New Razer Blade Stealth vs. Apple's MacBooks

[MacRumors]

For the last few years, Razer, known for its gaming PCs and accessories, has been making the Razer Blade Stealth, an ultrabook that's quite sleek and snazzy.

We went hands-on with the latest version of the Razer Blade Stealth, released in 2019, to see how it compares with Apple's MacBook options.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.​

The Razer Blade Stealth, for those unfamiliar with it, is a 13-inch ultrabook offering solid performance in a slim, compact package. It has an aesthetic reminiscent of the MacBook Pro, which is also super slim, but it looks quite a bit different with a black aluminum unibody and squared edges.

Most notably, the Razer Blade Stealth has an option for a 4K display, which is the version we have on hand. You might think a 4K display would look way better than the the lower-resolution displays on Apple's Retina MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, but on such a small machine, it's not as noticeable as you'd expect.

The display is touch sensitive, which is not a feature on Apple's laptops, and it has super narrow side bezels so it has a clean, modern look. The keyboard has more travel than the butterfly keys of the MacBook line, but not as much clickiness, and there's a full set of physical function keys instead of a Touch Bar.

This is Razer we're talking about, so naturally there's customizable RBG backlighting for the keyboard that can be set to different colors and themes. There's a much smaller trackpad, but it's still nice to use and one of the better non-Apple trackpads we've tried. There's no fingerprint sensor like on the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, but there is a Windows Hello facial recognition option.

When it comes to ports, the Razer Blade Stealth has two USB-C ports and two USB-A ports, along with a 3.5mm headphone jack. Just one USB-C port is Thunderbolt 3 capable, compared to four on all of Apple's USB-C MacBook Pro models.

The Razer Blade Stealth is equipped with 16GB RAM, a quad-core 1.8GHz 8th-generation Intel Core i7 processor, and a dedicated Nvidia GeForce MX150 graphics card. Apple's 13-inch MacBook Pros, the closest in form factor to the Razer Blade Stealth, have an integrated GPU.

Benchmarks indicate the Razer Blade Stealth outperforms the 13-inch MacBook Pro, especially when it comes to the GPU. That's not unexpected, though, because Razer is a gaming company. Razer also sells the Razer Blade Stealth alongside the Razer Core X external GPU to offer desktop-quality gaming.

In our testing, the Razer Blade Stealth did well with everything we threw at it, including browsing the web, watching videos, editing video with Adobe Premiere Pro, and some light gaming. Unigine Heaven benchmarks required us to drop the resolution to 1080p from 4K to get 60 to 70 frames per second, though, and it struggled at the full 4K resolution for gaming.

On an OpenCL test, the Razer Blade Steath scored 47,237 with the GeForce MX150 and 36,488 for the integrated Intel Graphics 620. For comparison's sake, the built-in GPU in the 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro scored 23,624, and the AMD Radeon Pro 555X scored 50,257. That's a little bit like comparing apples to oranges, though, as the 15-inch MacBook Pro is a bigger machine and the 13-inch model, which is a closer comparison to the Razer, has no dedicated graphics.

Battery life in the Razer Blade Stealth is okay. It's lasted for about six hours for tasks like web browsing and emails, but for more system intensive tasks, it can drain in less than three hours because of the power draw of the 4K display.

When it comes to price, Razer is charging a premium for its ultrabook, much like Apple does with its notebooks. The 4K 13-inch model we have on hand with the MX150 graphics card is priced at $1,900, though Razer offers lower tiers priced at $1,600 (no 4K) and $1,300 (no 4K and integrated graphics).

Given these price points, the Razer Blade Stealth is tough to recommend over other PC options, but it's powerful, portable, and gorgeous. What do you think of the Razer Blade Stealth? Let us know in the comments.

Article Link: New Razer Blade Stealth vs. Apple's MacBooks

 

[mavericks7913]

Razer Blade got a vapor chamber cooling system which is way better than MacBook Pro.

 

[jaisonline]

The Razor Blade Steath looks pretty good. Great features. Now if only it didn’t run the abomination called Windows 10.

 

[AngerDanger]

It has an aesthetic reminiscent of the MacBook Pro, which is also super slim, but it looks quite a bit different with a black aluminum unibody and squared edges.

It's like they mixed Apple's old black MacBooks with their current MacBook Pros.

 

[kylepro88]

Not that I'm a PC guy anyway, but that shift key on the Razer would keep me away no matter how fast or amazing or cheap it was... I mean... holy moly who thought that was OK?

 

[macsrcool1234]

This crushes the MBP in price to value

 

[chucker23n1]

Not that I'm a PC guy anyway, but that shift key on the Razer would keep me away no matter how fast or amazing or cheap it was... I mean... holy moly who thought that was OK?

Yikes!

What is it with so many laptops having a bizarrely bad keyboard layout?

 

[j-a-x]

Has anyone noticed how buggy Windows 10 is with high resolution displays? Some apps on my Windows (work) laptop have tiny or huge UI elements, and Windows 10 feels so unpolished to me. That's enough to keep me away form this laptop. I wish I could use a MacBook at work.

 

[UltimaKilo]

I wouldn’t pick up one of these machines, but they are impressive. If I were to get one, I wouldn’t opt for 4K since the really do drain battery (my current laptop is 4K).

I do wish Apple offered a dedicated GPU on the 13 inch MacBook.

