I ditched my Surface Book 2 for a Razer Blade 15 — but will I go back?

The summer has been specially toasty in Europe this year, especially living in a country that seemingly hasn't discovered domestic air conditioning notwithstanding. The ambient heat was particularly harsh on my Surface Book 2, which, with its slim class factor, simply hasn't been up to the chore at dispensing the summertime rut. I'm used to the Surface Book two not being a decent gaming option for anything current, but the throttling was beginning to spill over to regular productivity tasks, like Adobe Premiere, and fifty-fifty simply browsing on Microsoft Edge. As such, I decided information technology was time for a change.

I've flipped betwixt Razer and Surface a few times over the past few years for my daily-commuter. This twelvemonth's Razer Blade fifteen is arguably the company's all-time endeavor thus far, both from a gaming and productivity standpoint. These are my early experiences with switching to the Blade from the Surface.

Related: Is it time for a gaming Surface?

Gaming power

Razer Bract fifteen (2019)

Solid gaming at a good cost

On the base Razer Blade xv model, I'chiliad finding that it more delivers at this cost indicate.

Gorgeousness

The Blade 15 for 2022 is a big step up from the previous Razer laptop I used, most notably when it comes to the display. I picked upward the 144hz RTX 2060 model, which has the smoothest display panel I've ever used. The bezels have been shrunk by a big amount, which looks far more modern than Razer's previous efforts.

Besides the display, the 2022 Bract doesn't revolutionize the make's design direction. It'due south still super slim, although the prophylactic anxiety on the underside requite the laptop greater floor clearance, creating amend airflow. Razer also managed to ensconce a handy Windows Hi camera into the upper bezel, which makes for convenient log-ins.

Alongside the blackness variant I have, Razer offers a white selection for some of its configurations. While I practise like the blackness, if for no reason other that information technology matches my Telly and Xbox One 10, information technology attracts grit and smudges similar a magnet. It looks sleek while closed, though, with harder corners than previous laptops, which makes it look a chip more mature.

Razer Blade 15 Specs	Base Model	Advanced Model
Graphics	Up to NVIDIA RTX 2060	Up to NVIDIA RTX 2080
Processor	Upwardly to Intel Core i7-9750H	Up to Intel Core i7-9750H
RAM	16GB DDR4	16GB DDR4
Storage	Up to 2TB HDD westward/ 256GB SSD	Up to 512GB SSD
Display	Up to xv.vi" Total HD 144Hz	Up to xv.6" 4K OLED Touch
Battery	65 Wh (Up to 6 hours)	80 Wh (Up to six hours)
Thickness	0.78" ten 9.25" x 13.98"	0.70" x ix.25" x 13.98"
Weight	Upwardly to 4.63 lbs	Upwardly to four.83 lbs

Speaking of maturity, you can finally disable the dark-green Razer logo lighting on the reverse of the brandish, fifty-fifty if I find the neon-dark-green styling to still be a bit loud. You tin also customize the blush lighting on the keyboard in extreme ways, adding all sorts of ripples and rainbows if that's your thing. I tend to simply leave it on a static blood-red, matching my Windows 10 accent colour.

Some other area where the Razer Blades excel is sound. The Volume 2 isn't exactly awful in the sound department, just the larger, up-firing speakers on the Bract offer a far better sound contour. Yous'd probably hope and so too, given that this is marketed as a gaming laptop get-go and foremost.

Gaming, power, and cooling

On paper, the Surface Book 2 with its GTX 1060 should be a far more capable gaming device than it is, simply due to throttling and power describe, it struggles even with older, relatively mid-range games. The RTX 2060-powered Razer Blade 15 is far more strong, pushing pocket-size games like Overwatch and World of Warcraft on ultra graphics well over 100 FPS. More enervating games like Metro Exodus besides run flawlessly on the Bract 15 at 1080p, on ultra settings, with RTX ray-tracing and advanced PhysX physics enabled too, although you'll sacrifice some FPS for the privilege.

