Razer's Blade 16 is a gaming laptop often considered to sit at the pinnacle of premium features and design, and it's just been refreshed for 2026.

The big news? Razer has made the change from AMD Ryzen AI HX to Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors, bringing super-fast RAM, superior connectivity, and a brighter OLED display in tow. Razer also says the new Blade 16 is significantly more efficient when not gaming compared to the previous generation, with up to 13 hours of battery life for productivity.

The CPU used in all Blade 16 (2026) models is now the Intel Core Ultra 9 386H with 16 cores and a 4.9GHz boost clock speed, which is four more cores than the Ryzen chip used in 2025's model. That boost should show up in both gaming and heavy workloads, plus it has an NPU with 50 TOPS of power for Copilot+ AI tools in Windows 11.

The use of Intel's latest "Panther Lake" chips unlocks faster LPDDR5x-9600MT/s RAM (compared to 8000MT/s RAM in the 2025 model), of which you can configure up to 64GB.

NVIDIA's RTX 50-series mobile GPUs are still the big attraction here for gamers, and Razer lists the RTX 5070 Ti as a starting point with options for the RTX 5080 and RTX 5090.

If you're eager to get your hands on the new gaming laptop, I have some good news. The Blade 16 (2026) is available to buy now directly from Razer.com starting at $3,499.99.

The Blade 16's OLED display gets brighter, connectivity levels up

The switch back to Team Blue processors in the Blade 16 after the previous model's use of an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 is a testament to the efficiency and performance improvements Intel achieved with its Panther Lake generation.

This change has also unlocked Thunderbolt connectivity. The Blade 16 sports one Thunderbolt 5 and one Thunderbolt 4 port for the best connectivity possible, especially if you're a fan of the best docking stations.

👉 I tested Razer's new Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma — I can no longer live without this extremely convenient feature

The Blade 16 (2026) otherwise offers HDMI 2.1, three USB-A 3.2 (Gen 2), a UHS-II SD card reader, and a 3.5mm audio combo jack for your headset. It's a solid mix of ports that I'm sure will appeal to gamers and creators alike. Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0 are also as cutting-edge as can be for wireless connectivity.

One last change worth mentioning is a boost to the 16-inch OLED display's brightness. It now hits 1,100 nits in HDR mode, enough to land VESA DisplayHDR TrueBlack 1000 certification. It still has a 2560x1600 (QHD+) resolution with a 240Hz refresh rate and 0.2ms response time, as well as NVIDIA G-Sync and perfect P3 color reproduction.

The Blade 16 for 2026 is still one of the thinnest gaming laptops the company has ever produced at just 14.9mm (0.59 inches) thin, a feat that's achieved by using a CNC-milled aluminum body.

This redesign is one we first saw when we reviewed the 2025 Razer Blade 16, when we called it "a fantastic redesign, once again establishing the Blade 16 as the ultimate luxury gaming laptop."

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One of the best Windows laptops money can buy is the Razer Blade 14, but it takes a lot of money to add this sleek and sophisticated gaming PC to your desk. The fact of the matter is, most people just don't want to spend that much money on their computer.

Well, the cost of entry just fell by a lot thanks to the steepest sale the Razer Blade 14 (2025) has ever enjoyed, bringing it down a whopping $700 to $1,999.99 at Razer.com. Don't worry, you can also find the same deal at Amazon.com, and wherever you buy the Blade 14, you'll get a copy of Borderlands 4 included.

This is still an ultra-premium laptop, but this stellar discount makes it a much more attractive option for anyone who wants a compact, powerful, and feature-packed 14-inch gaming laptop.

All of a sudden, the Blade 14 is a lot easier to recommend

I praised the Razer Blade 14 (2025) in my review for its incredible unibody design, impressive set of features, and consistent performance, but my greatest criticism was, understandably, the exorbitant price tag.

After all, why would someone consider the Blade 14 when the comparable ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 costs so much less? Razer may have no equal when it comes to design and build quality in gaming laptops, but many would rather save their cash and focus on performance and features instead.

You can get a slightly more powerful Zephyrus G14 for $2,399.99 at BestBuy.com right now, and that's a fantastic laptop. A $700 discount makes the new Blade 14 a strong alternative, though, offering a slimmer and more refined design for $1,999.99 at Razer.com, and it's available in silver on top of Razer's iconic matte black. If you're curious, this configuration is rocking the 10-core AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 CPU and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 (8GB) GPU.

The cherry on the cake is a free copy of Borderlands 4 included with every purchase of the discounted $2,000 Razer Blade 14, as well as the "Gilded Glory Pack." You shouldn't have to worry about any of Borderlands 4's infamous performance issues with this hardware, either.

This laptop now being available at Amazon.com with the same color options and promotions makes it even easier to discover why the Blade 14 is one of our highest-rated laptops.

From the 14-inch, 2.8K, 120Hz OLED display and excellent six-speaker sound system to the reliable performance and all the latest and greatest Windows 11 features (this is a full Copilot+ AI PC), the Blade 14 has a lot going for it. I adore a good 14-inch gaming laptop, and this is inarguably one of the best on the market.

This isn't just for gaming, of course. The Blade 14 is arguably even better for creatives, engineers, and other professionals who need a lot of graphical firepower in a compact package they can slip into a bag and take with them to the office (or wherever else you need to work). Unlike many dedicated gaming laptops, the Blade 14 doesn't cut corners outside of raw performance — all the features you expect of a high-end laptop are here.

The Razer Blade 14 (2025) was a tougher recommendation at an absurd $2,700, but this pricing feels right. If you've been on the fence, this is the time to take that leap. Pick up the Razer Blade 14 (2025) for $1,999.99 at Razer.com (with Borderlands 4) starting today.

I recently got my hands on the latest iteration of Razer's Blade 18 (2025) for review, and, much like its similarly ludicrous 18-inch gaming laptops, it was an adventure in the absurd as it shredded through my usual benchmarks with fervor. It's no real surprise given that the maxed-out NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 laptop GPU paired with Intel's almost-max "Arrow Lake" Core Ultra 9 275HX processor, so it was always going to score high.

Then again, nothing much is perfect, and this is Razer, a brand known for its premium tastes, so the prices usually start on the higher end and only go up from there. However, a decent discount brought the configurable Blade 18 down to a more "reasonable" starting cost of $2,999.99 at Razer.com for a 5070 Ti model instead.

Again, my sample was far from modest, and it felt like a trivial exercise to run the RTX 5090 with my collection of PC games only to remark something along the lines of "Wow, look at that, it runs well" — because of course it does, it's one of the most powerful gaming laptops in the world. Nevertheless, I did skimp on some significant insights into thermals and noise levels, so I'm fixing that today.

First up, people want to know how hot these dominant gaming laptops get. It's understandable, especially when they carry components that match the naming convention of their desktop counterparts. Sure, it's called an RTX 5090, but the 175W laptop equivalent is dwarfed by its monstrous 575W desktop RTX 5090 that I tested in January. Even so, it's still the top-level GPU option, so the thermals must rise in response to the extraordinary performance, right?

For a baseline test, I ran the Blade 18 (2025) on AC power via the 400W GaN charger with the 'Balanced' profile activated in Razer Synapse. The CPU temperature sensor reported around 57 - 62°C while watching a YouTube video on Microsoft Edge, keeping the idle GPU closer to a middling 52°C, which gives a hint at the ambient temperature inside the chassis. Sitting completely idle on an empty Windows 11 desktop didn't drop the CPU thermals by much either, still bottoming out at 57°C.

Externally, my 'FLIR ONE Gen 3' thermal camera detects the lower chassis at around 33.9°C during this kind of almost-idle state, with a comfortable placement for your wrists flanking either side of the gigantic touchpad. The middle of the keyboard jumps a little to around 37.8°C while the hinge-mounted vent exhausts recycled air measuring 44.1°C.

You can feel the vapor chamber working without a real need for a thermal camera, as it pushes cool air directly into mirrored spots that you can feel above the 'Esc' key and the higher end of the number pad, measuring around 27.3°C and highlighted as purple-to-black spots in most thermal imaging cameras.

Kicking the RTX 5090 L into gear with a looping 'Steel Nomad' stress test via 3DMark while keeping the 'Balanced' profile active in Synapse shows the internal GPU sensor report around 72°C as the Intel CPU reaches 69°C and the fans ramp up closer to 2900 RPM — all quite normal for high-end PC gaming.

Using the 'Performance' profile in Synapse keeps the CPU and GPU at the same temperatures for this synthetic benchmark while the fans rise to a noisy 3300 RPM instead, but I wanted to revisit my 3840 x 2400 benchmark in Cyberpunk 2077 with DLSS 4 upscaling and frame generation for more of a real-world test. I originally set NVIDIA's 'Transformer' model to 'Ultra Performance' in an effort to chase extra frames, but I'll leave it on 'Auto' this time.

As the in-game benchmark plays out, averaging 149 FPS, the GPU sensor hits 74°C while the CPU reads around 84°C, and the fans max out at a slightly lower 3000 RPM. Externally, that translates to the "wrist rest" areas of the chassis measuring slightly higher at 39.3°C while the center of the keyboard moves to 43.3°C, and the hinge throws out hot air, hitting 59.7°C — an average external increase of about 9°C from its idle state.

As I mentioned, the 3-fan internal vapor cooling chamber is in place to tackle these kinds of raised temperatures, but it comes at an audible cost. I called the fan noise "loud — tornado loud", and I stand by it, even if it felt quite similar to the Razer Blade 18 (2024) sample I tested last year. It is borderline unbearable at full blast, which contributes in part to the review score's missing half-star, because I'd never subject my family to this wooshing commotion.

In its idle state, or while watching a (muted) YouTube video, the Blade 18 (2025) fans reach about 36.3 dBA while running at 1600 RPM. Moving to 3000 RPM sees that number jump to 52.1 dBA, and benchmarking 3DMark pushes the fans to 3300 RPM, increasing noise slightly to 54.2 dBA. Just for fun, I can manually set the fans to their maximum at 4600 RPM in Razer Synapse, which peaks at around 66.1 dBA, practically mimicking a vacuum cleaner.

So, yes, it's loud, but it's because the fans are keeping the internal temperatures at a reasonable level. You can't have maxed-out graphics in one of the best gaming laptops without introducing CPU and GPU heat, which is where the Blade 18's vapor chamber comes in. I still think you'd have a better gaming experience if you used a headset, like Razer's refined BlackShark V3 Pro, because the fan noise is hard to ignore, but there's a reason those blasting sounds are audible in the first place.

I'm not done with the Razer Blade 18, either. This comment on my review made a fair complaint about Razer skipping on Mini LED or even OLED options this year. It's not that the IPS panel is dim; it reaches around 590 nits at 100% brightness, but the contrast doesn't touch Mini LED. I'll reach out to Razer itself to see if there's a reason behind the move to this dual-mode IPS option, possibly relating to the massive 400Hz refresh rate on offer in 2025 — and whether that's worth the trade-off. Stay tuned.

Razer's Blade 18 has never been marketed as a humble or even sensible gaming laptop; it's an extravagant powerhouse that claims to deliver "true desktop-level performance" in a chunky chassis. I should know, I've tested iterations of it throughout the past few years, where I've seen it shred through high-end benchmarks and leave almost nothing to the imagination.

Well, it's that time again, because the latest Razer Blade 18 (2025) upgraded itself with NVIDIA's RTX 50 Series graphics and Intel's monstrous Core Ultra 9 275HX (Arrow Lake) mobile processor, alongside options for either a lot of RAM or too much RAM. It's one of the most entertaining laptops to test, just because of its ridiculously powerful nature, but there's still value in showing what you'd actually get for your money.

This review was made possible thanks to a review unit provided by Razer. The company did not see the contents of this review before publishing.

Razer Blade 18 (2025): Price and availability

Razer sells the Blade 18 (2025) with selections for its GPU, storage, and RAM, normally starting at $3,499.99 at Razer.com with an RTX 5070 Ti. However, as of writing this review, a temporary 14% discount brings it down to $2,999.99 at Razer.com instead.

Upgrading the graphics card (GPU) makes the biggest difference to performance, and it'll cost you $500 to move up to an RTX 5080 L (laptop) variant at $4,099.99 MSRP, or $3,499.99 on sale.

Choosing the top-end RTX 5090 L GPU that matches my sample forces you to a 2TB SSD for extra storage, but RAM remains flexible at 32GB or 64GB. The former would cost you $4,899.99 at MSRP or $4,199.99 with the current discount.

Otherwise, an all-out maximum spec Blade 18 in 2025 would cost you $5,199.99 MSRP or $4,599.99 on sale, with 64GB of RAM, and 4TB of storage over two 2TB SSDs.

While it's often a middle-spec option that makes the most sense, the "entry-level" Blade 18 is still an extremely capable gaming laptop, and anything above the RTX 5070 Ti will have diminishing returns unless you're planning to utilize local AI on the extra GDDR7 VRAM or have a definitive need for the top-end RTX 50 Series GPUs.

My recommended configuration:

Razer Blade 18 (2025): Design and features

For the most part, the Razer Blade 18 retains the outward design of its predecessors, with the only "obvious" change found on its underbelly: a transparent panel lined with RGB lighting that casts a slight underglow on certain surfaces — yeah, you really have to look for it. Otherwise, the familiar three-headed serpent logo still glows with animated colors on the lid, and green USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports line the sides.

However, there are improvements to the per-key RGB keyboard that I can feel when I'm typing or gaming, and they wouldn't be so noticeable at a glance. For this 2025 model, each key on the Blade 18 has a 1.5 mm travel distance, an improvement over the shallow feeling of its earlier variants, but I'd still ask for even more depth. The number pad also benefits from this change, though its inclusion still feels like an excuse to include macro keys rather than to placate numpad fans.

My favorite aspects are still present on the keyboard, like holding the function (Fn) key to exclusively highlight the shortcuts on each key, and the colors all change to fit the theme of certain games like Cyberpunk 2077, with WASD keys standing out alongside common game actions. All of this is customizable via the Razer Synapse and Chroma apps, but the default setup is great — I'll just never care about numpads on gaming laptops. Give me uniform arrow keys instead.

For something more exciting, the Blade 18 is still one of the only laptops with a functional Thunderbolt 5 USB-C port. It's the latest standard, offering the fastest speeds and broadest compatibility with the best docking stations and everything that connects to them, like certified monitors. Razer even makes its own, the highly praised Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma, but this port is still (so far) one of the more underdeveloped technologies on offer here.

On the other side, you still get a Thunderbolt 4 USB-C port and an HDMI 2.1 output to connect more traditional gaming monitors, if you'd rather hook up something bigger than the 18-inch panel.

Then again, you'll probably get the most enjoyable experience with the dual-mode 240-440Hz IPS screen that's built into the Blade 18, even if it's now missing the mini-LED configuration, but external monitors make sense for a 'desktop replacement' laptop.

2.5Gb Ethernet is here too, as it well should be on any gaming laptop, ready for wired networking to avoid any Wi-Fi latency. Well, that's the concept anyway, but Razer has Wi-Fi 7 built into the Blade 18, which is similarly cutting-edge and likely wouldn't cause you any lag issues unless you were in a house full of running microwaves or other wireless-nerfing nuisances.

Otherwise, an audio jack sticks around in 2025 for wired headphones and gaming headsets, alongside a proprietary port for the monstrous 400W GaN power brick. There's also an SD card reader — huzzah (are gamers using these?)

Mercifully, the gigantic touchpad is center-aligned and performs serviceably. Serious gamers won't use it for much more than navigating Windows 11 before switching to an external mouse or joypad to actually play their games, but it's still a gorgeous example. There aren't any invisible edges or ham-fisted holograms; it just sticks to being a great precision glass touchpad.

At this point, Razer has refined its laptop chassis to near perfection, and tweaks to the 3-fan internal vapor cooling chamber are an absolute necessity as it pairs this year's Blade 18 with outrageous mobile NVIDIA GPUs like the 175W RTX 5090 L with Intel's 105W Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU — components that run hot, but are ultimately the selling point of this ultra-premium laptop.

Not to disregard the 6-way THX-certified speaker setup, as it sounds great when I crank it loud enough to offset the fans when they're under stress, and other niceties like a physical webcam shutter over the 5MP IR webcam with its Windows Hello support are totally welcome — I just doubt you're here to hear about those, so let's dig into some performance insights.

Razer Blade 18 (2025): Performance and benchmarks

Generationally, the Intel Core i9-14900HX from the Blade 18 (2024) was around 2.39% faster in Geekbench 6's multi-threaded CPU testing than the Core i9-13950HX from the Blade 18 (2023). This time, the Core Ultra 9 275HX in the Blade 18 (2025) is around 20% faster than last year's sample, so the processor offers a significant step-up in raw performance.

On the GPU side, the Blade 18 (2025) scored around 13.37% better with NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5090 L than last year's Blade 18 (2024) with a RTX 4090 L, though itself was outranked by its own Blade 18 (2023) predecessor by around 2.56% — it's not quite the same leap as the CPU side, as I'd half expected after hearing some rumors of underwhelming RTX 5090 L performance in laptops, but it's still the world's best consumer mobile GPU.

So, to keep it simple: this year's Blade 18 comes with around a 20% increase in CPU performance and 13% on the GPU. However, this is the highest graphical option of all, and the RTX 5090 L will remain a pipedream for many. Do I think you'd be missing out if you 'downgraded' to an RTX 5080 or 5070 Ti model? Absolutely not — this is the upper echelon of graphics that borders on placebo.

It would be strange to test a gaming laptop without mentioning the games themselves, but I don't want to insult your intelligence. This is the world's most powerful mobile hardware, so the question will never be "Can the Blade 18 run [insert game name here]?" — the answer is always yes, of course it can. The more interesting question is whether you can utilize that UHD+ (3840 x 2400) screen at 4K+ in modern titles.

So, NVIDIA's RTX 50 Series GPUs come with DLSS 4 and MFG, which translate to 'Deep Learning Super Sampling' and 'Multi-Frame Generation', a pair of image upscaling and framerate-boosting techniques. The GeForce RTX 5090 L inside this Blade 18 (2025) sample is the most powerful card in its category, and it'll run most games on max settings around 1080p without assistance, but 4K+ needs a little help.

I had Cyberpunk 2077's built-in benchmark running at an average of 227 FPS with ray tracing enabled, set to 2400p with the DLSS 4 'Transformer' model on 'Ultra Performance' and MFG at 4x. Yes, this is using "fake frames" to get close to the Blade 18's native resolution, and running the benchmark without DLSS or MFG results in a brute-forced average of 22 FPS (up to 26 FPS maximum).

You can switch the display to FHD+ (1920 x 1200) at 440Hz instead, but I still only managed a 70 FPS average in Cyberpunk 2077 without any upscaling or frame generation assists — switching to DLSS 4 (Quality) and MFG 4x hits 319 FPS average on Ray Tracing Ultra at 1200p, which is nice, but I preferred the results of the first test. 440Hz really does feel excessive, but it's a rising refresh rate trend that won't stop.

The RTX 5090 L inside the Blade 18 (2025) is exactly that: a laptop GPU. It won't stand up to the same outrageous performance as the desktop RTX 5090, and performs at about 68% as well as a desktop RTX 4090 from the previous GeForce generation. So, while this is the highest-end consumer GPU you can get in a laptop, there will always be a disparity between desktops and laptops, as many PC gamers already know, but it's worth clarifying.

Again, even the 175W 5090 L is still a drop in the ocean compared to the 450W desktop RTX 4090 and 575W RTX 5090 — but this is the best you can currently get in a gaming laptop, and that's on AC power with a 440W adapter. On its battery, the Blade 18 (2025) lasts around 1 hour and 25 minutes in gaming, but I wouldn't recommend playing anything away from a dedicated power source.

Just be ready to put on a headset or a pair of headphones if you're playing anything demanding, because the trio of fans inside the vapor chamber gets loud, which isn't new for the Blade 18. Otherwise, the performance matches the similarly overpowered specs all over this beast of a gaming laptop, with color-accurate display profiles and luxuries like upgradeable SODIMM RAM lurking inside a heavy (3.10 kg / 7.06 lbs​) slab.

Razer Blade 18 (2025): Should you buy it?

You should buy this if ...

✅ You want the best gaming laptop available.

✅ You're planning to do your gaming at home, near AC power.

✅ You want the biggest portable screen with high refresh rates.

You shouldn't buy this if ...

❌ You want a lightweight gaming laptop.

❌ You'll play demanding games without headphones.

❌ You want to do all of your gaming on battery power.

For the most part, the Razer Blade 18 in 2025 is the same as it ever was: a heavy beast with options for the best mobile GPU in the world. However, that comes with some of the same downsides, like 'fingerprint-resistant' coating still proving a bit ineffective.

Nevertheless, there's very little on the market that could ever touch it, and Razer has refined its companion apps to make Synapse and Chroma worth running in the background.

Yes, it's still the best gaming laptop in my eyes, purely because it's balls-to-the-wall insanity. How could it not rank so highly with such high-end hardware? It was inevitable, really.

In the same vein, the RTX 5090 variant remains a choice that goes beyond premium and into the realms of silliness, but the more affordable configurations with sensible NVIDIA GPUs will stand as hearty recommendations to anyone who wants a full-size gaming laptop to replace a desktop PC — stick with the RTX 5070 Ti, or push for the 5080 as its top-end if you must.

Ditching the Mini-LED screen option was a shame, but it's not like the dual-mode IPS of this year's model is dim. I still think 2400p at 240Hz is a better experience than 1200p at 440Hz, because fidelity is more exciting than framerates, but it's nice to have an option for the esports crowd. The Blade 18 remains a champion in 2025, like a mad king on a throne made of high-end graphics cards.

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Gaming laptops are very expensive year-round as a result of all the specialized and powerful hardware stuffed into their compact chassis, but you can save quite a bit on them if you buy during Prime Day. Not only does Amazon itself offer some great discounts, but other retailers do as well with "anti-Prime Day" deals as well. And this year, Razer has marked down its popular $2,700 Razer Blade 14 down to just $2,299.99 at Razer.

While that may still be pretty expensive, it's still a huge $400 off — 15% off in total, and undoubtedly one of the best gaming laptop deals I've seen during Amazon Prime Day. With the event ending tonight when the day ends, though, time is running out to take advantage of this excellent discount. Don't miss your chance!

• Shop all Amazon Prime Day deals

Save big on Razer's sharpest Blade laptop yet

The configuration of the Razer Blade 14 Razer has on sale is identical to the one my colleague Zachary Boddy evaluated in our review; they gave it a glowing 4.5/5 star score, lauding its fantastic performance, display, audio, and design. Indeed, it's truly "Razer's best-selling machine made better than ever." But how, exactly, was that done?

I'll defer to their review for a deeper and more comprehensive analysis, but honestly, a look through the specs says more than enough. You're getting a cutting-edge RTX 5070 with 8GB of GDDR7 VRAM, along with AMD's Ryzen AI 9 365 — a very beefy processor with a powerful neural processing unit (NPU) for AI-related programs — 32GB of DDR5 memory, and a 1TB SSD.

Notably, you have the option of dropping to an RTX 5060 and 16GB of RAM to shave $300 off the price, bringing your total down to $1,999.99 at Razer. Alternatively, you can move up to 64GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD for $2,599.99 at Razer.

The 14-inch QHD+ (2,880 x 1,800) OLED display is another big standout, featuring a 120Hz refresh rate, a speedy 0.2ms response time, full NVIDIA G-SYNC support, and an absolutely terrific color gamut that achieves 100% DCI-P3 and 95% AdobeRGB accuracy, with HDR support on top of that. Its only "weakness" is that its brightness maxes out at 400 nits, but that's plenty for indoor use, and will only be a problem if you try to use the laptop is bright and direct sunlight.

The design is the same tried-and-true, sleek and slim frame that Razer's been using for its laptops for years now, with the Blade 14 clocking in with dimensions of 310.7 x 224.3 x 15.8-16.2mm (12.23 x 8.83 x 0.62-0.64in) and a weight of 1.63kg (3.59lbs). As usual, the chassis is all black (get ready to deal with fingerprints) with a green Razer logo on the back of the screen adding a pop of color.

The massive trackpad is a love-it-or-hate-it kind of thing, but it's responsive to use, and this is a gaming laptop, so you'll probably be using a mouse anyway. The low-profile 1mm keyboard, meanwhile, feels great to type on and as a good layout, and in addition to the usual customizable Razer Chroma RGB lighting, there's two-stage lighting for secondary functions that activates when pressing Fn or Shift — helpfully indicating they're ready for use.

Ports include two USB Type-C 4.0, two USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 2, one HDMI 2.1, one microSD card slot, one 3.5mm audio jack, and one Kensington Nano Security Slot. Six onboard surround sound-optimized speakers deliver surprisingly excellent sound, and in terms of other features, you get a solid webcam, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, and a 72Whr battery that can last for roughly six hours (longer if you turn off RGB and dim the screen).

Of course, you should never game on the battery; devices like these are designed to be used for gaming while plugged in.

Ultimately, it stands tall as one of the best gaming laptops that money can buy, and it can be bought for $400 less thanks to Prime Day. Want something bigger and beefier for a few hundred dollars more? HP is running a ridiculous deal on its OMEN MAX 16, so be sure to check that out too before Prime Day ends.

I recently reviewed the Razer Blade 14 (2025), the latest iteration (and a complete redesign) of Razer's best-selling and most portable gaming laptop.

I awarded the new Blade 14 a healthy 4.5/5 star rating and generally praised this premium and powerful device, but hovering over every item of praise was the overbearing price tag attached to it.

That begs the question — Razer may have crafted an incredible gaming machine, but what kind of person should actually spend their hard-earned money on it?

Statistically speaking, most of the people reading this article probably don't. Here's what sets the Razer Blade 14 apart from most laptops, and exactly who should consider making it their next companion.

What makes the Razer Blade 14 (2025) so special?

14-inch laptops are a dime a dozen, even if you only consider premium options from companies like HP, Lenovo, Dell, Apple, and many more. So, where does the Razer Blade 14 fall?

Unlike most premium 14-inch devices, the Blade 14 is designed with gaming and creation in mind. That means it packs some of the most powerful hardware you can squeeze into a laptop, despite being around 16mm thick (to put it into perspective, that's actually thinner at points than the Surface Laptop 7 we reviewed).

The Razer Blade 14 has a lot of other things going for it: an attractive and durable body milled out of a single block of high-grade aluminum, a vibrant and responsive 120Hz OLED display, a bolsterious six-speaker system with spatial audio, all the ports you could ask for, and Windows Hello facial recognition to log you in without a password.

Under the hood, though, you're getting one of the best AMD Ryzen AI chipsets and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50-series GPU, which enables high-performance gaming, content creation, and support for all the best AI features a Copilot+ PC can offer.

That's a whole lot of PC in a small package.

Aren't normal laptops also quite powerful now?

There's simply no debating whether the Razer Blade 14 is one of the most powerful 14-inch laptops ever made — it is. That doesn't mean that all other 14-inch laptops are slow, though; they're simply designed for something else.

Take the HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 (2024) I reviewed. This is still one of the best Windows laptops I've ever tested, and it's the laptop I chose to use as my backup whenever I'm not reviewing something else.

It's thinner and lighter than the Blade 14, boasts a versatile 2-in-1 design with touch and stylus input, and true all-day battery life (where the Blade 14 can only make it through a full day if you cut some corners). It's also cheaper than the Blade 14, despite arguably offering more features.

There's no discrete NVIDIA GPU inside, nor is the Intel Core Ultra (Series 2) chipset it relies on as performant as the Ryzen AI at the Blade 14's center, but performance is still buttery smooth for 99% of what 99% of people do on their computers... even gaming.

Obviously the Razer Blade 14 will play games at higher resolutions, higher framerates, and higher settings. Of course it will render video faster. But the OmniBook Ultra Flip can still play most PC games at lower settings just fine, and that's all most people need.

Why should I consider the Razer Blade 14?

If you need a reliable and competent 14-inch Windows laptop and are willing to pay for a premium device with more features, there are plenty of excellent alternatives like the HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 — many with more versatile and portable designs, longer-lasting batteries, and even more AI features.

If you need a powerful gaming laptop that will spend most of its time plugged in, there are plenty of excellent alternatives like the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (Gen 10) I reviewed — many with far superior performance, greater thermal management, better keyboards, and larger and faster displays.

Even if you need a laptop that carefully straddles the gap — by offering most of the performance of a 16-inch gaming laptop with most of the portability and features of a 14-inch ultrabook — I'd still suggest considering something like the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) I reviewed.

That laptop targets a similar niche as the Razer Blade 14 (2025), and it always costs a lot less from configuration to configuration. I also love that laptop (so stay tuned for my review of the 2025 update, because I have that in hand right now).

That's a lot of "buts," and I can still happily recommend the Razer Blade 14 (2025). All I'm offering is a word of caution; be sure the Blade 14 is the tool you need to get the job done.

Depending on your needs, you can find better battery life, better performance, or better value in many of the other best Windows laptops.

