Hands-On: The all new Razer Blade RTX – Can Raytracing justify the price tag?

I don’t need to sit here and give you a summary of Razer or their history and qualifications in the gaming hardware space – they’re one of the all time greats. The Razer Blade series is no exception to the rule, with the latest iterations shipping with the NVIDIA RTX graphics cards, equipped with the renowned ‘Raytracing’ technology.

For those out of the loop, Raytracing is a new bit of software in the gaming industry that allows for reflections to be calculated and rendered in real time, making games look absolutely phenomenal.

At the time of writing, there really are only a handful of games that are Raytracing compatible – but boy are they a sight to behold. While playing around with the new RTX, I booted up Battlefield V and can honestly say that it was one of the most graphically beautiful gaming experiences of my life.

Incase you haven’t the slightest clue what we’re talking about here, have a go at this;

The stunning aesthetic of the reflections and incredible graphic quality the laptop is able to produce is truly exceptional. However if we’re to talk holistically, the new Razer Blade laptops are all around very standard, clean and elegant.

There’s nothing that immediately strikes you as incredibly bold on first impressions, but you could easily argue that’s in its favour. The subtlety of gaming laptops has been a point of interest in recent years, with gamers needing a device that is capable of both playing games and being suitable in the office or classroom.

To that effect you’ll note the backlit keyboard and backlit Razer emblem, both of which can be disabled in the name of flying covertly.

The bezels are beautifully thin and significantly nicer than a lot of it’s competitors, perfectly framing the 144Hz screen that will be drawing your attention (hopefully) for the majority of the time. Said screen is 15.6-inches, Full HD (1920 x 1080) IPS.

And the battery life will supposedly hold you for 6 hours (80Wh for the curious). Which for those on the go isn’t incredibly ideal, but you don’t buy a laptop like this and take it to the nearest park for a stroll.

There are a range of model options and add+ons that you can build round the new Razer Blade, with either a RTX 2060, RTX 2070 or RTX 2080 – and storage options from 256GB SSD’s upwards.

As far as price tag is concerned, it’s on the higher end… the much higher end. But at the end of the day that’s what you pay for the newest and best technology.

The cheapest you’ll pick up a Razer Blade RTX at the moment is for $3,899 and can be optioned all the way up to $5,099 if you’re feeling particularly wealthy. I can’t say whether or not that is inherently justified, but the gaming experience really is something to admire.