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Razer's Razer Blade Pro has been the visitor'southward get-to loftier-finish machine for gamers wanting a desktop replacement, and the company has tweaked its high-cease configuration for 2017. The jumps aren't huge, but the new organisation will offer a Kaby Lake Core i7-7820HQ (2.9GHz base, 3.9GHz Turbo) as opposed to the older i7-6820HQ (2.7GHz base of operations, 3.6GHz Turbo). It likewise ships with DDR4-2667 instead of DDR4-2133.

The other major merits to fame for this laptop is its support for THX. To achieve that, the Razer Blade Pro had to meet certain standards for color resolution, color accuracy, and video playback (on the video side). The audio jack on the Razer Bract Pro also had to be certified for THX, which ways conforming to that standard'south guidelines for crosstalk, distortion, frequency response, and point-to-dissonance ratio (SNR).

As for the residual of the features, the Razer Bract Pro comes with a GTX 1080, a 17.iii-inch IGZO 4K display with G-Sync support, multiple SSD storage options (all, notwithstanding, announced to be RAID 0), 32GB of DDR4, and Ethernet and wireless support provided by Killer Wireless. Thunderbolt 3 and 3x USB 3.0 ports are likewise included, as is an SDXC reader. The only downside, inevitably, is the toll. With a cost tag starting at $4,000, you're definitely staring down the butt of some very expensive hardware.

Razer claims that yous can overclock the CPU cadre to 4.3GHz by enabling "High Performance Style," but nosotros're dubious of how well this volition work in practice. In a mobile form factor, overclocking a laptop part is more than probable to lead to sustained throttling with minimal long-term functioning boosts compared with running a longer time at a lower turbo clock. Nosotros're not saying Razer's solution doesn't work, but boutique laptops frequently advertise aggressive specs for clock speeds they can't actually reach or tin only concur for very brusk periods of time.

Information technology'south also worth noting that Razer is putting a substantial premium on this hardware, even relative to other boutiques. The Razer Blade is $1,900 for a base 14-inch laptop, when other hardware is available from mainstream manufacturers like Asus or MSI with similar specs for significantly less money. Razer may merits features similar THX compatibility, but I'd frankly recommend waiting for hardware reviews earlier paying this much for a laptop. At an estimated seven.69 pounds, this isn't exactly a lightweight system, either. That's not bad for a desktop replacement, simply it's more than "transportable" than "portable" past mod standards.

Now read: The best laptops for engineers and applied science students: When work requires a real workstation