IFA 2019 | New Razer Blade Stealth to offer the biggest leap in graphics for the series ever, will come with Ice Lake Core i7 and GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q graphics
(September 4, 2019 update: The Mercury White SKU with no GTX graphics will ship with a 25 W Core i7-1065G7 CPU while the higher-end Black GTX SKU will ship with a 15 W Core i7-1065G7 instead. We've updated the article to reflect this.)
When Nvidia launched the GeForce MX250 earlier this year, we had expected Razer to follow suit by updating its MX150-equipped Blade Stealth with the refreshed GPU. Turns out, this never happened and now we know why: the manufacturer had its sights on something bigger.
The late 2019 Blade Stealth refresh will come with a 15 W Core i7-1065G7 Ice Lake CPU and a ~35 W GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q GPU to supplant the 2018 model which shipped with a 15 W Core i7-8565U Whiskey Lake-U CPU and a 25 W GeForce MX150 GPU. For those keeping track, this would make the 2019 Blade Stealth the first and so far only 13.3-inch Ultrabook with a GTX 1650 option. A second Mercury White SKU with a 25 W Core i7-1065G7 and no GeForce GTX graphics will also be made available for a lower price.
While it's a fairly uncommon GPU, we already have a good idea of what to expect from the GTX 1650 Max-Q based on our experience with the 14-inch MSI PS63 Modern. Raw graphics performance should be 100 to 150 percent faster than the 25 W MX150 according to 3DMark benchmarks to represent a significant boost to the gaming capabilities of the Blade Stealth series. Previous models in this family were limited to integrated Intel UHD graphics or low-power GeForce MX options only. As usual, users will see the largest gains in performance when running newer titles as Nvidia Turing is better optimized for DX12 when compared to the Pascal generation.
| 3DMark | |
| 1920x1080 Fire Strike Graphics | |
| MSI PS63 Modern 8SC | |
| Razer Blade Stealth i7-8565U | |
| Huawei MateBook 14 KLV-W29 | |
| Average NVIDIA GeForce MX150 (2323 - 3739, n=44) | |
| Intel SDS Core i7-1065G7 Preliminary Sample 25 W | |
| 2560x1440 Time Spy Graphics | |
| MSI PS63 Modern 8SC | |
| Razer Blade Stealth i7-8565U | |
| Huawei MateBook 14 KLV-W29 | |
| Average NVIDIA GeForce MX150 (830 - 1147, n=16) | |
| 3DMark 11 | |
| 1280x720 Performance GPU | |
| MSI PS63 Modern 8SC | |
| Razer Blade Stealth i7-8565U | |
| Intel SDS Core i7-1065G7 Preliminary Sample 25 W | |
| Huawei MateBook 14 KLV-W29 | |
| Average NVIDIA GeForce MX150 (2796 - 4905, n=47) | |
| 1280x720 Performance Combined | |
| MSI PS63 Modern 8SC | |
| Huawei MateBook 14 KLV-W29 | |
| Razer Blade Stealth i7-8565U | |
| Average NVIDIA GeForce MX150 (2820 - 4421, n=46) | |
| Intel SDS Core i7-1065G7 Preliminary Sample 25 W | |
As for the new 15 W Core i7 Ice Lake-U CPU, raw performance gains over last year's 15 W Core i7 Whiskey Lake-U will be minor at best based on our findings with an early Core i7-1065G7 test sample. Meanwhile, the 25 W Core i7 Ice Lake-U version is expected to offer roughly 15 to 30 percent faster multi-thread performance over the Core i7-8565U assuming that the Blade Stealth will be able to maintain decent Turbo Boost clock rates. Last year's Blade Stealth had no issues in this regard and so we have our hopes up for the 2019 refresh.
So, why no Comet Lake-U? According to Razer, a GTX-equipped Blade Stealth had been in the works for at least two years meaning that Intel had no concrete launch dates for Comet Lake-U at the time. Ice Lake was further into development and it therefore aligned better with Razer's schedule for the late 2019 Blade Stealth. If you still want a 13.3-inch Ultrabook with the six-core Comet Lake-U option, then you'd have to look at the upcoming Dell XPS 13 7390 instead.
| Cinebench R15 | |
| CPU Single 64Bit | |
| Intel SDS Core i7-1065G7 Preliminary Sample 25 W | |
| Intel SDS Core i7-1065G7 Preliminary Sample 15 W | |
| Razer Blade Stealth i7-8565U | |
| Average Intel Core i7-8565U (138.3 - 193, n=51) | |
| CPU Multi 64Bit | |
| Intel SDS Core i7-1065G7 Preliminary Sample 25 W | |
| Razer Blade Stealth i7-8565U | |
| Average Intel Core i7-8565U (452 - 815, n=52) | |
| Intel SDS Core i7-1065G7 Preliminary Sample 15 W | |
Visually, the chassis will be identical to last year's model meaning it will carry the same unibody magnesium skeleton, single-zone RGB keyboard, large clickpad, and port options as before. The only difference is that it will be 0.5 mm thicker (15.3 mm vs. 14.8 mm) and about 100 g heavier (1.4 kg vs. 1.31 kg) in order to accommodate the more demanding CPU and GTX GPU. This wouldn't be the first time that Razer had to thicken its Blade laptops for faster performance as both the Blade 15 and Blade Pro series also come in various thicknesses depending on the SKU.
Users hoping for some QoL improvements may be disappointed since this is largely an internal refresh. The non-upgradeable soldered RAM, lack of an SD card reader, and no per-key RGB option all dampen the versatility of the system somewhat. There will be no OLED options either as such a panel remains exclusive to the Blade 15 series for now. Fortunately, M.2 storage will remain upgradeable and 16 GB of LPDDR4 RAM will come standard across all SKUs to replace last year's undesirable 8 GB SKUs.
The late 2019 Blade Stealth with 15 W Ice Lake-U and GTX 1650 Max-Q graphics will be coming this October in black for a starting price of $1800 USD. The entry-level Mercury White SKU with 25 W Ice Lake-U and only integrated Intel Iris Pro graphics will be available for $1500 later this month. The less expensive Mercury White SKU comes with the faster CPU likely because it has the additional thermal overhead available from its lack of a dedicated GPU. Note that the GTX model will come with a higher capacity 100 W USB Type-C AC adapter instead of the base 65 W AC adapter in order to power its more demanding GPU.
Source(s)
Razer