If what you need, though, is a thin and light luxury laptop with an industry-leading premium design, enough performance for all the greatest PC games and most demanding workloads, and a battery capable of lasting a full day when you need it to, then the Razer Blade 14 is the peak of that specific category.

Just be prepared to pay for it, as the Razer Blade 14 (2025) starts from $2,299.99 at Razer. It's not a question of whether the Blade 14 is worth it, because it does justify that cost — it's a question of whether it's worth it to you.

I recently reviewed the Razer Blade 16 (2025) and found it to be a massive improvement over its predecessor, a gaming laptop that felt mismatched with its engorged price tag.

It's Razer's smallest gaming laptop that is its best seller, though, and the Blade 14 received the same treatment for 2025 as the Blade 16 — a thinner and lighter redesigned chassis, and all-new AMD and NVIDIA hardware for better gaming performance and more AI features.

The result? One of the greatest compact gaming laptops you can buy. The Blade 14 is a seriously impressive display of engineering with far more strengths than weaknesses, but the real question most should be asking is: who should actually buy the Razer Blade 14 (2025)?

This review was made possible thanks to a review sample provided by Razer. Razer had no input nor saw the contents of this review prior to publication.

Blade 14 review: Pricing and specifications

Like always, the Razer Blade 14 (2025) is a ridiculously pricey laptop, but you are getting the pinnacle of premium design, as well as most of the features you could ask for in a laptop.

The Razer Blade 14 (2025) starts from $2,299.99 at Razer, which is equipped with an AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 chipset, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of SSD storage.

My review configuration upgrades to an RTX 5070 GPU and 32GB of RAM for $2,699.99 at Razer. If you want the best of everything, you can upgrade to 64GB of RAM and 2TB of SSD storage for $2,999.99 at Razer.

There's also a "Mercury White" (it's silver) colorway.

In the box, you'll find the Razer Blade 14 (2025) gaming laptop, Razer's proprietary 200W DC charger, and 1 month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Razer also offers its RazerCare extended warranty and colorful Razer skins for the Blade 14.

Blade 14 review: Design and build quality

The Razer Blade design language is iconic at this point, and Razer hasn't dramatically changed its hand with the latest round of redesigns. This is all about refinement, and the finer details do make a sizeable impact.

The new Blade 14 is 11% smaller than the Razer Blade 14 (2024) we reviewed, dropping around 2mm in thickness and a third of a pound in weight. It's still CNC-milled out of a single block of high-grade aluminum, but it's sleeker and more comfortable than before.

Razer didn't make any noticeable changes to its anodization and electrochemical bonding process, though, so the matte black color looks as amazing as always — until you touch it, where it'll greedily hold on to every smudge.

I mentioned in my initial hands-on of the new Razer Blade 14 that it felt like Razer finally closed the gap with the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 I reviewed, and my mind hasn't changed. The Blade 14 always had phenomenal build quality, but the new design is a big improvement in aesthetics.

It's impressive enough to make a 14-inch gaming laptop smarter, faster, thinner, and lighter in one go, but where Razer really surprised me is that it didn't cut any features to make those reductions... In fact, it added more.

You're looking at a very familiar array of ports, with connectivity rivaling much larger laptops thanks to dual USB4 ports with Thunderbolt 4 capabilities (including 100W Power Delivery for when you're on the move and need a quick charge), full bandwidth USB Type-A ports, and HDMI 2.1 display output.

However, Razer actually added a new microSD card slot as well, which will make some people very happy. I'll talk more about them later, but there's also an additional two speakers under the hood, so the Blade 14 rocks the same six-speaker system as both its larger siblings.

Blade 14 review: Display quality

On the display front, last year's Blade 14 rocked an IPS LCD panel with a 240Hz refresh rate. This year, Razer decided to follow in the wake of many other premium, 14-inch laptops with a higher resolution, lower refresh rate OLED display.

You're looking at a 2.8K resolution (1800p instead of 1600p from last year), a 120Hz refresh rate, a blisteringly fast 0.2ms response time, and all the vibrant colors and punchy contrast expected from OLED.

It's a familiar screen, and that comes with the same strengths and weaknesses. On one hand, this display looks gorgeous and offers best-in-class performance for gaming. While the refresh rate has technically been downgraded, 120Hz is perfect for the Blade 14's capabilities, and everything looks crisp and defined.

The new OLED display is also more color accurate than last year's panel, which will make a difference for creators. White balance is very consistent across higher brightnesses, too, so photo and video editors shouldn't have any complaints.

High Dynamic Range (HDR) support is here, although Razer didn't disclose the exact standards to me. Either way, though, this is where the weaknesses come in. This OLED display boasts only average brightness, and it's noticeably lower than last year's IPS LCD screen.

On top of the lowered brightness, you do also need to contend with Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) for dimming. Most people won't be affected, but there are sensitive users who may experience headaches or eye fatigue from the rapid flickering at lower brightnesses, and Razer sadly doesn't offer an alternative display option for the Blade 14.

Blade 14 review: Performance and thermals

It's a given that you'll have to sacrifice some performance with a 14-inch gaming laptop, because that's how physics works. Still, the latest Blade 14 is consistently more performant than its predecessor while being both thinner and lighter, and there are some reasons for that.

Largely, it's due to the completely redesigned thermal hood, which moves the hottest components under the same comprehensive vapor cooling chamber and refined dual-fan system. On the other side, the new AMD Ryzen AI and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50-series hardware are more efficient than the last generation.

AMD, especially, makes a big difference here. I have a lot of respect for the latest Ryzen AI chipsets, which can't quite compete with Intel and Qualcomm's most efficient mobile hardware, but easily bests both in terms of gaming, creative, and AI performance.

The result is an excellent computing experience. The Blade 14 feels every bit as responsive as it should, considering how much it costs, and is completely quiet the majority of the time.

My only complaint is that AMD still isn't as good as Intel or Qualcomm when it comes to quickly waking from sleep or standby.

There were no surprises when benchmarking the Blade 14. Its AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 is a highly capable 10-core chipset, but it's also far from the most powerful in the Ryzen AI lineup.

The same goes for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070, which is a balanced mid-range GPU with 8GB of VRAM, so it's more than enough for all the best PC games right now. In the Blade 14, that 5070 is running at 115W TGP, which is less than Razer's larger laptops but competitive with other 14-inch gaming machines.

Year-over-year, performance gains are minimal (around 12% for CPU and 3% for GPU), but the Blade 14 (2025) possesses one extremely important advantage: much better thermal performance.

The new Blade 14 runs cool and quiet most of the time, but the fans can get loud as they spin up — at least it's a low whir, rather than a high whine. The Blade 14's keyboard deck can also get hot, but never quite hot enough that I couldn't comfortably touch it.

I ran the Blade 14 through 3DMark's Time Spy benchmark 25 times consecutively, and there was a 99.1% similarity between the best and worst loops. For comparison, the Blade 16 scored 98.1%, which is where a lot of modern gaming laptops land.

• Forza Horizon 5 — 106 FPS (Extreme preset, 1600p resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, v-sync enabled, NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution/Frame Generation/Reflex Low Latency disabled) | 74 FPS (Max settings, NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution set to Auto, NVIDIA DLSS Frame Generation/Reflex Low Latency enabled)
• Gears 5 — 81 FPS (Ultra preset, 1600p resolution, uncapped framerate, v-sync enabled)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 — 92 FPS (Extreme preset, 1600p resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, v-sync enabled, NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution set to Performance, NVIDIA DLSS Frame Generation disabled, NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency enabled)
• Cyberpunk 2077 — 51 FPS (Ray Tracing: Ultra preset, 1600p resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, v-sync enabled, NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution Transformer Model set to Auto, NVIDIA DLSS Frame Generation disabled, NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency enabled) | 51 FPS (Ray Tracing: Overdrive preset, v-sync disabled, NVIDIA DLSS Multi-Frame Generation set to 4x, NVIDIA DLSS Ray Reconstruction enabled)

When gaming, the Razer Blade 14 (2025) is a competent performer for QHD (1600p) gaming at high to ultra settings, and games will still look great on the 14-inch display at a lower 1200p resolution if you'd prefer more frames.

I had zero issues with the Blade 14's performance, but I have two interesting things to note: first, the RTX 5070 may benefit from NVIDIA's DLSS AI upscaling and multi-frame generation, but the improvements aren't nearly as dramatic as the 5070 Ti and up.

Secondly, the Blade 14 sometimes behaves weirdly with NVIDIA Advanced Optimus, where switching to the discrete GPU causes the display to freeze on its static RGB pixel array until you close the laptop and open it again. It only happened twice, but I've never experienced that with any other laptop.

Blade 14 review: Software and AI experience

The Razer Blade 14 follows the Blade 16 as one of Razer's first true AI PCs, thanks to the AMD Ryzen AI silicon inside. This is a full Copilot+ PC, so it's future-proofed to get all the best Windows 11 features as they're released.

Razer isn't really taking advantage on its own, with no real AI features to speak of, but between the 50 TOPS Neural Processing Unit (NPU) and the NVIDIA GPU, the Blade 14 should be able to handle any AI task you throw at it across productivity, creativity, and gaming workloads.

Beyond that, this is a clean build of Windows. You'll find the typical NVIDIA and AMD apps, but basically nothing else beyond Razer's Synapse and Chroma applications for managing your laptop, Razer accessories, and RGB lighting.

Razer Synapse 4 doesn't go crazy with the amount of control it gives you over your Blade 14, but all the basics you need are there, plus a few more.

Blade 14 review: Battery experience

You shouldn't be buying a gaming laptop if you need amazing endurance, but the Blade 14 attempts to strike that balance better than most, with some degree of success.

Running the Blade 14 through an hour-long loop of generic Microsoft Office tasks resulted in a battery drain of 22%, while looping an HD video at 50% volume took off 21% of the battery.

That's already a bit better than most 16-inch laptops, and running a Windows Battery Report showed I was able to get around 6 hours of actual usage out of the Blade 14 without throttling every feature into the ground, which isn't bad.

With some compromise, like disabling the keyboard lighting, reducing performance, and lowering screen brightness, you can get the Blade 14 through a full work day (as long as you're not constantly spinning up that GPU).

On battery power, expect to lose around 30% and 37% of your CPU and GPU performance, respectively — that's a sizeable bump down, but it's again better than a lot of larger gaming laptops.

Blade 14 review: Keyboard and touchpad

The keyboard is one area where the Blade 14 didn't receive the same treatment as its big sibling, as it's still the shallow 1mm keyboard as before. Off the bat, this isn't my favorite keyboard in a 14-inch laptop by any means, but I enjoyed typing and gaming on the Blade 14 more than I expected.

Key action is tactile and responsive, and I do like this layout. Razer also implemented its two-stage RGB lighting for keys with secondary functions, helpfully highlighting them when you press the Fn or Shift keys. It's an amazing detail that all premium laptops should adopt.

As an aside, Razer still has some of the best RGB lighting in the business, so the per-key lighting on the Blade 14 looks fantastic and is easy to customize.

The touchpad is still comically large, which some people will love. It's a mechanical touchpad, rather than a more premium haptic touchpad, but it's at least coated in slick, high-quality glass, employs Microsoft Precision drivers for gesture support, and is responsive and precise to use.

Blade 14 review: Other hardware

The Razer Blade 14 is undoubtedly a premium laptop, so it boasts a lot of luxuries you're not guaranteed elsewhere... But Razer didn't stuff everything and the kitchen sink in here.

The front-facing, FHD webcam and microphone array are decent and more than usable, but nothing exceptional. You at least get an IR sensor for Windows Hello facial recognition, but that feature no longer works in the dark (and you don't get a fingerprint sensor for backup authentication).

There's also no proximity sensor for the Human Presence Detection (HPD) features common with other premium AI laptops, nor an ambient light sensor for automatic brightness or color temperature adjustment. Most people won't miss those features, though.

Wireless connectivity is at least cutting edge with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 on board, although I do wish Razer would bake its proprietary HyperSpeed Wireless technology into its laptops for easy accessory pairing.

One area where the Blade 14 is hands-down at the cutting edge is with audio, as it boasts a mighty impressive six speakers packed into its petite frame, tuned with THX 7.1 surround sound in mind. Physics still plays a part with such a small laptop, but these speakers are really good.

Blade 14 review: Also consider

Blade 14 review: My final thoughts

✅You should buy this if ...

• You want a premium 14-inch laptop with power for high-end gaming.
• You want your laptop to make a statement with its design.
• You want a gaming laptop designed with AI features in mind.

❌You should not buy this if ...

• You only plan to occasionally use the discrete graphics.
• Reliable, all-day battery life is an absolute must.

Razer laptops have never been known to be affordable, and the Blade 14 is no exception. This is a costly machine, and a lot of that is tied up in the intricate way Razer constructs it.

The redesigned Razer Blade 14 (2025) is easily my favorite Razer laptop so far, though, and proves to me why the smallest in the lineup is also the best-selling. This is an excellent gaming companion with enough power for all the latest and greatest games, but a design thin and light enough to carry around with you everywhere.

It's also more capable of surviving a full day of work than most gaming laptops, making it a potent option for those who want a premium device for work, play, creativity, and — increasingly important — artificial intelligence.

The Blade 14 is still overkill for a lot of people, though, and those only planning to casually game or occasionally use those beefy NVIDIA graphics may be better off with one of the shockingly capable Intel or AMD ultrabooks from companies like Lenovo or HP.

Those of you who know what they need, though, can get the Razer Blade 14 (2025) from $2,299.99 at Razer right now. If you want my recommendation, get it in silver.

Among Razer's popular gaming laptops, the smallest offering is apparently the best-selling. For 2025, that laptop is getting a makeover alongside some serious hardware upgrades.

Razer was kind enough to send me an early non-final sample of the brand-new Razer Blade 14, making me among the first outside the company to go hands-on. I already reviewed the Razer Blade 16 (2025), and I see many similarities in its smaller sibling.

You'll have to wait for my final review (with final hardware) to get the in-depth breakdown on performance, battery life, and more, but I can provide my initial impressions after spending a few hours with the new Razer Blade 14 (2025).

This hands-on was made possible thanks to a pre-production sample provided by Razer. Razer had no input or saw the contents of this article before publication.

What should I know about the all-new Blade 14?

The Razer Blade 14 is the most compact gaming laptop in the Razer family, and it's also a fan favorite (enough that Razer even offers it in different colors).

Where the larger Blade 16 just recently (and with much fanfare) made the jump to AMD instead of Intel, the Blade 14 has relied on the red company for computational power for years.

It should come as no surprise, then, that the latest Blade 14 is powered by the latest AMD Ryzen AI chipsets, making it the first 14-inch AI PC from Razer. More than that, this is a full-fledged Copilot+ PC, complete with all the newest AI features baked into Windows 11.

Of course, you'll also find fresh NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50-series GPUs inside the Blade 14, which should result in a hefty performance boost over previous generations.

This certainly won't be the most powerful gaming laptop around, but the Razer Blade 14 is still packing some serious power while focusing on premium portability. If that's all you need to hear, the Razer Blade 14 is now available from $2,299.99 exclusively at Razer.

What is it like to unbox the new Blade 14?

My Razer Blade 14 isn't final hardware, so the packaging it came in may not represent the final product, either. Still, anyone unboxing a Blade 14 of their own should expect a similar experience.

Razer prefers to enclose the laptop in a compact box of its own, made entirely from sustainable or recycled materials. It puts the Blade 14 front and center, even if it's nothing special.

You'll find the proprietary Razer charger in a separate, smaller box, this time clocking in at 200W of charging power. That does provide fast charging support, but you can also use universal USB Type-C chargers (up to 100W) for when you're in a pinch.

As a bonus, Razer offers a standard 2-year warranty for every Blade 14 battery.

Is the Razer Blade 14 really redesigned for 2025?

Razer has a very consistent design language across its portfolio, and especially the Razer Blade laptops. Looking back at our Razer Blade 14 (2024) review, it'd be easy to assume this is another iterative year-over-year spec bump.

While the new Razer Blade 14 does appear similar, a lot is all-new, especially on the inside. This has allowed Razer to make the Blade 14 thinner (15.9-16.2mm versus 18mm), lighter (1.63kg versus 1.78kg), and even narrower (224mm versus 228mm) than last year.

Most of this is thanks to the completely redesigned thermal hood, which keeps the hottest components (CPU, GPU, and memory) cool as a cucumber under a new thermal gel, a massive vapor chamber, and dual fans.

Every Blade 14 is still CNC-milled from a single block of high-grade aluminum, and this laptop truly feels exceptionally well-constructed in the hand.

What are some of the best changes Razer made?

The latest Razer Blade 14 sacrifices some internal volume due to its tighter dimensions, but Razer refused to compromise on a single feature. In fact, the Blade 14 now offers more.

Last year, the Blade 14 featured a quad speaker system; this year, there are six speakers to offer louder and higher-quality audio, complete with THX Spatial Audio support.

The Blade 14 already had an excellent port selection, neatly dividing its two USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports and two USB Type-C 4.0 ports (with equivalent capabilities as Thunderbolt 4) across both sides, as well as an HDMI 2.1 port, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a Kensington Nano Security Slot.

This year, though, you also get a UHS-II microSD card slot.

The Razer Blade 14 has also made the jump to OLED, replacing last year's 1600p, 240Hz IPS LCD panel with an 1800p, 120Hz OLED screen. That refresh rate perfectly matches the Blade 14's capabilities, and you also get massively upgraded image quality across the board.

I can confirm that this display looks gorgeous. I would still wish that Razer offered last year's display as an option, though.

How good is the performance or battery life?

I have already discussed how Razer redesigned the thermal management system for the Blade 14. Razer took the same approach as with the Blade 16, and it did make a considerable difference there.

As a result, the new Blade 14 should run cooler and faster than ever, but I'm not allowed to benchmark this non-final sample. The Blade 14 should also be more efficient, with Razer claiming an added hour of battery life across the board, but I can't truly test that, either.

The precedent was already set with the redesigned Blade 16, though, so I have high hopes the Razer Blade 14 (2025) will also deliver.

Is the Blade 14 better than the Zephyrus G14?

When I reviewed the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024), I crowned it the king of 14-inch gaming laptops. With ASUS also set to update the Zephyrus G14 with similar internals as the Blade 14, how will these laptops stack up against each other?

The new Blade 14 closes many gaps with this redesign. It's now about as thin and about as light as the Zephyrus G14, with a similarly specced OLED display and a more competitive array of ports.

Putting both side by side, I still give the slight edge to the Zephyrus G14 in terms of aesthetics, but that's purely subjective on my part.

I still expect ASUS' 14-inch champion to offer better overall value than Razer's offering, but even this early hardware does feel more premium and refined than the Zephyrus G14.

If Razer can go toe-to-toe in performance, battery life, and user experience, then it'll be much harder to choose between these compact heavy hitters this year.

Should I buy the latest Razer Blade 14 laptop?

I'll have to send this pre-production sample back to Razer and wait to receive a final unit for my full review, but I'm already immensely impressed by the all-new Blade 14.

The Razer Blade 16 (2025) represents a massive year-over-year improvement, and I get a similar feeling with the Blade 14. It's thinner, lighter, and even more feature-packed than before, but it should also be a stronger, cooler, and longer-lasting performer.

I also love this silver color, but I do hope we see a return of Razer's iconic "Quartz" pink colorway for the Blade 14 in the future. Either way, Razer's best-selling laptop is looking good for 2025.

It'll be a few weeks before you see my review, but I'm excited to deep dive into the new Razer Blade 14 (and hopefully pit it against the new Zephyrus G14). If you can't wait that long, the Razer Blade 14 (2025) is available to order now from $2,299.99 exclusively at Razer, with the first units expected to ship out in early June.

If you have any other questions, drop them in the comments below, and I'll do my best to answer them. 👇

Razer recently delivered one of its biggest year-over-year upgrades with the redesigned Razer Blade 16 (2025) I reviewed, and now its 14-inch sibling is getting the same treatment.

Computex has arrived, and Razer has taken this opportunity to announce the Razer Blade 14 (2025), and this isn't a simple spec bump. Razer's smallest gaming laptop got the AI PC treatment, of course, but it also took plenty of cues from the new Blade 16.

I'll provide all the information you need, but I'll give you the lead now: the new Razer Blade 14 (2025) is available from $2,299.99 exclusively at Razer starting now.

What did Razer update with the new Blade 14?

Let's start with how the most compact Razer Blade has been upgraded for the new year. Razer adapted the redesigned Blade 16 chassis to this smaller form factor, making the new Blade 14 the thinnest (at around 15.7mm) and lightest (at around 1.63kg) 14-inch laptop Razer has ever made.

This is made possible with the same redesigned thermal hood that debuted with the Blade 16, positioning all the hottest components under the same vapor cooling chamber and dual-fan system.

The Razer Blade 14 already relied on AMD hardware, but you'll now find the 10-core AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 chipset under the hood, as well as an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 or 5070 GPU.

That makes this Blade 14 more powerful and efficient than ever, improving gaming performance and battery endurance, but it also enables AI features. Just like the Blade 16, the new Blade 14 is a full Copilot+ PC with all the latest and greatest Windows 11 features.

Elsewhere, you'll discover the QHD+, 240Hz IPS LCD display of last year has been replaced with a sharper 2.8K OLED display, with half the refresh rate (120Hz) but a much faster response time (0.2ms). Despite this laptop being smaller, Razer also found space to add two new speakers (for a total of six) and a microSD card slot.

Did we lose anything with this Razer Blade 14 update?

You may be wondering if Razer had to compromise on anything or remove any features compared to the Razer Blade 14 (2024) we reviewed for this redesign, and I have some good news here. Yes, the display is only 120Hz instead of 240Hz, but it's also sharper, faster, and significantly better looking.

Some may lament the loss of upgradeable RAM, though, as the new AMD Ryzen AI chipsets feature soldered memory, but Razer compensated by making that RAM faster than ever (8,000MHz) and offering configurations with up to 64GB of RAM. You can still upgrade the SSD storage, too.

You still get a massive 72Whr battery, too, and Razer claims the more efficient hardware adds around an hour of additional usage across the board, which I'll never say no to.

The one area where the Blade 14 wasn't updated is the keyboard. The Razer Blade 16 redesigned its keyboard, too, but the Blade 14 is still left with the same, shallow 1mm keyboard as before. Razer told me this is due to the tighter confines giving the company less flexibility to make changes here.

When will the Razer Blade 14 be available?

At least some configurations of the new Razer Blade 14 are going live today, sold exclusively through Razer's own store (at least in the USA). It's available in both black and silver at launch, too, although there's no pink version right now.

As for pricing, you'll be able to purchase the Razer Blade 14 (2025) from $2,299.99 at Razer, which will be with an RTX 5060 inside. Speaking of that GPU, another Razer laptop is also getting it as an option.

Also starting today, consumers can pick up a new entry-level Razer Blade 16 (2025) for $2,399.99 at Razer with an RTX 5060 GPU, so it'll only cost you $100 more to get a bigger 16-inch display and a deeper keyboard.

Windows Central should be getting our hands on the new Razer Blade 14 (2025) for review soon, so stay tuned for our full thoughts!

The Razer Blade 16 is ending years of languid iteration with a full redesign that aims to return Razer's flagship laptop to its throne.

The bloated chassis of the Razer Blade 16 (2024) I reviewed last year has been massively trimmed down to deliver the thinnest Razer Blade 16 ever, but still packs the deepest and most comfortable keyboard Razer has ever put in a laptop.

Intel has been left behind, with Razer relying on AMD for the very first time in its hero device, while the latest generation of NVIDIA GPUs helps usher in the new era with promised advancements in performance, efficiency, and AI.

The combination of all these improvements and the lack of any notable downgrades over the previous generation make the Razer Blade 16 a standout ultra-premium option yet again, but a recommendation isn't quite so clear-cut.

That meticulously crafted unibody design still demands a heavy price, and the Blade 16 still isn't close to being the most powerful gaming laptop you can get — even if you're looking to spend less.

This review was made possible thanks to a review sample provided by Razer. Razer had no input nor saw the contents of this review prior to publication.

Razer Blade 16 review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? A high-end gaming laptop that aims to balance premium design, portability, and performance.
• Who is it for? Those who aren't concerned about cost, and simply want the most luxurious gaming laptop you can buy.
• How much does it cost? The Razer Blade 16 (2025) starts from $2,999.99 at Razer. With every upgrade, the Razer Blade 16 will cost you $4,899.99 at Razer.
• What did I like? The thinner and lighter redesign, the dramatically improved keyboard, and the consistent sustained performance.
• What did I not like? The price tag, and the lack of meaningful performance gains year-over-year.

• Back to the top ⤴

Razer Blade 16 review: Pricing and specifications

The Razer Blade has never been known for providing great value, and the Blade 16 does nothing to alter that reputation.

This flagship gaming laptop still rests at the pinnacle of luxury, so you'll have to pay a lot just to get through the door — and give up an arm or leg for every upgrade you stack on top.

The Razer Blade 16 (2025) starts from $2,999.99 at Razer, or $2,999.99 at Amazon, and that's equipped with an AMD Ryzen AI 9 365, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of SSD storage.

There are a handful of optional upgrades for the CPU, GPU, memory, and storage, with the fully maxed out Razer Blade 16 (2025) racking up a cost of $4,899.99 at Razer, or $4,899.99 at Amazon, which nets you a Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, RTX 5090, 64GB of RAM, and 4TB of SSD storage.

My Razer Blade 16 (2025) review sample is configured with the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, RTX 5090, 32GB of RAM, and 2TB of SSD storage which would cost you $4,499.99 at Razer.

It can't really be claimed that the Razer Blade 16 is a good deal, but the quality of hardware does reflect the price tag attached to it. Those who prioritize raw performance above all else, though, can get much more in far less expensive hardware (albeit hardware that will be thicker, heavier, and less premium).

If you'd like to purchase the optional extended and upgraded 3-year warranty (known as RazerCare), that will run you between $370 and $500 depending on if you want day-one accidental damage coverage.

In the box, you'll find the Razer Blade 16 (2025) and Razer's proprietary 280W DC charger.

• Back to the top ⤴

Razer Blade 16 review: Design and build quality

Razer Blade gaming laptops have been known for their anodized, matte black, CNC-milled unibody aluminum chassis for years, but the iconic design has grown stale over the past few generations thanks to iterative tweaks.

With the brand-new Razer Blade 16 (2025), the company finally went back to the drawing board, massively streamlining the design while retaining the iconic aesthetics.

I was immediately impressed by the redesign when I first went hands-on, and I haven't stopped being impressed since. Incontestable refinement, rather than gaudiness, helps this laptop stand out.

What exactly has changed, though? There are plenty of more subtle improvements, but Razer mostly trimmed the excess fat to craft the sleekest, thinnest Razer Blade laptop ever.

To be precise, the new Blade 16 is 14.9-17.4mm thin, approximately 21-32% thinner than last year. It also weighs 4.71lbs, a weight reduction of around 13%.

Razer softened the edges to make the Blade 16 more comfortable, too, and the redesigned thermal shelf provides the illusion of being even slimmer while also enabling excellent performance within the tighter confines.

Razer didn't drop a single port when making the transition, either. You still get a total of five USB ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, and a full-sized SD card slot, perfectly divided on each side.

Sure, you no longer get true Thunderbolt 4 thanks to the move to AMD instead of Intel, but the new USB4 ports are compatible with the vast majority of Thunderbolt accessories, and still support 100W Power Delivery and DisplayPort 1.4 output.

This is a fantastic redesign, once again establishing the Blade 16 as the ultimate luxury gaming laptop, and it's great that Razer didn't cut out ports or added touches like the LED Razer logo to achieve it.

There is still one major area for improvement, though, and that's the display. Despite Razer's obvious commitment to industry-leading hardware design, the Blade 16's screen is still glossy plastic, surrounded by raised plastic bezels. Most other premium, design-focused laptops use seamless, laminated glass for their screens, so I'd like to see Razer make the jump, too.

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Razer Blade 16 review: Display quality

As I just mentioned, the display is the one area where Razer didn't alter much of anything. It's the same glossy, plastic, non-touch 16-inch display with the taller 16:10 aspect ratio, with the same impressive OLED panel behind it.

You're looking at a QHD+ resolution paired with a 240Hz refresh rate and a 0.2ms response time, a great set of specs that looks perfectly sharp at this screen size — and the Razer Blade 16 actually has the power to make use of that speed, too.

Being an OLED panel, the Blade 16 offers a dynamic visual experience, making full use of the vibrant colors and inky blacks to make all your video games and movies look their absolute best.

Performance is excellent, too, with no hint of ghosting, stuttering, or latency. Once you play games on a display of this caliber, it's nearly impossible to be satisfied with anything less.

The Razer Blade 16 may be a gaming laptop at its core, but Razer also aims it at creators and hardcore professionals who may need a color accurate display they can trust.

Fortunately, Razer delivers here with Calman Verified factory calibration for 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, as well as a variety of professional-tailored color profiles and even the option to build your own custom preset.

