Razer Blade Stealth Vs. Macbook Pro: Why A Laptop You’ve Never Heard Of Could Be The Nail In Macbook’s Coffin

The name MacBook Pro is pretty much synonymous with quality when it comes to laptops. PCs will do okay for a while, but if you want a truly simple machine that will take years to break, people will tell you to get an Apple computer.

That might all be changing thanks to a handy little computer you’ve never heard of: enter the Razer Blade Stealth. Despite its name, it isn’t some new weapon in Assassin’s Creed. Instead, this device is light, cheaper than its Apple competitor, and has decent performance under the hood. If you’re looking for a new computer, you’d do well to give the Razer serious consideration.

Size And Weight

The shiny new device checks in at a 13.1 mm thickness and 12.5 inch form factor, as PC Authority mentions. Razer’s new computer also boasts touchscreen capabilities, and weighs a mere 2.8 pounds. Apple’s answer is slightly heavier at 4.5 pounds, and quite a bit shorter with only 0.95 inches in height to speak of. More computer for less money just seems to make sense. We’ll give this round to the Razer.

Hardware

Here’s where we get into the nerdy stuff. The new Razer comes with 8 GB of RAM and 128 SSD (Solid State Drive) storage, as Engadget mentions. If you don’t speak fluent computer geek, SSD storage means that information is stored in microchips as opposed to a hard disk drive, which is slower because of using a different storage method. The MacBook Pro boasts a 4 GB memory to start, but Apple’s site mentions that their portable computer’s memory is configurable up to 8 gigs. Macs can field an impressive 500 GB of memory right out of the box, so we’ll give this one to Apple.

Battery Life

The Stealth is no joke when it comes to battery life, either. The workhorse of a computer has nine hours of battery life. This is thanks to its 53.6 watt-hour battery, which makes it 15 percent more viable than the last generation, as Yahoo! Finance found. The Mac lags slightly behind, with seven hours of battery life. However, the Razer is not made for gaming, so heavy gaming would likely drain its battery faster than normal. Razer takes the cake on this one, too.

Display

With display, bigger isn’t always better. Sometimes, smaller screens can make for a more easily portable device, and consumers are often more concerned with the way a screen looks and feels as opposed to its physical size. Possibly due to this fact, the Razer has a handy touchscreen display beautifully splayed across its 12.5 inch screen.

Touchscreen can be both annoying and super-useful, depending on how you plan to use your device. Forget its there, and it can be your biggest productivity nightmare; use it with purpose, and it can be the most convenient feature your laptop has.

We've brought a bevy of beautiful @Razer Blade Stealth + Razer Cores with GTX 1080s to #PAXWest. #GameReady @nvidia pic.twitter.com/DfMTzf8ir6

— NVIDIA GeForce (@NVIDIAGeForce) September 3, 2016

What the MacBook Pro lacks in touchscreen-y goodness, it makes up for in size. Coming in at 13.3 inches, a MacBook’s display is bigger and is backlit by an LED. Also, Apple really wants you to know that its laptop display supports millions of colors. We’ll call this one a tie. At the end of the third round:

Macbook: 1
Razer: 2
Tie: 1

Pricing

Ah, yes, the question of all questions: what will it cost me? You usually can’t get top-of-the-line performance in tech without a hefty price tag, but if you’re trying to be economical, you don’t want to sacrifice quality. So, what’s an economically-savvy person to do? Weigh the numbers, of course. A brand-new MacBook Pro will run you $1,099, while the Razer has a bit more pricing flexibility. As Ultrabookreview mentions, the Razer comes in three flavors: a basic model will run you $999, while an additional $200 gets an upgraded model with 256 GB of SSD storage. Finally, a third model offers 512GB for $1,599. We’ll call it another tie. Going into round five, here’s how we stand:

Macbook: 1
Razer: 2
Tie: 2

Software

The idea of which computer’s software is “better” is a pretty subjective question, but needless to say there are different setups that work differently for certain types of users.

For instance, Mac has long been touted as the device for creative people since it comes with a fully-loaded suite of artistic programs like Photoshop and InDesign. Razer has traditionally been known for gaming computers, but the newest model pulls away from that convention. Razer runs on Windows 10, while the MacBook Pro makes use of Apple’s MacOS Sierra. The latter operating system adds Siri to Macs, and Windows 10 also introduces Microsoft’s mobile assistant Cortana to PCs. We’ll leave this at a tie also.

Razer refreshes Blade, Blade Stealth laptops w/Intel Kaby Lake CPU, Nvidia Pascal graphics https://t.co/bo9Bv0cI1S pic.twitter.com/CgiDUpeuj3

— ZDNET (@ZDNET) September 4, 2016

Macbook: 1
Razer: 2
Tie: 3

The Bottom Line

What have we learned today, everybody? While there’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to tech, the Razer is a viable competitor that could hurt sales of MacBook Pros. With prices starting at just under that of a Mac, and features to give Apple a run for its money, the Razer Stealth is shaping up to be the best purchase you’ve never heard of. Let us know what you think of both computers below; which one works for you best?

[Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images]