Razer launches new Blade Pro 17 alongside impressive Blade 15 refresh

Alongside the announcements of new high-power mobile CPUs from Intel and new mobile Nvidia 16-series GPUs, Razer has launched its own new products. These come in the form of new Razer Blade Pro 17 and a mid-2019 refresh to its Razer Blade 15 line.

The update to the Razer Blade Pro 17 has been some time coming, and the new model enjoys some considerable changes. The bezels around the screen are trimmed down dramatically, allowing for a smaller overall chassis size while keeping the large screen. The trackpad has also been moved to sit below the keyboard instead of to the side of it.

Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan says the new Blade Pro 17 is "the perfect laptop for gamers who demand a large display, an insane amount of connectivity options and excellent performance with no room for compromise."

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The speeds and feeds

The new Razer Blade Pro 17 comes powered by the new Intel Core i7-9750H six-core processor (CPU) paired with the choice of an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060, RTX 2070 Max-Q, or RTX 2080 Max-Q graphics processor (GPU). The laptop boasts 16GB of DDR4-2,667MHz memory, though users can swap in Intel XMP-compatible DIMMs with speeds up to 3,200MHz.

In terms of storage, every model comes with 512GB of PCIe SSD storage and an empty M.2 slot for extra storage by default. Each drive slot can support up to 2TB of storage.

For ports and wireless, the Razer Blade Pro 17 includes a 2.5-Gigabit Ethernet port, HDMI 2.0b, a UHS-III SD card reader and five USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports with three using Type-A connections and two using Type-C connections. One of the Type-C ports also supports Thunderbolt 3. Beyond the Ethernet, the laptop also supports the new Wi-Fi 6 standard.

The 17.3-inch display on the Razer Blade Pro uses a Full HD matte panel with a 144Hz refresh rate and 100% coverage of the sRGB color space.

The Razer Blade Pro 17 starts at $2,499 (about £1,920, AU$3,520) and will go on sale starting May 2019 in the US, Canada, UK and other markets. Upgrading to the model with an RTX 2080 bumps the price up to $3,199 (about £2,450, AU$4,510).

The Pro isn't all

Alongside the 17.3-inch Pro are some updated models of the Razer Blade 15.

The new Razer Blade 15 comes packing a 9th-Gen Intel Core i7-9750H processor with six cores and is paired with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 to power the now-standard 144Hz ,1080p display. And, that's just for the 'Base' model. 

The advanced model has the option of a 240Hz display with 100% coverage of the sRGB color space, or a 4K OLED with 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space – and an RTX 2080 to power it.

The Razer Blade 15 Base starts at $1,999 (about £1,530, AU$2,820), while the Advanced models start at $2,399 (about £1,840, AU$3,380). Both launch April 24 in the US and Canada with additional markets to follow in May.

Given what these new models are packing, particularly the color-rich OLED display, they actually offer considerable competition to the new Razer Blade Pro 17 for creative workloads. They're offering the same CPU and GPU options, equivalent RAM (with the Advanced model able to offer the same upgrades as the Pro), and displays that are the same or better if only slightly smaller.

• Check out our review of the earlier 2019 Razer Blade 

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