This laptop's display doesn't exceed expectations when it comes to brightness, but it crosses the 400nits threshold that I consider to be the minimum for an OLED-equipped laptop, and it gets dim enough for use in the darkest of environments.

White balance is remarkably consistent and even across brightness levels, too, making the Blade 16 a potentially invaluable tool for on-the-go creative work. A matte or at least properly anti-reflective glass screen would be great to see in the next Blade 16 laptop, but this is a fantastic display regardless.

It does use Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) for dimming, though, which means the display flickers at a high rate to simulate lower brightness levels. The Razer Blade 16's OLED display does seem to flicker at higher rates than average, at least, so only those who are particularly sensitive should be affected.

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Razer Blade 16 review: Performance and thermals

The Razer Blade 16 didn't just receive a redesign for 2025, it also switched from Intel to AMD Ryzen AI processors, a first for Razer and a major shift in general.

While AMD Ryzen AI is less powerful in some metrics than the previous Intel 14th Gen CPUs, it's more efficient and enables enhanced AI features and Copilot+ PC status thanks to its powerful integrated Neural Processing Unit (NPU).

The Blade 16 also marks the arrival of the long-awaited NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50-series of mobile GPUs, which promise improved performance, greater efficiency, and — of course — superior AI capabilities with features like DLSS 4.

That makes this Razer's first true AI PC, but how does it perform? In general, it feels excellent, as you'd expect with such powerful hardware under the hood.

I will say that AMD Ryzen AI isn't quite as snappy with waking from sleep as Intel or Qualcomm systems, but the Blade 16 feels just as smooth and responsive as the best Windows laptops.

Looking at the numbers tells a slightly more complicated story, though.

If you only looked at the numbers above, you may be confused. How is the new Razer Blade 16 supposed to be an upgrade when it's so clearly slower than last year's model?

While true in some ways, that fails to tell the whole story. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 isn't a substantial upgrade over its predecessor in raw performance, but is more efficient and more capable with AI features.

The AMD Ryzen AI chipsets are slower on paper than the Intel processors Razer used previously, but are significantly more efficient and run considerably cooler, on top of also enabling new AI features. Intel simply doesn't offer an equivalent right now.

No, the Razer Blade 16 (2025) isn't notably more performant than its predecessor, but that wasn't Razer's goal. The new Blade 16 is drastically slimmer, yet runs cooler and achieves the same (sometimes better) performance.

I ran this laptop through 3DMark's Time Spy benchmark 25 consecutive times, and the new Blade 16 achieved a 98.1% frame rate stability. When it comes to sustained performance, the new Blade 16 comfortably outpaces last year's version.

The fans are still loud but hum at a comfortably low frequency, and the Blade 16 never grew too warm to comfortably touch. It's a genuine improvement over last year, despite the size reduction.

Sustained performance matters, and the Razer Blade 16 (2025) also handles modern PC games incredibly well, even without relying on the RTX 50-series' new DLSS features.

• Forza Horizon 5 — 144 FPS (Extreme preset, 1600p resolution, 240Hz refresh rate, v-sync enabled, NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution/Frame Generation/Reflex Low Latency disabled) | 211 FPS (Max settings, NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution set to “Auto,” NVIDIA DLSS Frame Generation/Reflex Low Latency enabled)
• Gears 5 — 127 FPS (Ultra preset, 1600p resolution, uncapped framerate, v-sync enabled)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 — 87 FPS (Extreme preset, 1600p resolution, 240Hz refresh rate, v-sync enabled, NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution/Frame Generation disabled) | 96 FPS (NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution set to “Quality”)
• Cyberpunk 2077 — 69 FPS (Ray Tracing: Ultra preset, 1600p resolution, 240Hz refresh rate, v-sync enabled, NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution set to “Auto,” NVIDIA DLSS Frame Generation/Ray Reconstruction disabled, NVIDIA DLSS Reflex Low Latency enabled)

In Forza Horizon 5, the 2025 Blade 16 performed 11% better without using DLSS Super Resolution like the 2024 model. In Gears 5, I saw a 14% framerate improvement with identical settings. Cyberpunk 2077 is the only game that performed worse on the new laptop (4% worse, to be exact), and the slower AMD Ryzen AI chipset is likely to blame there.

I'm not convinced NVIDIA's DLSS 4 features are enough to justify a new generation of GPUs, but the Razer Blade 16 doesn't need them to perform well. Of course, it'll never be quite as powerful as other gaming laptops willing to pack on the grams and millimeters in exchange for better cooling.

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Razer Blade 16 review: Software and AI experience

The Razer Blade 16 (2025) runs a clean build of Windows 11, with only minor additions from Razer.

By minor, I mean you'll find AMD and NVIDIA's software, Razer Synapse 4, and the dedicated Razer Chroma application. Razer doesn't even preinstall its own Cortex launcher and optimizer, which surprised me.

This laptop feels pretty stable and NVIDIA is regularly releasing new drivers for the RTX 50-series, but I did experience some small bugs. The laptop refused to remember my preference for the function row lock, for example.

I love seeing a distinct lack of bloatware, but the Razer Blade 16 is also devoid of any meaningful effort to take advantage of its "AI PC" status. Copilot+ PCs still add little of real value — and indeed many of the meager features are only just now reaching Intel and AMD systems.

Razer's AI investments are in their early days, too, and either way aren't reliant on the Blade 16's AI-centric hardware. You don't even get a proximity sensor for Human Presence Detection (HPD) features; the new Blade 16 is an AI PC in name only out of the box.

Still, you can easily find plenty of third-party apps and features that can take advantage of that AMD Ryzen AI NPU, and the Blade 16 will in theory become more intelligent over time as Razer, Microsoft, and everyone else develops their AI ecosystems.

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Razer Blade 16 review: Battery experience

I had high hopes that the Razer Blade 16's transition to more efficient AMD Ryzen AI and RTX 50-series components would also lead to greater endurance from its massive 90Whr battery, but that's sadly not the case.

The Razer Blade 16 (2025) drained 24% of its battery in both of Procyon's one-hour battery tests, which loops a generic Microsoft Office workload or an HD video at 200nits display brightness and 50% volume.

Running a Windows Battery Report actually returned worse endurance versus last year's model, not even breaking the 4-hour mark. You can disable the NVIDIA GPU and other features to squeeze respectable life out of this laptop, but on default settings it simply doesn't last.

The bigger issue, though, is how much performance you lose when off the charger. In my testing, the Blade 16 lost 51% and 32% of its single and multicore performance, and 44% of its GPU performance, and that was on the highest possible performance profile.

That's a massive downgrade in performance, and it doesn't even translate to better battery life. Most egregious is the loss of single-core performance, which is actually noticeable in general computing.

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Razer Blade 16 review: Keyboard and touchpad

One of my most prominent complaints about the previous Razer Blade laptops was the shallow, lackluster keyboard that I wouldn't accept on any laptop, let alone a device built for gaming.

With the Blade 16 redesign, Razer heard our prayers and baked in an all-new keyboard, too. New, more durable switches with 50% more travel and an improved layout (including additional macro keys that you can customize) makes this the best keyboard on a Blade laptop, period.

HP and Lenovo still have Razer beat with some of their laptop keyboards, but the Blade 16 can finally play with the big dogs thanks to deeper, more tactile key actions. It's everything I want from a great keyboard.

Razer also takes full advantage of its best-in-class per-key RGB lighting (seriously, no one comes close here) with some awesome quality-of-life features. Hold down the "Fn" key, and all the shortcuts usable with it will be highlighted.

Now, dual-function keys also feature dual LEDs, meaning holding down the "Shift" key will switch the backlighting to the secondary symbols or functions. It's subtle enough that it could only be done in a super high-end laptop, but I like it.

The gargantuan, glass Microsoft Precision touchpad makes a return, too, but Razer slightly shrunk it down after complaints that it was too easily touched when typing. It's a solid touchpad, but palm rejection is still not its strong suit, so accidental inputs haven't disappeared.

Large touchpads also make the inconsistent click action of the buttons more noticeable. That, combined with gamers' tendency to disable the touchpad when gaming, makes me wish that this was a large haptic touchpad.

Haptic touchpads provide an even "clicking" action across the entire surface, and when disabled simply become an unmoving glass sheet. Considering the Blade 16 is already ludicrously expensive, I don't think it's unreasonable to want all the premium features, haptic touchpads included.

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Razer Blade 16 review: Other hardware

Many gaming laptops tend to slack on the finer details to focus on performance above all else, but the Blade 16 can't afford to do this — because the people who can afford the Blade 16 won't compromise.

As such, you get an FHD front-facing webcam that's not complete garbage, even if it doesn't exceed expectations. That camera is flanked by dual-array microphones and an IR sensor to enable Windows Hello facial recognition; the former are solid, and the latter is decently quick and reliable.

As I already mentioned, though, you won't find a proximity sensor here for HPD, nor will you find an ambient light sensor for automatic brightness or color temperature adjustment. There's also no privacy shutter, either physical or electronic. At least you get a Microsoft Pluton chip for enhanced security.

For wireless connectivity, the Razer Blade 16 is on the cutting edge with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, and I had zero issues here.

I already mentioned the additional macro keys aligned on one side of the keyboard, with each possessing a standard function and a secondary function you can customize to your heart's content.

Finally, Razer actually added two more speakers to the Blade 16, for a total of six. These speakers support THX Spatial Audio and actually sound pretty great. They're not my absolute favorite I've heard, but they get loud and sound clear and defined at all volume levels, with more low end than your average laptop.

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Razer Blade 16 review: Also consider

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Razer Blade 16 review: Score card

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Razer Blade 16 review: My final thoughts

✅You should buy this if ...

• You want a gaming laptop that balances portability and performance.
• You don't mind paying a lot extra for an ultra-premium experience.
• You want a powerful laptop that also boasts a dedicated NPU for AI.

❌You should not buy this if ...

• You need the absolute best performance you can get for your money.
• You need a laptop that's performant on the charger and long-lasting off.

Razer genuinely improved the Blade 16 by leaps and bounds in a single generation. Of course, there are still changes I'd love to see in future iterations, like a glass display, haptic touchpad, and more of the features we've seen in premium Ultrabooks.

Those aside, though, the new Blade 16 is thinner and lighter than ever, but runs cooler and matches or exceeds the performance of its chunkier predecessor. This laptop finally feels like its hardware matches the exorbitant price tag again.

That said, you really need to want that "luxury design" to justify paying so much, especially if you're just looking for a ridiculously powerful gaming laptop that will rarely be too far from an outlet.

I also wish that battery life when off the charger was better, especially considering just how much performance you lose the moment you become unplugged. There are compromises to be made here, but I do have to admit the Razer Blade 16 (2025) is a beautiful and capable laptop that's much easier to recommend than last year's model.

Sold on this premium laptop and have the funds to acquire it? You can purchase the Razer Blade 16 (2025) from $2,999.99 at Razer right now.

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When you think "premium gaming laptop," there's a very good chance the iconic Razer Blade appeared in your mind. Razer's luxury flagships have sat at the top of the food chain for years, where only a few gamers and professionals with ample funds are willing to splurge. In the last few years, though, it has felt like the Blade line has stagnated in some ways.

At CES 2025, Razer is doing away with all feelings of stagnation. The latest Razer Blade 16 is official, and it may be the single largest generation-to-generation evolution Razer has ever attempted. An all-new design that breaks a Razer record, a momentous shift from Intel to AMD, next-gen NVIDIA graphics, and more help establish the Razer Blade 16 (2025) as one of the most exciting laptops of the year.

I went hands-on with a couple of early samples for Razer's new hero device ahead of its launch sometime in the next few months, and I left feeling more positive about Razer's laptop efforts than I ever have before.

The Razer Blade is taking back its spot at the top

I wasn't all that impressed when I reviewed the Razer Blade 16 (2024). It's a good all-around laptop for gamers and creators, but I couldn't look past the eye-watering price tag, tired design, outdated keyboard, and tendencies to throttle under load. When I went hands-on with the new Razer Blade 16, I could almost convince myself that Razer had used my review as the blueprint, addressing every single criticism I levied toward it.

Let's start with that design. The Razer Blade 16 (2025) is still CNC milled out of a single, sturdy block of aluminum for peerless build quality, but it's up to 32% thinner than last year, from 22mm (0.87in) in 2024 to just 15mm (0.59in) this year. That's actually the thinnest a Razer Blade has ever been, according to Razer, and the difference is striking. Compared to the sleek, slim, and refined design of the new Blade 16, last year's model feels heavy and bloated.

A massive reduction in thickness hasn't negatively impacted any other aspect of the Razer Blade experience, either, or at least that's what Razer claims. One area I can at least assess for myself is the keyboard; Razer admitted to me that the Razer Blade's keyboard hasn't meaningfully changed in many years, but this time around key travel has increased by 50% (up to 1.5mm), switch durability has increased by 20% (up to 6 million presses), and the keyboard in general feels more responsive, tactile, and comfortable than before.

Razer told me the keyboard is still being finalized and wasn't quite finished on the early samples I played with, and I still observed an immediate and obvious improvement over last year. The new Razer Blade 16 nails the design and nails the keyboard.

Another major shift in direction can be found under the hood. Razer has worked with AMD in the past, but its flagship Blade laptops have always been powered by Intel. With the Razer Blade 16 (2025), that finally changes — and I'm extremely confident that will mean nothing but good things for the end-user experience.

The new Razer Blade 16 is running up to an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, a CPU I already have a lot of experience with while reviewing devices like the ASUS ProArt P16 (2024). At the time, I remember thinking that the ProArt P16 was what I wished the Razer Blade 16 was more like, and AMD's latest mobile chips are a large part of that thinking. Cool, efficient, and more powerful than Intel's latest Core Ultra silicon, the AMD Ryzen AI family was an obvious choice for a Razer trying to go thinner than ever.

Making the switch from Intel Core i to AMD Ryzen AI means the Razer Blade 16 is also the first Copilot+ PC from Razer, and its first AI PC in general. With a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) boasting up to 50 TOPS of computational power, the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 enables a ton of AI features and may play a part in future Razer investments and projects. The change does mean RAM is now soldered, but the Blade 16 can go up to 64GB at 8,000MHz — significantly faster than last year at 5,200MHz.

An all-new thermal system with a custom vapor chamber at its core helps keep that AMD chip running cooler under pressure than previous Blade 16s could manage, and has enabled Razer to shove the most powerful next-gen NVIDIA graphics inside despite the slimmer chassis, although this isn't the article for me to talk about that specific upgrade.

Unfortunately, I don't have a full specs sheet or all the details for the Razer Blade 16 (2025), as this laptop isn't expected until sometime in the first quarter of the year. What I can say is that OLED is back for another year, with the Blade 16 boasting a QHD+, 240Hz OLED panel with a 0.2ms response time. I've no doubts this will be a great display, and it certainly looked the part during my limited hands-on.

Users also won't be losing any ports year-over-year. The Razer Blade 16 (2025) moves some ports around, but the same selection is here. Well, apart from Thunderbolt 4 being swapped out for USB4 thanks to the switch to AMD, but that change won't impact 99.9% of users.

In general, I'm really impressed by what I saw during my time with the Razer Blade 16 (2025), and I'm excited to dive deeper into what Razer has accomplished. It finally feels like the Blade 16 may have achieved perfection for an ultra-premium gaming laptop, although I'll reserve any final judgment until I'm able to put a full production model through its paces. All those design improvements mean little if the laptop ends up running like snails.

The Razer Blade 16 (2025) isn't arriving for another few months, but you can keep on eye on Razer.com for more information on the laptop. Also, stay tuned to Windows Central for our in-depth review whenever the new Blade 16 arrives.

What you need to know

• RazerCon 2024 is currently underway in Hamburg, Germany.
• Among many other announcements, Razer unveiled news that Intel's Thunderbolt Share feature is coming to all Blade 18 (2024) models.
• Thunderbolt Share was first introduced by Intel in May 2024 as a solution for speedy PC-to-PC connectivity.
• Thunderbolt Share works with Thunderbolt 4 and 5 ports, but laptops must be officially "Thunderbolt Share" licensed for it to work.

Razer is well-known as one of the leading makers of gaming laptops and gaming accessories, and its premium products often include the bleeding edge of innovation. Its RazerCon 2024 expo is currently underway in Hamburg, Germany, with the company showing off a ton of new hardware, software, and upgrades. 

One major piece of news that caught my attention involves Intel's Thunderbolt Share technology coming to the Razer Blade 18. The Blade 18 for 2024 is the most powerful laptop we've ever tested at Windows Central, and it's also one of the only laptops on the market to feature the latest Thunderbolt 5 connectivity.

If the awesome transfer speeds with up to 80Gb/s bi-directional bandwidth and DisplayPort 2.1 support for external monitors weren't enough, the latest Blade 18 models are now licensed for Thunderbolt Share. PC-to-PC transfers just got a whole lot easier.

Why Thunderbolt Share matters for PC users

As far as PC-to-PC sharing goes, Thunderbolt Share is shaping up to be the fastest and most convenient — at least as long as you have a PC with a Thunderbolt 4 or Thunderbolt 5 port. Thunderbolt Share is a downloadable piece of software that, when applied to a licensed PC, unlocks some handy tools.

My colleague and Windows Central Editor Ben Wilson saw Thunderbolt Share in action during his time at Intel's 2024 Tech Tour in Taipei, where the company was demoing "seamless file transfer and desktop sharing," and it's finally coming to laptops with this Blade 18 announcement from Razer.

Why is Thunderbolt Share a big deal? As someone who frequently has more than one PC running at once on my desk, it looks like an incredibly easy way to not only transfer and share files but also to effectively set up a KVM (Keyboard-Video-Mouse) switch for sharing accessories and monitors between PCs.

Thunderbolt Share works with a direct connection between two licensed PCs, and it also works if you place a Thunderbolt 4 or Thunderbolt 5 dock somewhere in between. While it's great for creators and multitaskers who incorporate multiple PCs into their workflow, it also applies to PC gamers (hence the Blade 18 licensing).

Many PC gamers, including myself, like to have guides, maps, and streams open on a separate monitor, but running extra software can steal resources. With Thunderbolt Share, you'll be able to run two PCs seamlessly on the same desk; one for gaming and the other for supporting software.

In a more general sense, being able to drag and drop files between PCs or migrate entire systems (I can see this is a great alternative for cloning) without relying on third-party software or cloud storage will only improve security and privacy.

Here's the rub: Intel says that Thunderbolt Share technically works with any desktop or laptop PC with Thunderbolt 4 or Thunderbolt 5 and that meets the minimum requirements. Those requirements are as follows:

• PCs with Thunderbolt 4 or Thunderbolt 5 ports
• Windows 11 as an OS
• A certified Thunderbolt 4 or Thunderbolt 5 cable
• Intel Graphics Driver version 0.101.4826 (or newer)

However — and it's a big however — at least one of the PCs must have Thunderbolt Share licensing. So let's say you have a Razer Blade 18. You can connect it to any of the best Windows laptops with a Thunderbolt 4 or 5 port (or with a Thunderbolt dock in between) to gain access to the features.

Intel lists Acer, Lenovo, MSI, and Razer as laptop makers that are in on Thunderbolt Share, but as far as I can tell the Blade 18 is the first laptop licensed for the new tech. It's expected to come to other Blade laptops in the future, including those with Thunderbolt 4. Dock makers like Belkin, Kensington, OWC, and Plugable are also listed as on board with the program. Ben Wilson tested and reviewed the Kensington SD5000T5 EQ, one of the world's first Thunderbolt 5 docks to hit the market.

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Razer's Blade 18 (2024) is a monster gaming laptop

As if PC gamers with deep pockets needed even more reason to consider the Razer Blade 18, its new Thunderbolt Share licensing makes it even easier to transfer files and split accessories between PCs.

My colleague Ben Wilson tested and reviewed the Blade 18 for 2024 earlier this year, ultimately handing it a Windows Central Best Award and a 90% overall score. No, it's not perfect, but as Wilson put it, it's "still the world's most powerful gaming laptop."

In his review, Wilson highlights the fact that the laptop — equipped with an Intel Core i9-14900HX CPU and NVIDIA RTX 4090 Laptop GPU — can "effortlessly run almost any game at Ultra settings." The choice between an LCD screen with UHD+ resolution at 240Hz or a QHD+ mini-LED screen at 300Hz is applauded, and he also points out that the USB-C ports are Thunderbolt 5.

The laptop is heavy and has a big footprint, but that's expected with this level of performance hardware inside. It also has dreadful battery life (also expected), and its fans work hard to keep it cool. Nevertheless, it's much easier to carry around than a high-end desktop gaming PC, which it was it's trying to emulate.

Razer Blade 18 prices start at a whopping $2,800 and climb quickly as you add more powerful performance hardware.

One of my many meetings while in San Francisco for GDC 2024 was with Razer. I've worked with Razer countless times in the past, reviewing a multitude of its products during my time at Windows Central, and the company wanted to do a one-on-one with me to show off several upcoming releases. I was able to go hands-on with these products and put together my first impressions. Today, I can only talk about one: the Razer Blade 18 (2024).

On the surface, Razer's largest and most powerful gaming laptop hasn't changed all that much. The design is still immediately familiar to anyone who has used a Blade in the past, and the basic formula is identical. However, the internals and displays are brand-new, and the Blade 18 has a couple of tricks up its sleeve to help it stand out from the rest of the best gaming laptops. Namely, it's the very first laptop on the market with full Thunderbolt 5 support.

Travel to and from and accommodation at GDC 2024 in San Francisco, California was paid for by Windows Central. Razer did not see the contents of this article before publishing.

Razer at GDC: A familiar design and keyboard

If you've seen a Razer Blade laptop at any point in the last few years, then you know what the Razer Blade 18 looks like. It's the same sand-blasted, anodized, matte black aluminum unibody (there's also a silver colorway) we expect from Razer, with laser-cut grilles, a per-key RGB-lit keyboard, a large glass touchpad, and Razer's iconic green accents. It's an attractive laptop with build quality well above the average for big and beefy gaming laptops and is also more svelte than many 18-inch devices with similar levels of hardware.

As I stated in my Razer Blade 16 (2024) review, however, this design is starting to feel a little dated. The same sharp and uncomfortable edges make a comeback, and the coating isn't nearly as good at resisting smudges and fingerprints as Razer would have you believe. Still, it's an undoubtedly premium laptop with exceptional construction, and it packs all the hardware and features one expects from a laptop with such an exorbitant price tag.

So, what's the same versus last year's Razer Blade 18? You're getting the same Razer Chroma keyboard, which is a fine keyboard but is nothing extravagant (especially for a gaming laptop). This is one area I'd like to see Razer make some major changes. On the other hand, the excellent Microsoft Precision touchpad makes a return, dominating the lower half of the keyboard deck. The overall port selection and placement are largely the same, too (with one major exception), including the return of Razer's lovely 330W GaN charger and its accompanying proprietary port.

Honestly, you can read our Razer Blade 18 (2023) review and get a great idea of the overall experience here. In the next section, I'll go over what is new and improved.

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Razer at GDC: New hardware and displays

One of the biggest changes in the new Razer Blade 18 is the arrival of an Intel 14th Gen CPU. You can read our guide on everything you need to know about Intel 14th Gen processors, but the quick and easy summary is that all you should really expect is a minor bump in overall performance. It's not terribly exciting, but Intel 14th Gen does open up some new possibilities for futureproofed connectivity; these CPUs include support for Thunderbolt 5 and Wi-Fi 7.

Most companies have opted not to bake these features into their latest laptops, even those with Intel 14th Gen hardware, but Razer ticked every box to ensure the Blade 18 remains competitive for years to come. I'll get into what Thunderbolt 5 support means in the next section, though. Let's talk about the other changes Razer has made.

Mostly, it's the displays! Gone is the average QHD+, 240Hz display we see on many laptops. Now, the Blade 18 boasts either a true 4K (2400p), 200Hz IPS LCD display for those that need resolution above all else, and a seriously impressively QHD+, 300Hz Mini LED panel with 1,000 nits peak brightness and over 2,000 local dimming zones for contrast levels approaching OLED screens. New for 2024, you can now toggle the local dimming on and off if you want. Both display options are individually calibrated to meet 100% of the cinematic DCI-P3 color gamut, so it really comes down to resolution vs. refresh rate, contrast, and brightness.

In the audio department, Razer has amped the bass and volume of its THX-tuned six-speaker system and built-in new cutouts on the side of the Blade 18 to give the woofer more room to breathe. I wasn't able to properly demo the Blade 18 speaker systems, but it's always nice to see companies investing in this department. On the inside, astute observers won't notice much difference between the 2024 and 2023 Blade 18 models; the same massive vapor cooling chamber and tri-fan thermal system are here, hopefully allowing for superior and more sustained performance versus the more thermally limited Blade 16 (which features a more compact chassis, a smaller vapor chamber, and one less fan).

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Razer at GDC: The first laptop with Thunderbolt 5

Overall, the latest Razer Blade 18 isn't the biggest departure versus its predecessor, with a near-identical design and most of the same GPUs (Razer dropped the lowest RTX 4060, as most people buying a premium 18-inch laptop are willing to spend more for more power), and many of the same features. Minor performance improvements and new displays are great, but I/O is where the new Blade 18 stands out.

Just as Thunderbolt 4 is finally achieving market saturation (being available on around 90% of new Intel Core-powered Windows laptops), Thunderbolt 5 is here with significantly more capability — and the Razer Blade 18 (2024) is the first to take advantage. You still get plenty of other ports, like a USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 2, two USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 2, HDMI 2.1, 2.5Gbit Ethernet, UHS-II SD, and 3.5mm audio, but now the second USB Type-C port is a full-fledged Thunderbolt 5 port with everything that entails.

So, what does that mean? Well, Thunderbolt 5 doubles the data bandwidth from 40GB/s with T4 to 80GB/s and can even boost to 120GB/s when needed (the bandwidth is more flexible than with previous versions of Thunderbolt, better able to balance transmitting and receiving data). You also get double the PCIe bandwidth. All of this means up to two 8K monitors (versus two 4K with T4), or up to 540Hz refresh rate, or up to three 4K monitors at 144Hz, or practically any combination you may need without compromising on resolution or refresh rate. It also opens the doors for considerably more advanced docking stations, faster external SSDs, a revival of external GPU bays, and more.

Thunderbolt 5 isn't particularly useful right now because there aren't a lot of devices or accessories that can take advantage, but it's fully backward compatible with all previous USB Type-C and Thunderbolt versions, including full USB4 certification. For charging, Thunderbolt 5 Power Delivery is now a minimum of 140W, the previous maximum for Thunderbolt 4, and can go all the way up to 240W — that means a lot more laptops will only need one cable for charging and data. Even the Blade 18 could be comfortably powered by one Thunderbolt 5 cable, as long as you're not pushing the hardware with gaming or other intense tasks.

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Razer at GDC: An impressive and expensive laptop

The Razer Blade may very well be the most luxurious, premium, high-end gaming laptop in the world, and the Blade 18 is the largest, most powerful variant. Unlike the portable Razer Blade 14 or balanced Razer Blade 16, the Blade 18 is designed to be a true desktop replacement with no compromises. Its hardware is impressive, to say the least, and it's certainly not lacking in the power department. For current Blade 18 owners, though, there isn't much reason to upgrade.

On the other hand, for those looking for a beastly 18-inch gaming laptop and aren't afraid to splash some major cash, the Blade 18 makes a compelling argument. The new displays feel much more premium, you're getting the best internals you can shove into a laptop, and futureproofing like Thunderbolt 5 and Wi-Fi 7 are truly valuable commodities when you're spending so much on a laptop you'll likely rely on for years to come.

However, you'll be paying a lot to get this laptop on your desk. The Razer Blade 18 (2024) starts from $3,099 at Razer with the QHD+ Mini LED display, 32GB of RAM, 1TB of SSD storage, an Intel Core i9, an RTX 4070 GPU, and no Thunderbolt 5. Simply jumping up to an RTX 4080 and Thunderbolt 5 will run you $3,699. Want the most powerful RTX 4090 GPU, a 4K display, 64GB of RAM, and 4TB of SSD storage? That configuration is a blisteringly expensive $4,799. You'll also likely want to pair it with one of the best Thunderbolt docks, too.

I've no doubt the Razer Blade 18 will serve buyers well. The hardware is immaculate, aside from my minor grievances, and the larger chassis and roomier thermal headroom should translate to even better performance over the powerful Blade 16. Thunderbolt 5, Wi-Fi 7, more premium displays, and superior audio are all nice upgrades, even if Razer didn't rewrite the book in any way. Simply put, the Razer Blade 18 (2024) has all the pieces it needs to be one of the very best.

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In the world of PC gaming, Razer stands among the best when it comes to brand recognition. This is deliberate, too; Razer invests heavily into its brand, enticing gamers into its black-and-green ecosystem of PCs, monitors, accessories, and even merch.

