Razer’s Blade Stealth 13 is one of the best portable gaming laptops you can buy. Today, the company is giving it a refresh: it just announced a “late 2020” model of its 13-inch rig.
The only really big change from the Blade Stealth 13 that came out earlier this year seems to be the processor. The upcoming Blade is powered by a chip from Intel’s newest generation, the Core i7-1165G7. That comes with a GeForce GTX 1650 Ti, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of (upgradeable) storage. Razer claims that it’s “up to 2.7 times” faster in content creation and “more than 20 percent faster” in office productivity than the previous generation.
Also new to this model is THX Spatial Audio with four upward-facing speakers and a “Smart” amp to power everything. When you switch to the spatial audio mode, Razer claims the Blade Stealth will produce a more immersive soundstage.
When Razer refreshed the Blade Stealth earlier this year, the laptop’s headline feature was a 120Hz Full HD display with 100 percent sRGB coverage. For creatives, the company offered the option to upgrade to a 4K panel. This time around, Razer is taking a different approach. Replacing the 4K display is a 1080p OLED panel with 100 percent DCI-P3 coverage. The panel doesn’t include a 120Hz refresh rate, but you get the advantage of a higher contrast ratio and touchscreen support. Whether it makes sense to pay the extra $200 that it costs to upgrade to the OLED model will depend on how you feel about the potential for burn-in.
All those components still come in a chassis that is 15.3mm thick but now includes two Thunderbolt 4-compatible USB-C. It also comes with two USB-A 3.1 ports, as well as a combination headphone and microphone jack. For wireless connectivity, there’s WiFi 6 support.
You’ll be able to buy the 2020 Razer Blade Stealth starting later this month. The 120Hz will set you back $1,800, while the OLED variant costs a cool $2,000.
