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The Razer Blade 15 Base model certainly looks and feels like a member of the Blade family. The chassis is very high quality with a solid construction thanks to the CNC milled aluminium body. It's a little thicker than the advanced model but it's an overall small footprint which makes it a very portable laptop.
The screen to body ratio is great thanks to the thin bezels and the webcam is thankfully squeezed in at the top. The display also looks great with vibrant colours and minimal reflections thanks to the matt panel. The keyboard has good spacing and we like the font and RGB lighting, however we have to say it felt less satisfying than other gaming laptops we have tried over the last few months
The touchpad is huge and the glass construction and Microsoft Precision drivers makes it very smooth and responsive. The speakers and webcam are also good additions at this lower price point for the Blade family.
The performance from the Max Q GTX 1060 GPU in this laptop is extremely good making it an excellent choice for 1080p gaming – it even managed to outperform other full-fat 1060 laptops according to our gaming benchmarks. The CPU cooling isn't the best, though, as shown by this laptop's mediocre boost clock when compared to other machines, though it is still a 6-core chip and it scored well in Cinebench.
The main let down with this laptop is the battery life. The 2TB HDD is a really nice addition over the advanced model but unfortunately it takes up space needed for a larger battery and this is really noticeable throughout continuous use of the machine. We also found it to get pretty noisy rather quickly when using it in the high performance gaming mode which isn't ideal if you're trying to game or video edit in a quiet environment.
That being said, this is an overall solid machine. The build quality is excellent, and the thin chassis and tiny bezels make it a very attractive machine. We also have no complaints about performance – it can get a little hot and noisy but it easily gives a solid 60fps in some of the most demanding games.
If you're willing to splash the cash on a laptop but don't want to go fully over the top with the Advanced model, the Razer Blade 15 Base provides a good middle ground.
The Razer Blade 15 Base model (256GB & 2TB HDD) can be found HERE for £1,649.99, though it is currently on offer for £1559.99.
Pros:
- Top build quality
- RGB keyboard and sleek aesthetics
- Great performance
- GPU runs cool and fast
- Fast SSD with extra HDD storage for games
- Large, accurate and responsive touchpad
- Loud speakers that are well positioned
Cons:
- Cost
- Battery life could be better
- Fans can get noisy
- CPU and chassis can get a bit toasty under heavy load
- No option for a 144Hz display
KitGuru says: The Razer Blade 15 Base makes the Razer Blade line up that little bit more affordable without making too many sacrifices.
