Gaming on a Plane: A Review of the Blade Laptop and In-Flight Gaming Experience

I recently had the opportunity to test out the Razer Blade laptop, which I was excited to see how it would perform while gaming on a plane. As an avid gamer, I have to admit that in-flight gaming is not always the most ideal experience, but with the right hardware and some preparation, it can be done comfortably.

One of the first things I noticed about the Razer Blade laptop was its industrial design. The laptop's sharp edges and sleek profile made it look like a work of art, but also posed a few challenges for me as a gamer. After a few hours of gaming, I noticed some slight irritation from my wrist constantly rubbing against the super straight edge of the housing. To avoid any discomfort, I would suggest grabbing some wrist rests for your laptop. Thankfully, there were some working AC ports on the way to Taiwan, which offered peace of mind in situations where you're not so lucky.

Another key aspect of the Razer Blade laptop was its performance. In benchmarking tests, I compared it to the Dell XPS 13 GS60, and while they shared identical specs, the Blade pushed out a score of 3,363 compared to the GS60's slightly higher score of 3,383 in Fire Strike Extreme. However, both laptops performed similarly in terms of gameplay experience, with no noticeable difference between them.

However, when it came to testing Doom on high settings at 1080p, the Razer Blade laptop did start to heat up significantly under load. After an hour or so of gaming, it turned into a slab of molten lava, which made me wonder if I had packed enough cooling pads for my next flight. Had I known this going into my trip, I would have definitely considered investing in a portable laptop cooler.

In terms of peripherals, I relied on the Logitech G602 wireless mouse and some convenient Bluetooth earbuds from Sound Pets. The wireless nature of these devices helped to prevent cable clutter and interference in an already claustrophobic gaming space. However, not having noise-cancelling headphones would have been a significant drawback for me, as the plane's roaring jet engine and shrill cries of an infant in distress made it difficult to focus on my game.

Overall, I found that using some simple tricks, such as packing spare shirts or requesting blankets from the airline, helped to alleviate some of the discomfort associated with gaming in a seat. The Razer Blade laptop itself proved to be comfortable to use for extended periods of time, despite its narrow 10-keyless design, which brought my hands closer together and pointing inward.

