Razer Core running a GTX 1080, and it's a super easy hookup.
03:14It's basically plug-and-play.
03:16Now gaming performance is really good, but like all Thunderbolt 3 GPUs, performance is
03:20going to be around 10, maybe 15% less than direct connection on a desktop.
03:24And remember, you want to use an external monitor for the best performance.
03:28Now if you're interested in learning more about this particular setup, I'll put a link
03:30in the video description.
03:32Thermal performance remains the same, nothing is too hot, nothing is too loud.
03:36Razer did a pretty good job on this thing.
03:38So obviously there's a lot of stuff I like about this Stealth, but for the sake of being
03:41thorough and for the people that just want to hate on something, there are a couple things
03:44I could pick at.
03:46First is the keyboard.
03:47I think it could be better.
03:48It hasn't changed since launch, or at least not in any way noticeable to me.
03:51It's decent, and I like the RGB lighting, but I wish it had a bit more travel on each
03:56stroke.
03:57And the functional markings still don't light up, so if you want to adjust volume or screen
04:00brightness in the dark, you got to memorize which keys to press.
04:03The speakers could also be better.
04:04I mean, they're positioned well and they have good stereo separation, and they look cool,
04:08but I just wish they had better audio quality.
04:10The 12-inch MacBook and some of the HP Spectre laptops have better speakers, but that's
04:14about it.
04:15Razer took a really good laptop, fixed everything that people had to complain about it, and
04:19we have this.
04:20There is, however, something that kind of casts a bit of shade on all of this awesome
04:24stuff.
04:25The Razer Blade Stealth has actually been one of the best-valued Ultrabooks on the market,
04:29which was weird because it's Razer and they normally have more premium pricing, but this
04:32one costs $1,400 at the base model.
04:35I mean, it's significantly upgraded compared to the old one, but it's like 50% more expensive.
04:40So with the new Stealth, I think they did a great job on it.
04:43It's pricey, but I think it's going to be a very popular device.
04:46It has the same great build quality as before.
04:49The 13.3-inch screen has very good color accuracy, and the bezels are finally smaller, but it
04:54could be brighter.
04:55The RGB keyboard is spaced comfortably, but the keys do have a shallow stroke.
05:00The trackpad is glass again, and tracking software is much improved this year.
05:04Inside the Kaby Lake CPU and the HT620 are quietly cooled and deliver strong performance
05:09for an Ultrabook.
05:10The 16 gigs of RAM is soldered on.
05:12The included SSD isn't super fast, but it is replaceable, and the 53.6-watt-hour battery
05:17will last you around seven hours.
05:19So should you get this thing?
05:21Honestly, if you just bought the old Razer Blade Stealth, I feel bad for you, son, because
05:25this one's so much better.
05:27It is a lot more expensive, there's that, but if you're looking for an Ultrabook and
05:31you can afford this thing, this one's really good.
05:33Okay.