At the center of this ecosystem is the Razer Blade, the sleek, black, metal gaming laptop that has attracted eyes and wallets alike since its debut in 2011. Right now, the core of the Razer Blade lineup is the 16-inch laptop I've been using for the past couple of weeks, and I have some thoughts.

The Razer Blade 16 (2024) doesn't surprise in any way because it's good (and often great) in all the same ways past Razer Blades have been. Sure, there's a new 240Hz OLED display in the base configuration and a powerful Intel 14th Gen Core i9 CPU, but in many ways, this laptop feels very similar to the Razer Blade 16 of last year. Which, in turn, felt very similar to the Razer Blade 15 of previous years. This is still one of the best gaming laptops you can buy, but is this level of iterative improvement really enough when it costs so much?

Disclaimer: This review was made possible with a review unit provided by Razer. The company did not see the contents of the review before publishing.

Razer Blade 16 review: Pricing and specifications

Pricing highlights

• The Razer Blade 16 starts at $2,999.99 with an Intel Core i9, NVIDIA RTX 4070, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD.
• Prices quickly rise from there, rocketing all the way up to a staggering $5,499.99 (although that configuration packs a huge amount of RAM and storage).
• High-end memory and storage upgrades aren't terribly priced, but overall, the Razer Blade 16 is very expensive for the overall experience and performance you're getting.
• Value rating: 3/5

Razer has never been known as being a particularly value-conscious brand, but that's never more obvious than when looking at the company's Razer Blade line of laptops.

At least when it comes to accessories, Razer offers a wide range of competitive products in every price category, but the Blade family insists on sitting in the upper echelons of gaming laptop pricing; in other words, don't come here if you're on a tight budget.

The Razer Blade 16 (2024) starts at $2,999.99 at Razer and is equipped with an Intel Core i9 (the same found in every Blade 16), RTX 4070 GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of SSD storage. Prices quickly go up depending on your options, with my review configuration charging $4,199.99 at Razer to upgrade to an RTX 4090, 32GB of RAM, and 2TB of SSD storage. If you're really swimming in cash and need a truly ridiculous computer, you can upgrade that model to Razer's unique dual-MiniLED display, 96GB of RAM, and 8TB of SSD storage for $5,499.99 at Razer.

In the box, you'll get the Razer Blade 16 (2024), a 280-330W power adapter (depending on your GPU), Razer's customary stickers, and a microfiber cleaning cloth. The Razer Blade 16 is an extremely expensive laptop, with Razer counting on buyers desiring its brand, high-quality construction, and svelte, understated design. Other laptops can best the Razer Blade 16 in terms of features or performance for less (sometimes a lot less).

My recommended configuration

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Razer Blade 16 review: Design and build quality

Design highlights

• The Razer Blade 16 closely follows the blueprint set by its predecessors with a matte-black (or silver) aluminum unibody.
• The design is simple and attractive, and the build quality is exceptional across the board.
• However, Razer's design language has changed little for years, including all the sharp edges that can make using the keyboard uncomfortable and a fingerprint-prone surface.
• Design rating: 4/5

A large part of maintaining a strong brand identity is to have an easily recognizable design, and Razer nailed that with its Blade series of laptops. For years, Razer Blades have been known for their matte-black, aluminum unibody designs with simple, flat lines and curves.

It's a professional, sleek, and attractive design that looks just as good in an office as it does in your gaming setup. Don't worry, though, as per-key RGB lighting and a glowing Razer logo on the lid still mark this as a gaming laptop.

The Razer Blade 16 (2024) boasts excellent overall construction, with very tight tolerances and an incredibly solid feel all the way around. Razer's build quality has improved by leaps and bounds over the last decade, and the Blade 16 represents the culmination of all the company's efforts to build some of the highest-quality laptops around. You'd be forgiven for criticizing Razer for sticking too close to its formula, though, as the Razer Blade laptops have changed little in years (apart from Razer's move to a taller 16:10 aspect ratio for its displays). This makes a design that once stood out seem a little boring in today's market, especially when some of the same weaknesses remain.

This laptop is a certified fingerprint magnet; for one, not only does it hungrily latch onto every smudge and fingerprint, but it refuses to let them go without some pretty aggressive microfiber cloth action. More concerning, though, is just how sharp this laptop is. There are no chamfered edges here — the entire keyboard deck is ringed by an abrupt 90-degree corner, and even the cutout in front of the touchpad to open the laptop is bracketed by oddly jagged corners. It can be downright uncomfortable to use this keyboard or touchpad because of those edges, especially considering how the thickness of this laptop makes them harder to avoid.

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Razer Blade 16 review: Display

Display highlights

• The Razer Blade 16 now comes with a gorgeous 240Hz OLED display as standard, with the unique Dual-MiniLED display still available for a premium.
• Most people should be very happy with the OLED panel, though, which pairs a 1440p resolution with excellent picture quality and a 240Hz refresh rate.
• Visual fidelity and performance are fantastic, with this display's only "weakness" being its 400 nits max brightness.
• Display rating: 5/5

The Dual-MiniLED display that debuted with the first-gen Razer Blade 16 is still available and still allows players to switch between 4K @ 120Hz and QHD+ @ 240Hz with a simple restart.

All that's changed on that front is a new toggle for the local display dimming. What's more interesting is the introduction of a brand-new OLED panel for all other configurations, and it's a genuine improvement over last year's options.

This display looks amazing. The conversation of OLED vs. MiniLED aside, the Razer Blade 16's new display is colorful and vibrant, fast and responsive, and very color-accurate. It's an extravagant display for work, play, and creation, with no major weaknesses in any category. It looks gorgeous, it's one of the smoothest displays you'll ever use (it actually boasts the highest-ever VESA Certified ClearMR score, which tests the clarity of a display by tracking the movement of pixels across it), and the performance is top-notch.

If I had to complain, it's that the max brightness of 400 nits isn't best-in-class, but it's still more than good enough for regular usage. HDR support is here and is solid, but it's also not going to be as great as the very best displays, thanks to that limited max brightness.

As you can see from the above, the Razer Blade 16 hits at least 100% of the sRGB and DCI-P3 color gamuts, only falling off a little with AdobeRGB. By default, Razer has tuned this display to DCI-P3, making it well-suited to creative work. This OLED panel is also consistent across brightnesses when it comes to color accuracy and white balance, with an impressively low minimum brightness to boot. Overall, it's just a good screen.

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Razer Blade 16 review: Performance and thermals

Performance highlights

• Overall, the Razer Blade 16 is a very strong performer, as expected, smashing through any task or game.
• However, more affordable laptops (even with on-paper weaker hardware) can outperform the Blade 16 due to thermal constraints.
• This laptop gets hot, and the fans get loud, which also restricts the usefulness of CPU overclocking.
• Performance rating: 3.5/5

Let's just get this out of the way: Yes, of course, the Razer Blade 16 is a powerful laptop. It's a beast, and there's very little it can't absolutely smash its way through. Not only does it have raw power, but it's also fast and responsive in all tasks, including booting from sleep, signing you in, moving files around, and more. You can't reasonably call the Blade 16 slow by any metric.

That being said, it seems the Blade 16 sacrifices a fair deal to achieve its (relatively) thin profile and premium build. Despite Razer's thermal system claims, this laptop gets hot and loud fast, and top-end performance suffers as a result. If you're looking for the best performance for your price, this laptop is sadly not that. It runs great, but considerably cheaper laptops consistently outperform it.

In fact, the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (Gen 8) with a previous-gen Intel Core i9 and an NVIDIA RTX 4080 was regularly slightly faster, cooler, and quieter than this Blade 16 on the same performance profile and settings. Considering how that laptop is reliably at least $1,000 cheaper than this Blade 16 configuration, that's a big deal.

I never had any issues using the Razer Blade 16 to do anything I wanted. In a vacuum, it's an absurdly powerful PC. Other gaming laptops exist, though, and the Blade 16 is definitely not the top performer in its class.

As you can see from the benchmarks above, the Razer Blade 16 consistently ranks among the best, as you'd expect with such insane hardware packed inside. You can also see how often Razer's latest and greatest gaming laptop is bested by the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (Gen 8) with an RTX 4080 GPU. It seems the Blade 16 struggles to keep itself cool, thus losing some of the top-end performance these components are capable of; because of this, overclocking the CPU failed to return improved performance in my testing.

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Razer Blade 16 review: Gaming performance

Gaming highlights

• The Razer Blade 16 can easily play any modern PC game at high-to-max settings and native resolution.
• The RTX 4090 also tests well in 3DMark, although still below other gaming laptops with the same GPU.
• However, the Blade 16 consistently performed a few frames-per-second worse than the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i with an RTX 4080 and the same settings.

Gaming on the Razer Blade 16 is a breeze; it's powerful and responsive, and it has a great display to boot. Just like with everyday performance, though, the Blade 16's thermal management sees it regularly underperform versus the more affordable competition. It can still play all of the best PC games without a hitch and do so for hours on end, but the Blade 16 once again struggles to compete with the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (Gen 8).

• Forza Horizon 5 — 130 FPS average on the Extreme preset, QHD+ (1600p) resolution, 240Hz refresh rate, v-sync enabled, NVIDIA DLSS enabled and set to Auto, NVIDIA DLAA and DLSS Frame Generation disabled vs. 132 FPS average on the Legion Pro 7i
• Gears 5 — 111 FPS average with max settings, QHD+ (1600p) resolution, uncapped framerate, v-sync enabled, and Ultra textures installed vs. 112 FPS average on the Legion Pro 7i
• Cyberpunk 2077 — 72 FPS average on the Ray Tracing: Ultra preset, QHD+ (1600p) resolution, 240Hz refresh rate, v-sync enabled, NVIDIA DLSS enabled and set to Auto, NVIDIA DLAA and Frame Generation disabled vs. 74 FPS average on the Legion Pro 7i
• Counter-Strike 2 — ~200 FPS average on Ultra High preset, QHD+ (1600p) resolution, 240Hz refresh rate, v-sync enabled, AMD FidelityFX disabled, NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency enabled

The Razer Blade 16 (2024) performed better in 3DMark Time Spy versus other benchmarks (which are either CPU-focused or are general-purpose tests that stress all components) but still fell below other RTX 4090-equipped laptops. That performance also didn't translate to superior gaming performance or greater graphical capabilities, as you saw in the gaming tests above. I stress-tested the Blade 16 using the Time Spy benchmark, too, and saw a 3.5% decrease in average framerates over the course of the stress test versus the 1-2% decrease I would expect from other laptops.

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Razer Blade 16 review: Battery experience

Battery highlights

• Like most gaming laptops, the Razer Blade 16 is very power-hungry when you take advantage of its hardware.
• However, good optimizations from Razer mean the Blade 16 can actually last a decent amount of time off the charger.
• While maybe not reliable as an all-day laptop, the Blade 16 is more reasonable away from home than most gaming laptops.
• Battery rating: 4/5

Most gaming laptops have terrible battery life — that's just a reality of the power-hungry category. The Razer Blade 16 (2024) doesn't entirely shirk that trend, but it does fare better than practically every other gaming laptop I've tested. This comes down to two things: Razer's optimizations and an actually noticeable difference when lowering the display to 60Hz rather than its full 240Hz when away from the charger.

I was consistently able to get 4-5 hours of solid usage out of the Razer Blade 16 when away from the charger, as long as I didn't force the laptop to make use of the highly inefficient RTX 4090 GPU. When it came to charging, the 330W GaN charger made quick work of it; you can also take advantage of up to 100W Power Delivery through the Type-C ports, which should be enough to keep the laptop juiced up as long as you're not trying to game or do heavy creative work.

In PCMark 10's battery test, which simulates a regular and diverse workflow until the laptop dies, the Blade 16 lasted a respectable 5 hours and 25 minutes with default settings (including automatically lowering the display refresh rate to 60Hz). Performance away from the charger is similar to a fully-powered mobile Intel 13th Gen Core i7 found in many ultrabooks, so the Blade 16 certainly doesn't feel sluggish. Running a Windows Battery Report returned an estimated longevity of just over four hours, which does feel accurate.

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Razer Blade 16 review: Keyboard and touchpad

Keyboard highlights

• The Blade 16 boasts Razer's traditional laptop keyboard and a truly massive all-glass Precision touchpad.
• The touchpad is as good as you can get in a Windows laptop without advanced haptic technology and is a joy to use.
• The keyboard, however, is very lackluster (especially for gaming), with an imperfect layout and unsatisfying action.
• Keyboard rating: 3.5/5

To get the easy part out of the way first, Razer has absolutely nailed this touchpad. It uses Microsoft Precision drivers for seamless tracking and gestures, has a smooth glass surface and reliable, clicky button action, and is absolutely massive. Almost too massive, actually, as your wrists can activate the touchpad on accident while typing. Unfortunately, the keyboard isn't as universally amazing. It looks good with Razer's industry-leading per-key Razer Chroma RGB lighting, but it's just not that satisfying to use.

This keyboard isn't bad; it's just boring. The action is shallow and lacks tactility; there are no full-sized arrow keys or additional macro buttons despite the Blade 16's size. It feels fine for regular typing, but these weaknesses are especially noticeable when gaming. At least Razer has taken a page from Lenovo's book, as holding down the Fn button highlights all the keyboard shortcuts for you.

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Razer Blade 16 review: Camera, mic, and audio

Other hardware highlights

• The Razer Blade 16's front-facing camera is decidedly average but does support Windows Hello and has a built-in physical privacy shutter.
• The THX-tuned speaker system is quite good for a Windows laptop, though, with great volume and solid sound quality.
• To touch on upgradeability, the Blade 16 does have user-replaceable memory and storage.
• Other hardware rating: 4.5/5

Alright, let's wrap up the rest of the hardware. The Razer Blade 16 (2024) has an FHD front-facing camera that is... average. Color reproduction is great, but detail is lacking, and the camera struggles a lot with dynamic range.

The dual-array microphones flanking it are solid for a laptop, however, and you do get full Windows Hello facial recognition with the included IR sensor (that works reliably and quickly, by the way). There's also a physical camera shutter, which is always nice to have.

The rest of the audio is handled by a quad-speaker system, which surprised me. It gets very loud, enough to drown out the noisy fans, and sounds quite good. Bass is still a little lacking, but clarity and detail are both great for a Windows laptop. THX Spatial Audio support aims to offer a good surround sound experience, but it still won't be as good as one of the best PC gaming headsets. Finally, Razer has designed the Blade 16 to be user-upgradeable, with two fully accessible M.2 slots for storage and SODIMM DDR5-5,600MHz slots for memory, which support up to 8TB and 96GB (at 5,200MHz), respectively. Good stuff.

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Razer Blade 16 review: Software and apps

Software highlights

• The Razer Blade 16 does a great job with software and optimizations, with very little bloatware to speak of.
• Razer Synapse is, on the surface, a solid app to manage your Blade 16 and Razer accessories, with plenty of features.
• However, I've had Synapse freeze multiple times and lose my custom settings, requiring me to close all Razer background processes fully to restart it.
• Software rating: 4/5

This will be a short section, fortunately. Razer has built-in almost no additional apps on the Blade 16 besides the necessary apps from NVIDIA, Intel, and THX (for audio). The only preinstalled apps here are Razer Synapse 3 and Spotify, and the former is necessary to manage your Blade 16 and all your Razer accessories. It mostly works well and offers a ton of features, but I've had an odd issue specific to the Blade 16 requiring complete restarts (closing all Razer background processes), in which the app freezes, and my Razer Blade 16 profile resets to the default. That lack of reliability definitely drags the Blade 16 down a bit.

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Razer Blade 16 review: Competition

If you're considering the Razer Blade 16, you're likely looking for a premium, stylish laptop with lots of power. If you don't need this much power and size, though, the Razer Blade 14 (2024) is an excellent alternative with fewer compromises. It's still expensive, but overall, it is a fantastic compact gaming laptop with enough endurance to last a whole day of work.

• Recommended gaming mouse: Razer Cobra Pro for $129.99 at Razer
• Recommended gaming headset: Razer BlackShark V2 Pro (2023) for $199.99 at Razer

If you do want a stupidly powerful 16-inch laptop, though, I suggest the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i or even the ultra-premium Lenovo Legion 9i if you want the very best. Lenovo's laptops are considerably cheaper than the Razer Blade 16 while offering superior performance and a better gaming experience. You'll be sacrificing battery life and, in the case of the Legion Pro 7i, the Blade 16's top-notch display, but I feel it's worth it. In fact, here's a direct link to the brand-new Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (Gen 9) with the same internals as this Blade 16, except it costs over $500 less at $3,639.99 at Lenovo. It's an awesome laptop, and the savings make it all the sweeter.

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Razer Blade 16 review: Score card

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Razer Blade 16 review: Final thoughts

You should buy this if ...

You should not buy this if ...

The Razer Blade 16 is technically practically new in its second generation but feels shockingly old thanks to its familiar design. The latest iteration improves over the former with a new base display that's actually marvelous and the latest Intel CPUs, but it fails to shore up the weaknesses that many have already critiqued about the 2023 model. The Blade 16 is an excellent laptop, mostly held back by a price tag that is far too lofty for what you get.

The design still looks great, the build quality is among the best you can find, and the Blade 16 doesn't fail in any category, like the audio, software, display, or even battery life. However, its performance just isn't as good as the much cheaper competition, and the keyboard would feel more at home on a thin-and-light ultrabook than on a beefy laptop designed for gaming. If style stands above all else and your wallet is deep enough, the Razer Blade 16 (2024) won't disappoint you — if you're looking for the absolute best performance and gaming experience for your money, though, I suggest looking toward Lenovo for more value.

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Razer is determined to retain its status as one of the best gaming laptop manufacturers of all time, and the Blade 18 is the ultimate entry in this category.

Technically billed as "the ultimate desktop replacement" rather than a portable device, the latest refresh for Razer's Blade 18 in 2024 has a wealth of cutting-edge components lurking inside its gigantic chassis.

It's the world's first laptop with an optional 18-inch 200Hz 4K display and the first to sport a Thunderbolt 5 port, which supports a triplet of external 4K monitors if you really need them.

Let me be clear: This Blade 18 (2024) refresh could be the most powerful gaming laptop ever made, but would anyone genuinely utilize the outrageous specs in the maxed-out model at $4,799.99 or still benefit from the standard model at $3,099.99? It's time to find out.

Blade 18: Price and availability

Razer sells the original Blade 18 (2023) and its refreshed Blade 18 (2024) model through its official storefront, starting at $2,999.99 and $3,099.99, respectively. No matter which variant you choose, the Blade 18 has an AC power adapter suitable for your region, a collection of quick-start guides, and Windows 11 Home pre-installed.

A new $4,499.99 Blade 18 Mercury colorway is exclusive to the 2024 refresh, similar to the previously tested Razer Blade 14 (2023) Mercury Edition. However, selecting this silver-themed variant does not offer customizable specs; only an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 GPU, a 4K 200Hz IPS LCD panel, 2TB SSD, and 32GB of RAM configuration.

Sticking with Razer's classic black and green theme, the Blade 18 (2024) offers flexible GPU options of an RTX 4070, 4080, or 4090, a choice of a 1TB, 2TB, or 4TB setup for solid-state storage, 32GB or 64GB of DDR5 memory, and a selection between the world's first 4K 200Hz IPS LCD panel or a QHD+ 300Hz Mini-LED alternative.

The Blade 18 offers a one-month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription upon setup, and at the time of this review, Razer is currently offering digital codes for the new games Star Wars Outlaws and Black Myth: Wukong.

Third-party retailers like Best Buy also offer the Blade 18 (2024) from $3,099.99 with pre-made variants offering more RAM and more powerful NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs up to $4,499.99 for an RTX 4090 model with 64GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. Those with My Best Buy memberships can benefit from extended return periods and trade-in discounts, so check your local stores first.

This review was made possible thanks to a review unit provided by Razer. The company did not see the contents of this review before publishing.

My recommended configuration:

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Blade 18: Design and build quality

Razer still opts for an "if it isn't broke, don't fix it" approach with the Blade 18 (2024) and sticks with a subtle design on its chassis. Besides the illuminated three-headed serpent on its lid and cheeky green-tinted USB-A ports, its designers manage to avoid the cringe aesthetics of high-end gaming laptops looking like rejected spaceship designs from a knock-off sci-fi movie. You still get per-key RGB lighting on Razer's decent keyboard, which feels as functional as ever, but it's nothing groundbreaking compared to the fantastic Microsoft Precision touchpad.

If you were brave enough to remove the 14th Gen Intel Core i9 and accompanying Thunderbolt 5 hi-speed port sticker highlighting the new USB-C standard, the Blade 18 could sit comfortably on a desk and look as legitimate as any other workstation-grade desktop replacement. The difference is what lurks inside, like cutting-edge Wi-Fi 7 wireless tech and the admirable choice to use upgradeable SODIMM RAM instead of permanently soldered modules, but I'll get to the per-component benefits of its internals later.

Though only one of the USB-C ports is Thunderbolt 5 classified, every other USB port on the Blade 18 (2024) is USB 3.2 Gen 2, meaning you can get up to 10Gbps transfer speeds regardless of whether your device is USB-A or USB-C. Everything else from the 2023 model is unchanged, including the combination audio jack, full-size SD card reader, and HDMI-out 2.1 port. Then again, I can't remember the last time I used an SD card, and HDMI feels more like a lingering necessity than the best option. Stick with Thunderbolt for external displays if your monitors support it.

One of the more subtle hardware benefits of the Blade 18 is that its USB-C ports support PowerDelivery 3.0 with chargers up to 20V at 100W. So, while the included 330W gallium nitride (GaN) adapter is undoubtedly the best way to charge the 2024 model, you can fall back on USB charging in a pinch if you're otherwise struggling for spare AC ports. It'll be slower, but I often use USB-C chargers since I generally have one already connected somewhere in the house. Then again, this 6.8 lb lump of a laptop is unlikely to join you on your travels too regularly, so keep that GaN charger plugged in.

Physically, the only other feature worth highlighting on the Blade 18 is the 2.5Gb RJ45 Ethernet port still present on the 2024 refresh. It seems obvious, especially for a thicker desktop replacement over the thin-and-light laptops that regularly do away with the same port, but gaming laptops perform best on LAN. Despite the welcome inclusion of Wi-Fi 7 on the latest Blade 18, I'll never stop asking for Ethernet ports on gaming hardware, and Razer hasn't let me down here.

However, the only negative point from the original Blade 18 remains on the 2024 refresh: Razer's supposed fingerprint-resistant coating still doesn't perform well enough to matter. At this point, I'd prefer if this wasn't present in the marketing at all, but I can understand why it happens. Still, don't expect some magical chassis technology if you're regularly shifting the Blade 18 around on your desk or moving it to different desks in your house; this thing picks up more prints than a forensic investigator.

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Blade 18: Keyboard and touchpad

Digging a little deeper into the specifics of the keyboard, the most striking thing you'll probably notice is how deeply set it is in the Blade 18's chassis. It hasn't changed with the 2024 refresh and relates more to the fact that this Blade is huge, not that the keyboard is tiny. If anything, I prefer the omission of a number pad, which feels unusual on gaming hardware anyway, in favor of positioning stereo speakers on either side of the keyboard.

I still don't like squashed arrow keys and particularly dislike power buttons on keyboards, but nothing terrible happens if you accidentally catch it. A long press is needed to power off the Blade 18, but that behavior still suits a side-mounted button. It's a personal preference, but one I stand by. However, I know that Razer considers every inch of internal space when designing its vapor-chamber cooling system, so routing one extra button to the side is likely wasteful.

Holding the function key at least highlights the F keys exclusively, making it much easier to see brightness controls when playing in the dark. Using the Razer companion apps to customize the RGB is still as fun as ever, especially with reactive lighting, but there's nothing revolutionary here. The Blade 18 has decent keys, but fans of WASD controls might find the shallow travel distance a little disappointing.

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Blade 18: Display

Razer offers two display options for the Blade 18 (2024), each with unique temptations. The first, billed as "the world's first 18-inch 4K 200Hz display" with a 3ms response time, actually delivers a UHD+ (3840 X 2400) resolution due to the screen's 16:10 aspect ratio. Second, and the one featured in my sample unit, is a Mini-LED QHD+ (2560 x 1600) panel pushing the maximum refresh rate up to 300Hz but retaining the 3ms response time. Anything below 5ms is fine for gaming, so I have no complaints. It's bright, fast, and color-accurate.

Both display types boast 100% accuracy of the DCI-P3 color gamut alongside certification from Portrait Displays' Calman Verified program, which basically means you get laptop color extra color gamut profiles in Razer Synapse for Adobe RGB, sRGB, and options for custom setups. Synapse also includes a simple toggle that automatically switches to 60Hz when on battery power to help extend Blade 18's portable life. You can use Windows 11 to modify the display settings further, but quick access to refresh rate restrictions can be helpful when sticking with particular media and games.

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Blade 18: Battery life

Defending the battery life of a gaming laptop feels a little fruitless. Most gamers understand that the components inside these portable machines aren't exactly known for being economical, so anything over a couple of hours is something to marvel over. In fairness, the Blade 18 survived a healthy 4hr 15min during my PCMark 10 battery rundown test under the 'modern office' setting, but this isn't an office laptop.

Razer claims the Blade 18 (2024) can manage "up to 5 hours" on battery power, which seems legitimate based on my experience. However, the battery isn't user-replaceable, so this number will inevitably drop over time. If you're willing to drop the refresh rate to 60Hz while adjusting various power options within Windows 11 and the Razer Synapse companion app, you could use it as a productivity machine on a span away from AC power.

Forcing the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 mobile GPU as the default option, the Blade 18 (2024) scored a much more realistic 1hr 21min in PCMark 10's 'Gaming' battery test. Considering this benchmark is a neverending stress test from 100% to 0%, a little over an hour isn't too bad for a laptop packed with some of the beefiest components available. If I were planning a long journey without AC power access, I'd probably take a Steam Deck or ASUS ROG Ally X for a little more juice, but the Blade 18 could survive between charges.

My home office happily maintains a 68°F ambient temperature (thanks to a rare air conditioning unit in the UK) with around 45% humidity, and the Blade 18 was tested exclusively in this environment. Any changes to warmth and pressure during travel could affect battery longevity, but if you're happy to travel with the chunky power brick and your transport has free access to AC sockets, you'll be fine. This Intel and NVIDIA combo relies on extra energy, so you'll never see its maximum performance during portable gaming.

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Blade 18: Gaming and performance

It's pointless to ask if a gaming laptop that combines Intel's best Core HX-Series mobile CPU and NVIDIA's top-end RTX 4090 mobile GPU can run certain games. If you think of a PC game, the Razer Blade 18 can run it. However, it's more interesting to see whether it can maintain a steady framerate at QHD+ resolutions and how it compares to a desktop RTX 4090 card. However, I'll still put the 2024 refresh through our usual group of per-component benchmarks.

Testing the Intel Core i9-14900HX CPU shows the Blade 18 (2024) score ahead of the previous-gen Intel Core i9-13950HX in the Blade 18 (2023) in Geekbench 6, as expected, but slightly below the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (Gen 9) and Alienware m18 R2 (2024) which feature the former. Cinebench 2024 pushes CPUs to their limit with sustained processing and sees the Blade 18 (2024) positioned similarly, nestled just below the same Lenovo and Alienware machines.

CrossMark and PC Mark 10 check for more of an all-round system performance metric, which places the Blade 18 in the same territory, hot on the heels of the Legion Pro 7i (Gen 9) and m18 R2 (2024) with the original Blade 18 (2023) outshined mainly by its 2024 counterpart. CrystalDiskMark benchmarks the read and write speeds of the M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 solid-state drive inside the Blade 18, which seems identical in both variants and scoring, again, alongside the same devices.

Razer's Blade 18 triumphs in GPU-centric benchmarks, and testing with 3D Mark's Time Spy shows both models at the absolute top spot in our database. Repeating the test rarely provides the same score twice, and with several attempts, the 2023 and 2024 models score almost identically, with the former pulling ahead by a fraction in the final test. Gaming performance relies on an even share between the CPU and GPU, but NVIDIA's RTX 4090 undoubtedly does the heavy lifting for graphics, and Razer comes out on top where it matters most.

So, how about pushing the internals to their limit? Are the RTX 4090 mobile GPUs in laptops at all comparable to their desktop equivalents, or does the model number link them alone? Testing a handful of popular games side-by-side with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition and all of the graphical settings cranked to the max shows that the Blade 18 isn't as powerful as the desktop card. Still, unless Razer invented some science-defying method to shrink NVIDIA's behemoth GPU into an 18-inch laptop, that's totally fair.

What you actually get is about a 30% reduction in performance from the desktop RTX 4090, a graphics card with a $1,599 MSRP at launch. I tested all the games with an internal 1080p resolution and the absolute highest visual fidelity possible because if it can manage a stable 60 FPS there, NVIDIA's DLSS upscaling tech can take it the rest of the way to QHD+ or 4K, depending on your display of choice for the Blade 18. Essentially, the RTX 4090 L is the most powerful laptop GPU available right now, so comparing the Blade 18 to a desktop 4090 variant becomes rather frivolous but interesting nonetheless.