The experience of gaming on a plane was not without its challenges, but with the right hardware and some preparation, it is definitely possible to enjoy PC gaming from a sardine can in the sky. What do you guys think? Have any of you ever made an attempt at inflight gaming and what was your experience like? Let me know in the comments!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's up guys so last week I was on a plane to Virginia to attend my sister-in-law's wedding and I had brought along my MSI gs60 ghost Pro laptop in hopes of enjoying some inflight Doom to pass the time well much to my dismay the experience was so unpleasant that for the first time in my life I saw the World Through The Eyes of a console gamer so it got me thinking is it even possible to game comfortably on a plane in the first place assuming of course that you're a pleb like me with standard economy seating immediately I was determined to see how much fun one could have gaming 30,000 ft in the air so in addition to covering computex in Asia which is where I am now I began a side quest to try and create the best airborne PC gaming experience possible during my 13-hour flight from LA to Taiwan of course before we can tackle the issue we must first look back at what went so horribly wrong and route to Virginia to make a long story short it was mostly the laptop's fault to its credit the gs60 makes for a great gaming and editing station but its 15.6 in form factor is simply too big and heavy for the dinky foldout tables you find in coach seating the end result is either major table sag or having the laptop Teeter on the edge of the table like a seesaw when your hands apply too much force since there's also no room for a mouse on the table I put the mouse and mouse pad on one side of the keyboard which actually worked out pretty well if not for its size the gs60 would still be a poor choice for sky-high gaming in my book due to its shockingly weak battery life the laptop only managed to get around 1 hour and 20 minutes of continuous game time after cutting the cord and that was at low to medium screen brightness while many airplanes planes have AC power for their passengers these days there's still a fair number of smaller aircraft that don't and even the ones that do don't guarantee that their ports will work the AC outlet for my seat to Virginia was completely dead from the moment I boarded so in the end my play time was severely limited by the depressing lifespan of my laptop's battery clearly it was going to take a smaller more power efficient and equally fast device to solve all the issues found with my gs60 so I procured a razor blade for my second attempt at Airborne gaming now while a 15.6 in screen is too large for plain use no one wants to game on a tiny screen either so I found the blad's 14-in screen to strike a nice balance between screen real estate and portability with a resolution of 3200x 1800 the IG Zoo capacitive touch display is crystal clear and pumps out outstanding color accuracy and contrast I'm definitely not a fan of the screen's reflective tempered glass but fortunately the cabin lights were turned off for most of my flight so I wasn't bombarded with heinous amounts of glare since most of my play time was spent in the dark the chroma RGB backlit keys were a welcome addition with a hand handful of lighting effects to boot I found key travel to be a tad on the shallow side but the keys are well sized and spaced apart to allow for fluid gaming as with the gs60 I had to use my mouse directly on the laptop despite its smaller profile in this cramped configuration the Blade's narrower 10 keyless design brings your hands closer together pointing inward which while tolerable isn't quite as comfortable as having your arms straight out in front of you another thing to consider here is how sharp the laptop's industrial design is quite literally after a few hours of gaming I noticed some slight irritation from my wrist constantly rubbing against the super straight edge of the blad's housing to avoid any discomfort on your next flight I would suggest grabbing some repositional wrist rests for your laptop I was happy to find working AC ports on the way to Taiwan but the blades battery life certainly offers Peace of Mind in situations where you're not so lucky at medium screen brightness the laptop managed around 5 hours of straight Doom gameplay a much greater lifespan than the gs60 which is pretty impressive considering they're both using the same CPU 16 gigs of RAM and GTX 970m given the identical specs I Benchmark both laptops to see just how closely their performance lined up in fire strike extreme the blade pushed out a score of 3,363 compared to the gs60 slightly higher 3383 testing doom on high settings at 1080 both contenders performed more or less the same with no noticeable difference in gameplay experience between the two however while the gs60 gets pretty toasty under load the razor blade does turn into a slab of molten lava after an hour or so of gaming had I known this going into my flight I would have packed a portable laptop cooler to keep the heat under wraps now apart from the laptop equally important to my Airbound gaming experience was my choice of peripherals in the past I've talked extensively about the Logitech g602 so I won't dive too deep into what makes it so awesome but the key Point here is to use a wireless mouse that prevents cable clutter and interference in an already claustrophobic gaming space just make sure you pack extra batteries or a charging cable in your carry-on also if your pride will allow it the wireless floating nature of gamepads are well suited for plain use assuming you're not running a game that relies heavily on keyboard and mouse my choice of headphones were the sound pets qy7 which is probably underwhelming to some of you hardcore Gamers out there but these bluetooth earbuds were incredibly convenient given the circumstances not only were they much lighter and more portable than a set of cans but not being Tethered to the laptop allowed for free movement about the cabin and made getting up out of my seat a whole lot easier one thing that could have made the solution even more enjoyable would have been some noise cancelling action to tune out the plane's roaring jet engine and the shrill cries of an infant in distress on a final note there are some things to consider that come with the territory of gaming on a plane regardless of the hardware you choose for starters expect the Steely armrest of your seat to take a toll on your elbows after a few straight hours of gaming a working remedy I found was to use some spare shirts in your luggage or request a blanket from the airline for use as a cushion depending on the rigidity of your foldout table you also might experience some unpleasant table sag from the weight of your arms resting on your laptop again shirts blankets and even pillows can be Ed between your legs on the table to prop it up and improve its overall stability after all was said and done having the right hardware and applying the few Pro tips I learned allow me to game comfortably on the plane for 2 to 3 hours at a time while flying coach which I think is pretty good in my book considering that's about how long I game at home before needing a short break moving forward with what I know now it's not unreasonable to think that investing in some risk pads and finding a practical way to keep the laptop cool could extend my playtime even further certainly a number of sacrifices need to be made when gaming in a seat that Rivals the comfort of an electric chair but with the proper devices and preparation it seems you can still find ways to enjoy PC gaming from a sardine can in the sky but what do you guys think let me know in the comments if you've ever made an attempt at inflight gaming and what the experience was like for