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Razer stealthily releases the first Razer Blade Stealth with a quad-core processor

13.3-inch Razer Blade Stealth in black (left) and gunmetal grey (right). (Source: Razer)
13.3-inch Razer Blade Stealth in black (left) and gunmetal grey (right). (Source: Razer)
Razer has announced a quad-core upgrade for the 13.3-inch Razer Blade Stealth. This provides more processing power for use with the Razer Core and external GPU. Razer has also includes a larger power supply, indicating that they might tweak a higher CPU TDP for increased performance.

Approximately four months ago, Razer upgraded their 4K (3840 x 2160) 12.5-inch Blade Stealth with a QHD+ (3200 x 1800) 13.3-inch model. The two were sold alongside each other, giving users the choice of picking the smaller 100 percent adobeRGB model, or the larger 100 percent sRGB model based on whether they were more interested in color accuracy or screen real estate.

However, a few hours ago Razer released a new Razer Blade Stealth (13.3-inch) which is packing an Intel 8th Gen i7-8550U (1.8/4.0 GHz) processor. The i7-8550U is a low TDP quad-core with hyper-threading designed for thin and light ultrabooks, and in certain workloads is quite a step up over the i7-7500U. This 4C/8T chip has a rated TDP of just 15 watts, but it has a higher burst TDP that allows performance close to 45-watt 7th Gen mobile HQ chips over shorter periods of time. Razer has paired this processor with 16 GB of non-removable LPDDR3-2133 MHz RAM ( the previous model was 1866 MHz), and a 512 GB NVMe SSD. No other storage options are showing as available on Razer’s website, but the earlier 13.3-inch version which is still for sale includes 256 GB and 1 TB options.

The screen remains the same QHD+ (3200 x 1800) IGZO touch-enabled display reaching 100 percent of sRGB (we measured our Kaby Lake test model at 95 percent). The battery that is keeping that screen lit up is also the same 53.6 Wh unit, but with the CPU change, Razer is claiming an increase in battery life of “up to 10 hours.”

The body is CNC-milled aluminum measuring just 0.54 inches (14 mm) thick and weighing in at 2.97 pounds (1.35 kg). Buyers can select between two color options; black (with RGB keyboard and glowing green Razer logo) or gunmetal grey (with white backlit keyboard and tone-on-tone blended logo). Razer rightly states that the gunmetal version is a lot more suited to the professional market.

Around the side of the body is a Thunderbolt 3 port — a mainstay on Razer laptops — two USB3.0, HDMI 2.0a, and a 3.5 mm combo port. Wireless is handled by a Killer Wireless-AC card for 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.1.

Interestingly, it appears that Razer has increased the power supply by 20 watts, from 45 W to 65 W. This indicates that they might be using the configurable TDP that Intel makes available to manufacturers to tweak the sustained performance of the U-series chips to match the capacity of their cooling designs.

“Our engineers have done something truly remarkable with the new Blade Stealth by significantly increasing power while extending battery life,” says Min-Liang Tan, Razer co-founder and CEO. “The new Blade Stealth is the most well-rounded Windows laptop out there, and it can be further supercharged with the help of the new Razer Core V2.”

Speaking of the Razer Core, a new V2 model was also announced. The Core V2 is the first dual Thunderbolt enclosure which uses separate lanes for the graphics card and USB ports, which should hopefully fix he issue of peripherals sometimes disconnecting during use. The internal layout has also been tweaked to allow taller GPU’s, a common compatibility problem that users needed to be careful about

The new quad-core Razer Blade Stealth has a retail price of US$1699 and is already available for shipping in Canada, France, Germany, United Kingdom, and the United States. The Razer Core V2 will be available soon for US$499 in those same markets.

Black version of the Razer Blade Stealth showing RGB keyboard. (Source: Razer)
Black version of the Razer Blade Stealth showing RGB keyboard. (Source: Razer)
Gunmetal grey version of the Razer Blade Stealth showing white backlit keyboard. (Source: Razer)
Gunmetal grey version of the Razer Blade Stealth showing white backlit keyboard. (Source: Razer)
13.3-inch Razer Blade Stealth. (Source: Razer)
13.3-inch Razer Blade Stealth. (Source: Razer)
Razer Blade Core V2. (Source: Razer)
Razer Blade Core V2. (Source: Razer)

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Razer product specifications

Razer press release

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2017 10 > Razer stealthily releases the first Razer Blade Stealth with a quad-core processor
Craig Ward, 2017-10-18 (Update: 2017-10-18)