The Razer Blade design hasn’t had a major overhaul in many years. Instead, the formula gets smaller tweaks and upgrades each year that keep it up to date with the latest trends. But put side by side with a Razer Blade 17 of a few years back, you likely won’t notice the difference.

The Razer Blade 17’s keyboard is fantastic. They’ve tightened up the switches for a snappier and more satisfying typing experience that is a real step up from previous models. Of course, Razer’s RGB game is also as good as it gets, with per-key lighting with tons of customization in both color patterns and brightness color. Like in previous models, the function key even lights up the function row. I love this keyboard.

I have the complete opposite reaction to the touchpad. It’s nice and large, which looks great. But the palm rejection here is awful. My experience of using this laptop is full of unintentional clicks and random cursor twitches. It’s extremely frustrating.

The Razer Blade 17 includes a 1080p webcam, upgraded from the 720p resolution module used in the previous generation. Razer did this without increasing the size of the top bezel or thickness of the lid, which is often the excuse made by laptop manufacturers. The increased resolution is nice and it’s certainly an improvement over previous models. That doesn’t, however, mean this is necessarily a “good” camera. I’m sure the sensor they’ve included is fine, but the image processing isn’t up to snuff. Images often appear darker and granier than they should, and it doesn’t do a great job highlighting skin tones and faces.

Fortunately, the Razer Blade 17 does include an IR camera for Windows Hello facial recognition, which many gaming laptops tend to leave out.

The Razer Blade 17 has a large, 17.3-inch screen with a sharp 2560 x 1440 resolution. Like most gaming laptops, it has a matte finish to deflect reflections and glares. While good for games, the matte layer reduces the clarity and perceived contrast of the images. The 890-1 contrast ratio at 100% brightness already isn’t the best. That makes it less ideal for those wanting to do creative work on the Razer Blade.

The Razer Blade 17 features the latest 12th-gen Intel Core i7-12800H, a 14-core chip split between six performance cores and eight efficiency cores. These powerful chips represent a major comeback for Intel. The extra cores have vastly improved multi-core performance without skipping a beat on the single-core front either.

Unfortunately, the Razer Blade 17 puts some restraints on the power of this chip. You don’t need to put this thing in a stress test to make the performance cores throttle. Internal CPU temperatures often spiked up to the max of 100 degrees Celsius, throttling performance to keep temperatures within acceptable range. Razer Blades have often struggled to keep temperatures low enough due to just how thin the chassis of the laptop is.

CPU throttling means you aren’t getting the best possible performance out of the processor compared to better-cooled systems. Full price, less performance. That’s nothing new in thin and light gaming laptops, though. This is one of the first few laptops using the 12th-gen H-series chips, but it’s already the slowest performer in Cinebench R23 among the laptops we’ve tested so far, including the Gigabyte Aero 16, MSI Creator Z17, and MSI GE76 Raider. Now, will a 5% drop in processor performance make a noticeable difference in actual use? In most cases, probably not.

But the thermals did present some performance limitations in certain workflows and applications. The Blade 17 isn’t quite as good at editing video in Premiere as comparable laptops. Don’t get me wrong — Intel’s 12th-gen H-series chips have made huge strides to catch up to Apple, and a lot of that improvement shows up in the Razer Blade 17.

The Razer Blade 17 features the latest RTX 3080 Ti Max-Q graphics, which is what my review unit came with. The system is capable of delivering 150 watts of power to the GPU, and can even add an extra 15 watts thanks to Dynamic Boost. You can also configure the laptop with the RTX 3060 or RTX 3070 Ti. The system, regardless of configuration, also includes Nvidia features like Resizable BAR and CPU Optimizer to balance power between the components to result in the best possible gaming performance. However, that doesn’t mean all laptops with an RTX 3080 Ti are made equal.

The Razer Blade 17 will likely fall on the weaker end of the spectrum — that is, if they’re gaming laptops. Other similarly-equipped laptops we’ve reviewed like the Gigabyte Aero 16 don’t perform as well — by as much as 22% in 3DMark Time Spy. In that benchmark, the Razer Blade 17 even edges out the larger and chunkier MSI GE76 Raider. I was surprised by that, but it didn’t end up holding up to the MSI machine by as much in actual games.

In Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, for example, the MSI GE76 Raider is 11% faster than the Razer Blade 17 in 1080p Ultra High. The Razer Blade 17 still hits 69 fps (frames per second) at 1440p Ultra High, which is impressive historically. It’s similar in another heavy title, Red Dead Redemption 2, where the Razer Blade 17 hits 73 fps at 1440p Ultra High.

Interestingly, Civilization VI is the one game the Razer Blade 17 stomps on the competition. It’s 12% faster than the MSI GE76 Raider and 19% faster than the Gigabyte Aero 16. It’s also the only game I tested that can put to use the super-fast refresh rate in 1440p, hitting 162 fps in Ultra settings.

You likely won’t buy the Razer Blade 17 with the RTX 3080 Ti and complain about the gaming performance. It’s doing things in 1440p that people have been waiting a long time to do. But clearly, there will be (and already are) much more powerful gaming laptops to come out in 2022 with similar components inside. That will be hard for some people to get over, especially when you consider the price and size of the Razer Blade 17.

The 2022 Razer Blade 17 gets awful battery life. It’s bad for a gaming laptop, and it’s even worse than previous versions of this laptop. Intel’s 12th-gen chips are likely to blame, which have been showing lower battery life results than previous generations.

Razer offers six different configurations on its online storefront. The options are all packaged together though, so the slightly faster Core i7-12900H is paired with the 4K 144Hz screen and 32GB of RAM. That option will cost you $4,300, and it’s the only 4K option available, presumably for more of a content creation-focused buyer.

There are also two configurations available in the 1080p 360Hz category, one with the RTX 3070 Ti and one with the 3080 Ti. A 17-inch laptop with a 1080p screen isn’t ideal as you’ll be able to see the pixels, and with GPUs this powerful, most gamers will prefer the higher resolution that a 1440p screen can offer. The 1080p 360Hz and 1440p 240Hz configurations are priced identically, both starting at $3,200 for the RTX 3070 Ti model, which comes with 16GB of dual-channel RAM.

My particular review unit cost $4,000, thanks to the addition of the RTX 3080 Ti and 32GB of RAM. Either of the 1440p models would be the options I’d recommend if you’re looking to buy the Razer Blade 17.

All Razer Blade 17 configurations come with 1TB of fast SSD storage, which is fantastic. That doesn’t change the fact that the Razer Blade 17 remains one of the most expensive gaming laptops you can buy.

There’s plenty to like about the Razer Blade 17, but it continues to be a niche product in the lineup. On one hand, it’s the best-performing laptop in Razer’s lineup from a fan noise and surface temperature standpoint. On the other hand, it’s a very large laptop, the poor battery life is a problem, and the touchpad needs to be fixed.

Are there any alternatives?

Gaming laptops are just now starting to roll out updates to the latest 12th-gen Intel processors and RTX 3080 Ti graphics.

Should you buy it?

It’s a good buy, but no gaming laptop is without its issues. This one throttles CPU performance, is quite expensive, and has a troublesome touchpad.

Editors’ Recommendations