Razer Studio
Razer Studio
$4,300 from Razer
i7-10875H 8 Core (2.3GHz base - 5.1GHz boost)
15.6" OLED 4K Touch
NVIDIA® Quadro RTX™ 5000 Studio Edition (16GB GDDR6 VRAM)
1TB Storage
32GB RAM
Product Code: RZ09-0330QEM3-R3U1
Razer is a gaming computer and accessories maker. They started producing laptops in 2011. In the time since then, they have grown as a manufacturer to offer very well engineered products, being one of the only PC laptop makers fabricating machines with aluminum mono block chassises, improving device rigidity. As a gaming company targeting consumers rather than enterprise customers, Razer struggles to offer the quality of support that Lenovo, Dell, and HP can offer.
In addition to build quality, the spec-sheet is top notch. Modeling is typically limited by the strength of the CPU and this laptop has one of the fastest available. Along with the vapor chamber cooler, so long as you keep it plugged in, this machine will fly through models of any complexity. Unplugging it will result in significantly reduced performance. However, it should still offer enough to do even some live walk throughs of models for a client on site without a power connection, if the settings are reduced. Note that to get the most out of the laptop, you will need to tweak the power usage settings in the included Razer Synapse software.
If you want to use a GPU renderer, such as Enscape, Lumion, Octane, Unreal Engine, Twinmotion, or Redshift, then the 16 GB of VRAM on the RTX 5000 graphics card will provide ample space for complex buildings with complex entourage. That makes the graphics card complete overkill for modeling and drawing tasks, but at least you have room to grow into alternative workflows.
The display is an OLED, offering excellent black levels paired with middling brightness, uniformity, and color accuracy. Gamut is a bit smaller than advertised, but still fairly high. It should not be too difficult to match up colors on screen to those coming out of the plotter. At this screen size, 4K can be scaled to 200%, minimizing HiDPI issues in programs slower to adopt scalable interfaces. Sound is acceptable for a video call, but not particularly loud. The keyboard, with customizable backlighting, and touchpad are good.
In previous years, this laptop suffered from odd keyboard layouts and some engineering issues. I would only suggest getting the Studio Edition or the 2020 Razer Blade Advanced (separate review). Compared to the other laptop, this one offers a better color with a more subtle white-on-white logo. It also offers the RTX 5000 with more graphics memory than the Razer Blade. This is only important if you are using a GPU renderer (Enscape, Lumion, Octane, Unreal Engine, Twinmotion, or Redshift) with very complex scenes.
The price is steep but the quality is high. If you can live without a world-class warranty and peak performance, you will be rewarded with a powerful, portable machine.
Sources and Further Reading
https://www.razer.com/creator-laptops/razer-blade-studio-edition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Razer_products#Laptops
https://www.cnet.com/reviews/razer-blade-15-studio-edition-review/
https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/razer-blade-15-studio-edition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gzKninaOC4 Max Tech review