 

[dryja123]

Does the Stealth run macOS? Nope

I didn’t buy a MacBook for the hardware.

 

[JimmyBanks6]

Not that I'm a PC guy anyway, but that shift key on the Razer would keep me away no matter how fast or amazing or cheap it was... I mean... holy moly who thought that was OK?

I kept looking at the space key, thinking, what am I looking for, why is this guy complaining.

Then I noticed the shift key, and realized I read your post wrong.

What a bizarre design, I guess they wanted full size keys for the arrows and that was the trade-off they made.

 

[Ma2k5]

Why would they even compare it to the 15” even if they acknowledge it? Was the 13” not available?

 

[Falhófnir]

I wouldn’t pick up one of these machines, but they are impressive. If I were to get one, I wouldn’t opt for 4K since the really do drain battery (my current laptop is 4K).

I do wish Apple offered a dedicated GPU on the 13 inch MacBook.

There's a growing number of Windows machines offering dGPUs at this sort of size so I wouldn't be surprised if Apple follows suit. Unless they switch to their own AX series chips which have insane integrated graphics that can (seem to) keep up with a low end dGPU anyway .

 

[Ca$hflow]

Give me the non 4k version with the discrete graphics, then hackintosh that badboy and you have a really nice affordable mac alternative for a reasonable cost.

Note* Just hacintoshed a Ryzen 5 2400g and it outperforms apple's lower teir iMac all for $625 CAD ($475 US)

However still rocking a 2012 MacBook Pro. Best MacBook pro ever made. Come on apple get it together!

 

[KazKam]

Does the Stealth run macOS? Nope

I didn’t buy a MacBook for the hardware.

I agree. This "vs." comparison seems kinda random/weird to me.

Why this Windows laptop instead of any of the thousands of others that may share some random aesthetic similarities to a MBP?

Also, as you said... runs Windows, so, what's the point of the comparison?

 

[ChrisMoBro]

Given these price points, the Razer Blade Stealth is tough to recommend

You must be joking, surely? It has a 4K display and a dedicated GPU. It’s far better value than most of the MacBook Pro’s/MacBooks and you never mention the price being a reason not to buy those.

 

[blesscheese]

Man, why do PC laptop keyboards and trackpads suck so much? All I really want is a decent laptop that I can stick 32GB RAM in and run Linux. I found a decent one at system76.com, if anybody is looking. This Razer thing...max is 16GB RAM and is non-upgradeable...and the keyboard sucks, so, this is a no go.

 

[Anarchy99]

Does the Stealth run macOS? Nope

I didn’t buy a MacBook for the hardware.

I agree they half assed it, they should have Hackintosh'd the razer for a fair comparison.

 

[chucker23n1]

When it comes to price, Razer is charging a premium for its ultrabook, much like Apple does with its notebooks. The 4K 13-inch model we have on hand with the MX150 graphics card is priced at $1,900, though Razer offers lower tiers priced at $1,600 (no 4K) and $1,300 (no 4K and integrated graphics).

Given these price points, the Razer Blade Stealth is tough to recommend over other PC options, but it's powerful, portable, and gorgeous.

This is rather odd phrasing.

At the starting point of $1,399, Apple has a better deal in some ways: the $1,299 13-inch MacBook Pro has a much better integrated GPU (Iris Plus 640 vs. UHD Graphics 620), but last generation's CPU (both of which is Intel's fault: you can't get the better graphics on the newer CPU at the same wattage), with half the cores. It also only has half the SSD storage, though. You can double that and come out at $1,499.

But then the deals get worse. Configure the Razer with GeForce graphics and twice the RAM, and you're at $1,599. There's no dedicated graphics option at all from Apple, and yet, at 16 GB RAM, you're already looking at $1,699. Or you can go $1,899 for both contenders, and end up with a 512 GB SSD in both cases, but the Razer, again, has dedicated graphics.

Want a more comparable CPU? Then you're looking at $1,799 on Apple's end. You gain the Touch Bar and Touch ID. This configuration again has a better integrated GPU than Razer's lowest, but the same amount of RAM and SSD storage, at $400 more. Add the Razer's dedicated GPU, and you basically don't get a comparable offering from Apple.

In summary, no, Razer isn't cheap either, but Apple is in most of these configurations more expensive, typically by hundreds of dollars, and no matter what, you can't get a 13-inch dGPU MacBook Pro.

 

[dspdoc]

10 years is all that you’ve been using Mac and you’re working for MR? LOL. That explains a lot.

 

[vicviper789]

If only there was a way to run OS X on it

 

[potatis]

Is black anodized aluminium a new thing? Read a few yars ago here that it would chip more easily.

 

[MagMan1979]

It has an aesthetic reminiscent of the MacBook Pro

Oh for god sakes, call it what it is, a blatant ripoff of the MacBook Pro, by an Asian company that has a reputation for having THE WORST after-sales customer service / support imaginable! Their internal policy is to DELIBERATELY delay and frustrate people looking for warrantee claims until they finally give up!

And let's not forget their piss-poor reliability record...

 

[Pepe4life]

Does it have a keyboard that doesn’t get crippled with a few specks of dust? If it does, it’s already better than a MBP

 

[MacPoulet]

Why compare the 13" Razer with the 15" MacBook Pro? Seems a little odd.

And as for the Shift key, Apple does that too on the French Canadian keyboard, but it's the Left-Shift.