Price When Reviewed

$4,199

Best Prices Today: Razer Blade 16

The Blade is an establishment. Razer was arguably the primary laptop computer producer to re-discover the advantages of constructing a Windows laptop computer with a gorgeous chassis and constant person expertise, and the corporate has remained dedicated to that mission ever since. The Blade 16, which is the center baby of the Blade line-up, additionally delivers glorious efficiency. It’s not an ideal laptop computer, although, and house owners might want to settle for a couple of flaws.

Looking for extra gaming laptop computer choices? Check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best gaming laptops out there proper now.

Razer Blade 16: Specs and options

I initially obtained the Razer Blade 16 in Mercury White with an Intel Core i9-149000HX processor and Nvidia RTX 4070 cell graphics. It additionally has a dual-mode Mini-LED show that may obtain both (roughly) 4K decision at 120Hz or 1080p decision at 240Hz. 

Unfortunately, the Mini-LED show on that mannequin was malfunctioning. Razer changed it with a Blade 16 in Black with the identical Intel processor, Nvidia RTX 4090 cell graphics, and a 2560×1600 240Hz OLED show. The substitute additionally had a RAM improve from 16GB to 32GB. I’ve listed the specs for each under, once they differed, and this assessment considers each configurations.

• CPU: Intel Core i9-14900HX
• Memory: 16GB DDR5 5600MHz / 32GB DDR5 5600MHz
• Graphics/GPU: Nvidia RTX 4070 cell / Nvidia RTX 4090 cell
• Display: Dual-Mode 3840×2400 120Hz / 1920×1200 240Hz Mini-LED / 2560×1600 240Hz OLED
• Storage: 2TB PCIe NVMe
• Webcam: 1080p with IR digital camera, privateness shutter
• Connectivity: 1x Thunderbolt 4 with USB-C, 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen2, 3x USB-A 3.2 Gen2. HDMI 2.1, 3.5mm combo audio, SD Card reader
• Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
• Biometrics: Windows Hello facial recognition 
• Battery capability: 95.2 watt-hours
• Dimensions: 13.98 x 9.61 x 0.87 inches
• Weight: 5.4 kilos
• MSRP: $3,299 / $4,199 as-tested, $2,999 to start out

The RTX 4070 configuration I examined was near probably the most reasonably priced mannequin out there from Razer. All 2024 mannequin 12 months Blade 16 laptops have an Intel Core i9-14900HX processor, however dearer variants could equip as much as Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4090, which ups the value to no less than $4,199. Additional choices provide as much as 8TB of SSD storage and 96GB of DDR5 reminiscence.

Razer Blade 16: Design and construct high quality

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

The Razer Blade’s appear and feel is a identified amount. Much like Apple’s MacBook Pro, you’ll be able to anticipate explicit parts throughout generations. That means a inflexible chassis milled from a single block of aluminum, an expert and chic aesthetic, and super-slim show bezels. 

I personally desire the “Mercury White” colorway which, although extra silver than white, seems unbelievable. It jogs my memory of older MacBook Pro fashions which, to my eyes, have a selected shade of silver the brand new fashions don’t fairly replicate. The Black colorway is much less thrilling however, as soon as once more, it seems completely different from rivals. There’s an inky, abyssal, no-light-escapes high quality to Razer’s distinctive shade of black.

It’s particulars like these that separate Razer from most of its competitors. The aluminum chassis is exceptionally inflexible, permitting solely the slightest flex throughout the show and none throughout the decrease physique. Material high quality feels excessive, too, with a soft-matte end that’s pleasing to the contact. Razer additionally makes use of an underslung show hinge which spans a lot of the show’s width, a design ingredient that minimizes the laptop computer’s footprint and retains the scale of the underside show bezel to a minimal.

Don’t get me flawed: this isn’t a small laptop computer. The Razer Blade 16 is nearly 14 inches broad and 9.6 deep, in addition to near nine-tenths of an inch thick. It ideas the scales at 5.4 kilos. You will discover this laptop computer in your backpack or messenger bag. With that stated, its dimension is average for its capabilities. It’s thicker than a Dell XPS 16, as an example, however barely extra slender. And, crucially, the Blade 16 ought to match within the majority of backpacks, luggage, and baggage with a laptop computer compartment.

