Laptops

Razer Blade vs. Alienware Comparison

Razer and Dell are the giants of the PC laptop market. When it comes to gaming laptops, both are competitors, as both companies have their gaming laptops: Razer Blade series from Razer and Alienware from Dell. Razer Blade 15 and Alienware m15 R3 are both gaming laptops with amazing performances. Let’s have a look at the strengths, differences, pros, and cons of these laptops.In the past gaming was tied with bulky desktops or gaming consoles. But gaming laptops revolutionized PC gaming by adding portability. Now, any AAA game can be played on these powerful laptops. Alienware was one of the first companies that introduced the gaming laptop in the market called Alienware Area 51-M. It is a subsidiary company of Dell. The flagship gaming laptops of Alienware are Alienware m15 R3.

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Alienware

  • Intel Core i7-10750H
  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super 8GB &RTX 2070s
  • 1 TB SSD/ RAM 16 GB DDR4
  • Full HD Display 15.6” and 17.3”

Razer was one of the pioneers of gaming laptops and is famous for its thin and unibody design. Razer made minor tweaks in the latest version of Razer Blade 15. It has 2 main Razer Blade gaming laptops, the Base Model and Advanced Model.

Both manufacturers are great when it comes to gaming. All latest AAA titles are smoothly run on these machines. The categorizing mechanism of the manufacturer is different. Dell has classified the machines according to the screen sizes, while Razer classified their model according to specifications. But they are not the same. Let’s have a comparison of these two beasts.

Razer Blade 15, Base Model (Config 1), More Info: Amazon

  • 6-Cores, Intel Core i7-10750H
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660Ti
  • 512 GB SSD/ RAM 16 GB
  • Full HD Display

Razer Blade 15, Base Model (Config 2), More Info: Amazon

  • 6-Cores, Intel Core i7-10750H
  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070
  • 512 GB SSD/ RAM 16 GB
  • 4k OLED

Razer Blade 15, Advanced Model (Config 1), More Info: Amazon

  • 8-Cores, Intel Core i7-10875H
  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super
  • 1 TB SSD/ RAM 16GB
  • Full HD Display

Razer Blade 15, Advanced Model (Config 2), More Info: Amazon

  • 8-Cores, Intel Core i7-10875H
  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super
  • 1 TB SSD/ RAM 16 GB
  • 4k OLED Touch

Built

Razer Blade has a unibody minimalist aluminum design, which gives it a premium look and feels. On the other hand, Alienware comes with a Magnesium Aluminum Alloy body with an epic design. The Razer Blade is much lighter compared to Alienware. The weight of Alienware is 9.7 lbs, while Razer Blade is about 4.73 lbs, which makes a big difference. Alienware measures 360 x 276 x 19.9 mm and Razr Blade 355.0 x 234.95 x 17.78 mm.

The build quality of both laptops is pretty decent, but Razer Blade would be considered much more labor-saving when it comes to carrying it around.

Gaming laptops are a bit thick compared to other laptops. Therefore, companies are considering to maximize the thinness of gaming laptops also. It is now a key characteristic of the gaming machine. Razer Blade’s Advanced Model is 17.7 mm (0.70 inches) thin, while Alienware is 23 mm (0.91 inches) thin.

Speakers on Razer Blade laptops are top-mounted and pretty decent, but not super impressive. The 2020th version of Alienware has made changes with the speaker placement. They added 2 more front-facing speakers, along with 2 other under the hood speakers. These 2 new speakers are a welcome upgrade.

Processors

This is a tricky part. The processor Razer Blade is offering Intel Core i7 10th Generation, and there is no other configuration apart from this. However, Alienware is offering two different configurations, Intel core i9 and core i7 10th generation.
Alienware would get an extra point for offering the highest available processor configuration. The following are the processor configurations of each laptop of both manufacturers:

Razer Blade: Base Model

  • Intel CoreTM i7-10750
  • 6 cores

Razer Blade: Advanced Model

  • Intel CoreTM i7-10875
  • 8 cores

Alienware M15 R3

  • Intel CoreTM i7-10750 – Inter core i7-10875 (6–8 cores)
  • Intel CoreTM i9-10980HK (8 cores)

Graphics

GPUs are the main parts of gaming machines. Most of the geometry is rendered by the GPU because games are all about graphics processing units. Alienware and Razer Blade both offer different high-end GPUs.

Razer Blade laptops are equipped with NVIDIA GPUs only, while Alienware has both AMD and NVIDIA. Which GPU should you get? It all depends upon personal preferences, but AMD GPUs do not offer ray tracing functionality. Let’s see the range of GPUs these machines are presenting.

Razer Blade: Base Model

  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070
  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660Ti

Razer Blade Advanced Model

  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super
  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super

Alienware M15 R3

  • AMD RadeonTM RX 5500M (Inter CoreTM i7)
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660Ti (Inter CoreTM i7)
  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (Intel CoreTM i7)
  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (Intel CoreTM i7)
  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super (Inter CoreTM i9)
  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super (Inter CoreTM i9)

Storage/RAM

Razer Blade is officially offering 1TB and 256 GB of SSD for Advanced and Base models, respectively. The base model also has an additional PCIe slot. RAM on both models is expandable, but both models officially come with 16 GB of memory. Razer 15 Studio Edition is installed with 32 GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD.