you also before you go don't forget to toss me a like on this video If you enjoyed it subscribe to the channel for more Tech videos coming really soon and I will see you guys in the next onewhat's up guys so last week I was on a plane to Virginia to attend my sister-in-law's wedding and I had brought along my MSI gs60 ghost Pro laptop in hopes of enjoying some inflight Doom to pass the time well much to my dismay the experience was so unpleasant that for the first time in my life I saw the World Through The Eyes of a console gamer so it got me thinking is it even possible to game comfortably on a plane in the first place assuming of course that you're a pleb like me with standard economy seating immediately I was determined to see how much fun one could have gaming 30,000 ft in the air so in addition to covering computex in Asia which is where I am now I began a side quest to try and create the best airborne PC gaming experience possible during my 13-hour flight from LA to Taiwan of course before we can tackle the issue we must first look back at what went so horribly wrong and route to Virginia to make a long story short it was mostly the laptop's fault to its credit the gs60 makes for a great gaming and editing station but its 15.6 in form factor is simply too big and heavy for the dinky foldout tables you find in coach seating the end result is either major table sag or having the laptop Teeter on the edge of the table like a seesaw when your hands apply too much force since there's also no room for a mouse on the table I put the mouse and mouse pad on one side of the keyboard which actually worked out pretty well if not for its size the gs60 would still be a poor choice for sky-high gaming in my book due to its shockingly weak battery life the laptop only managed to get around 1 hour and 20 minutes of continuous game time after cutting the cord and that was at low to medium screen brightness while many airplanes planes have AC power for their passengers these days there's still a fair number of smaller aircraft that don't and even the ones that do don't guarantee that their ports will work the AC outlet for my seat to Virginia was completely dead from the moment I boarded so in the end my play time was severely limited by the depressing lifespan of my laptop's battery clearly it was going to take a smaller more power efficient and equally fast device to solve all the issues found with my gs60 so I procured a razor blade for my second attempt at Airborne gaming now while a 15.6 in screen is too large for plain use no one wants to game on a tiny screen either so I found the blad's 14-in screen to strike a nice balance between screen real estate and portability with a resolution of 3200x 1800 the IG Zoo capacitive touch display is crystal clear and pumps out outstanding color accuracy and contrast I'm definitely not a fan of the screen's reflective tempered glass but fortunately the cabin lights were turned off for most of my flight so I wasn't bombarded with heinous amounts of glare since most of my play time was spent in the dark the chroma RGB backlit keys were a welcome addition with a hand handful of lighting effects to boot I found key travel to be a tad on the shallow side but the keys are well sized and spaced apart to allow for fluid gaming as with the gs60 I had to use my mouse directly on the laptop despite its smaller profile in this cramped configuration the Blade's narrower 10 keyless design brings your hands closer together pointing inward which while tolerable isn't quite as comfortable as having your arms straight out in front of you another thing to consider here is how sharp the laptop's industrial design is quite literally after a few hours of gaming I noticed some slight irritation from my wrist constantly rubbing against the super straight edge of the blad's housing to avoid any discomfort on your next flight I would suggest grabbing some repositional wrist rests for your laptop I was happy to find working AC ports on the way to Taiwan but the blades battery life certainly offers Peace of Mind in situations where you're not so lucky at medium screen brightness the laptop managed around 5 hours of straight Doom gameplay a much greater lifespan than the gs60 which is pretty impressive considering they're both using the same CPU 16 gigs of RAM and GTX 970m given the identical specs I Benchmark both laptops to see just how closely their performance lined up in fire strike extreme the blade pushed out a score of 3,363 compared to the gs60 slightly higher 3383 testing doom on high settings at 1080 both contenders performed more or less the same with no noticeable difference in gameplay experience between the two however while the gs60 gets pretty toasty under load the razor blade does turn into a slab of molten lava after an hour or so of gaming had I known this going into my flight I would have packed a portable laptop cooler to keep the heat under wraps now apart from the laptop equally important to my Airbound gaming experience was my choice of peripherals in the past I've talked extensively about the Logitech g602 so I won't dive too deep into what makes it so awesome but the key Point here is to use a wireless mouse that prevents cable clutter and interference in an already claustrophobic gaming space just make sure you pack extra batteries or a charging cable in your carry-on also if your pride will allow it the wireless floating nature of gamepads are well suited for plain use assuming you're not running a game that relies heavily on keyboard and mouse my choice of headphones were the sound pets qy7 which is probably underwhelming to some of you hardcore Gamers out there but these bluetooth earbuds were incredibly convenient given the circumstances not only were they much lighter and more portable than a set of cans but not being Tethered to the laptop allowed for free movement about the cabin and made getting up out of my seat a whole lot easier one thing that could have made the solution even more enjoyable would have been some noise cancelling action to tune out the plane's roaring jet engine and the shrill cries of an infant in distress on a final note there are some things to consider that come with the territory of gaming on a plane regardless of the hardware you choose for starters expect the Steely armrest of your seat to take a toll on your elbows after a few straight hours of gaming a working remedy I found was to use some spare shirts in your luggage or request a blanket from the airline for use as a cushion depending on the rigidity of your foldout table you also might experience some unpleasant table sag from the weight of your arms resting on your laptop again shirts blankets and even pillows can be Ed between your legs on the table to prop it up and improve its overall stability after all was said and done having the right hardware and applying the few Pro tips I learned allow me to game comfortably on the plane for 2 to 3 hours at a time while flying coach which I think is pretty good in my book considering that's about how long I game at home before needing a short break moving forward with what I know now it's not unreasonable to think that investing in some risk pads and finding a practical way to keep the laptop cool could extend my playtime even further certainly a number of sacrifices need to be made when gaming in a seat that Rivals the comfort of an electric chair but with the proper devices and preparation it seems you can still find ways to enjoy PC gaming from a sardine can in the sky but what do you guys think let me know in the comments if you've ever made an attempt at inflight gaming and what the experience was like for you also before you go don't forget to toss me a like on this video If you enjoyed it subscribe to the channel for more Tech videos coming really soon and I will see you guys in the next one\n"