Razer Blade 16: Keyboard, trackpad

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

A spacious keyboard with per-key RGB backlight is centered within the Blade 16’s inside. It ditches the numpad to maintain the keyboard aligned over the touchpad and make sure the keys are as giant as doable. While that’s clearly not nice in the event you want a numpad, that is my most popular format for a contemporary laptop computer. It permits for fast, simple, snug touch-typing at excessive speeds.

Key really feel is simply okay. Travel feels a bit shallow and ends in a agency and definitive bottoming motion. It’s not dangerous, nevertheless it’s stiff and wood in comparison with many high-end laptops, together with cheaper choices just like the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i. Laptop keyboards have improved considerably over the previous 5 years, and Razer is now behind the curve.

The RGB backlight permits per-key shade customization, as talked about, and it really works fantastically effectively. Razer’s secret sauce is its software program, Synapse, which controls system settings. Synapse is extra engaging and simpler to make use of than rivals’ software program, which is essential, and it after all ties into Razer’s Chroma ecosystem, so it might coordinate with different Razer Chroma suitable units, in addition to these suitable with Dynamic Lighting on Windows 11, which Chroma helps. 

But the touchpad is the star of the laptop computer’s person interface. It’s a large piece of glass that’s over six inches broad and virtually 4 inches deep. The touchpad’s giant, easy floor makes Windows multitouch gestures simple to execute and permits for fast scrolling by internet pages and paperwork. I just like the touchpad a lot that I desire to make use of it over a mouse in lots of conditions although, after all, it’s nonetheless needed to interrupt out a mouse when it’s time to play PC video games.

Razer Blade 16: Display, audio

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

Razer initially despatched me a Razer Blade 16 with a 3840×2400 / 1920×1200 dual-mode Mini-LED show. It’s a cutting-edge show with a dynamic backlight and the weird potential to flip between 4K and 1200p decision. 4K can obtain a refresh charge of as much as 120Hz, whereas 1200p can hit as much as 240Hz. The dual-mode characteristic makes it equally helpful in video games with top-tier visuals, the place the 4K mode gives most sharpness, and in esports titles, the place a refresh charge of 240Hz can enhance responsiveness and movement readability.

The Mini-LED show was faulty, nevertheless, which prompted vital movement blur even when scrolling by an internet site. Razer blamed it on early firmware and stated it required an replace by the corporate’s engineers. But Razer by no means despatched that laptop computer again and hasn’t defined exactly why the Mini-LED mannequin was not returned, which worries me. I don’t advocate the dual-mode Mini-LED show.

Razer changed the faulty Blade with a extra highly effective laptop computer with a 2560×1600 240Hz OLED show, which is unbelievable. It delivers a deep, immersive picture with vibrant and correct shade. And whereas the show’s decision isn’t as sharp as a 4K panel, it nonetheless packs 188 pixels per inch and appears crisp when having fun with video games, films, and YouTube. Motion readability is superb, too, because of the 240Hz refresh charge and OLED’s low pixel response occasions. 

Every Blade 16 ships with a beefy sound system that features two upwards-firing tweeters and two subwoofers. It delivers nice quantity and strong sound with an inexpensive trace of bass in music and action-packed video games. The presentation can start to really feel harsh at greater volumes however, even so, the Blade 16’s sound ought to work for watching Netflix and most video games. 

Razer Blade 16: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

A 1080p webcam tucks into the Blade 16’s prime bezel. It’s significantly better than common with a pointy picture, good shade copy, and glorious conduct in high-contrast conditions that normally idiot a webcam’s automated publicity. You’ll look glorious in video calls, and whereas I wouldn’t say the digital camera is nice for streaming or YouTube, you might do worse.

The microphone sounds nice with sturdy quantity and a fairly full presentation that partially avoids the hole, distant sound typical of laptop computer webcams. It ought to work for any video name.

Biometric login is supplied by Windows Hello facial recognition. It works effectively with near-immediate facial recognition in all kinds of lighting situations. A fingerprint reader is just not out there.

