Razer doubling down on Core i7-1065G7 Ice Lake even though the Core i7-10710U would have made more sense

Razer introduced two Core i7-1065G7 Blade Stealth options last year: one 25 W CPU version with only integrated Iris Plus G7 graphics and one 15 W CPU version with a discrete GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q GPU. At the time, the manufacturer said it didn't "make sense" to pair a 25 W Core i7-1065G7 with the GTX 1650 Max-Q.

Fast-forward to 2020 and now Razer will be launching a third configuration with the 25 W Ice Lake CPU and GTX 1650 Max-Q GPU. The problem with this is that we expect just minimal CPU and gaming benefits at best between the old 15 W and new 25 W GTX SKUs. CPU performance should only be about 15 to 18 percent faster which is just barely enough to edge out the two-year old Core i7 Whiskey Lake-U configuration.

If it's CPU performance they're after, then Razer should have swapped out the Ice Lake-U part for the hexa-core Core i7-10710U Comet Lake-U part. MSI has taken this approach with the Prestige 14 which is able to offer over 50 percent faster raw multi-thread performance than Razer's 25 W Ice Lake configuration while incorporating the same GTX 1650 Max-Q GPU.

The bigger reason to own a 2020 Blade Stealth would be for its 120 Hz screen which will be a first for its 13.3-inch size category. Otherwise, you can save yourself a few hundred dollars by going with the 2019 Blade Stealth and still have essentially the same performance in games.