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Blade 18: The competition

If you noticed the closest benchmarking scores during my testing, it won't be as surprising when I reveal my two picks for the Blade 18's competition. First up, our Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (Gen 9) review is dripping in praise as our sample unit storms through CPU tests with the same Intel Core i9-14900HX processor as the Blade 18 (2024) but drops the GPU only slightly to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080. However, while the Legion Pro 7i starts at $2,999.99 from Lenovo, customers can upgrade the GPU to an RTX 4090 and bump the memory to 32GB of DDR5-5600 RAM, which increases Lenovo's price to $3,605 at the time of writing.

Considering the closest Blade 18 (2024) equivalent starts at $4,499.99 with Razer due, in part, to a forced upgrade to a 2TB SSD when selecting the RTX 4090 GPU, Lenovo has the value category beaten. However, the Legion Pro 7i exhibits the typical "gamer" aesthetics and looks like something that broke off an RGB-coated spaceship. Crucially, not only does the Lenovo option lack Thunderbolt 5 like the Blade 18 (2024), but it's missing Thunderbolt support entirely, relying on standard USB-C 3.2 Gen 2.

Secondly, and perhaps more appropriately deserving of the "ugly spaceship" title, is the previously reviewed Alienware m18 R2. Dell's gamer-centric Alienware subbrand is more closely related to Razer in its pricing habits, and the m18 R2 can alter its configurations to almost perfectly match the Blade 18 (2024) with 64GB of DDR5-5200 RAM, an RTX 4090 GPU, and a QHD+ (2560 x 1600) display maxing out at 165Hz with the same 3ms response time for $3,449.99 at Dell.

You still get the Intel Core i9 14900HX processor and Wi-Fi 7 support, but the m18 R2 sticks with Thunderbolt 4 and doesn't come close to Razer's 300Hz offering or its UHD+ 240Hz alternative.

Plus, Alienware places most of the m18 R2's ports at the rear, pulling the screen hinge forward in favor of a chunky "thermal bar," which doesn't offer the same appeal as Razer's vapor cooling efforts. In short, you can get the same CPU/GPU pairing as the Blade 18 variants elsewhere, but nobody currently competes with Razer's overall achievements in design, cutting-edge screen tech, and Thunderbolt 5 support.

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Blade 18: Scorecard

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Blade 18: Should you buy it?

You should buy this if ...

✅ You want the highest-performing gaming hardware in a portable form factor.

✅ Most of your gaming is done at home with available AC power.

✅ You prefer larger screens with smooth refresh rates.

You shouldn't buy this if ...

❌ You want a lightweight machine that's easy to transport.

❌ You need to maintain a quiet environment when gaming.

❌ You primarily play games while traveling, relying on battery power.

There's really nothing else to it: the Razer Blade 18 is the best gaming laptop in the world. Thankfully, the 2024 refresh sticks with a design that's as subtle as possible and doesn't scream, "look at me, I'm a gamer," with oversaturated RGB.

Plus, it manages to keep the highest-performance CPU and GPU combo chilled with Razer's vapor chamber cooling system and delivers cutting-edge support for Thunderbolt 5, Wi-Fi 7, and 300Hz displays. It's nuts.

Now, obviously, packing the highest-end components into an 18-inch chassis doesn't come cheap. To Razer's credit, it sticks to its guns when describing the Blade 18 as a "desktop replacement" rather than a "gaming laptop," and that's an important distinction.

It's a heavy, gigantic behemoth of a laptop, and it has some of the loudest fans I've ever heard in my life. However, it will run absolutely any game you throw at it, and most will happily perform at QHD+ resolutions with NVIDIA's DLSS tech. You likely don't need to sweat the details if your budget is already above the $2,000 mark. Still, for those debating whether something this extravagant is worth it, the Blade 18 is everything you could ask for in a gaming laptop; it just can't leave your house easily.

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What you need to know

• Razer makes some of the most premium and well-known gaming laptops with its Blade line.
• The Razer Blade 16 and 18 represent the latest and greatest from the company, packed with the most powerful hardware available.
• Both laptops are going on sale starting tomorrow, Feb. 8, 2023.
• Razer Synapse is also getting a new overclocking feature for both of the upcoming laptops.

Update, Feb. 22, 2023, at 12:15 p.m. CT: It's official, every configuration for the brand-new Razer Blade 16 and 18 gaming laptops is now available, including the more affordable units powered by NVIDIA's RTX 4070 and 4060 GPUs. Those searching for ultimate power can splash some extra cash for an RTX 4080 or 4090, but these new configurations make the laptops a lot more reasonably priced. You can purchase the laptops in any configuration using the links below.

Update, Feb. 8, 2023, at 10:40 a.m. CT: The Razer Blade 16 and 18 gaming laptops are now available to purchase, at least in the two highest-end configurations featuring NVIDIA RTX 4080 and 4090 GPUs. There may be an additional shipping wait time for the 4090-equipped laptops, but you can still preorder them. You can purchase either laptop directly from Razer using the links below.

If you're in the market for a gaming laptop and have money to spend, it's hard to overlook the Razer Blade family of premium, powerful PCs. The Razer Blade 16 and 18 debuted during CES 2023 with brand-new chassis and some of the most powerful hardware you can stuff into a laptop, and interested buyers will be able to purchase them starting tomorrow, Feb. 8, 2023.

The Razer lineup of products in 2023 contains a myriad of interesting devices like the Razer Edge gaming handheld and the Razer Leviathan soundbar, but for many the Razer Blades still hold the most excitement. The Razer Blade 16 and 18 replace the previous 15-inch and 17-inch laptops, respectively, with larger displays and some seriously powerful internals. While the Razer Blade 16 makes its claim to fame with an astounding dual-mode mini-LED display that can natively switch between two resolutions and refresh rates, the Blade 18 attracts attention solely by being as powerful as possible for this size device.

Beginning Feb. 8, people can now buy both of these flagship gaming laptops from Razer and authorized retailers, with a range of configurations from which to choose. Also debuting alongside the laptops is a new overclocking feature included in Razer Synapse, which will allow users to get the most out of their new Razer Blade 16 or 18 laptop with boosted performance spread across different modes. Razer's latest laptops have everything it takes to dominate our list of the best gaming laptops you can buy.

Here's a quick rundown of what you need to know about the Razer Blade 16 and 18:

Razer Blade 16

All models of the Razer Blade 16 are powered by the 13th Gen Intel Core i9-13950HX,  with the dedicated GPU starting at a still-impressive NVIDIA RTX 4060 and ramping all the way up to the blisteringly powerful NVIDIA RTX 4090. The Razer Blade 16 also starts with 16GB of DDR5 RAM and 1TB of PCIe 4.0 SSD storage, with higher configurations bumping up to 32GB and 2TB, respectively (and can be user upgraded to 64GB and 4TB).

Most models of the Razer Blade 16 come equipped with a 16:10 QHD+ panel clocked at 240Hz, but the highest-end configuration gains the headline-grabbing 16:10 dual-mode mini-LED, which can instantly switch between UHD+ at 120Hz and FHD+ at 240Hz, depending on how you're using your laptop. Elsewhere, you're getting the traditional Razer treatment, including a massive 95.2Whr battery, a Razer Chroma keyboard, a 4-speaker array, a Windows Hello-capable FHD webcam, plenty of ports including USB Type-C Thunderbolt 4, and much more.

The Razer Blade 16 in its 4080 or 4090 configurations will be available from Feb. 8, 2023, while 4060 and 4070 configurations will be available from Feb. 23, 2023. The retail price starts at USD $2,699.99.

Razer Blade 18

The Razer Blade 18 shares a lot of the same DNA as its smaller sibling, but there's more power on offer for those who can take advantage of the larger chassis and superior cooling. The Blade 18 is also powered mostly by the Intel Core i9-13950HX, but the highest-end configuration lands the even more impressive Core i9-13980HX. The baseline NVIDIA RTX 4060 can be upgraded all the way up to an RTX 4090, with the Blade 18 better able to push the GPU to its max than the Blade 16.

The display is the same, excellent 16:10 QHD+ affair across the board, with a 240Hz refresh rate, an anti-glare coating, NVIDIA G-Sync, and up to 500nits of brightness. The 16GB of DDR5 RAM rises up to 64GB in higher configurations, while the 1TB of SSD gains a second, identical sibling with more powerful variants. The 91.7Whr battery makes room for the device's overclock-capable internals. You also get a 6-speaker array over the four included in the Blade 16, alongside an array of ports (including a USB Type-C Thunderbolt 4 port) and the classic Razer Chroma keyboard.

The same as the Razer Blade 16, interested buyers can purchase the Razer Blade 18 in 4080 and 4090 configurations from Feb. 8, 2023, while more affordable 4060 and 4070 configurations release on Feb. 23. The Razer Blade 18 retails starting at USD $2,899.99.

What you need to know

• Razer is joining rivals Alienware and Acer in launching updated gaming laptops with big displays. 
• The company teased that it will announce a Razer Blade 18 with an 18-inch screen, the largest ever for the company's lineup of gaming laptops. 
• Other features include new Intel 13th Gen mobile processors as well as Nvidia RTX 4000 series discrete graphics. The company did not disclose any additional details about the laptop.
• In addition the Razer Blade 18, Razer also teased a 16-inch Razer Blade 16 model. 

Big-screen gaming laptops are all the rage at CES 2023. After Dell announced its latest Alienware gaming notebook with a massive 18-inch display, Razer is teasing its own Blade 18, setting up the stage for large-format gaming laptops to be the trend for this year.

In addition to the Razer Blade 18, Razer also teased a Razer Blade 16, which will come with a 16-inch display. It's unclear if the new models will replace the Razer Blade 17 and Razer Blade 15, or if these larger displays will slot in alongside Razer's existing notebooks, giving gamers more variety and choice on screen sizes and resolutions. 

While details are still scarce right now, we can expect that both new Blade 16 and Blade 18 models will feature, like the many laptops announced at CES 2013, Intel's latest 13th Gen mobile processors and Nvidia's RTX 4000 series discrete graphics for laptops. 

Razer claimed that the Blade 18 is the company's "most powerful laptop ever," while the smaller 16-inch model comes with "more graphics per inch than any other 16-inch laptop on the market."

In addition to the Razer Blade 18 and Alienware m18, Acer also recently unveiled its new Predator Helios, which also comes in the large 18-inch format. 

We expect more details surrounding the Blade 18 and Blade 16 to be released later this week during CES. Hopefully, Razer will share more specs about these laptops and their pricing and availability in the coming days. 

There is some degree of crossover between these two laptops, making choosing a bit more difficult. Both are capable of gaming, though the Blade 15 is currently the absolute best gaming laptop. Both can be used by folks such as photographers and videographers, too, and both look just fine sitting around the meeting room table. But ultimately, your primary purpose for the laptop is going to be where you make the decision.

Razer Blade 15 vs. Dell XPS 15 tech specs

Both of these laptops have a lot of great hardware inside them. Overall, power goes the way of the Razer Blade 15, but the XPS 15 is no slouch. Both now use the latest 12th Gen processors from Intel, with CPUs up to the mighty Core i9-12900HK available in both devices (configurations with 11th Gen Intel CPUs are available as well). Both laptops also feature NVIDIA's cutting-edge 30-series GPUs, though the Razer Blade 15's GPU options cap out at the 3080 Ti while you're limited to a weaker 3050 Ti with the Dell XPS 15. With that said, the Dell XPS 15 does have options for integrated Intel UHD Graphics or Intel Iris Xe Graphics, both of which will appeal to people that have no interest in gaming and simply want to get light productivity work done.

Both of these laptops are stylish and are pretty compact for 15-inch laptops. You have 4K display options on both, but the latest Blade 15 revision kicks it up another notch with an OLED 4K touch panel if you're prepared to pay a premium for it, and it comes factory calibrated with a 100% DCI-P3 color gamut. Dell, by contrast, has removed the option for a 4K OLED panel from the XPS 15, though the 4K display it does have still looks phenomenal. There's also a newer 3.5K OLED option on the Dell XPS 15 that offers a strong balance between clarity and power usage.

Ultimately, whether at the entry-level spec or at the highest tier, neither the Blade 15 or XPS 15 disappoints on hardware. The XPS 15 certainly has an edge with battery life since its specs draw less power, but you're not left wanting for connectivity on either, and both of them have Thunderbolt 4 and Microsoft Precision Drivers for the trackpad. Choosing which you should get comes down to a fairly simple question.

To game, or not to game?

If you're considering the Razer Blade 15 at all, then there's a strong chance it's because you want to do some PC gaming. While there are some differences in performance away from gaming, those are easier to compromise than if you really want a top-tier gaming experience.

The XPS 15 has options for the RTX 3050 as well as its Ti version, and both of these are fairly competent for laptop gaming. It's by no means an absolute beast, but it's capable of playing new titles at reasonable frame rates with only moderate sacrifices when it comes to graphics. Outside of gaming, it offers excellent performance for tasks such as video editing — without getting insanely hot or completely destroying the laptop's battery life. If gaming is a secondary priority, then the XPS 15 is overall a slightly better choice.

Razer's slogan is "for gamers, by gamers," and if gaming on your laptop is your biggest priority, then the Blade 15 is the clear winner of this matchup. Firstly, you can get the best Max-Q GPUs from NVIDIA in the Blade 15, which boast real-time ray tracing and significant performance improvements over previous-gen cards. It's essentially a beastly desktop gaming PC in the shape of a laptop, which is fantastic.

You can also get a 360Hz FHD display, which is absolutely insane on a laptop and means you can game at incredibly high frame rates without the need for an external monitor. If you'd prefer something sharper and don't mind lowering your maximum frame rate, there are also stellar QHD and 4K UHD screens available with refresh rates of up to 240Hz and 144Hz, respectively.

Both of these are incredible laptops that have amazing hardware, plenty of power, and are easily portable enough to take anywhere you need them. But if you really want to game at the best possible level as well as get your work done, then the Blade 15 is the better choice.

What you need to know

• Razer has announced a major 2022 refresh for its Razer Blade gaming laptop line. The Razer Blade 14, 15, and 17 are being refreshed.
• Additions include the latest and greatest processors from Intel and AMD, new NVIDIA RTX 30-series GPUs, DDR5 RAM, higher refresh rate displays, and more.
• The Razer Blade 15 and 17 will be available to preorder on Jan. 25, 2022, while the Razer Blade 14 will become available to preorder on Feb. 10, 2022. The devices will also be sold by select retailers later in Q1 2022.
• Pricing for the new Razer Blade 14 starts at $1,999, the Razer Blade 15 starts at $2,499, and the Razer Blade 17 starts at $2,699.

Ahead of CES 2022, gaming-focused hardware manufacturer Razer has announced a Q1 2022 refresh for its Razer Blade laptops, including the Razer Blade 14, Razer Blade 15, and Razer Blade 17. These laptops will feature several pieces of cutting-edge hardware, including the latest NVIDIA RTX 30-series laptop GPUs, top next-gen processors like the Intel Core i9-12900H and the AMD Ryzen 6900HX, DDR5 RAM, and new displays with higher refresh rates than Razer's previous generations.

Some other notable improvements include a performance-enhancing MUX Switch and 1080p Windows Hello-compatible webcam for the Razer Blade 14, as well as four additional speakers and a larger 82WHr battery for the Razer Blade 17. The new Blade 17 also comes with a 280W charger that outperforms previous-gen 180W chargers. Additionally, all of the new Razer Blade laptops also feature an improved touchpad for greater precision.

Here's a look at all of the different configuration options you can expect once the refreshed Blade laptops are available:

All of this advanced hardware will come in the same sleek Razer Blade chassis that fans of the company's laptops have come to love, featuring an anodized matte black finish with an anti-fingerprint coating. The design of the laptops also includes all of the ports that gamers or creators could need, including Thunderbolt 4, HDMI 2.1, and plenty of USB-A ports for connecting peripherals.

These refreshed Razer Blades will no doubt end up becoming some of the best Razer laptops when they launch, and thankfully, we won't have to wait long for them to become available. Razer has confirmed that all three refreshed Razer Blade devices will become available for preorder in early 2022, with Razer Blade 15 and 17 preorders arriving first on Jan. 25, and Razer Blade 14 preorders beginning shortly after on Feb. 10. These preorders will be exclusive to Razer website and RazerStore locations, but the laptops will eventually be sold by select retailers later during Q1 2022.

In terms of pricing, the new Razer Blade 14 starts at $1,999, the Razer Blade 15 starts at $2,499, and the Razer Blade 17 starts at $2,699. Naturally, the price of the devices will increase if you choose to configure one with more powerful specs.

The Razer Blade has always been an Intel laptop. Whenever a new model or refresh comes to market, it will have the best that Intel has to offer inside. But every time Razer puts out a new Blade, someone asks if they're going to make an AMD Ryzen version.

That has finally happened. Not in the Razer Blade 15, the current best gaming laptop on the planet, but in an all-new version. Or rather, the return of the Razer Blade 14. It's a little smaller but no less powerful.

So after all of the hope and anticipation, is it any good? After all, we know Razer can make a phenomenal gaming laptop and the sum of the parts alone indicates we're in for a treat. And mostly, we are. Enough for it to rank among the best AMD Ryzen laptops available.

Razer Blade 14: Price and availability

The Razer Blade 14 is on sale now with prices starting at $1,800. The entry model is only available as it stands on Razer's own store, but the higher-spec versions are available through third-party retailers such as Amazon and Best Buy.

The version with an RTX 3070 costs $2,200 and the range-topper with RTX 3080 costs $2,800.

Razer Blade 14: Hardware and design

So, what's an AMD Razer Blade actually like? Surprising nobody, it's excellent. From the Razer Book 13 up to the Razer Blade Pro 17, there's a unified design language and consistently outstanding build quality. If you stand back it's impossible to tell it apart from the Blade 15 unless you have a tape measure in your hand. Or you left the Ryzen sticker on.

The key difference on the outside is the overall form factor. It's a little bit smaller and lighter than a Blade 15 and since 14-inch gaming laptops aren't exactly common, it already stands out from the crowd. This is an incredibly portable gaming laptop, and its compact nature is all the more mind-boggling when you take a read of the spec sheet.

The entry-level model is nice, nothing particularly earth-shattering, but what you can get inside a Razer Blade 14 is astonishing. It's also not that hard to choose the one you want, since there are only three configurations and the biggest differentiator is the GPU. There are a couple of displays, too, with either a 144Hz 1080p panel or the one we have which is a matte 1440p 165Hz display. And it's glorious.

All versions of the Razer Blade 14 come with AMD's most powerful laptop processor to date, the Ryzen 9 5900HX. With this comes 8-cores and 16-threads, with a base clock of 3.3GHz and a maximum boost up to 4.6GHz. It's a full-fat 45W chip based on AMD's latest 7nm Zen 3 architecture. The Ryzen 9 5900HX does of course come with integrated Radeon graphics, but you won't be using that for what this laptop is best at.

That's because on the graphics front NVIDIA has taken care of business. You could have the RTX 3060 or the RTX 3070, or you could have what's inside the review unit Razer sent us, which is the RTX 3080 8GB. In a 14-inch laptop that weighs under 4lbs. Hopefully, now you're starting to get a feel for why the fact this laptop even exists is astonishing.

Moving down to 14-inches does come with one compromise, and that's the fixed RAM. It's not uncommon for laptops this size to have soldered RAM, but if you're a fan of the upgradeable nature of the Blade 15 it's something to consider if you're stepping down a size. The move to AMD provides another compromise, and that's the lack of Thunderbolt 4. So you can't use this with the Razer Core X.

You're not left short on ports, though, with both USB-A and USB-C and perhaps surprisingly USB-C PD, meaning you can hook up a 65W USB-C power brick and charge the Blade 14. You won't be gaming, because that thirsty NVIDIA GPU will just empty the battery before you have a chance to top it up, but if you're out on the road and want to use the laptop for work without cranking up the RTX then it's really handy.

Let's also not forget that the Blade 14 weighs less than 4lbs whatever spec you go for. You can toss one with an RTX 3080 in your bag and barely even notice it. The truth is, a desktop RTX 3080 graphics card wouldn't be far off the same weight, and you don't even get a screen.

I also want to shout out the speaker quality. Razer's typical upward-firing speakers flank the keyboard and they are most excellent. You would struggle to find another laptop this size with such quality and volume. Music, movies, games, all aren't just tolerable, but enjoyable.

Razer Blade 14: Software and performance

Naturally, the Razer Blade 14 comes with Windows 10 as standard, but it is worth a note on Windows 11 compatibility. The Blade 14 has a hardware TPM 2.0 module installed, so when the time comes you're good to go, with no BIOS diving required. You are running Windows 10 Home, so you'll be subject to the initial internet connection and Microsoft Account requirement (as things currently stand) when installing Windows 11.

With that addressed, it's time to look a little closer at the real reason you're interested in this laptop at all; performance. Razer doesn't do things lightly, and that's clear by its approach with the Blade 14. It comes in like a wrecking ball with an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU, an 8-core Zen 3 chip with 16-threads, and a boost clock of 4.6GHz. On paper, it's a beast, and there are times when it translates into practice, too. But I want to start with some concerns. I've been using AMD Ryzen laptops as my own personal machines for a couple of years now and while the performance gap to Intel has certainly narrowed, there are areas where AMD still falls short. Or is just plain confusing.

For one, let's consider temperatures. The Blade 14 is an all-metal laptop, and hot metal is really unpleasant. Razer has done an outstanding job at cooling this behemoth, considering how hot the CPU will get compared to how much of that you notice on the outside. The spec sheet of the 5900HX lists 105C as its maximum operating temperature, as it has been for previous generation Ryzen mobile H-Series chips. That's not just hot. That's really hot.

On one hand, you don't encounter much in the way of thermal throttling, because the Ryzen 9 will just boost itself to oblivion and keep on keeping on, never reaching those upper limits. But equally, while stressing it in games for this review, I've seen CPU temperatures as high as 93C. Even if the laptop isn't uncomfortable with that, I am. It's the summer and my office is already like a sauna. And I'm not picking up a laptop that's been running at those temperatures.

Razer uses its vapor chamber cooling technology to fine effect, and even at the highest temperatures, the fan noise isn't as bad as on other Ryzen laptops I've used encountering similar heat. Heat is kept down to minimal levels on areas of the laptop you're going to touch the most, like the wrist rest, but the center can get toasty.

As on previous generation Ryzen mobile chips, the 5900HX will boost itself all day every day even if the only load on your system is reading Windows Central. You can't disable Turbo Boost manually, either, without getting into registry edits.

But, for gaming, you're going to be hooked up to the mains, you're going to enable maximum attack mode in Synapse for the CPU and GPU and you're going to go for it. So that's exactly what I did running these benchmarks. Let's crunch some numbers.

Starting with synthetic benchmarks, here's how the Blade 14 compares to its rivals in Geekbench, Cinebench, and 3DMark, along with checking out the SSD performance.

As you might expect, the Razer Blade 14 charts high when compared to other laptops that have come across our table. The Ryzen 9 is predictably excellent at multi-core operation, highlighted in the huge numbers from the Cinebench R23 render test. The combination of this and the RTX 3080 rank towards the top of the results in our 3DMark hall of fame, too.

Next up games, and for these, all were run at the native 1440p display resolution with respective graphics settings maxed out unless noted. DLSS and RTX ray-tracing were off unless otherwise specified.

• F1 2020 - 106 FPS avg
• Control - 71 FPS avg
• Far Cry 5 - 83 FPS avg
• The Division 2 - 75 FPS avg
• Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (high settings w/ RT) - 55 FPS avg
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider - 60 FPS avg
• Ashes of the Singularity - 50.5 FPS avg

Of course, these are merely examples to show just how much power is on tap in the Razer Blade 14. My advice? You're never going to need to play at 1440p on a 14-inch laptop, so drop the resolution back to 1080p and watch the frame rate fly. In games with DLSS support though, like Control, you can get an extra bump of 20-30 FPS without RTX Ray Tracing on at 1440p. Or you can turn RTX on and get similar performance to running with it all turned off. But even the notorious Ashes of the Singularity benchmark on its crazy setting doesn't make the Blade 14 totally fall apart.

You also need to make sure you've gone into Razer Synapse and turned all the performance settings up to their max to really get the best from this laptop. In Control, for example, just doing this was worth an additional 7 FPS, all for about 6 seconds of effort. The fans do make more noise, though, but it's worth it if you must get every last frame. These results also stand as a good reminder that as good as laptop GPUs are now, they're still quite comfortably behind desktop equivalents.

Performance on battery vs on mains power

Normally, we wouldn't make so much out of performance on battery vs on mains power for obvious reasons. But when it comes to Ryzen Mobile, there are, well, things. It's something we've seen in previous laptop reviews, such as the Surface Laptop 4. On battery, performance takes a significant hit. And if you use the "better battery" or "battery saver" settings in Windows 10, clock speeds can drop below 2GHz, which is seriously low compared to the base clock.

This example from Cinebench R23 illustrates the scale of the problem.

On mains power vs battery, you're getting up to 40% less from the CPU. OK, your laptop isn't going to suddenly start stuttering and turn to junk, but it's still a big hit that you might not even know is happening. And we have heard from one early owner of the Blade 14 that on battery Windows can sometimes poop the bed. Perhaps weirder is that SSD performance is halved when on battery versus being hooked up to a charger.

Update: Razer has informed us that the reduced SSD speed is due to PSPP (PCIe Speed Power Policy) set by AMD and is not controllable by OEMs like Razer. The policy is meant to increase battery life by reducing SSD performance. Something similar to what is happening with the CPU and GPU.

It's worth pointing out that this only applies to battery power, and even powering the laptop with a USB-C PD charger is enough to return the SSD performance to normal and the CPU to mostly the same. In Cinebench with a 65W USB-C PD power adapter (which isn't really enough for tests like this), the scores were only a little behind using the stock 230W brick.

Gamers more than likely won't ever feel this, since you're unlikely to be gaming for more than about 24 minutes before you think about needing your charger. But it's conceivable that other CPU-intensive processes, like rendering out a video, for example, would be necessary on battery power and those will definitely suffer. Razer Synapse lets you tweak performance settings on mains power, but on battery, you can only access an automatic setting so you can't do much to fix the issue yourself.

It also feels a little shady when it comes to battery life claims. If the CPU is essentially slashing its performance by half then of course battery life will be improved. AMD does allow its OEM partners to make changes to its APUs, so it's unclear exactly who's responsible but we've reached out to Razer for some additional clarity and will update this review with our findings. It does make it harder right now though to recommend a Blade 14 to anyone who needs both performance and decent battery life. Because you're either going to have to spin up the GPU or have a worse time than if you grab an Intel-powered Blade 15.

The good news is that if you're going to be using this to game a lot or you know you'll always be working from mains power, you're going to have a great time. This is an insanely powerful 14-inch laptop and for all the criticism you can find here, AMD is also really happy to just let rip when you plug in and turn everything up. It's just a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde situation, but the raw performance is definitely there.

Razer Blade 14: Competition

Probably the closest competition to the Razer Blade 14 comes from the Razer Blade 15. It's the best gaming laptop you can buy, it's priced similarly to the Blade 14, looks very similar but substitutes AMD for Intel processors. It makes choosing harder, though, because these are two of the most powerful gaming laptops on the planet.

There aren't actually many 14-inch gaming laptops out there, which makes the Blade 14 something of an outlier. If you're looking for something more compact, the ASUS ROG Flip X13 is an option, as is the Razer Blade Stealth. Both are 13-inch laptops, but you can only get a GTX 1650.

The closest competitor 14-inch laptops though are the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 and the Acer Predator Triton 300. The former also has a Ryzen 9 inside, while the Acer goes for Intel, but both are closer matches to the entry-level Blade 14.

Razer Blade 14: Should you buy it?

You should buy this if ...

You want the most powerful gaming laptop in town

With the RTX 3080 inside and everything cranked up to the maximum, this laptop screams. It's one of the most powerful gaming laptops you can get right now and will shred through your favorite games.

You want a compact, lightweight gaming laptop

14-inch gaming laptops aren't that common and the Blade 14 is both compact and lightweight. It's a perfect travel companion for the gamer-on-the-go.

You want a Ryzen laptop with plenty of grunt

For all the faults you can pick out, there are plenty of people who love AMD laptops. It's why the Blade 14 exists in the first place. And this is the most powerful of them all.

You should not buy this if ...

You're shopping on a budget

Even the entry-level model is more expensive than equivalent laptops from competitors, but the top-spec is definitely out of the reach of tighter budgets.

You work from battery power a lot

As a regular laptop for web browsing, email, lighter work, it's fine. But if you're anticipating the Blade 14 being a mobile workstation then you're probably better served elsewhere. The performance drop on the battery is too great.

You already have a Razer Core X

The RTX 3080 is good, but it's also not a desktop-class GPU and that's why products like the Razer Core X exist. If you already have one and want to keep using it, this is not the laptop for you.