Razer Blade 16: Connectivity

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

The Razer Blade 16’s connectivity straddles the road between new and previous. It affords a complete of three USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, however these come alongside one Thunderbolt 4 port and one USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port. The Thunderbolt 4 and USB-C ports additionally present DisplayPort Alternate Mode and as much as 100 watts of USB Power Delivery. An HDMI 2.1 port, SD Card reader, and three.5mm combo audio jack spherical out the choices.

All of the ports are discovered alongside the laptop computer’s flanks, which differs from many 16-inch gaming laptops. It’s frequent for a lot of such machines to put some ports on the again, which helps with cable administration. But as talked about earlier, the Blade 16’s show hinge is positioned on the backside rear of the chassis, reasonably than the highest, which implies the rear is just not out there for ports. Razer well locations most ports close to the rear of every flank, although, so cable administration stays pretty simple. 

There is only one wired port lacking, and that’s Ethernet. I’m shocked by its absence, as there’s room for it, however I’m additionally not too bothered. There’s loads of ports out there for utilizing an adapter when Ethernet is required.

It helps that the Blade 16 helps the newest Wi-Fi 7 normal in addition to Bluetooth 5.4. This is the leading edge in fashionable wi-fi networking—a lot in order that most individuals, myself included, don’t but have a suitable router. My router does help Wi-Fi 6E, nevertheless, and I noticed blistering obtain speeds as much as (and barely over) 800 MB/s over my residence Internet connection, which is capped at a gigabit. 

Razer Blade 16: Performance

As my first Blade 16 needed to be returned, and the second was completely different from the primary, I used to be capable of check the efficiency of Blade 16 configurations. They shared an Intel Core i9-14900HX processor and 2TB PCIe NVMe strong state drive. The Mercury White mannequin had 16GB of RAM and Nvidia RTX 4070 cell graphics, whereas the Black mode had 32GB of RAM and Nvidia RTX 4090 cell graphics.

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

We kick issues off with PCMark 10, a board system benchmark. Unfortunately, the Blade 16 with RTX 4090 graphics froze midway by this benchmark, so I wasn’t capable of full the check with that configuration. I don’t suppose this represents a difficulty with the Blade 16, as PCMark 10 can fail sometimes, and I had no different efficiency or stability points with the laptop computer.

The Blade 16 with RTX 4070 completed PCMark 10, nevertheless, and hit a good rating of seven,931. That’s not going to set data, nevertheless it’s very a lot in step with what I’d anticipate. The Razer Blade 16 is simply barely behind bigger, dearer laptops with the identical processor, such because the MSI Titan 18 HX. 

There is one shock right here, and that’s the Framework Laptop 16. It carried out extraordinarily effectively on this check, beating not solely the Razer Blade 16. However, the rankings shift once we swap to different benchmarks.

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

Cinebench R20 is a closely multithread, short-duration CPU check, and it locations the Razer Blade 16 in a great place. Both Blade 16 fashions I examined had efficiency that’s comparable, although behind, bigger rivals with the identical processor. The Blade 16 additionally outperforms the Framework Laptop 16 and the 2023 mannequin of the Alienware X16 on this benchmark.

The Asus Vivobook Pro 16X OLED does handle to rival the Blade 16, nevertheless. That could seem stunning, however our exams of Intel Core i9-14900HX processors to this point point out the 14th-gen’s benefit over the Thirteenth-gen is reasonably slim, and the Vivobook Pro 16X OLED’s efficiency was sturdy for a laptop computer with that processor.

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

Handbrake is a closely multithreaded, long-duration CPU check during which we transcode a 1080p film. Here the Blade 16 retakes the lead over the Asus Vivobook Pro 16X OLED and dominates the Framework Laptop 16 which, keep in mind, has an AMD Ryzen 9 7490HX processor. The Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 scored a win, nevertheless, defeating each Blade 16 configurations. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

Now we swap to GPU-heavy benchmarks. Here, the variations between the 2 Blade 16 fashions I examined are apparent.