Alienware M15 R3 hasCoreTM i7 processor with storage options of 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1TB, unlike Razer Blade with 16 GB and 32GB. These memories are not expandable since they are soldered with the motherboard. M15 R3 with coreTM i9 offers 1TB and 4TB of SSDs with 32 GB of non-expandable RAM. M17 R3 also has the same configuration.

Keyboard

The keyboards of both laptops are typical RBG gaming keyboards, and both laptops offer decent key-travel. The spacing between the keys is perfect. Alienware has an anti-ghosting technique to prevent additional keystrokes.

The lights of the keyboards can be personalized. These lights can be customized using Razer Blade’s Synapse and Alienware’s Command Center. These programs control different functions of hardware like keyboard lights, fan speed, and GPU performances.

Each key on the Advanced Model and both models of Alienware is customizable. Whereas in Razer’s Base model, this functionality is not available.

Displays

Displays with high refresh rates are very essential for gamers to get a smooth experience. Alienware offers FHD (1920×1080) OLED Displays with a refresh rate of 300-144Hz for CoreTM i7 configuration. But for CoreTM i9 the OLED displays are UHD (3840×2160) with 300-144Hz. Another important technology that is integrated with these displays is Tobii Eyetracking Technology (for CoreTM i9 Config). Tobii Eyetracking technology tracks the eyes’ movement and renders graphics more precisely on the area where our eyes are looking.

Razer Blade offers 2 configurations for displays FHD and 4K OLED. The maximum refresh rate on the Advanced model is 300Hz, and the Base model is 144 Hz.

Ports

Ports are extremely essential for a laptop since many laptops manufacturers are ditching ports lately. But Razer Blade and Alienware both come with a whole bunch of ports.

Razer Blade has 3 USB Type-A ports, 2 USB Type-C ports, and a port of Type-C port that is ThunderBolt 3. It has one HDMI 2.0b port and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

There is one minor difference, the base model has an ethernet port and no SD card reader, while the advanced model has no ethernet port but has an SD card slot.

Alienware has 3 USB 3.1 ports and 1 ThunderboltTM 3 port. There is 1 graphics amplifier port, an HDMI 2.0b, a mini display port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a Micro SD card reader. So, Alienware is offering all necessary ports for a laptop.

Razer Blade 15: Pros and cons

Pros

  • Classy metal design
  • Steller gaming performance
  • Customizable keyboard
  • Plenty of port
  • RAMs are upgradable
  • Large and precise trackpad

Cons

  • Expensive
  • Short battery life

Alienware R3: Pros and cons

Pros

  • Beautiful aesthetic
  • Super gaming performance
  • Customizable keyboard
  • 300 refresh rate of the displays
  • A lot of ports

Cons

  • RAMs cannot be upgraded
  • Small trackpad
  • Unsatisfactory battery life

Both laptops are great gaming machines. Razer Blade is not available in the CoreTM i9 configuration. Whereas, Alienware is offering both CoreTM i7 and CoreTM i9 configuration. So, users have a choice in Alienware. Both laptops have panels of 300hz, which provide a seamless gaming experience. When it comes to ports, Alienware has all ports, but the advanced version of Razer Blade is missing an ethernet jack. Alienware is also offering Tobii Eyetracking Technology, which is missing in Razer Blade 15.

Razer Blade 15 Alienware
Only one processor option CoreTM i7 Available with CoreTM i7 and CoreTM i9
Offers only NVIDIA GPUs Supports both AMD and NVIDIA GPUs
The advanced model has an SD card slot but no ethernet jack. The Base model offers an ethernet jack but no SD card slot. Have all ports
No Tobii Eyetracking Technology Built-in Tobii Eyetracking Technology
Large and precise trackpad Trackpad is smaller
Top-mounted speakers Front and bottom facing speakers
Synapse for customization (Keyboard, GPU, Fans) Alienware Command Center for Customization (Keyboard, GPU, Fans)
RAMs are expandable RAMs are soldered with the motherboard

Conclusion

The choice between the 2 depends upon the design and budget because the only thing that differs between these two machines is aesthetics.

If you like minimalist, compact MacBook like design, then Razer Blade 15 is a perfect choice. If you want something appealing and illuminating, then Alienware is for you. The second most important thing is the configuration. Alienware is offering CoreTM i7 and CoreTM i9 configuration, whereas Razer Blade only comes with CoreTM i7 configuration. If you are interested in CoreTM i9, Alienware isyour option.

RAMs are not upgradeable in Alienware laptops, and there are only 2 choices, 16GB and 32GB. However, in Razer Blades RAMs, can be upgraded to 64GBs.

About the author

Sam U

Sam U

I am a professional graphics designer with over 6 years of experience. Currently doing research in virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality.
I hardly watch movies but love to read tech related books and articles.