The Razer Blade 17 suddenly has a bigger battery this year. What's the secret?

When the Blade 17 launched in 2019, we were surprised to find a total of four fans inside of the thing compared to just two on even the largest of gaming laptops. The extra two fans would occupy the space directly underneath the clickpad where the battery is usually positioned. As a result, the fans were occupying space that could have otherwise been used for a bigger battery; the similarly-sized MSI GS76 would ship with a 99 Wh battery compared to only 70 W on the Razer.

Did the Blade 17 really need four fans in the first place? Apparently not. The latest 2022 model with 12th gen Intel CPUs has dropped one of the fans for a total of "only" three fans as shown by our images below. It's an unannounced update that Razer decided not to market even though it's a change that enthusiasts might have likely wanted to know before purchasing. By removing a fan, however, the chassis can now house a larger 82 Wh battery instead.

So, why not remove the third fan for an even larger 99 Wh battery? As you can probably imagine, overall temperatures are generally warmer on the 2022 model when compared to earlier models as detailed in our review especially since the 2022 model utilizes an even more power-hungry 165 W GPU. Razer probably weighed the benefits and disadvantages of removing the third fan and found that the gains in battery life wouldn't have offset the increases in temperature or even potential decrease in performance.

There are additional differences between the 2022 Blade 17 and its earlier models as well. Our full review on the Blade 17 here goes over many of these changes.