Razer E book (late 2021) evaluate: Nonetheless slick, now with Home windows 11

Value When Reviewed

$999.99 base value | $1,499.99 as reviewed

Finest Costs Immediately

Razer up to date its Razer E book productiveness laptop computer for the autumn and the launch of Home windows 11, and we had been wanting to see if something had materially modified. To some extent, efficiency was barely affected. However the strengths — and flaws — of the Razer E book stay largely an identical to our evaluate of an identical mannequin just a few months in the past.

The Razer E book that we examined represents a slight improve over the older Razer Book that Razer launched in March. For one factor, all of those new Razer Books ship with Home windows 11 preinstalled, whereas the sooner variations provided Home windows 10 and the promise of a later improve to Home windows 11. Our evaluate mannequin, with a Full HD (1,920×1200) show, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage, is now priced identically to the older mannequin (RZ09-03571E92-R3U1), which was discounted to $1,499.99 from its unique $1,699.99 MSRP.

There are slight variations between the older fashions and the up to date Razer Books, nevertheless. Every show has now been individually manufacturing facility calibrated, for instance, with a brand new anti-reflective coating. Razer additionally seems to have bumped up the reminiscence speeds a bit, to 4,267MHz LPDDR4x versus a extra generic dual-channel reminiscence structure on the older Razer Books. Razer additionally answered our criticism that there have been no Razer Books obtainable with something greater than 256GB of storage with out shopping for a 4K display screen; our FHD evaluate unit has 512GB of storage. (You might must order straight from Razer through our buying hyperlinks beneath to make sure you’re shopping for the up to date mannequin. At press time, Amazon was nonetheless promoting the older mannequin, and it’s not clear whether or not the retailer will merely swap them out for the newer model, or not.)

In any occasion, you’ll have the choice of selecting from a Razer E book at costs starting from $999 all the way in which to $1,799.99, with both a Core i5 or Core i7 inside. A brand new configuration, the $999 Razer Book (Core i5/8GB RAM/256GB SSD storage) is unique to Razer.com, nevertheless.

Beneath, we’ve used an abridged model of the PCWorld evaluate format, since this “new” Razer E book isn’t actually all that new. We’ve examined this Razor E book, nevertheless, and we’ve got up to date efficiency charts so that you can peruse based mostly on the brand new configuration. Lastly, we will affirm that the keyboard remains to be awful.

(Editor’s Notice: This evaluate leans closely on Jared Newman’s Razer Book 13 review that we evaluated in March, together with subjective evaluation of varied elements.)

Razer E book 13 primary options

The up to date Razer E book 13 that we reviewed consists of the next tech specs:

• Intel Core i7-1165G7 CPU with Iris Xe graphics
• 13.4-inch 1920×1200 touchscreen (60Hz) with anti-reflective coating
• 16GB LPDDR4X RAM at 4267MHz
• 512GB storage
• HD webcam with Home windows Hiya
• Left aspect: USB-C with Thunderbolt 4, USB-A 3.2, headphone jack
• Proper aspect: USB-C with Thunderbolt 4, HDMI 2.0, MicroSD card slot
• Weight: 3.09 kilos (3.72 kilos with USB-C charging brick)
• Dimensions: 11.6 x 7.8 x 0.6 inches

With a silver aluminum end and 16:10 display screen side ratio, the Razer E book 13 seems fairly a bit like an Apple MacBook. Razer’s laptop computer features a white keyboard as a substitute of black, nevertheless, and it’s flanked by speaker grilles.

The Razer E book 13’s show boasts a extra productivity-friendly decision of 1920×1200 as a substitute of the same old 1920×1080. There’s nonetheless an IPS show, which wonderful viewing angles, however at instances the extent of distinction can appear low. Although the shows on this new Razer E book are actually individually calibrated, we’re fairly positive that you just wouldn’t discover a distinction until you carried out a side-by-side comparability.

Likewise, we will affirm that the Razer E book 13’s keyboard remains to be dangerous. As Jared Newman wrote in our earlier evaluate: “The core subject is that the Razer E book 13 can simply miss keystrokes until you press down across the heart of the important thing. I sort fairly shortly, and whereas it could really feel like I used to be hitting every key, my fingers didn’t all the time land with the accuracy that Razer requires. That meant I often had to return and proper errors. The Razer E book 13’s considerably inflexible keys and low journey compound the issue, as does its perplexingly mushy spacebar.”

The opposite downside is the RGB lighting. It’s distracting and pointless for a productiveness pocket book, and should be turned off utilizing the Razer Synapse software program.

Razer hasn’t made any noticeable enhancements to the webcam. Razer’s audio, although, is terrific — however provided that you go into the included Realtek audio console, click on the settings gear, after which manually allow the graphic equalizer. In any other case, the audio, as Jared Newman famous, does sound muddled and with out a lot bass response. Activate the equalizer, although, and there’s a major distinction to my ears.

Efficiency

For no matter motive, we did see some variations in efficiency between the older Razer E book 13 and the brand new mannequin we had been despatched with Home windows 11 preinstalled. We current our findings beneath. We’ve preserved the comparisons from the sooner evaluate, but in addition added the brand new numbers for comparability.

In PCMark 10’s efficiency take a look at of varied productiveness duties—together with net looking, workplace software program, and content material creation—the Razer E book 13 edged out a number of different equally geared up laptops.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Handbrake measures how lengthy the pocket book takes to transcode a video file utilizing the CPU. Right here, the Razer E book 13 carried out very properly, crossing the end line behind solely the Acer Swift 3X.

Mark Hachman / IDG

We measured the Razer E book’s efficiency in Cinebench, which stresses the entire CPU cores (in addition to only a single thread, in a separate take a look at) in rendering a scene. The older Razer E book with Home windows 10 carried out a lot better on this take a look at for some motive.

Mark Hachman / IDG

The 3DMark Time Spy take a look at measures 3D efficiency. Right here, the Razer E book didn’t supply something particular. It’s roughly consistent with different laptops that use an Iris Xe GPU.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Lastly, we measured batter life. We didn’t count on too many variations from the older Razer E book, and we weren’t dissatisfied. Virtually 13 hours of battery life remains to be wonderful.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Conclusion

Is that this up to date Razer E book 13 any totally different than the sooner mannequin? Not materially. This new Razer E book does permit us to wonder if Home windows 11 has affected the efficiency, or if there have been some behind-the-scenes tweaks, too.

Right here, we’ll defer to Jared Newman’s earlier conclusion, which remains to be legitimate: Whereas the Razer E book 13 is expensive given its tech specs, paying extra for slick design and no bloatware isn’t an outrageous prospect. Paying extra regardless of a subpar keyboard, nevertheless, is a a lot harder promote.