Even on the hottest days where ambient temperatures hit 38C (around 100F), the Blade fifteen didn't buckle, with large internal fans that drive far more cooling onto the components than the Surface Volume 2 is capable of achieving. Admittedly, the keyboard and surface surface area around the rear vent got worryingly hot, almost besides warm to touch on. You tin can manually jack upward the fan speed in the Razer Synapse software to offset this rut generation, however.

Perhaps the about noteworthy boost for this Bract over my previous one is noise. Playing games on my erstwhile GTX 1060 Bract was infuriatingly loud, which isn't exactly unheard of in a gaming laptop. However, unless you're manually pushing the fans, the Blade 15 is curiously placidity, even while running all simply the most intensive tasks.

This is all while plugged in, by the fashion. Gaming without wall power, you're looking at around 3-5 hours at almost in real-world gaming time, depending on what you do to limit ability use. You can lower graphical intensity, either manually or via NVIDIA's "whisper mode" automated settings in the GeForce Experience app.

Surface sacrifices

It'due south no wonder that a gaming laptop performs better at gaming tasks than a Surface Volume 2. Just given the internals in both devices, there is a convergence of gaming capability and productivity prowess between both devices. I accept conceded some overnice Surface Book features for the raw ability of Razer, though.

I'1000 already missing the SD carte du jour slot on the Book 2. Information technology's a modest affair, just having to employ a USB-C dongle for basic productivity features similar that is an annoyance. The Windows Hello camera is also nowhere nearly as rapid or sensitive as the Book 2'south either, and the resolution is atrocious. In a world where game streaming has become the norm, it seems odd that Razer doesn't amend its webcam game a bit.

The Razer Blade 15 has proven itself to be a powerhouse.

Of class, I've also sacrificed a touch screen, which at least for me, isn't that big of a deal. I practise like inking, and dabbling in digital art, but I didn't practise it often enough to justify sacrificing raw ability for that digitizer. Some Blade variants exercise come with a touch on screen. For light digital sketching, I'm deferring to my Surface Get for at present, which is much easier to work with every bit a tablet even if the screen is nowhere near as good.

Perhaps the biggest sacrifice is in the keyboard itself. The Razer Blade keyboard is only nowhere nearly as pleasant to type on versus Surface, which accentuates Microsoft'southward attending to engineering detail. Additionally, for some reason Razer decided information technology would be a good idea to put the up arrow correct next to the correct shift central, which leads to all sorts of typing mishaps if you're a bear upon typist. I've started to get used to it after a couple of weeks, but at to the lowest degree twice per article I'll hit up past mistake, shifting my cursor halfway up the document by mistake.

Sticking with Razer... for at present

As much fun as the Surface lineup is, I'thou starting to feel like they don't stand for good value for money unless you're admittedly going to use every single aspect of the form gene. I never detached the display, except to reverse it into sheet mode, and I rarely used inking or affect. Additionally, it was the second fourth dimension a Windows Update had caused issues with the detachable d-GPU in the Book 2, post-obit from the May 2022 Update, causing me Blue Screens of Death. This lack of attention to software quality is unforgivable in a $3000 laptop in my stance but stems from the Surface Book ii'due south outlying detachable configuration more than than anything.

The Razer Blade fifteen has proven itself to be a powerhouse for video editing, gaming, and general utilise already, with the thermals and sleek blueprint to match. The Surface line seems more often than not skewed towards fun "what if" form factor scenarios, rather than more pragmatic solutions. The hardware is stunning, merely as I get older, I feel similar I want something a little more serious than fun from my laptops. Ironically, Razer — a gaming brand — seems to stand for that amend than Surface right now.

Laptop gaming

Razer Blade fifteen (2019)

Neat toll for great gaming

Razer has proven itself to be a reliable brand for laptop gaming, and I'm more than than happy with my purchase.

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