Razer Tips the Book 13, a Sleek, RGB-Equipped Ultraportable for Everyday Work

Watch out, Apple MacBook Pro and Dell XPS 13, the Razer Book 13 is on its way.

The gaming company today announced the Razer Book 13, a non-gaming-focused ultraportable, for release later this month. It’s a slim laptop with a premium build and feature set but no gaming components, meant to compete with the marquee general-productivity laptops on the market. The starting price is $1,199.99.

The Book 13 will carry over the signature Razer Blade design, meaning a squared-off, anodized-aluminum chassis, but with a Mercury White paint job rather than black. The starting configuration weighs 2.95 pounds and measures just 0.6 inch thick.

Three Books to Start

Expect three models of the Razer Book 13, with some moderate component differences. All of them will be built around Intel’s newest 11th Generation “Tiger Lake” processors with integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics, with Core i5 and Core i7 options available. These three models will be available later this month, with a specific date yet to be determined.

The base model costs $1,199.99 and comes with a Core i5-1135G7 processor, 8GB of memory, a 256GB SSD, and a "full HD+" non-touch display. The mid-tier model is priced at $1,599.99, packing in a Core i7-1165G7 processor, 16GB of memory, a 256GB SSD, and the same display, but with touch-input support.

The "full HD+" refers to the 16:10 aspect ratio of the screen and its 1,920-by-1,200-pixel resolution (versus the more conventional 1,920 by 1,080). This ratio allows for a slightly taller screen and greater vertical scroll space and viewability for web pages, spreadsheets, and text documents. It is a staple of a few productivity laptops, like the Dell XPS 13; the 3:2 (and higher-res) Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 takes a similar taller-screen tack.

The priciest configuration comes in at $1,999.99. It has most of the same components as the middle model, but it upgrades the storage to 512GB and the screen to a 4K touch display (3,840 by 2,400 pixels). The two more-expensive models also weigh slightly more than the base model (3.09 pounds), likely due (at least in part) to the touch screen's digitizing layer.

The memory used on all models is speedy 4,267MHz RAM, and all share the same ports. These include two USB Type-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 support, a USB 3.2 Type-A port, a full-size HDMI 2.0 output, a micro SD card slot, and a headphone jack. 

The Razer Book 13 also supports Wi-Fi 6 and Windows Hello sign-ins via the webcam.

Also on the Menu: RGB Keys and Evo Support

The least-typical feature of the Book 13, given this class of laptop, is its per-key-programmable RGB keyboard, a unique proposition among productivity machines. Per-key RGB key lighting is typical only in higher-end gaming laptops, and it is a signature feature of most of Razer's upper-end models. It uses the company's Chroma UI to tweak and is compatible with its Synapse software. In contrast, the lower-end Razer Blade Stealth 13, the Razer model that shares the most design language with the Book 13, has lately moved to single-color keys, making the Book 13's rainbow keyboard that much more of a surprise.

Interestingly, all three models of the Book 13 have qualified for Intel’s Evo certification, meaning they meet certain requirements on portability, battery life, recharge time, and base features. The lowest-end Book 13 model (the Core i5), while sharing most of these, lacks a touch display, but still qualifies for Evo, according to Razer.

This is not Razer’s first 13-inch laptop, but it will be the company's only small laptop without a discrete GPU. The Blade Stealth 13 was originally introduced as a non-gaming ultraportable, relying on integrated graphics, but in later models Razer has since added a dedicated GeForce graphics chip and other gaming features, essentially turning it into a smaller, lighter-hitting version of its flagship Blade 15. Razer also offers the Blade 15 Studio Edition for media-creation professionals.

Now, the Razer Book 13 will compete with leading premium options like the XPS 13, the Surface Laptop 3, and Apple's MacBook Air and Pro in the general-user space. We look forward to getting our hands on the Razer Book 13 when units become available this month, so check back soon for a review.

Posted in: Laptop