Razer Blade 17 (2022)

Whether you’re playing games or making them, this is a machine that’s more than up to both tasks

- JESS WEATHERBED

PRICE As reviewed, £3,583 (£4,300 inc VAT) from razer.com/gb-en

The Razer Blade series has long been recognised for its chameleon nature: sleek and professional enough to sit in a boardroom, while being packed with components geared towards both gaming and creative tasks. This 2022 update doesn’t radically change the design, but does shift to 12th gen Intel Alder Lake processors, DDR5 RAM and Nvidia’s new GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics – and includes one of the best cooling systems I’ve ever experienced in a gaming laptop.

Or is this a creative workstation? After all, it boasts an official Nvidia Studio badge, only awarded to devices that meet strict criteria – meaning they’re guaranteed to smoothly run demanding creative applications.

It’s certainly reassuringly expensive. The lowest spec of the Razer Blade 17 costs £3,000, which will net you a model equipped with an RTX 3060 GPU, 16GB of DDR5 RAM and a 165Hz QHD display.

Every model is equipped with a 1TB SSD, and all but one include Intel’s Core i7-12800H processor, the only exception being a variant that bumps up to a Core i9-12900H.

GPU options include an RTX 3060, RTX 3070 Ti or RTX 3080 Ti, and you also get a few different configurations for the display, from 1080p to 4K with variable refresh rates. Our review model was equipped with an Intel Core i7-12800H processor, an RTX 3080 Ti and the 240Hz 1440p version of the display, and costs £4,300.

Classic looks