Razer Blade Stealth
The Razer Blade Stealth is a laptop lineup from Razer Inc. It was first launched 6 January 2016 during the Consumer Electronics Show alongside the Razer Core, the external graphics box. The product won the CES 2016 Best Laptop Award for its unique design choice of detaching the powerful GPU from the main device and connecting the two via Thunderbolt 3, thus allowing users to choose either power or portability. The current lineup consists of 5 versions of this laptop - 2016, early 2017, late 2017, 2019, and 2020 models - and 3 versions of the Razer Core - Razer Core V1, Razer Core V2, and Razer Core X.

History 

Razer started with developing gaming mouse, then 2012, they started their first step toward gaming laptop with Razer blade (2012), which contains game oriented graphics, macro programmable keyboards and touchscreen touchpad. Razer refreshed the product in 2014 with a similar design to ordinary laptops. In 2016, the company launched Razer blade stealth. The device was no longer following a trend of installing gaming graphic cards, but instead, attach a mobile Intel U processor and amplify the graphics performance by the external graphic box.

Razer Blade Stealth (2016)

Launch 
Launched in CES 2016, got a design award. Launched with a price of US$999, for a QHD model.

Hardware

Thunderbolt 3 support 
Razer blade stealth's power plug supports Thunderbolt 3 supports with 4 lanes of PCI Express. It is like a USB, but with much quicker respond speed. Therefore, it is capable of receiving 10gpbs of speed with external hardware that is connected with the laptop such as external graphics card box. The concept of external graphics was started from dell Alienware series. However, it required specific hardware called Alienware graphics amplifying box, which doesn't use Thunderbolt 3. Hence, many tech reviews and CES teams are suggesting that this is not versatile compared to Razer's solution.

Razer Chroma and Synapse software support 

Razer blade stealth supports full Chroma lightning with Razer Synapse software. Chroma lighting is a unique show light features on mouse and keyboard of all the Razer products. The keyboard in Razer blade also features identical experience with other Razer Chroma devices. The device comes with pre-installed Razer Synapse software and the software supports key clicks, Macro creating and other features that are supported within other Razer Keyboards.

Variants (2016 model)

Reception 
Razer blade got a Best of CES 2016 winner title. According to the article, it is due to their work with Razer Chroma lighting, Thunderbolt 3 support and unique design compare to other competitors like dell Dell XPS 13 and LG Gram.

PC mag editor's choice for 2016. PC mag editor Matthew Buzzi gave 4.5 out of 5 ratings for Razer Blade Stealth. "Sleek design" with "premium material", "high-resolution touch display was the advantages" and "shallow key travel" was the only disadvantage.

Razer Blade Stealth (Early 2017, Late 2017)

Launch 
Early 2017 variants were launched during CES and late 2017 was launched online only.

Hardware

Early 2017 
Updated with Intel 7th gen CPU. Another Variant with core i5 to reduce the price. Core i5 version retails at around US$900 and still have the same specification with another model, except the CPU processor. Also, the touchpad was improved by supporting windows precision driver setting as a default. Therefore, it supports windows touchpad gestures.

Late 2017 
Refreshed with 13-inch screen from 12.5, by reducing the side bezel. Late 2017 comes with two colors, which is gunmetal color and black with green Razer logo.

Late 2017 comes with same form factors with Early 2017 and CPU upgrade from 7th gen Intel i7 CPU to 8th get Intel i7 CPU.

Variants (Early 2017)

Variants (Late 2017)

Razer Blade Stealth (2019)

Launch 
The 2019 model of Razer Blade Stealth was announced on CES 2019, which was held on 8 January 2019.

Hardware 

Razer refreshed the design of Razer Blade stealth toward more unique design then before. Also, the design language now fits with their Razer Blade 15 lineup. There is no longer a glowing green LED Razer logo behind the laptop led and does not support Razer Chroma, but instead single light zone keyboard. The display bezel was shrunk down to have a 14 inch screen on a 13 inch form factor. The touchpad was updated from plastic finish to glass finish.

Blade Stealth's camera now supports IR bio-metrics. Hence, it will support windows hello functionality.

One of the variant is using MX150 graphics card, which can perform about 30% better than the 8th gen Intel's internal graphics. Thus, 2019 model can play light game and show better video editing performance without the external Razer Core.

Variants (2019)

Razer Core 
Razer Core is Thunderbolt 3 powered External graphics card container. This box can be directly connected to the computer and supports lacking graphics power of the laptop. Razer Blade Stealth does not have a dedicated GPU (Intel U series). However, the device can be connected to Razer Core to play the game.

The core is a GPU mounter. Therefore, it does not come with the graphics card itself. The variation of GPU that can be mounted to the core is as following.

Razer Core V1 

Razer core V1 was introduced in CES 2016 and launched month after the event. It was retailed at $499 USD. Device can store full length double wide PCle desktop graphics card, including AMD and Nvidia graphic cards.

Razer core contains 4 USB 3.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet port and thunderbolt connection to connect with laptop.

Razer Core V2
Razer core V2 introduced with Late 2017 version of Razer Blade Stealth. The V2 fixed one of the major issue of the V1, which is USB 3.0 does not work well when they use GPU intensive program. It is because V1 was using one PCle line for both of the connection (USB and thunderbolt). From the V2, they are using separate Pcle line for the two connections. Thus, it  performs much more reliably.

Furthermore, now the box can handle bigger size GPU by enlarging the size of the enclosure to improve the future upgradability.

Razer Core X 
Razer Core X was launched to the market at the end of 2018. Retailed at price of $299 USD. The specification of product is unchanged from the Core V2. However, Razer Chroma Lightning is gone to reduce the price, as well as the 4 USB 3.0 ports and Gigabit Ethernet.

Razer Core X Chroma 
Razer Core X Chroma was launched to the market on April 16, 2019. Retailed at price of $399 USD. Comes with 4x USB 3.1 and a Gigabit Ethernet port.

References 

Laptops
Razer Inc.