October 19, 2021
Diverging Priorities

I decided to check out the highest end PC laptop used for the benchmarks in Srouji’s presentation, the Razer Blade 15 Advanced. It doesn’t look bad, but it really highlights the differences in priorities between professionals and gamers, particularly among displays. Razer touts three options1 for displays on 15-inch laptops with the monicker “Advanced”:

FHD Gaming

  • FHD 360 Hz
  • 2ms response
  • Up to 100% sRGB

QHD Clarity

  • QHD 240 Hz
  • ADVANCED OPTIMUS
  • NVIDIA® G-SYNC®

4K Creator

  • 4K OLED Touch Display
  • DCI-P3 100% Color Space
  • 1ms Response

Quite frankly, these are ho-hum resolution-wise. FHD is 1920×1080, QHD is 2560×1440, and “not quite Retina” 4k is 3840×2160. Color details and contrast ratio are also hard to find on Razer’s site. That said, neither resolution nor color accuracy are the top priority in gaming. Response time is, which is what Razer highlights above all else.

Compare this to the one option Apple touts in the new 16” MacBook Pro’s display:

Liquid Retina XDR display

  • 16.2-inch (diagonal) Liquid Retina XDR display; 3456-by-2234 native resolution at 254 pixels per inch

XDR (Extreme Dynamic Range)

  • Up to 1000 nits sustained (full-screen) brightness, 1600 nits peak brightness
  • 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio

Color

  • 1 billion colors
  • Wide color (P3)
  • True Tone technology

Refresh rates

  • ProMotion technology for adaptive refresh rates up to 120Hz
  • Fixed refresh rates: 47.95Hz, 48.00Hz, 50.00Hz, 59.94Hz, 60.00Hz

Apple’s top of the line MacBook Pro seemingly beats the Razor in every other category, but has a peak refresh rate lower than even the one available on Razor’s non-advanced FHD model. Is that bad? Probably not, unless you are a gamer.

  1. People complain Apple hardware is expensive when more often than not, what they really mean is that Apple doesn’t sell the exact thing at the exact price point they are looking for. PC buyers have many challenges, but you can almost always find a PC with the exact specs you are looking for. Well… except if you want a laptop with great performance and great battery. That requires a Mac. ↩