Every part of my being adores this laptop. I'm one of those who has been asking Razer for an AMD version, in almost every press briefing for a new Blade. Finally, it's here, and it doesn't disappoint, at least, not as a gaming machine. For its primary purpose, the Razer Blade 14 absolutely blows the doors off.

The issues with the Blade 14 are also not really Razer's to fix. It feels unfair to level criticism towards this laptop for problems that come from AMD. There's no reason these things should turbo on all 8-cores when you're reading an email, for example, and the fact the temperatures don't get too ridiculous too often is a testament to Razer's engineers for taming the wild stallion.

But when you drill down, Ryzen Mobile just isn't there yet. If you unleash the beast, it delivers in spades and you're going to have a great time. But the temperatures and the huge drop in performance off charger leading to potentially spurious battery life claims do leave a sour taste. But Razer can only do so much.

The conclusion then is clear. If you want a compact, extremely powerful gaming laptop and gaming is what you intend to do most of all with it, then this is a great choice. When you cut it loose it will deliver. Just don't rest it on your lap.

Razer now has the best kind of problem. It has four class-leading gaming laptops between 13- and 17-inches. It's hard to say definitively whether you should get this over the Blade 15, but for a first album, Razer and AMD did alright.

The Razer Blade 14 is a fantastic laptop that came out a couple of years ago. It costs a lot to send the device back to Razer for a battery replacement, but you can always buy a third-party battery and replace it at home. Below, you'll find a step-by-step guide on how to do exactly that. When you're looking for a third-party battery, you'll want to find one that provides screwdrivers because Razer uses some unique screw holes.

Before you begin, remember to shut down your laptop completely and remove the charger.

Step 1

Remove the 10 screws with the appropriate screwdriver provided in the kit. You may have to try a couple because the size of the grooves may be different depending on your region. This will allow you to lift the cover to expose the battery and other circuitry.

Step 2

Remove the 7 screws with the appropriate screwdriver provided in the kit. This will be different than the one you used to remove the cover. One of the screws is hidden behind a wire so you'll have to push the wire aside.

Step 3

Remove the battery connector by pulling up on the orange and black connector. You may have to nudge it a little bit to get it loose.

Step 4

Remove the white and blue connector blocking you from lifting up the battery.

To do this, you have to lift up the tiny black clip first and then pull out the blue tab only on one side. Use tweezers if you have them because this is a delicate process.

Step 5

Lift up the old battery and place the new one in. Make sure you align the screw holes accordingly and that it doesn't wiggle around.

Step 6

Insert the new battery connector into the same slot you removed the old battery connector from. You'll have to apply light pressure to make sure it's firmly in place.

Step 7

Reconnect the white and blue connector.

To do this, you'll have to insert the blue tab in first and then flip the black holder down.

Step 8

Replace all the screws you removed when taking out the battery.

Step 9

Put back the bottom cover and replace all the screws you removed when removing the cover. Your laptop is ready to use now so you can plug it into the charger and turn it on. The manufacturer recommends that you charge your battery for 12 hours the first time.

Hopefully, this guide helped you. This was my first time replacing the Razer Blade 14's battery and I found it to be quite easy.

What makes the laptop a good choice for gaming?

The Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition is packed with cutting-edge hardware designed to make the editing and modeling process for visual media a breeze. However, this hardware also doubles as incredible pieces of kit for gaming. The most notable part of the laptop is its NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 GPU, which is the most powerful GPU available for laptops out there (it even edges past the beefy RTX 2080).

In addition to this, the device also has a top-notch 9th Generation i7-9750H CPU and 32GB of RAM. If you want, you also have the option to upgrade that to 64GB on your own, but that's overkill for gaming.

The power to run modern games at high settings is fantastic, but none of that matters if you don't have a nice display. Thankfully, the Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition comes with a gorgeous 4K 60Hz OLED display (touch-enabled) that has support for HDR and also 100% DCI-P3 color accuracy. This will allow you to enjoy smooth, 4K gaming at 60 FPS without any problems.

Switch to gaming drivers for best results

The Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition is primarily designed as a creative workstation, which is reflected by the fact that the Quadro RTX 5000 GPU is intended to be used to crush processes like video editing and complex, intensive applications like rendering and CAD. That being said, it's still a GPU, which means you can use it to game. NVIDIA makes the whole experience smoother by allowing you to switch easily between the Studio drivers and the GeForce game-ready drivers. As long as you have NVIDIA's GeForce Experience application installed, you can choose which driver you want to be installed, and switch between them as you see fit.

You can play games on the Studio drivers, but it's not optimized in any way. Switching to the GeForce drivers will make sure you have the best time.

The Razer Blade 15 Advanced is a premium gaming- and creator-focused laptop that is almost in a class of its own.

For 2019, it gets 4K OLED and full HD 244Hz screen choices. While the Blade's slightly updated internals, including 9th Gen Intel processor and Windows Hello IR camera, are welcome, the shallow keyboard can be problematic.

I spent the last few weeks with the Blade 15 with the 240Hz refresh rate. While you won't game at anything near 200 frames per second (FPS) – even with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 270 – the added CPU boost helps make the extra $100 price increase more bearable.

Razer Blade 15 Advanced (2019) features, display, and specs

Arguably, Razer's most important laptop is the Blade 15. It's the one gamers will want, as the Blade Stealth is more Ultrabook than gaming PC, and the new 17-inch Blade Pro is likely too much for many people. Because of that, there are many configuration options for the Blade 15. It can be a bit puzzling and frustrating, depending on what you want.

Starting at the bottom is the Blade 15 Base, which costs $1,599. It's a great entry point. But you're getting mostly last year's tech, a slightly thicker design, GTX 1060 Max-Q, and some minor tradeoffs compared to the more premium Advanced model.

The Blade 15 Advanced can be configured with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, RTX 2070 Max-Q Design, or RTX 2080 Max-Q design for the GPU. Some of the lower versions of the Advanced model ship with an 8th Gen Intel i7, while the more expensive ones have the latest 9th Gen chip. You shouldn't focuse on this too much, though, as the difference is minimal in real-world usage.

For displays, there are choices for matte full HD at 144Hz, matte full HD at 240 Hz (new), glossy 4K touch, or a glossy 4K OLED with touch (new). There is an even a choice between Razer's traditional black color scheme or the newer, more professional Mercury White. But if you want the latter, you are limited either to the 144Hz or 240 Hz display options and cannot get the 4K OLED, which is only in black and with a GeForce RTX 2080 video card.

The RAM options are fixed at 16GB (user-expandable up to 64GB), with storage at either 256GB or 512GB (also user-upgradable), with a strange omission of 1TB.

All these choices are a bit overwhelming but not unusual. However, if you had your heart set on a 4K OLED in Mercury White with an RTX 260 and 1TB SSD, you're out of luck.

Ports remain mostly unchanged, with three USB Gen 2 Type-A, Thunderbolt 3 Type-C, HDMI 2.0B, and Mini DisplayPort. There is no SD card slot. And while the Blade 15 Base has a full Ethernet port, the thinner Blade 15 Advanced does not.

Other new additions for 2019 include Intel Wireless AX200, Bluetooth 5, Windows Hello IR camera, 2,667 MHz DDR4 RAM, and a modest 80WHr battery.

For design, Razer finally settled on one aesthetic for all its laptops. The Blade 15 Advanced is perfectly symmetrical, with a solid, metal chassis, and squared edges. If you opt for the white chassis, you lose the glowing snake logo, which is a blessing for some (the black versions can be disabled, though). Between the hinge, display bezels, and overall look, Razer easily makes the best-looking gamer laptops around.

The Blade 15's weight hovers between 4.73 lbs. and 4.87 lbs. (2.15 kg to 2.21 kg) depending on configuration, making this one of the heavier 15-inch gaming laptops. But you can chalk that heftiness up to the premium metal chassis – this thing is built like a tank.

Razer Blade 15 Advanced (2019) keyboard, trackpad, and audio

In my recent review of the Blade Stealth, I was surprised by just how much I enjoyed using it, despite the run-of-the-mill Ultrabooks specificationas. I don't quite feel as strongly about the Blade 15 Advanced. More specifically, I don't love the keyboard and trackpad.

In photos, the look and layout of the Blade 15's keyboard is nearly perfect. Even the per-key RGB Chroma now lights up the function keys – an infamous oversight on previous Blades. But in typing, the keyboard is lacking. Travel is shallow, and it just doesn't have the spring-back I want. You would think that Razer would make the Blade Stealth's keyboard bigger for the Blade 15, but that's not the case. In using the Blade 15, I yearned for the SteelSeries keyboards that MSI laptops use, which set the benchmark for both gamers and touch-typists.

To a lesser extent, the same goes for the trackpad. It's massive, smooth, and uses Precision drivers – all good things. But the clickiness feels slightly softer compared to the more satisfying Blade Stealth.

The quad, top-firing speakers are on the high-end – especially for gaming laptops, which frequently lack good speakers due to the "gamers just headphones" excuse. Dolby Atmos software is also a nice touch.

Razer Blade 15 Advanced (2019) power and battery

I don't want to dwell too much on the battery life of the Blade 15 Advanced. For one, it's primarily a gaming laptop with a decently sized 80WHr battery (quite a bit smaller than the Dell XPS 15's 97WHr). The battery life also depends on GPU choice, whether you're actively using that GPU, and if you opt for full HD or one of the 4K panels. Our review unit with an RTX 2070 and full HD 240Hz display was able to get between five and six hours of regular, non-gaming usage. That battery life falls short of productivity Ultrabooks, but it is not bad either for this class of PC.

That 240Hz display can be set for 60Hz if you are concerned about battery life, but in my usage, I rarely saw a significant difference in non-gaming computing. If you're staring at a mostly static web page, Word document, or email, that 240Hz panel is not doing a lot of work.

In the box is a good-sized 230-watt charger with a braided cable, ensuring that even when maxing the CPU and GPU while gaming, you can still positively charge the laptop.

Razer Blade 15 Advanced (2019) hits 240Hz ... but rarely

There are two primary display trends in 2019 for laptops: 15-inch 4K OLED panels by Samsung, and 240Hz full HD. Razer offers both. Unfortunately, no one has figured out a way to combine them, so if you opt for 4K OLED, you will get a basic 60Hz refresh rate.

The jump from 144Hz in 2018 to 240Hz in 2019 is significant, but if you were hoping that you can push 200 FPS in your favorite AAA shooter, you would be disappointed. In most titles I tried – even when going down to medium graphics – games would still hit well below 140 FPS, making a 240Hz panel odd. A laptop Core i7 CPU paired with a Max-Q Design RTX 2070 GPU is still not enough power to push newer games that high.

If you enjoy using Windows 10 at 240Hz, that's cool, but it's not the aim if you're buying this laptop. For those reasons, it seems natural to dismiss 240Hz as mostly a gimmick in notebooks these days. But the catch here is price. Were Razer to charge an extra $200 or $300 for the 240Hz panel, it'd be a no brainer to skip. But Razer makes it only a $100 upgrade. You're not only getting that 240Hz panel but are also getting a 9th Gen Core i7 for that extra Benjamin (the 144Hz display ships only with the 8th gen Intel).

That extra $100 seems justified in that sense, and in my testing, there were no negatives with the 240Hz panel. It's downright glorious. The matte design is easy on the eyes, viewing angles are great, color accuracy pushes near 100 percent sRGB, and brightness goes well above 300 nits.

Choosing between the 240Hz option and the 144Hz option is no big deal. The tougher decision is between going 60Hz 4K OLED with touch versus matte, non-touch at full HD. I tested the 4K OLED option with touch, too, and it's very bright with punchy colors and very glossy. Those who edit video and create content will love the near-perfect sRGB and Adobe RGB color accuracy, as well as the exceptionally wide color gamut it offers.

Razer Blade 15 Advanced (2019) performance

A real gaming laptop needs to perform well to be worth the cost – especially with what Razer is charging. Luckily, Razer's new vapor chamber technology with dual fans lets the Intel Core i7-9750H and RTX 2070 do their jobs with very little thermal throttling. In my tests, after extended running, I saw about a 10 percent reduction overall in system performance with heavy gaming – that's quite good. The Intel Core i7-9750H is a hexa-core processor that peaks at 4.5GHz. Some may wonder why Razer does not offer an i9-9980HK processor, but the i9 is a money-wasting gimmick, as almost no laptop has the thermal capacity to maintain that chip's performance.

While there is a debate about the usefulness of a GeForce RTX GPU these days (versus the older, non-raytracing GTX series), there are no downsides either, just improvements. On average, RTX cards use around 10 percent less energy – which means less heat – than GTX ones. As game makers add raytracing to more and newer games, the Blade 15 is there to handle it.

3DMark

Time Spy (Higher is better)

No surprises here, as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q falls right in line with other RTX 2070 cards in gaming laptops.

3DMark

Fire Strike (Higher is better)

CPU

Geekbench 4.0 Benchmarks (Higher is better)

The 9th Gen Intel Core i7-9750H does a solid job, especially in single-core results, but it falls a bit below on multi-core compared to some other gaming laptops. Those scores are typical for Razer, which rarely offers the fastest machines, but they're still often near the top.

PCMark

PCMark Home Conventional 3.0

SSD

CrystalDiskMark (Higher is better)

Razer likes to use the excellent Samsung PM981 SSD in its Blade 15 laptops, and the results speak for themselves. Besides having excellent read speeds, which is important for gaming, Samsung SSDs tend to be very reliable.

Fan noise is perfectly fine, though if you are gaming in a warm room expect to hear them whooshing. Razer also makes it easy to control the cooling when plugged in through its Synapse software. The app gives options to ramp up or down their speed depending on your goals: performance versus quietness. That said, the Blade 15's bottom can get very hot. As with all of the best gaming laptops, when you game, you don't want it in your lap.

Razer Blade 15 Advanced (2019) bottom line

The Blade 15 is one of my favorite overall laptops – either for gaming or video production. It's one of those PCs that successfully pulls off both categories. Razer's competition is increasing – companies like MSI and Acer are both taking their gaming laptops and modifying them for "creators" with more subtle design and colors. While an MSI laptop pales in build quality to a Razer, they are fun to use, making them legit contenders.

The Blade 15, though, maintains its position as best for first-class gaming . The display options are excellent, performance is still great, audio with Dolby Atmos support is the best in this class, and that Mercury White looks hot.

The one thing that keeps me from running out and buying a Blade 15 Advanced myself is the keyboard. It's OK, but I've used too many other ones – including from Razer – to know that this one could be much better. The Blade 15 deserves a great keyboard. This keyboard is not one.

The 240Hz display craze this year is disappointing, since its full potential is rarely realized, the cost bump (which also nabs you that 9th Gen CPU) makes it an easier sell. If that $100 makes it just too expensive for you, 144Hz panel with an 8th Gen CPU is still a great option.

Each year Razer makes small iterations on its Blade lines that I appreciate. Past issues like thick bezels, no Windows Hello, poor audio, lack of a Precision touchpad, function keys that don't light, high-pitched fans, even quality control all have been fixed over these last few years. The Blade 15 just needs a better keyboard now. Once that happens, it will indeed be king.

Both the Base Model and the Advanced Model of the Razer Blade 15 are great gaming laptops, but the Advanced Model trumps its older brother when it comes to the specs you can configure it with. However, this comes at a cost: a higher price. If you're short on money or don't want a monster gaming machine, a Base Model Razer Blade 15 will be right up your alley.

Base vs. Advanced: A battle between power and price

When it comes to power, the Advanced Model of the Razer Blade 15 is the clear winner of this matchup. The least powerful hardware you can opt for with it is an NVIDIA RTX 2060 graphics card, an Intel Core i7-8750H processor, and a Full HD 144Hz display. The most expensive option is an NVIDIA RTX 2080, an Intel Core i7-9750H, and a beefy OLED 4K Touch screen. Whether you go low or high with the Advanced Model, though, you'll be able to handle all modern games with ease.

The Base Model is a different story. The low point of its specs options is a dated NVIDIA GTX 1060, an Intel Core i7-8750H, and a Full HD 60Hz display, while the high point is an NVIDIA RTX 2060 with an Intel Core i7-9750H and a Full HD 144Hz screen. The best version of the Base Model is definitely a great gaming laptop, but the cheapest option is only average.

Both models have disappointing storage options between 128, 256, and 512GB SSDs, though strangely, the low-end version of the Base Model comes with one of these and either a 1 or 2TB HDD. More likely than not, you'll need an external hard drive regardless of which device you choose.

There's another area where the Base Model defeats the Advanced Model, though, and that's in terms of pricing. The price of the Base Models ranges between $1,600–$2,000, while the price range of the Advanced Models is between $2,200–$3,300.

In other areas, the differences are either nonexistent or marginal. They have different weights, but the difference is only 0.2 pounds. The Base Model is also slightly thicker, but again, not by much to have it mean anything. Meanwhile, both come with 16GB of RAM, which is more than enough to assist with gaming no matter the other specs.

Base vs. Advanced: Which should you buy?

Overall, the choice between the Base or Advanced Model will come down to what you need and what you can afford. If you're looking for a high-end gaming machine that you want to crank up the settings on and push limits with, then one of the Advanced Models is definitely what you should go with. However, if you want to spend as little money as possible and don't care about not having cutting-edge specs, then one of the Base Model options is going to be perfect for you.

If I had to choose, though, I would go with one of the pricier Advanced Models because I wouldn't mind spending extra money for a machine that offers peak performance. If you want a laptop that can play games, why not get one that can play most, if not all, games?

What you need to know

• Razer is one of the first PC manufacturers to embrace NVIDIA's new RTX Studio program for creators.
• The new Blade Studio Editions come packed with Quado RTX 5000 and GeForce RTX graphics, high-end processors, and loads of storage space and RAM.
• Geared toward content creators, the Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition and Blade Pro 17 Studio Edition should be able to easily handle everything from video rendering to photo editing and 3D model work.

Razer today added to its growing lineup of Blade laptops with a pair catered to content creators. As part of NVIDIA's new RTX Studio certification, the two laptops come with plenty of high-end power and storage space to handle multitasking with resource-heavy tasks like 3D model creation and video rendering.

First up is the new Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition, which comes with a 4K OLED touch display that should make for crisp images, vibrant colors, and inky blacks. Backing that screen up is an Intel Core i7-9750 processor, NVIDIA's new Quadro RTX 5000 mobile GPU with 16GB of VRAM, 32GB of RAM and 1TB of NVMe SSD storage.

The new Blade Pro 17 Studio Edition, meanwhile, sets the bar a little higher with a speedy 4K 120Hz display panel. Inside is Intel's Core i9-9880H processor, NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 graphics, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of NVMe SSD storage.

Both laptops come in an anodized "Mercury White" finish and include NVIDIA's Studio drivers to bring added benefits to the performance of creative applications like DaVinci Resolve and Adobe Lightroom. If you need to step things down a notch, Razer says the systems will be available with NVIDIA's GeForce GTX graphics chips as well.

As for availability, Razer only says that the Studio Edition Blades will be available "later this year." Likewise, pricing details will arrive at a later date.

Affordable accessories that'll pair perfectly with your PC

Every one of these awesome PC accessories will enhance your everyday experience — and none cost more than $30.

KLIM Aim RGB gaming mouse ($30 at Amazon)

Whether you're a gamer or not, this is an absurdly good mouse for the price. It's ambidextrous, has a responsive sensor, a braided cable, tank-like build quality, and, yes, it has RGB lighting, though you can turn it off if that's not your thing.

AmazonBasics USB speakers ($16 at Amazon)

These neat little speakers may only pack 2.4W of total power, but don't let that fool you. For something so small you get a well-rounded sound and a stylish design. And they only cost $16.

Razer mouse bungee ($20 at Amazon)

Use a wired mouse? You need a mouse bungee to keep your cable tidy and free of snags. You get no drag on the cable, and this one has subtle styling, a rust-resistant spring and a weighted base, all for $20.

The Dell Alienware m15 and Razer Blade 15 are both excellent laptops. You won't regret your decision regardless of which you opt for in the end. Should you demand unlimited performance and price isn't an issue, the top level Alienware m15 comes rocking an unlocked (albeit last-gen) Intel Core i9 CPU, while the Razer Blade 15 feels more well-rounded with recently refreshed internals and display.

Alienware m15 vs. Razer Blade 15 specs

When it comes down to specifications, both gaming laptops share similar components, including Intel Core i7 processors and the latest RTX GPU tech from NVIDIA. There are a few notable differences that give Dell the edge with customization, depending on your budget and requirements.

Overall, Dell gives you more choice and offers a vastly more affordable option to hop onto the 15-inch gaming laptop bandwagon. Even the base model comes equipped with a 1TB HDD, Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB RAM, and NVIDIA GTX 1660 Ti GPU. For Razer, the base model is a full $300 more expensive, but does have a more powerful Intel Core i7 CPU, 128GB SSD, 16GB RAM, and RTX 2060 GPU.

It can become incredibly expensive to buy the Alienware m15 once you upgrade everything before checking out, including the Intel Core i9 CPU, 90Wh battery, 32GB RAM, RTX 2080 GPU and more. It can become quite the machine and rival even some gaming desktop PCs in performance. That's only when you have more money than sense, however.

It's worth pointing out that Dell has yet to refresh the Alienware m15 with latest 9th-gen Intel processors.

Gaming design taken to the next level

The Alienware m15 is a unique looking laptop, which shares its styling with the HP Omen. They're striking laptops with a central dual-hinge setup, but you do have some seriously large bezels compared to the Razer Blade 15. This isn't an issue if you don't mind them, but it's worth noting if you prefer to have the screen reach the edge of the lid.

Aside from the rather thick display bezels, the Alienware m15 is a gorgeous gaming laptop that barely weighs anything at all and you have some serious hardware packed inside. The laptop feels sturdy to carry around and use while on the go and you'll be the proud owner of a gaming notebook that'll still look good in years to come.

The Razer Blade is a stunning laptop to gaze at, too. The metal chassis and minute bezels on the display lid make it a wonder to appreciate. The styling is subtle, but stunning with everything looking clean and clutter-free. The Chroma keyboard is but the icing on the cake to add a little color to the rather baren landscape.

The displays used by Dell and Razer are stunning, especially if you choose the more expensive 4K panels (both clocked at 60Hz), though the Blade 15 does come out on top with the addition of OLED and a middleground with the option for 1440p.

When it comes to all improtant gaming sessions, both laptops will perform well. The Razer Blade 15 struggles to keep its CPU running at full speed when under stress and the fans really can ramp up in speed creating quite the racket — this didn't negatively impact in-game performance. The Alienware appears to deal with heat a little better, which is likely due to the design differences.

Hook up all your favorite accessories

Port availability is also important for mobile PC gamers who prefer to use their own gaming mice and accessories. Thankfully, both laptops offer a solid line-up of cut-outs to connect various external devices, though oddly with the Razer Blade 15 you get more ports with the base model thanks to the addition of gigabit LAN.

Razer packs in three USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, joined by Thunderbolt 3 and single HDMI 2.0 and MiniDP 1.4 outputs. As aforementioned, in order to use a LAN port, you'll need to choose the base model. For the Alienware m15, Dell opted for three USB 3.1 Type-A, Thunderbolt 3, Alienware GPU Amp, HDMI 2.0, MiniDP 1.3, 3.5mm jack, and finally LAN.

While you may want to connect your favorite mouse to the laptop, both of these gaming machines feel great to type on. Dell and Razer have years of experinece in making solid keyboards and the results in the Alienware m15 and Blade 15 are spectacular. Lastly, battery life is abyssmal on the Alienware m15 and not that much better on the Blade 15, which is expected on gaming notebooks.

Deciding between the two laptops really comes down to what you value more out of design, value, performance, and available ports.

Alienware m15 for more choice and options

If your budget is tight or you'd rather have more options available for customizing the laptop to your exact requirements, Dell is the better option here with the Alienware m15. Not only does it start at a lower price, but you can really go to town with the available options to create quite the monster.

Razer Blade 15 is for you if you value design above all else

The Razer Blade 15 can not only match the Alienware m15 in most cases (aside from the fully kitted out range-topping model), it's also arguably the better-looking gaming laptop. You get to enjoy Razer's design language with all the latest tech from Intel and NVIDIA to power through your PC game library.

How does the Razer Blade 15 perform?

On average, when playing a modern game in HD and with settings on high, you'll be getting anywhere between five and six hours out of the various different models of the Razer Blade 15 gaming laptop. The older Base Model from 2017 is equipped with a 65 Wh battery, while the newer Advanced Models come outfitted with a larger 80 Wh battery.

This is offset by the more powerful hardware. NVIDIA's new RTX graphics cards and Intel's 9th generation processor require more power than the old model's GTX 1060 graphics card and 8th generation processor. As a result, the overall battery life is still around five to six hours.

In terms of laptops overall, this is an average result. However, for gaming laptops specifically, this is actually quite a strong amount of uptime. Gaming laptops traditionally have had very poor battery life and because of this, most of the models that have come out in the past require you to stick close to an outlet as much as possible. This is not the case with the Razer Blade 15 models, though, as you can play for a solid few hours before needing to worry about charging.

Why get a Razer Blade 15?

Aside from the admirable battery life, there's plenty of other reasons to consider getting a Razer Blade 15 gaming laptop. The main one is that the device has a wide range of great configurations — whether you're looking for an entry-level gaming laptop or a beefy no-nonsense powerhouse, there's a Razer Blade 15 option for you. The 2017 model of the laptop is less expensive and less powerful, while the 2019 variants offer more horsepower for more money. You can configure a lot of the specs to fit your specific needs between these two points on Razer's website, too, giving you plenty of options.

In addition, all of the Razer Blade 15 models are both thin and light, which makes them amazing for taking with you when you leave the house. Portability is important for any laptop, and the Razer Blade 15 exceeds expectations in that regard. It's also worth noting that the devices simply look cool. Razer's sleek black aesthetic with RGB-lit accents has been a favorite of gamers for a long time, and the Razer Blade 15 lives up to that legacy spectacularly. Overall, the Razer Blade 15 is simply an excellent gaming laptop, no matter how you configure it.

What hardware do you need for Apex Legends?

While many modern titles require the best graphics cards and processors in order to run great, Apex Legends can actually run very well on average hardware. This is because Apex Legends has lower system requirements than many other games that have come out in 2019, and thus works well even with middle-of-the-road hardware, such as some of NVIDIA's weaker GTX GPUs.

What makes the Razer Blade 15 great for Apex Legends?

The reason that the Razer Blade 15 is great for Apex Legends is that all of its configurations have the ability to handle the game well. The old model that uses an NVIDIA GTX 1060 graphics card and an 8th Gen Intel Core i7-8750H processor is good enough to play the game at 60 frames per second (FPS) as long as you don't mind turning a few settings down, Meanwhile the newer models use NVIDIA RTX graphics cards and can be outfitted with a 9th Gen Intel Core i7-9750H processors. They can push the game to higher resolutions such as 1400p or even 4K, as well as boost frame rate to over 100FPS.

The configuration you choose largely depends on what you need. If you're planning on playing the game competitively or want the best possible graphics, then going with one of the stronger, newer models is your best bet. However, if you simply want a device that can play the game well and want to save money where you can, the older model of the Razer Blade 15 is what you should go for.

What makes Razer the best place to buy from?

While you can buy one of the new Razer Blade 15 gaming laptops from Microsoft or Best Buy, the best place to go to get one is from Razer itself. Microsoft and Best Buy only offer a limited range of configurations to choose from, while Razer will allow you to mix and match graphics cards, processors, and displays much more extensively. More options are always better, and you won't have to pay any more than you would if you were to buy one of the choices from the other retailers, either.

What makes the Razer Blade 15 so great?

The main reason that you would want to choose one of the new Razer Blade 15 gaming laptops is because they're outfitted with elite gaming hardware. Between the NVIDIA RTX graphics cards, 8th or 9th Generation Intel Core processors, and the 16GB of RAM, the Razer Blade 15 is a beast of a gaming machine. They're incredibly thin, too, with the thinnest possible configuration coming in at 0.70 inches. For a machine with this much horsepower, that thinness is extremely impressive. The weight isn't too bad either, with the device weighing in just under five pounds.

The display of the Razer Blade 15 is excellent, too. For standard HD resolution, you can choose between a 15.6 inch screen with either 144Hz or 240Hz. If 4K gaming is something you're interested in, you can opt for a crisp and beautiful 4K OLED touch screen that will take your gaming experience to the next level.

The Razer Blade 15 is getting a 2019 refresh, its second one in the last six months. While the overall design remains the same, it's the processor and display technology that is getting a significant bump — something we heard rumblings about back in January at CES.

Razer Blade 15 Advanced Model

The Razer Blade 15 Advanced — the more expensive version — is getting two new display options.

First up, for hardcore gamers, there is now a 15.6-inch full HD 240Hz matte display with 100 percent sRGB that's also individually factory calibrated, combined with an NVIDIA RTX 2070 Max-Q Design or RTX 2080 Max-Q Design graphics, both with Optimus Technology.

