The Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition represents something of a departure from Razer's traditional gaming laptops. While the stylish gaming manufacturer has been producing laptops for a few years now, they've always put game performance first and foremost. The Blade 15 Studio Edition has a more creative audience in mind — and a wealthier one, if the laptop's $4,300 starting price is anything to go by.
Razer annoucned the Blade 15 Studio Edition in a press release today (May 28), outlining some impressive specs for a decidedly premium price.
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First off, the Blade 15 Studio Edition is a pretty laptop, with a silver chassis, a small keyboard bounded by two speakers and a huge touchpad. The keys feature RGB backlighting, and the laptop's 4K, 15.6-inch screen is also touch-sensitive. In terms of ports, the system offers an SD Card reader, two USB-A ports, an HDMI out, a standard USB-C and USB-C with Thunderbolt 3 support. For the first time on a Razer system, users can also recharge the laptop (albeit slowly) via USB-C. The system is just 0.7 inches thick.
The specs also help justify the high asking price. The Blade 15 Studio Edition features an eight-core 10th gen Intel Core i7-10875H processor, an Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000 Studio Edition GPU (16 GB GDDR6 VRAM), a 4K OLED touchscreen, 1 B SSD storage, 32 GB RAM, built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support, an 80Wh battery and a 720p webcam. It also has a 3.5 mm audio jack, so any headset will work fine.
The only thing that might give animators and designers pause is the Blade 15 Studio Edition's price, which starts at $4,300, and could go higher, depending on your RAM and storage options. Part of the price comes from components that exceed what you'd find in a standard gaming desktop, but part of the price also comes from the system's stylish, durable design, which seems to be courting a class of users that generally tends toward Apple gear.
In terms of design and purpose, the Blade 15 Studio Edition is not entirely dissimilar from the MacBook Pro 16-inch, which also features a mid-size screen, a thin, silver design and powerful guts. But in terms of raw power, the Blade 15 Studio Edition outstrips its Apple competitor in many fields. The processor and GPU on the Blade 15 Studio edition are much more powerful than the 9th Gen Intel CPUs and Radeon Pro graphics found in the MacBook Pro, and 4K OLED screen is a big step up over Apple's quad HD LED.
On the other hand, the MacBook Pro 16 also starts at $2399, which is a much more palatable price.
However the two products stack up directly, it's interesting to see Razer throw its hat into the productivity laptop ring. It might be too expensive to attract a broad audience, or it might be powerful enough to facilitate tasks that we usually reserve for desktops. We'll know for sure soon, as the product is now available in the U.S. and Canada, with a worldwide release coming later this year.
