Case

Take the 15.6-inch Blade 15 aluminum-magnesium chassis, enlarge it for a 17.3-inch form factor, and you essentially have the new Blade Pro 17. Razer has applied what they've learned from the Blade 15 series onto their third generation Blade Pro design and the results are impressive. Chassis rigidity in particular is excellent with essentially no flexing or creaking of the base when attempting to twist it or depress its keyboard center. Even the lid is stiffer than the lids of many other narrow-bezel 17.3-inch laptops including the Asus Zephyrus S GX701. It's amazing how Razer has translated its Blade 15 chassis so well for a larger screen size while maintaining the robust build almost 1:1. The 17.3-inch MSI GS75, for example, is also an enlarged version of its smaller 15.6-inch GS65 sibling and yet it feels comparatively weaker and more flexible.

In short, you'll have a good idea of how the Blade Pro 17 looks and feels if you've ever handled a Blade 15. The flip side to this is that the notebook suffers from many of the same drawbacks as the current Blade 15 including the fingerprint-loving surfaces and limited hinge angle. The lids of the Lenovo Legion Y740 or Alienware m17 R1 can open almost the full 180 degrees in comparison.



Build quality is perfect on our test unit with no unintended gaps or defects between materials. It's a much more minimalist and unibody approach when compared to competing gaming laptops that ultimately jibes very well with Razer's current crop of Blade 15 and Blade Stealth offerings.