For those more poised towards multimedia creation with occasional gaming, there is now a jaw-dropping 15.6-inch OLED 4K touch screen at 60Hz with the one-millisecond response and 100 percent DCI-P3 calibration.

Like other gaming laptops coming out in the next few months, Razer is dropping in a brand-new 9th Gen Intel Core i7-9750H processor. That CPU flaunts six cores and 12 threads and up to a 4.5GHz Max Turbo with 12MB cache.

Other bits include Intel Wireless AX200, Bluetooth 5, Windows Hello IR camera, 2,667 MHz DDR4 RAM that is expandable to 64GB by the user, and a modest 80WHr battery.

Users can still choose the all-black Razer Blade 15 with a lit green logo or the tamer "Mercury White" edition with a non-lit Razer logo with black USB ports.

Razer Blade 15 base model

For those who want to save some money, Razer is bumping the Blade 15 base model with a 144Hz full HD matte display, and it too gets that new 9th Gen Intel Core i7-9750H processor, making it a much more competitive offering than last year's variant.

For the GPU, there's now an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 with Optimus Technology, 512GB PCIe solid-state drive (SSD) — there is no more secondary spinning hard disk drive, but there is a spare SATA slot) — and a 65WHr battery.

New Razer Blade 15 pricing and availability

Pricing is typical Razer with the Blade 15 base model coming in at $1,999, while the Blade 15 Advanced model with the 240Hz display starts at $2,399. That 4K OLED, though, is not cheap, topping off at $3,299.

Look for preorders and shipping of these new Blade 15s to start on April 24 from Razer, Microsoft, and Best Buy.

Cheap PC accessories we love

Take a gander at these awesome PC accessories, all of which will enhance your Windows experience.

Anker 4 port USB 3.0 hub ($10 at Amazon)

Whether on a desktop or laptop PC, you always need more ports to connect things to. This hub gives you an additional four USB 3.0 Type A ports.

Ikea Fixa Cable Management System ($11 at Amazon)

This IKEA cable management kit is your ticket to a clean setup. It's simple and functional.

NZXT Puck ($20 at Amazon)

This clever little accessory has powerful magnets on the rear to make it stick to any of the metal panels on your PC case or anything else. It's great for hanging accessories like headsets.

The Razer Blade Advanced, the NVIDIA RTX-powered version of the company's popular gaming laptop, is a sleek beast. But if you want to add a more rustic finish to its exterior, Toast has launched a new line of wood covers for Razer's powerhouse laptop.

You can get your hands on woodgrain skins that cover most of the laptop, ranging from the back of its lid to the keyboard deck and even around the screen. And if you still want that glowing Razer logo to shine, Toast includes the option to ship its back cover with a cutout for the logo. Other additions include custom text, which the company will add in for an extra $5 fee.

The wood cover for the rear cover will run you $70, which is a somewhat hefty price, and you can add a screen surround and keyboard cover for an additional $20 each. If you want to round out the package with a bottom cover, that'll cost you an extra $30.

Razer launched the new Blade 15 Advanced earlier this year as an upgrade to the base model. The Advanced model offers NVIDIA's latest RTX graphics chips, along with full HD and 4K screen options, with a 144Hz refresh rate on the full HD panel. You'll also get per-key Chroma lighting customization on the keyboard, along with a slightly thinner design. The only thing you'll miss out on is the gigabit ethernet port, which is only available on the base model.

Razer's new Blade 15 Advanced is ready for launch. The upgraded, which was introduced at CES 2019 earlier this month, is now available with prices starting at $2,300.

The Blade 15 Advanced looks just like the standard Blade 15 on the outside, but it's packing one key upgrade: NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX graphics for laptops. The RTX 20-series chips not only pack more power than their GTX 10-series predecessors, but they also include AI-enhancements and ray tracing, both of which can help to make your lighting look and act much more realistic in games that support the features.

The Blade 15 Advanced is available in three RTX flavors:

• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB GDDR6 VRAM)
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 with Max-Q Design (8GB GDDR6 VRAM)
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 with Max-Q Design (8GB GDDR6 VRAM)

Other than improved graphics, the Blade 15 Advanced also packs an Intel Core i7-8750H processor and 16GB of RAM. The 15.6-inch display includes a 144Hz 1080p option or a 4K panel at 60Hz. However, the only models that appear to be launching today include the 1080p panel.

The Blade 15 Advanced is available now starting at $2,300 at Razer and retailers in the U.S., Canada, France, United Kingdom, Germany, China, and Asia-Pacific region. The base Blade will also remain available with NVIDIA GTX 1060 graphics for $1,600. All Blade Advanced laptops will also come with Battlefield V and Anthem "for a limited time," Razer says.

See at Razer

NVIDIA's GeForce RTX graphics chips are finally ready for laptops, and Razer is gearing up to take advantage of their increased power with a new member of its Blade family debuting at CES 2019: the Razer Blade 15 Advanced.

On the outside, the Razer Blade 15 Advanced largely resembles the standard Blade 15 that came before it. The 15.6-inch IPS display is available with either a 1080p 144Hz matte panel or a 4K 60Hz multi-touch panel. It also supports up to 2TB of SSD storage and 16GB of RAM (expandable up to 64GB).

Despite the similarities to its predecessor, the Razer Blade 15 Advanced really steps things up when it comes to graphics. Whereas the Blade 15 includes NVIDIA GeForce GTX 10-series graphics, the Blade 15 Advanced can be equipped with one of three offerings from NVIDIA's powerful RTX 20 Series chips. Those include:

• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB GDDR6 VRAM)
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 with Max-Q Design (8GB GDDR6 VRAM)
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 with Max-Q Design (8GB GDDR6 VRAM)

On the processing side of things, the Blade 15 Advanced leverages Intel's 8th Gen Core i7-8750H processor on all available models.

The Blade 15 Advanced also features some advanced cooling tech, using vacuum-sealed vapor chambers to dissipate heat from the CPU, GPU, and other components around the laptop. The vapor chamber tech is combined with a set of fans with 0.1mm thin fins, which should help to efficiently move heat without making a ton of noise.

Rounding things out is a selection of ports that includes one USB-C port with Thunderbolt 3, three USB 3.1 Gen 1 USB-A ports, a single HDMI 2.0b port, and Mini DisplayPort 1.4. A Windows Hello-enabled IR webcam is also onboard, along with per-key RGB lighting on the keyboard powered by Razer Chroma.

The Razer Blade 15 Advanced is expected to launch on January 29 with prices starting at a hefty $2,300 and topping out at $3,000, depending on the configuration. The original Razer Blade will remain on sale as an entry point, sporting NVIDIA GTX 1060 Max-Q graphics, starting at $1,600. And while they won't be available to buy, Razer says it is also showing off some display tech being "evaluated" for the Blade 15 in the future, including 240Hz 1080p and a 4K OLED panels, at CES 2019.

See at Razer

Razer's notebooks are typically black slabs of metal with green accents, but the company is looking to diversify its catalog with the launch of an exclusive white Razer Blade 15. The only drawback to this new color option is it's restricted to North America and China. Should you be located outside these two regions, you'll want to acquire it some other way.

Not seeing the option for the color mercury white? You'll need to make sure you're selecting the right configuration as it can get a little confusing. In order to purchase this color, you'll want to select the Full HD 144Hz panel with GTX 1060 GPU and 512GB SSD. This will allow you to choose between black and white.

As an added bonus, if you buy the Razer Blade 15 right now, you'll grab a free copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. It's also a limited edition variant of the Razer Blade 15, meaning you'll likely become quite the unique gamer once inventory is cleared.

$2,200 at Razer

Alongside the new Razer Phone 2 comes a pair of new Blade 15 laptops. Both are still based on the current device, but what we're getting is a new entry model and a new limited edition version.

The limited edition is a Mercury White Blade 15 and the bad news (for most of the world) is it's exclusive to North America and China. It swaps the black and green combo of the regular Blade 15 for a striking white paint job with black ports and no light up logo on the lid. It looks pretty incredible, all told.

It's available in a couple of configurations, but only with a 1080p 144Hz display, so no 4K option, but it comes with 16GB of RAM, 512GB NVMe SSD and either a GTX 1060 or GTX 1070.

As for the launch, all we know right now is that "limited quantities" will be made available by the end of 2018 with prices starting at $2,199.

For gamers on a tighter budget, the new entry-level Blade 15 will be of interest. On the outside it looks the same as the rest of the Blade 15 family but a number of spec drops have helped to reduce the asking price by $300. What hasn't been dropped, however, is the six-core Intel Core i7-8750H, 16GB of upgradeable RAM and the 6GB GTX 1060 GPU. So for gaming, it's still on point.

Where Razer has managed to make savings is with some of the other specs. The display is 1080p, but on this model is limited to the 60 Hz panel, and the NVMe storage is gone in favor of a combination of an m.2 SSD and a 2.5-inch HDD. The keyboard retains Chroma lighting, but on this model is a single zone.

Prices for the new entry model Blade 15 start at $1,599, and in North America and China it's available to order right now. Europe and Asia-Pacific markets will get availability from November.

See at Razer

The trouble with the Ethernet port is that it's pretty tall. And tall doesn't mix with slim laptops, like the latest Razer Blade 15, so it often gets left out.

It's not tough to add, though, and in the case of the Razer Blade 15 there are different solutions based on what else you might be doing.

USB Ethernet adapter

The cheapest, easiest and most portable method of getting Ethernet for your Razer Blade 15 is a USB adapter. Just plug in the dongle, connect your cable and you've got yourself some tasty wired internet.

A gigabit Ethernet adapter such as this one from Anker is only $14 and is also a perfect companion for travel. It takes up no space in your bag and doesn't require power, so it's absolutely perfect. It's also available in a metal finish for $20 if you're so inclined.

See at Amazon

USB-C hub

If you're looking to add Ethernet alongside something else the Razer Blade 15 doesn't have, namely an SD card slot, then a hub is a great way to go.

You'll get added functionality such as more USB ports as well as Ethernet and an SD slot, all in one package that's still small enough to toss in a bag and take on the road with you.

Something like this one from Lenovo for around $57 is ideal. Simply plug into the USB-C port on your Razer Blade 15 and away you go.

See at Amazon

Thunderbolt 3 dock

If your primary concern is using Ethernet at home, a Thunderbolt 3 dock, while pricey, might be a good investment. From a single cable connected to your Razer Blade 15 you can transform it into a full desktop computer.

Besides the wired internet, you can connect up to two 4K displays, a bunch of USB devices, your SD cards and even audio devices.

Thunderbolt 3 requires power, so it's not exactly portable, but for a home office situation, the $220 asking price for this one from Cable Matters is good value for using with a laptop like this.

See at Amazon

Razer Core V2

Razer's Thunderbolt 3 dock isn't just a dock. It's also an external GPU if you need more graphics horsepower than is included inside. It's also a good way to futureproof the Razer Blade 15, ensuring you can use future generation GPUs with it for minimal fuss.

Like other Thunderbolt 3 docks, the Core V2 turns your laptop in a full desktop PC with multiple connectivity options, external display connections, Ethernet, and will even help you set up VR a little easier.

All down a single cable to and from the laptop. It's the most expensive option at $500, but it's also the one that adds the most to your Razer Blade 15.

See at Amazon

The Razer Blade has always been a great, if imperfect gaming laptop. The 14-inch model went through a few hardware revisions over the past couple of years, always striving to offer the best hardware the market had to offer in a design that has always been at the forefront of what a gaming laptop can be.

In 2018 the Blade is reborn. It's got a new look, a new size, and as always, the latest power.

This is an important laptop for PC gamers on the go, and on paper, it looks like Razer designed the perfect laptop for these people. But how does that translate into practice?

About this review

This review has been conducted using a loan unit from Razer. The one reviewed here is the higher-spec model with the 4K touch display and GTX 1070 GPU, paired with a 512GB SSD and 16GB of RAM.

Pricing for the model reviewed here is $2,899. It's currently not available to order, but is slated to be available sometime in June 2018.

See at Razer

Razer Blade 15 video hands-on

Razer Blade 15 tech specs

Razer Blade 15: New design, new hardware

The first thing many will notice about the new Blade is that the bezels around the display are no longer enormous. Razer shrunk the top and sides down a serious amount, and on of the results is that you've now got a 15.6-inch display in almost the same footprint as the old 14-inch model.

That 15.6-inch display comes in two forms: a 1080p 144Hz non-touch or a 4K 60Hz with touch. The latter is what I have here, though having spent a little time pre-launch with the former, it's certainly no slouch. Arguably, the 1080p option is the one to choose if you're planning on using the Blade 15 primarily for gaming on.

But the Blade attracts more than gamers. Thanks to its subtle looks, slim size, and powerful innards, creatives working in photo and video are drawn to the Blade as their portable PC of choice. And that's where the 4K model comes in. Not only does it add more pixels, you get touch support, better colors and underneath, an 8GB NVIDIA GTX 1070 MaxQ GPU.

Also new for the Blade 15 is Intel's 8th Generation processor. There's only one option across the whole range, a six-core, 12-thread i7-8750H with a base clock of 2.2GHz, which boosts to over 4GHz. This isn't the unlocked variant, so there's no room for overclocking, but there's also no real need. The addition of two more cores and four more threads already gives the Blade 15 a performance advantage over its predecessor for multi-core applications.

It all reads very well, and it's as if Razer had a list of a gamer's dream laptop specs and proceeded to go through ticking them off one-by-one. Also new in the Blade 15 is upgradeable RAM. You get 16GB of 2666MHz DDR4 as standard, but you can double this if you need more.

Likewise, you can upgrade the SSD if you wish, though there's no immediate reason you'd want to. Razer is using (where possible) Samsung NVMe SSDs in the Blade 15 and as we've learned in the past, these are the ones you want if you're looking for performance and reliability.

All this hardware goodness is wrapped up in a new look chassis. Gone are the curved edges and in comes a sleek, angular design. In many regards, the Blade 15 looks like the engineers took a rolling pin to a Razer Phone. The two are very clearly siblings.

The speakers still flank the keyboard, the company logo still glows green on the lid (though you can turn it off if you wish), it's all metal, all black, all stunning. The 4K version is a hair thicker than the 1080p model with the GTX 1060 to allow a little extra cooling room, but this is still one of the slimmest 15-inch gaming laptops you'll find.

One thing that's you don't get with the super slim form factor is Ethernet. It's the only thing that is missing, though, as you get a bevy of USB 3.1 ports, HDMI, miniDP and Thunderbolt 3. Wireless is taken care of by Intel's 9260 system, replacing the Killer wireless on the old model.

The included ports also make the Blade 15 a top choice for Windows Mixed Reality and VR in general. The HDMI and USB 3.1 ports are next to each other, which makes connecting a Mixed Reality headset a doddle.

What is disappointing though, is that despite a redesign Razer hasn't found a home for Windows Hello. Some might not care, but in the process of ticking all the boxes adding a fingerprint sensor would have been the icing on the cake.

Razer Blade 15: Display

You only have two main decisions to make when picking your Razer Blade 15: Which display and GPU you want. Razer makes it even easier because if you want the 4K touch display, you can only have it with the GTX 1070.

The 1080p option is non-touch, but its major selling point is the 144Hz refresh rate. With the hardware inside the Blade 15 there are definitely games you can be playing at high frame rates, and personally, it's the one I'd go for. I've only used it briefly but it looked fantastic and the performance is right where you want it if you're a keen PC gamer.

The 4K touch display takes things in a different direction. The refresh rate drops to 60Hz which is common, and even with a GTX 1070 you're not really going to game at 4K. And gaming at 4K on a 15.6-inch display gains you pretty much nothing.

Where the display on this model comes into play is for the creatives out there. If you're looking for pixels and accurate color, then the 4K version of the Blade 15 is here for you. Though as it's a glossy display you'll want to invest in a stash of microfibers.

I ran it through the Datacolor Spyder 5 Pro colorimeter to get an idea of what's going on and the results are pleasing.

Not only does it achieve 100% sRGB, a great result on its own for a gaming laptop, the 4K panel also achieves 100% Adobe RGB. I wish it was a little brighter, but this is a killer display.

Razer Blade 15: Keyboard and trackpad

There's one very important thing to know about this year's Razer Blade trackpad: Precision drivers.

I could leave it there. The lack of precision drivers was one of the negatives about the old Blade, but Razer fixed that for 2018. The trackpad has also been redesigned to be larger and to have no physical buttons. Left and right mouse click are still where you'd expect to find them, but the trackpad clicks instead of a button.

It's a great trackpad, too. The Stealth and Blade Pro had already jumped to Microsoft Precision drivers and finally, the regular Blade can hang with them. The large size feels right for a 15-inch laptop, it's dead center and has a really nice smooth finish.

The first thing you always notice about the keyboard on a Razer Blade laptop is the Chroma. A staple of Razer's systems and accessories lineups across the board, the Blade 15 is no exception. While the keyboard looks great, I do have a couple of qualms with it.

While I'm pleased to see full-sized cursor keys, the right-hand function key has been pushed out to the very outside of the laptop. This probably bothers me more than most, because I'm so used to having it to the side of the space bar where it's easily pressed with my thumb. I'm an old man who hates it when companies use odd laptop layouts.

The most annoying thing about the keyboard though is that the functions you need to press that key to enable don't light up. Pressing function highlights the F1 to F12 keys which all have additional purposes, but what they do stays dark while the F number lights up. So until you've trained yourself to know what lives where, you have to peer down at the tiny, dark icons on the keyboard.

The keyboard itself is decent. It's not yet taken on the low-profile mechanical keys of the Blade Pro, so while you're probably hooking up an external input for gaming, for typing it's a good experience.

Razer Blade 15: Performance and battery life

What you're really buying a Blade 15 for is the performance. The tradeoff is battery life, particularly on this 4K model. You can realistically expect 3-4 hours away from the charger if you're not pushing it in any way. That's not a dealbreaker for a gaming laptop, and the 230W power brick isn't as large or heavy as you may have been expecting so it's no drama to pack in your gear bag as well.

Previous Blade's have had a GTX 1060, and since NVIDIA hasn't yet unveiled anything beyond the 10-series, that's what you find again. The optional GTX 1070 is what I have here and paired with a six-core processor you'd expect something beastly.

And that's exactly what you get.

CPU

Geekbench 4.0 Benchmarks (Higher is better)

The i7-8750H bests the older gaming laptop CPU of choice, the i7-7700HQ, pretty handily for single-core performance but the six-core destroys the old quad-core for multi-core performance. It's also a good comparison with the ZenBook 3 Deluxe running an 8th Gen quad-core i7, which is on par for single core performance but loses out to the six-core chip otherwise.

GPU

3DMark - Fire Strike (higher is better)

What's most amazing here is that the MaxQ GTX 1070 actually bests the GTX 1080 in the Razer Blade Pro.

SSD

CrystalDiskMark (Higher is better)

The storage performance with the Razer Blade 15 is excellent. Read speeds are some of the very best we've seen on any recent laptop, and while write speeds are a little lower than some of the competition, the Samsung NVMe SSDs being used in the Blade 15 are winners.

The benchmarks impress across the board, but what about when you get into some gaming? I ran through some popular titles, setting the resolution to 1080p and graphics to high, or one step down from maximum across the board.

The GTX 1070 is easily capable of running at max settings or above 1080p, but in that case, you'd want an external display as it's just not worth it to game at 4K on a laptop. Especially when you're limited to 60Hz. You can, if you wish though, as I managed to run The Division fairly comfortably at 4K when limited to 30 FPS.

Game benchmarks

What's important to point out alongside benchmarks is the temperature and byproduct, insanely loud fans. Compared to some other laptops I've tested recently, some of the figures are a little disappointing, with Rise of the Tomb Raider being no better in practice than the ASUS GL503 which has both a 7th Gen Core i5 and a GTX 1060. This is an anomaly here though as the other games tested produce terrific results.

The Division, however, seemed to be a pain point for the Blade 15. There's a ton of detail and activity going on in the game and it was this which produced the hottest temperatures from the laptop. It pretty quickly went over 80C, ultimately reaching a peak of 98C despite rarely going over 50% CPU load. At the higher temperatures, you do get thermal throttling, but things are pushed as far as realistically possible.

In other titles it's less of an issue, For Honor, for example, producing fantastic results, not a lot of heat and as such the fans weren't too loud. You do have mild control in Razer Synapse 3 over the fans, but if you go to manual control you either have fast, faster or fastest to choose from. And you get some lovely coil whine when they're really motoring.

Add a Razer Core X for even more gaming power

Alongside the Blade 15, Razer is also launching a new, cheaper version of its Core eGPU.

The Razer Core X will add a full desktop graphics card to your new Blade 15, if you really need more power, and for only $299.

Razer Core X is a lower-priced eGPU for laptop gaming

The real heat and fan noise seem to come from anything CPU intensive, which would relate to games like The Division. Total CPU usage doesn't seem to reach ridiculous levels, but the temperature will rise quite quickly. This could be down to a number of issues, maybe even something simple like poor thermal compound, but during gaming one thing is constant: Heat and noise.

That's a tradeoff you have to be willing to make for gaming on a laptop, though. Razer's vapor chamber cooling system does an OK job at getting the heat out, and the GPU temperatures are nothing more than you'd expect: Hot when gaming, fairly cool when not. But the sad fact is the Blade 15 gets really hot and when it's an all-metal construction you end up with some pretty uncomfortable areas on the chassis. Though it should be said that the trackpad and keyboard never become uncomfortable.

What I'm less pleased with is the fan noise during normal, light use. When sat idle with no programs open, the fans can just spool up for no apparent reason. I played around with a few things and disabling the CPUs turbo mode in BIOS helped in this situation, but that then wrecks performance in gaming.

Hopefully, it's something that some clever folks can fix with some updates to the BIOS and how the fan curves are generated.

Razer Blade 15: The bottom line

The Razer Blade 15 comes close to perfection. Very, very close. The company has essentially taken a step back, listened to its fans and designed the perfect gaming laptop. Slim, light and pretty compact, gorgeous to look at, a large display with skinny bezels and blistering performance.

If the only things I could fault with it were some mild annoyances with the keyboard and that it's an ultimate fingerprint magnet, it would be easy to cement as the gaming laptop of choice.

Pros

• 4K display is stunning with great color reproduction.
• Excellent all-around performance.
• Microsoft Precision trackpad.
• Larger display, skinnier bezels.
• Squared off design looks the business.
• Still the closest thing to a true gaming Ultrabook.

Cons:

• Alternative functions of F keys don't light up and are hard to see.
• Gets pretty hot in CPU intensive games which results in throttling.
• Fan noise is too high under lighter loads.
• No Windows Hello.

But, I'm still a little concerned with the heat and the noisy fans. No-one sensible will ever put a gaming laptop on their actual lap then proceed to jump into a round of PUBG, and if it was purely in gaming that things got a little toasty and loud, I'd give it a pass. There's only so much you can do in a laptop form factor.

What puts a sour taste in my mouth though is how hot the Blade 15 can get, and how loud it is during every day, none-gaming use. This looks like a laptop you could take into a conference room for a meeting. It's sleek, sophisticated, understated in its appearance. But as soon as you fire it up and open a web browser, you'll annoy the living daylights out of everyone else in the room.

Otherwise, the Blade 15 is a masterpiece of design and engineering. Bravo, Razer. Bravo.

See at Razer

Just announced today, the Razer Blade 15 is the company's newest, hottest gaming laptop and the even better news is that it's already available to order. Europeans will have to wait until mid-June, but if you're in the U.S. you can head on over to the Razer Store right now and place your order.

The Blade 15 comes in a few different variants, with the entry-level model costing $1,899 coming with a 1080p 60Hz display. Other options include a 144Hz 1080p panel or a 4K 60Hz touch display. All versions have a new 8th generation, six-core Intel Core i7, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, PCIe SSD storage and either a MaxQ GTX 1060 or 1070 GPU.

Find out more in our initial hands-on, and let us know in the comments below if you're planning to pick one up!

See at Razer

Our top pick for the best gaming laptop you can buy has been the Razer Blade for quite some time. Blending superb design with ultimate power and portability makes it hard not to recommend to anyone who wants a truly great gaming laptop.

There have been refreshes to the existing 14-inch model over the last couple of years, but now, it's being properly replaced.

This is the all-new Razer Blade 15, and it's going to knock your socks off.

Razer Blade 15 specs

Razer Blade 15: larger display, refined design

The first thing fans of the Blade will notice is the display. It's now larger but has seriously skinny side-bezels. As such, the whole footprint of the Blade 15 is just 10mm wider than the current 14-inch model.

For 2018 the display has been bumped up to 15.6-inches and it comes in three different variants. The entry-level Blade 15 will have a 1080p, non-touch, 60Hz display. The most expensive model will have a 4K 60Hz touch display. But for gamers, the sweet spot is right in the middle.

Razer has included a 1080p 144Hz display on the latest Blade and at first glance it's superb. You're getting 100% sRGB support, so it looks good, and thanks to that fast refresh rate you'll be gaming like you've never gamed before on a Blade.

The skinny side bezels around the display aren't the only design refinements Razer has made to the Blade. The whole body of the laptop is now more squared-off; it's a very clean design and certainly makes an impression. The only break to the flat black is the customary green Razer logo on the lid.

As always with Blade laptops, there's metal construction throughout, and while the trackpad has lost dedicated buttons this year, it's larger and most importantly; it's precision. The keyboard remains flanked by speakers, certified for Dolby Atmos, and the power button is smaller on this year's model.

Given what you find inside, the Blade 15 is incredibly slim, yet still offers a wealth of connectivity options. There's no Ethernet included this time around – and no Killer networking, instead, there's a dual-antenna setup with Intel 9260 wireless – but you do get a bunch of USB 3.1 ports, Thunderbolt 3, HDMI and mini-DP. Also, despite the slim frame, there's still a sizeable 80Wh battery inside.

And there's Chroma, of course. This is still unmistakably a Razer Blade, but it's a refined Razer Blade.

Razer Blade 15: Serious performance

You'd expect performance from a new Razer Blade, and you'd be right to do so. For the most part, the Blade 15 brings internals you'd very much expect to find in a 2018 gaming laptop, but not without some added interest.

To keep it fairly simple to choose between the different variants, all Blade 15s will have a six-core Intel Core i7-8750H processor and 16GB of RAM. This year, the RAM isn't soldered to the motherboard so you can upgrade it later on if you wish to.

Storage is either a 256GB or 512GB PCIe NVME SSD, wherever possible sourced from Samsung. So, not only do you get rapid storage out of the box, it too can be upgraded down the line. You know, when something even faster comes along.

Add a Razer Core X for even more gaming power

Alongside the Blade 15, Razer is also launching a new, cheaper version of its Core eGPU.

The Razer Core X will add a full desktop graphics card to your new Blade 15, if you really need more power, and for only $299.

Razer Core X is a lower-priced eGPU for laptop gaming

When it comes to gaming power, there are two choices. Both are NVIDIA MaxQ designs, but you've got either a 6GB GTX 1060 or an 8GB GTX 1070 to choose from. Razer has a fancy new cooling system for the Blade 15 that includes a vapor chamber to keep things frosty, but if you go for the GTX 1070 the laptop is a smidge thicker to allow a little extra cooling room.

The cooling system also boasts thinner fan blades than previous models. which provides an enhanced airflow when you need it most. The Blade 15 will also have fan control built into the Razer Synapse 3 application, with a range of pre-installed performance modes to choose from or full manual if you like to go it alone.

There's even a Chroma laptop stand

Of course, Razer put Chroma lighting into something as mundane as a laptop stand. Why wouldn't they?

The imaginatively titled Razer Chroma Laptop Stand syncs up with your existing Chroma goodies through Synapse just the same as anything else. But it's not just about adding some funky lights onto the front and have done with it.

It's also, naturally, not just for the Razer Blade 15, and it'll add a couple of additional USB 3.1 ports to your laptop, neatly tucked away around the back where you won't see the trailing cables.

It's actually a very good stand, built entirely from metal, rubber feet and grips for the laptop, and a nice angle to type on if you need to. There's no price information for it right now, but it's a neat little addition to the Chroma accessory family.

Razer Blade 15 makes a big first impression

Having only spent a very short time with the Blade 15, it still left a big first impression. It feels like the laptop that Razer's fans wanted it to make. Lots of little changes add up and make a significant difference.

This year's Blade is bigger without being much bigger, more refined, better looking, and it has a precision touchpad. There are aspects that come as no surprise at all, such as the processor and GPU, but it's a nice touch that Razer is now allowing the RAM to be upgraded as well as the SSD.

The price also remains about the same as the incumbent model. The entry point is $1,899 for the 60Hz 1080p display version, but that goes up to $2,199 for the one we're really interested in with the 144Hz display. The 4K model is only available with a GTX 1070, so there's an added premium there, and you'll be paying $2,899 for one of these. The 4K model is, at least for now, only available in North America and select European markets including the UK and Germany. It should be available from mid-June in Europe, but in the U.S. you can go buy one today.

