Razer Blade Stealth Review: The MacBook Pro Clone With Windows I’ve Always Wanted

For more than a decade, Razer has been known for its aggressive, brightly colored peripherals and PCs that cater to gamers. However, when Razer released its first ultraportable laptop last year, it took a different approach, with a relatively game-free design. Now, the Stealth is back with an even more refined design and a slightly bigger screen, but it still isn’t great for gaming—and there isn’t even a speck of neon green paint on it. That’s very un-Razer.

Our $1,399 gunmetal gray review unit doesn’t even feature the colored RGB backlighting that Razer typically includes in its products. But that’s just fine, because the Blade Stealth is the MacBook Pro clone with Windows that I’ve always wanted.

Design and Build Quality

The Razer Blade Stealth looks a lot like a MacBook Pro, from its hinge to its speaker placement and even the indent on the front of the system. Even the colors are pretty much the same; gunmetal is what people used to call space gray before Apple popularized it.

However, Razer has made some subtle, but important deviations from Apple’s formula. For example, the Stealth includes both types of USB ports, which is a nice way to bridge the gap between legacy tech and new peripherals. You even get a full-size HDMI port, so you don’t have to carry around a dongle to connect the Stealth to an external display.

The Stealth’s touchpad is significantly smaller than the one on the MacBook Pro, but it’s still plenty big enough to get things done.

Keyboard and Trackpad

The Stealth’s keyboard is way better than the super shallow setups you get on modern MacBook Pros. You can actually type on it for prolonged periods of time without your fingers becoming sore.

However, I think not including Razer’s fancy Chroma backlighting on the gunmetal model is a big mistake. To get that multi-colored sparkle back, you’ll have to opt for a black Stealth. If Razer had gone full RGB with this keyboard, users could have easily turned all the backlights white when they wanted to hide their power level.

Display and Performance

The Stealth has a 13.3-inch 3200 x 1800 screen with multi-touch support, which is something you can’t get on any MacBook. You also get 802.11ac Killer Wi-Fi that could help prioritize your gaming internet traffic, assuming you were actually trying to game on it, which you shouldn’t.

That’s because the Stealth relies on integrated Intel HD Graphics 620, which puts out anemic graphics performance at best. Editing a photo or video or two is fine, but when I tried to play Civilization VI at 1920 x 1080 (not even its full native resolution) and minimum settings, the Stealth struggled to even hit 11 fps. That basically means you’re limited to 2D games like Hotline Miami or Stardew Valley.

Battery Life and Portability

The standard 56 Wh battery in the Stealth is decent, as it lasted 8 hours and 49 minutes on our battery rundown test. That ain’t bad, but it is slightly shorter than times from systems like the 14-inch LG Gram (9:44) and last year’s Dell XPS 13 (9:47).

The Stealth is also very portable, weighing just 2.93 pounds and measuring 12.6 x 8.1 x 0.52 inches.

Conclusion

The Razer Blade Stealth is the 13-inch laptop that I’ve always hoped someone would make. It’s got the kind of sleek design and rock solid build quality that I’ve come to appreciate about Apple’s MacBooks, with an OS that I’m more comfortable with and a number of tweaks that make this Windows machine much nicer to live with. With the Stealth, it feels like Razer is finally growing up a bit—I just hope it doesn’t go all the way into the no-fun zone so I can get my RGB lighting back.

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