The Blade 16 with RTX 4070 is reasonably fast and reached a rating of 12,786 within the 3DMark Fire Strike Test. That’s proper between the Asus Vivobook Pro 16X OLED with Nvidia RTX 4060 and the Alienware x16 with Nvidia RTX 4080. The Blade 16 with RTX 4090 soars to a rating of 19,476—a roughly 50 % enchancment over the RTX 4070. That’s aggressive with different RTX 4090 laptops we’ve not too long ago reviewed.

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

Real-world recreation efficiency is the same story, because the Razer Blade 16 achieved a median of 148 frames per second in Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 1080p decision and Highest element. That’s once more between an RTX 4060 and RTX 4080. It’s additionally, after all, a extremely playable and easy expertise. The RTX 4090 boosted the framerate to 188 FPS, which is greater, however much less of an enchancment than in 3DMark Time Spy. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

I used to be solely capable of check the Blade 16 with RTX 4090 in Metro Exodus, as I needed to return the RTX 4070 mannequin earlier than I may full my check. The Blade 16 carried out effectively, nevertheless, with a median of 84 FPS. That’s positively in the direction of the higher finish of typical efficiency on this recreation and aggressive with different RTX 4090 laptops.

I additionally tried Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p decision. The Blade 16 with RTX 4070 averaged 84 frames per second on the Ultra element pre-set with Ray Tracing turned off, whereas the Blade 16 with RTX 4090 achieved 118 FPS—a major acquire.

The RTX 4070 mannequin struggled at 1080p with the Ray-Traced Overdrive preset and reached a median of simply 22 frames per second (with DLSS off). The RTX 4090 improved on that considerably and achieved a playable 38 FPS (once more, with DLSS off). It’s not the best expertise, nevertheless it’s tolerable.

All of the outcomes above have been achieved within the laptop computer’s Turbo efficiency profile, which is the default. It’s essential to notice that whereas the profile is labeled “Turbo,” which would appear to indicate it’s a particular high-performance mode, the Blade 16’s conduct on this mode is extra like a Balanced or Standard mode on different 16-inch laptops. Fan noise is apparent however normally livable.

I additionally examined the Blade 16 in a customized efficiency configuration that overclocked the processor. It considerably boosted efficiency in some benchmarks, particularly on the Blade 16 with RTX 4070; the Cinebench R20 rating elevated from 10,177 to 11,069, for instance, which is roughly a ten % acquire. I noticed comparable or barely larger beneficial properties in Handbrake and 3DMark Time Spy. The fan was extraordinarily loud on this mode, although, so I don’t advocate it except you propose to start out a long-duration process (like encoding a video) and depart the room.

Razer Blade 16: Battery life

Razer stuffs a big 95 watt-hour battery into the Blade 16. That’s fairly giant, nevertheless it bumped into difficulties in our normal battery check. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

The Blade 16 with RTX 4070 endured our normal battery check, which loops a 4K file of the quick movie Tears of Steel, for over 4 hours. The RTX 4090 decreased battery life to roughly two and a half hours. Neither result’s spectacular.

There is a few nuance right here. The Blade 16 helps Nvidia Optimus, which implies the GPU can hand graphics rendering over to the Intel processor’s built-in graphics to save lots of energy. Optimus will be finicky, although, and will at occasions depart the GPU activated when it’s not required. The hand-off wasn’t at all times easy, both, and at occasions prompted the display to freeze fully for a number of seconds. 

Real-world battery life was typically higher than our benchmark outcomes, however not by a lot. I used the Blade 16 with RTX 4070 to play a tabletop role-playing recreation for 4 hours and noticed the battery drained from 100 to roughly 35 %. Most of that point was spent viewing internet pages and PDFs. 

Razer Blade 16: Conclusion

The Razer Blade 16 is a gorgeous and speedy gaming laptop computer with a slim footprint and good connectivity, however a couple of flaws soured my impression. Razer’s Mini-LED show was faulty as a result of a firmware situation, and whereas I used to be despatched a mannequin with a wonderful OLED show as a substitute, I used to be by no means despatched a second Mini-LED show to check. The Blade 16 would additionally profit from a greater keyboard and extra battery life optimization. Razer’s mid-size laptop computer is an efficient alternative if you need sturdy CPU and GPU efficiency in a smooth, engaging Windows laptop computer however, given the value, I’d anticipate a extra constant expertise.