We'll have a full review of the Blade 15 hopefully in the coming weeks. This is easily one of the most exciting laptops we've seen so far in 2018, and it's going to be hard to resist buying.

See at Razer

Last year, I wrote about switching from a Surface Book to a Razer Blade 14, citing the Blade's superior CPU and GPU as the reasons why. Now that the Surface Book 2 is here, I couldn't resist the urge to switch back.

I really enjoy the Razer Blade 14. It's a beastly device, without sacrificing style and size. Not only can it run games like a dream, it powers through all other tasks with ease, including video editing, heavy duty Photoshop, and even Mixed Reality and VR. Considering the internal spec difference between the Blade and the Surface Book 2 are negligible, why did I feel the need to drop over a thousand extra euros to switch back to Surface?

The reasons are numerous and potentially nuanced, but it boils down to one thing: the Surface Book 2 is the perfect device for me. And my experiences might help you decide which device is best for you.

• See Surface Book at Microsoft
• See Razer Blade at Amazon

Surface Book 2 15-inch vs. Razer Blade 14 (2017): Tech specs

The Razer Blade experience

The Blade and the Book are fundamentally different devices, but they can be used for similar tasks. The Blade's quad-core processing and GTX 1060 GPU makes a breeze of intensive gaming, video editing, and Windows Mixed Reality, and produce a smooth Windows 10 experience across the board. Performance-wise, there's nothing to complain about with the Razer Blade, which packs a magical amount of power into a svelte, 4.3-pound package.

I was using the Blade's 1080p non-touch offering, and while this display is nowhere as impressive as the Surface Book 2's, it more than gets the job done. I was amazed at how much I actually missed the touch capabilities on Windows 10, and if you feel the same, know that Razer offers touch variants of this device. But if you want digital inking, you'll have to get an external drawing tablet.

Perhaps the biggest annoyance I experienced personally with the Blade was the noise. Even lighter tasks like Skype calls would engage the fans underneath, which are incredibly noisy. If you fire up Windows Mixed Reality or even a modest game, the Razer Blade will sound as though it's about to blast off into orbit. It got to a point where I was trying to work around the noise, looking into cooling pad solutions or deliberately lowering the frames per second (FPS) or resolution in games to make it run a little more quietly.

Some other minor gripes with the Blade include the non-Precision touchpad, which while not terrible is a far cry from Microsoft's Surface line, although you can install Microsoft's Precision drivers to improve the situation.

There are now some gunmetal variants, but most Blades are matte black, making them prone to visible smudges and dust. You'll potentially be cleaning it a lot, and it's made all the more annoying by the fact the speaker grills face upwards next to the keyboard.

For the most part though, the Blade is a beautiful and ultimately reliable device. I've never had a single crash or hang through several months of daily use. If you're willing to put up with the noise, it'll crush most modern games with ease, and it makes a joy of more intensive tasks like VR and video editing. This is the ultimate laptop for those who need something that travels with them, while not sacrificing the power, provided you don't want inking.

Surface Book 2 is a Swiss Army Knife

The Surface Book 2 is an gorgeous slab of engineering like no other. It's truly stunning how Microsoft was able to squeeze so much power into a relatively thin device. The CPU and other internals are packed into the display, while the GPU and batteries reside in the base, which comes with that unique fulcrum hinge.

The internals are relatively similar between the Blade and the Book 2. Quad-core processing joins a 6GB GTX 1060 for high-end gaming and other tasks, and crucially for me, the Surface Book 2 doesn't sound like a jet engine when under heavy load. That's not to say it doesn't get noisy at times, but you really have to push it.

The Surface Book 2 has a weaker CPU than the Blade, and it shows. The Blade produces a smoother OS experience, both in terms of animations and speed. Multi-tasking is noticeably better on the Blade, too. As I type this, I have a few programs open, and adding Google Hangouts into the mix (which is notoriously resource-heavy), the Surface Book 2 is having a slightly harder time than my Blade would have had.

When you're not multi-tasking, the difference is harder to notice. Gaming performance generally feels near-identical, and the Surface Book 2's display really makes some games shine, particularly space games, making use of the Book 2's deep blacks. The Book 2 can suffer from battery drain in certain situations, when you're pushing it really hard, but it's unlikely you'll encounter this issue if you're using the Book 2's official charger.

The Book 2 should generally outperform the Blade on battery life, although you're not going to get more than an hour or two while running an intensive game on either. For general use, though, I get around five to six hours on the Blade, and around eight to 10 on the Book 2, which is impressive.

Most impressive of all is just how versatile the Surface Book 2 is. It's a creative studio in a single package, offering robust digital inking, high-level processing power, and a stunning display. It's also several hundred dollars more expensive than the Blade.

Which should you buy?

The Blade and Book 2 might seem similar when you're the looking at the internals, but ultimately, the choice boils down to what you intend to use them for. Both devices are beautiful, well-designed, robust, and powerful, packing serious processing into a petite package.

Unless you intend to use digital ink, flipping the screen and laying it flat for artsy pursuits, it's almost impossible to recommend the Book 2 at that price point. There are simply cheaper options out there, which are often more powerful to boot. What you will get if you choose Surface over Razer are refinements: slimmer bezels, better cameras, a better trackpad, an SD-card slot, and a better display. But whether all of that is worth the extra cash is something only you can decide.

The Blade provides a slightly smoother OS and multi-tasking experience, at the cost of fan noise. While the Book 2 provides better battery life, you won't experience any sort of throttling while using the Blade, and you also have the option of Thunderbolt 3 peripherals, such as an external GPU.

I think for pure gamers, the Blade should certainly be considered first, but the Surface Book 2 is a jack of all trades across the board for creatives, prosumers, and gamers, and truly represents Windows at its best and most versatile.

• Surface Book 2 review
• Razer Blade 14 review

• See Surface Book at Microsoft
• See Razer Blade at Amazon

The Blade is Razer's classic premium gaming laptop with a 14-inch display, RGB Chroma keyboard, Thunderbolt 3 and a powerful NVIDIA GTX 1060 video card powered by a beefy Intel quad-core Core i7 processor.

Earlier this year, I gave a mini-review of that refreshed Intel "Kaby Lake" model, which upgraded the processor to a 7th generation one, made the fans quieter, reduced "coil whine," and added faster RAM. That version though was the matte full HD (1920 x 1080) model with the promise of a 4K variant coming later in 2017.

Well, nearly six months later Razer has finally delivered on the 3840 x 2160 model, and we got one of the first looks at this Blade premium edition.

About this review

Razer sent a loaner Blade 4K for this write-up. The model considered features a 512GB SSD for storage and a 14-inch 4K IGZO display. The total cost is $2,399. The only configuration variations for the new Blade 4K is the storage amount (up to 1TB), which bumps the total price to $2,799.

See at Razer

Minor improvements that add up

What's new – Razer Blade 2017 4K

Not much has changed since I reviewed the full HD version, but this model is more about replacing the original QHD+ (3200 x 1800) iteration of the Blade from late-2016 and offering a choice from the matte, non-touch full HD one.

Our video editor Mark Guim uses the glossy touch model for his work when mobile and gave it a thorough review last December.

Video and graphics pros prefer the Blade's power thanks to that NVIDIA GTX 1060 graphics card, but it's the high-resolution display they like as do some gamers.

Razer Blade specifications

Of course, Razer is still offering the matte, full HD model which comes with 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB options for storage ranging from $1,899 to $2,499. That is the Razer Blade is what I prefer for gaming due to less eye-strain from a glossy screen.

Stunning IGZO 4K

Razer Blade display

Razer opted to replace the QHD+ (3200 x 1800) Sharp IGZO display with a 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) one. As to why it took so long from the announcement to release it is likely due to supply chain issues. The Sharp IGZO is one of the best displays around made famous by Dell's XPS 13 and XPS 15 line.

Running through a display colorimeter, the Blade 4K pulled of a 99 percent Adobe sRGB rating and 79 percent Adobe RGB, which are excellent for such an expensive laptop. There was little color correction needed too as is the usual case with IGZO panels.

Brightness is good too coming in around 350 nits making it slightly brighter than the Razer Blade Stealth. The display is also highly responsive to touch. I didn't have any issues with tapping, scrolling or pinching to zoom.

Putting aside display benchmarks and just taking it all in the Razer Blade's 4K display is marvelous. While Dell wins with the 4K panel found in its XPS 15 – which is larger with narrower bezels – Razer's is very impressive for a category that typically trades reduced color accuracy for speed.

Speaking of, I did not perceive much ghosting with IGZO panel at 4K, but it is there slightly when compared to a gaming laptop with a G-Sync monitor. Nonetheless, it's better than my Dell XPS 15 at full HD, which has it more severe.

For gaming, it should be noted that without the help of an external GPU like the Razer Core with a GTX 1080 or higher graphics card you likely won't be doing much actual 4K gaming with the Blade. While the GTX 1060 is a fantastic card, 4K gaming can only be achieved by drastically reducing a game's graphics and even then it could be a challenge.

Instead, the Razer Blade 4K is more about having a glossy, touch display for regular Windows usage or using professional apps. Still, it does offer some tangible benefits too including sharper, more accurate colors when compared to the full HD model.

Finally, it should be evident that despite the higher resolution panel the Razer Blade still has extremely thick bezels that look out of place on a 2017 laptop. The company swapped out the 12.5-inch panel for a 13.3-inch one in the smaller Blade Stealth 2017 reducing the bezels by 50 percent, but opted not to do something similar with the Razer Blade at 14-inches. Presumably, a 15.6-inch panel – the only other size mass produced – could not fit in the chassis. Even if it could, the battery draw of a 15.6-inch 4K display would be a challenge for the 70 WHr battery found in the Blade. Dell, by comparison, puts a massive 99WHr battery in its 4K XPS 15 and that has a slower GTX 1050 GPU.

Classic stays classic

Razer Blade design

Nothing has changed with the design of the new Blade besides the screen resolution. The Blade is still a CNC-machined black aluminum unibody build that feels outstanding to carry and use.

It should be noted that since the 4K model is touch-enabled (but no pen support, for those wondering), it does weigh 0.20 lbs (91 grams) heavier than the non-touch full HD edition, but matches the original QHD+ version. Side by side the weight difference is barely noticeable.

The area around the display is also glossy matching the screen; that contrasts with the matte model which has a matte bezel too.

Opening the Blade with one hand is still doable with the touch display too.

The left side includes the power port, two USB 3.0 ports, and the headphone jack. The right side has a Kensington security slot, HDMI 2.0 out, another USB 3.0 port, and a USB-C port with Thunderbolt 3. That HDMI port can power up to a 4K display at 60Hz, and the USB-C Thunderbolt 3 port can also connect to external displays or external GPUs.

Like all of Razer's laptops, the Blade 4K is susceptible to fingerprints on the chassis. While you can use third-party skins to help prevent frequent wipe downs (as well as add protection from scratches), I'm still yearning for a more oleophobic and smudge free Blade someday.

Overall, it's hard not to love the Razer Blade's design. It has all the right ports, a slim even profile, and the weight – while not light – is at least backed up by some serious graphics hardware.

Quad-power

Razer Blade benchmarks

The 4K Razer Blade has the same Intel Core i7-7700HQ quad-core processor that has a baseline of 2.8GHz but can turbo to 3.8GHz when needed. Combined with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 with 6GB of video RAM and the Blade does quite well compared to the competition.

CPU

Geekbench 4.0 Benchmarks (Higher is better)

The i7-7700HQ is solid quad-core CPU that ranks near the top of our all our laptop benchmarks.

GPU

3DMark - Fire Strike (higher is better)

PCMark

PCMark Home Conventional 3.0

The PCMark Home Conventional test takes a bunch of your hardware and determines how well it works together while performing some everyday tasks. The Razer Blade does well enough to be classified as VR-ready and will do very nicely with Microsoft's Mixed Reality Ultra platform.

SSD

CrystalDiskMark (Higher is better)

The storage performance with the Razer Blade is excellent. Razer has a good reputation with using premium Samsung SSDs – at least for the 512GB and 1TB models. That's the case here with a Samsung PM961 (960 EVO) being used in our 512GB configuration, and as expected it performs near the top, only being beat by the Razer Blade Pro's crazy RAID 0 configuration.

Overall, the Razer Blade still gets some of the best benchmarks compared to other premium laptops. Most of that is due to the sum of its parts including an excellent CPU, GPU, RAM, and storage, which are all quality parts. While other gaming laptops can outperform the Razer Blade, they tend to be thicker, heavier, and not as elegant for design. Razer here is balancing a bit of everything, and they do a good job of it.

keeping it chilled

Quieter fans and improved cooling

One of the biggest complaints about the late-2016 Razer Blade is that the fans, even on idle or light processing (like web browsing), would always be buzzing. Being a gaming laptop squeezed into a thin, metal body with a NVIDIA GTX 1060, none of that surprised or bothered me, but it did for others. You don't have to look far in forums to see some user complaining about the fans always being on in the late-2016 Razer Blade.

The 2017 Razer Blade solves this problem. It appears that the cooling curve has been shifted with the fans turning on less frequently. When in idle or low CPU scenarios the fans completely turn off. It's dead quiet, and it's a welcome change.

The peak temperature of the chassis (upper keyboard deck) was observed after twenty minutes of stress testing:

Infared thermal testing - Seek Camera

A difference of ten degrees is very significant and can make the difference between comfortable and uncomfortable for gaming.

Like the full HD Razer Blade 2017 edition, the 4K model appears to have no coil-whine issues. I'm immune to those high frequencies, so I am not bothered by coil whine. I even have a tough time identifying it. Nonetheless, a cursory search of Razer's forums, Reddit, and other places suggest people are quite happy with the lack of coil whine in this year's model.

Dazzling screens, dastardly power

Razer Blade battery takes a hit

It should not be surprising that a 4K display will drain more power than a full HD one and that is the case with the Razer Blade. Battery life drops from 6 to 7 hours of the 1920 x 1080 display to 4 to 5 hours at 4K. Much of that discrepancy depends on how bright you keep that 4K panel at and whether you are using the GTX 1060 or the native Intel HD graphics.

Charging the Blade's battery is still accomplished with the 165-watt barrel-shaped AC adapter with a braided cable although you can use a USB Type-C charger too if it has the proper output.

While I wouldn't describe the 4K Razer Blade's battery life as amazing, it is within the range for a gaming laptop with a quad-core processor and excellent GPU.

Better things on the horizon

Razer Blade 4K is a gorgeous upgrade that's a bit late

Here at Windows Central three of us own and use a Razer Blade laptop whether it is for gaming (myself and our gaming editor Jez Corden) or video editing (Mark Guim). It's the only laptop that matches a premium Ultrabook-like quality with high-performance hardware. In short, we're fans and not just impartial reviewers.

Granted, you pay for the Razer privilege too, and that is felt with the 4K variant, which starts at eye-watering $2,399. While you can buy a desktop PC for cheaper, or find a gaming laptop with better specifications for that price, you will rarely get one in a 4.3lb (1.95 kg) all-metal frame. Toss in that RGB Chroma keyboard, full Thunderbolt 3 USB Type-C, and a bevy of excellent components like fast SSD storage and RAM with a GTX 1060, and it's easy to appreciate what Razer has accomplished.

Nonetheless, the 4K display – which is drool-worthy – does come with some tradeoffs. For one, it's $300 more than the full HD model, which is fair but still significant. You also won't be gaming at 4K, which makes it more for those who just want an excellent day-to-day screen. There is also the hit on battery life that is not inconsequential.

Moreover, I think it is about time for a serious redesign of at least the display bezels. While many would argue that functionally bezels do not matter (they're right) Razer could win many more consumers over if they could achieve a near-bezel-less Razer Blade. Razer has been winning many cross-over converts because of its overall aesthetic and premium parts, but its crown jewel – the 14-inch Blade – is starting to fall behind the competition despite its past achievements.

There is still the issue with the touch pad too. Razer is thankfully moving towards Microsoft's more accurate and satisfying Precision drivers in the Razer Blade Stealth and Razer Blade Pro, but the 14-inch Blade reviewed here is still using Synaptics. Although the touch pad on this Blade is OK, Razer could again achieve more by utilizing Precision drivers.

Finally, there is the matter of timing. Earlier this year, Razer announced the Kaby Lake refresh to the Blade series with the promise of a 4K version after that. No one expected it to be six months later, which for September 2017 makes this a very late-entry. Even newer Intel processors are scheduled for early 2018 (a.k.a. "Coffee Lake"), NVIDIA's Max-Q design lets manufacturers do more with less for the GPU, and I fully expect Razer will do something about those display bezels and Precision touch pad.

All that makes recommending the Razer Blade 4K rather difficult. While there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the laptop – an important bullet point – there are just too many innovations available to Razer these days that could make it much more than its current form. The Razer Blade 4K is an excellent execution that is just a little too late.

See at Razer

Pros:

• Excellent, color-accurate 4K IGZO display.
• GTX 1060 is still an outstanding performer.
• Outstanding port selection with full Thunderbolt 3.
• Great typing experience and overall form factor.

Cons:

• Thick display bezels that feel dated.
• No Precision drivers for the touchpad.
• Still expensive compared to the competition.
• No Windows Hello.

Despite some early announcements Razer is now finally shipping some of its latest laptops – at least in the U.S. and Canada (for now).

Razer Blade Stealth 13.3" in gunmetal gray

The new Razer Blade Stealth with its 13.3-inch QHD+ (3200 x 1800 pixels) touchscreen – a bump from the previous 12.5-inch – is now shipping in gunmetal gray.

The new color scheme was announced in June at E3 ditching the green glowing snakes and Chroma keyboard for a more subtle, professional look. Of course, the jet-black Blade Stealth with all the Chroma goodness is already shipping and available.

Other changes with the 2017 edition include:

• 13.3-inch QHD (3200 x1800) IGZO display (new).
• 50 percent smaller bezels (new).
• Optional gunmetal gray finish with white backlit keys (new).
• Precision touchpad (new).
• Seventh-generation Kaby Lake Core i7-7500U processor (updated).
• Up to nine hours battery (improved).
• 16GB of RAM (up from 8GB).

Starting at $1,399 the gunmetal gray Razer Blade Stealth is now shipping in the US and Canada. Best Buy, Amazon, Newegg, and Microsoft.com will be getting stock soon too.

Coincidentally, we just received our review unit of the black Razer Blade Stealth for 2017 in a few days ago. Look for that review sometime next week!

See at Razer

4K UHD Razer Blade 2017 now shipping

Going back to February Razer announced that the new Kaby Lake-edition Razer Blade 14-inch was also getting a new 4K UHD touch display option. While already available in matte Full HD (see my mini-review) the 4K edition is a bump up from the Skylake 14-inch QHD (3200 x1800) version.

Evidently, Razer ran into some tight supply issues to grab that high-end 4K panel as we never thought it would actually ship.

Razer Blade 2016 vs. Razer Blade 2017: New processor delivers real performance gains

Razer Blade 4K UHD is available now in the US and Canada with availability in the UK, Germany, France, Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, and China by the end of September from $2,399 USD.

See at Razer

When it comes to protecting your new Surface Laptop, Surface Pro, or Surface Book you can go a few ways – cheap, with questionable longevity or expensive and quality. WaterField falls into the latter category as they are handmade in San Francisco, often being made to order.

I've reviewed WaterField's Dash Sleeve, Outback Solo and I own the Field Muzetto bag. Now, the company has a brand-new one that is very exciting: Bolt Crossbody. Here is my review.

Bolt Crossbody – Fit and style

The WaterField Bolt Crossbody comes in three sizes including small, medium, and large. I grabbed the large version, which takes the Surface Laptop, Surface Book with Performance Base, Razer Blade, and it can even fit the Dell XPS 15. For Surface Pro owners, the medium size will do if you want a snugger fit.

Bolt Crossbody is what I would consider a day bag plus some. Whereas the excellent Brenthaven Collins Vertical Messenger Bag is ideal for a few hours the Bolt Crossbody lets you pack significantly more without turning into a full duffle bag. You can pack this for a few days with an Xbox controller, AC power plug, your laptop, tablet, phone, magazines, travel info, pens and more. Or, you can just put a Surface in it and use it for the day. The point is you get more flexibility with the Bolt Crossbody.

The Bolt Crossbody is similar to the Field Muzetto bag, but I like it better for a few reasons. The top pocket is zipper versus the Field Muzetto's flap. The Muzetto's flap is convenient, but your PC could slide out when the bag is laying down, which makes me nervous. There are also more pockets – both large and small – with the Bolt Crossbody.

For pockets, there is one large compartment that opens from the top. Within there you have a slot for your laptop or 2-in-1 – that area is padded on both sides too to protect the upper and lower areas of the device. There is the central area, where you could technically fit a second laptop but would most likely hold your AC charger or even an Xbox controller - if you're like me - and still, have room to spare. Along the inner-outside pocket, you have a deep, universal pocket and two pen holders.

The outside of the bag has another pocket that looks like it buttons but is held by a strong magnet. That pocket could hold an 8-inch tablet or a magazine, with a smaller pocket for your smartphone. That smartphone pocket is larger too holding my massive HP Elite x3 with protective cover.

The back of the Bolt Crossbody has a sixth compartment that zip closes. It is big enough to fit multiple large-sized magazines, travel documents or anything else that can lay flat.

For carrying, there is a shoulder strap with adjustable D-rings allowing for maneuverability. There is also an excellent "grab handle" on the back, which I adore. The Field Muzetto is missing this making it cumbersome to grab when laying on the seat next to me. Now, I can grab the Bolt Crossbody and since everything is zipped not have to worry about my items spilling out.

Materials and quality

WaterField is a well-known premium brand for bag making. You buy it once and keep it for a decade or more, and they can even fix your bag if something did tear. I have never had an issue with their bags, and you can go read customer testimony or their reviews. In fact, the Bolt Crossbody currently has a five out of five-star rating from 17 reviews.

For the Bolt Crossbody there are multiple options for materials:

• Waxed canvas – Basically, this is the traditional leather bag in three trims including Chocolate, Grizzly, or Black leather.
• Black Ballistic – This is a very thick and sturdy nylon with the same three Chocolate, Grizzly, or Black leather trims as options.

Both styles are water resistant and very durable. The one I tested here is Black Ballistic with Grizzly Leather trim as I think it gives an excellent contrast.

The inside is a gold cloth, which is an interesting choice. WaterField chose this so that it was "bright" on the inside versus a traditional brown or black. That decision means items at the bottom of the bag contrast and is easier to see. I like it a lot.

The zippers are sturdy, worked well and never jammed. They all have a leather grab on them too for easy finding.

While wearing the bag, I could access all the compartment and slots without having to remove it. I appreciate that at airports or trade events when I don't feel comfortable taking the cross body bag off for security reasons.

The Bolt Crossbody can be worn – as its name implies – across your body, or just over the shoulder. I prefer the former style as it can sit against my hip and not bounce a lot.

Expensive, but worth it

I won't beat around the bush the Bolt Crossbody is very expensive. It starts at $199 for the small and goes up to $219 for the large. That is quite a price jump from the typical $20 to $60 range people spend for a laptop bag.

Nonetheless, WaterField makes these in small batches right here in the US with premium materials and well-thought-out designs. These are the kind of bags you buy once and keep for a very long time. Since the large style fits even up to a Dell XPS 15 if you move on from a Surface to something else the bag retains its value.

Personally, I've been trying to move to buying American-made, higher-quality items as I get older instead of lower-cost things I can throw away. Of course, not everyone can afford a WaterField bag, which is understandable too.

Out of all the bags I own so far, the Bolt Crossbody is now my favorite. While the Brenthaven Collins is a lovely day bag, that latch has worn a bit over time, and the quality of the Bolt Crossbody blows it away. I also feel I can pack more into the Bolt Crossbody like an AC charger, Xbox controller, a few smartphones, and even another PC without feeling like it is overpacked. Alternatively, I can just use it for the Surface Laptop, my phone, and a mouse without feeling like I'm carrying too much bag for the job.

See at WaterField Designs

The Razer Blade is slim, sports some incredible design, and is tremendously powerful. Packing a quad-core i7 Kaby Lake chip with a GTX 1060 discrete GPU, it's difficult to find a laptop on the market that is as powerful, while remaining lightweight and compact.

Unlike our Executive Editor, Daniel Rubino, I don't have enough laptop reference material to build a small laptop fortress. I came in directly from the Surface Book, a device I truly love, but simply outgrew. There are things about the Surface Book that I really miss in the Blade, things that I hope Razer will rectify in their future iterations.

See Razer Blade at Amazon

1. No Windows Hello

Considering Razer themselves have a Windows Hello-capable webcam in the form of the Razer Stargazer, the omission of the feature on their laptops is a little odd.

Windows Hello allows you to sign in instantly to any laptop using various forms of biometrics, whether it's a fingerprint, iris scanning, or facial scanning technology. The Surface line uses face scanning primarily, and once you've gotten used to it, you really do miss it when it's gone.

Sitting down at my desk and getting instantly signed in feels futuristic, but it's not available in the current Razer devices. Hopefully that will change in the future.

2. Smudge and dust magnet

The Razer Blade is a gorgeous, unibody alluminium clamshell painted black, helping it to stand out in a sea of metallic MacBook-alikes. However, perhaps there's a reason most laptop manufacturers have shifted away from black materials.

The Razer Blade is a dust and smudge magnet. I live in a rather low-dust environment, yet every morning, I find myself having to brush the device down.

Thankfully, it's mostly easy to clean, save for the speaker grills which are on the sides of the keyboard. The holes trap flecks of dust incredibly easily, and it's nowhere near as easy to clean or brush down.

Hopefully, Razer will consider this issue in their future designs.

3. Trackpad is underwhelming

By far, I'd say the most disappointing thing about the Razer Blade is the trackpad. While decent, since it's not a Microsoft-certified Precision touchpad it has glaring disadvantages compared to the Surface Book's and other competing solutions.

Pinch to zoom doesn't work properly, gestures aren't as responsive, and scrolling, panning, and tapping tend to be temperamental. Also the palm rejection isn't as intelligent as it is on the Surface Book, leading me to accidentally move my cursor in odd directions while typing.

Since Microsoft is going to require manufacturers to use precision touchpads in the future, this issue should rectify itself, but it's something to consider if you're a trackpad junkie.

4. Battery life

This one is more of a trade off than a problem, and would probably require a leap in technology to rectify, but I've found myself a little underwhelmed with the Razer Blade's battery life.

Even using battery saver mode, and Razer Synaptics' low power mode, I've struggled to get more than 4-5 hours of battery life while doing regular tasks like browsing and word processing. Gaming would reduce that even more.

As someone who used to take my Surface Book to work without a charger, confident in getting a full work day's worth of battery life, the Razer Blade has been a bit of a disappointment. But I admit, I'm not sure how they could increase it given this laptop's slim design and high power. I suspect Razer are doing all they can on this front, but if they can increase it further to maybe 8 or 9 hours in future iterations, that would make the device near-perfect.

5. Noise

This is another issue I'm not sure Razer can simply "fix," but man, the Razer Blade gets extremely noisy. It's not a simple case of going from 0 to 10 either, it can go from 0 to 100 in an instant, for seemingly no reason.

I expect there to be fan noise when running an intensive game, particularly as it can be easily rectified with a headset for the sake of immersion, but sometimes it feels like anything can trigger the fans into high gear, whether it's Photoshop or something lightweight like the Windows 10 Twitter app.

You can set the fans to low power mode in Razer Synaptics, forcing them into a lower speed, and thus, less noise. But I've actually caused the laptop to overheat by doing this, and as such, I don't think it's safe to utilize.

Again, this is not something I expect Razer could solve easily, given the Blade's impressive thinness. It might just be down to a simple trade-off, but hopefully, the company is looking at ways to reduce this issue in future versions.

Near-perfect

The Razer Blade 2017 is damn near perfect as it is, and I found myself struggling to come up with any more than five things I'd want to change about this device. Sure, I'd enjoy slimmer bezels too, an SD card slot, and perhaps even for the logo to carry Chroma lighting support, but we can't always get what we want, huh?

See Razer Blade at Amazon

What laptop are you rocking right now? Hit us up in the comments.

• Tips for new Razer Blade owners
• Razer Blade vs. Surface Book
• Razer Blade 2017 review

As someone who just got new a Razer Blade, I found the out-of-box experience to be slightly different than other laptops I've used recently. Razer's software comes with a valuable array of settings and tweaks, and there are a few things you should know about the Razer Blade before jumping in.

Here are some tips and tricks for new Razer Blade owners.

• See Razer Blade at Microsoft Store
• See Razer Blade at Amazon

1. Update the Wi-Fi drivers

The Razer Blade uses a Killer WiFi card that has some issues accessing certain routers and Wi-Fi networks. Updating the driver was enough to solve my issues with intermittent connectivity, and you should follow these steps to make sure you're up to date:

1. Download the 64-bit Killer Wireless Drivers from here.
2. Right click on the Start button.
3. Select Device Manager.
4. Open Network Adapters.