RAZER BLADE PRO 17 Laptop Review: Should You Buy It?

Razer Blade Pro 17 - QHD 165Hz - GeForce RTX 3060 – Black

•          1.8GHz 14-core Intel i7-12800H processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.8GHz, with 24MB of Cache

•          Windows 11 Home – 64 bits

•          17.3" QHD 165Hz, 100% sRGB, 6mm bezels, individually factory calibrated

•          NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3060 (6GB GDDR6 VRAM)

•          1TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe upgradeable to 4TB + Open M.2 Slot (Supports 2-sided NVMe Drive), upgradeable to 4TB SSD

•          16 GB DDR5 4800MHz dual-channel memory (slotted)

•          Per-Key Backlighting, powered by Razer Chroma™

Cost against Price

The latest Razer Blade Pro features a 12th generation Intel Core i7-12800H processor with six cores, which is 50% faster than last year's model. The GPU is still an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Max-Q design GPU but has been upgraded and now comes with 6GB of GDDR6 VRAM. The display remains the same at 17.3 inches and 3840x2160 pixels 4K resolution, supporting Nvidia G-Sync for smoother gameplay.

It also boasts a 4K OLED display that takes visuals to another level and shows off its content's rich, vibrant colours. However, while this is one of the best laptops we have tested, it comes at a premium price and is a massive upgrade over its predecessor.

Good user experience starts with the right hardware. Razer's latest laptop is a great example: it has a gorgeous screen, solid performance, and features that are hard to find on laptops at this price.

The new Razer Blade Pro (and its predecessor, the Razer Blade) is designed around an "active" backlit keyboard that can glow blue or red depending on how much light is coming in through the screen. The keyboard lighting works with the illuminated logo on the back of the laptop, so it's always visible, even when you're in dark conditions.

This feature is particularly useful for gamers, who will appreciate not having one less thing to worry about in low-light settings.

In addition to the gaming-oriented features above, there are also many other ways Razer has taken advantage of its platform as a gaming laptop. For instance, you can attach up to six programmable buttons on the trackpad to quickly access your most-used commands.

The result is a very powerful laptop that can handle modern games at high settings and resolutions without breaking a sweat. In fact, we saw frame rates of between 60fps to 70fps when playing games like Mass Effect Andromeda at 1080p and ultra-settings, or between 50fps to 60fps at 4K resolution and high settings. That's impressive, considering this is a laptop!

Razer Blade 17 - QHD 165Hz - GeForce RTX 3060 – Black VS Dell Alienware M15 R4 Core i9

Particulars	Razer Blade Pro 17 - QHD 165Hz - GeForce RTX 3060 – Black	Dell Alienware M15 R4 Core i9
Released in	Early 2021	Early 2021
Display	17.3" QHD 165Hz (2160p)	15.6” QHD (1080p 300Hz)
Weight	6.06 lb (2.75 kg)	4.65 lb (2.11 kg)
Powered By (processor)	Intel Core i7-12800H	Intel Core i9-10980HK
Geekbench 5 (Single Core)	1,192	1,223
Geekbench 5 (Multi Core)	6,874	7,013
With integrated	Intel® UHD Graphics 630	Intel® UHD Graphics 630
Upgradable up to	64GB 4800 MHz DDR5	32GB 2933 MHz DDR4

Razer Blade Pro 17 - QHD 165Hz - GeForce RTX 3060 – Black VS ASUS - ROG Zephyrus G15 15.6" QHD Laptop

Particulars	Razer Blade Pro 17 - QHD 165Hz - GeForce RTX 3060 – Black	ASUS - ROG Zephyrus G15 15.6" QHD Laptop
Released in	Early 2021	Early 2021
Display	17.3" QHD 165Hz (2160p)	15.6” 165Hz (1440p)
Weight	6.06 lb (2.75 kg)	4.19 lb (1.90 kg)
Powered By (processor)	Intel Core i7-12800H	AMD Ryzen 9-5900HS
Geekbench 5 (Single Core)	1,192	1356
Geekbench 5 (Multi Core)	6,874	7162
With integrated	Intel® UHD Graphics 630	AMD Radeon™ Graphics
Upgradable up to	64GB 4800 MHz DDR5	48GB 3200 MHz DDR4

Razer Blade Pro 17 - QHD 165Hz - GeForce RTX 3060 – Black VS MacBook Pro 2022

Particulars	Razer Blade Pro 17 - QHD 165Hz - GeForce RTX 3060 – Black	MacBook Pro 2022
Released in	Early 2021	Late 2021
Display	17.3" QHD 165Hz (2160p)	16.2” 120Hz (2234p)
Weight	6.06 lb (2.75 kg)	4.7 lb (2.13 kg)
Powered By (processor)	Intel Core i7-12800H	Apple M1 Max (10C, 32G)
Geekbench 5 (Single Core)	1,192	1,747
Geekbench 5 (Multi Core)	6,874	12,185
With integrated	Intel® UHD Graphics 630	Apple M1 Max iGPU
Upgradable up to	64GB 4800 MHz DDR5	64GB

Review

Pros: Overall, this laptop is pretty fantastic. Thermals all seems to be great per other Razer 17" reviews. Solid frames in games, the real estate is great for development, matte screen is a lovely thing to get back to with rich, vibrant colors. Not a bad pixel, even lighting across the display. The touch pad is pretty nice and I haven't been bothered coming from Macbook-land. Solid / stiff screen hinge, which I consider a great thing. Very pretty laptop too. Dual booted Ubuntu and most everything works out of the box, just know that you will have some troubleshooting to do with the touchpad and any suspending / hibernation.

Mehs: There are some minor things like the lack of stepping for video brightness (only goes so low, which is a bummer for coding in a dark room, but can be augmented with night mode). The screen is bright, but a little brighter would be welcome for daytime sunlight environments. The laptop is a fingerprint / oil magnet, but that is to be expected being black. Keyboard is a little more cramped than it needs to be. Speakers are pretty good, but not stellar. Battery life is acceptable when in power save mode, but it's not going to compete with some of the alternatives out there. Power cable is a tad annoying in shape, but eh. It's a bit on the heavy side to be sure, but not horribly so.

Cons: The keyboard. It's too "squishy" for my taste. If there is one thing that might make me return this and get something else, it's the keyboard. Razer has really done itself a disservice here, given the keys have nowhere near enough travel, nor enough feedback. Razer is a keyboard company...wth? The crappy macbook keyboards feel better and they are honestly pretty meh overall as well.

Verdict: If you are going to game and don't type a whole bunch (like a developer does), then you will probably love the heck out of this laptop. I was expecting some build quality issues, but so far nothing of the sort. I just do not like the choice in keyboard they went with, which is very unfortunate.