(Credit: Brian Westover)
Razer’s Blade gaming laptops just got bigger and better this year, with two new 16- and 18-inch screen models announced at CES 2023.
The Razer Blade 16 and Blade 18 are the latest laptops to embrace screens of this size, increasing the display area from the traditional 15- and 17-inch sizes we’ve known for years. PCMag’s Brian Westover got to see the hardware at CES, and you can see his impressions in the video below.
The other exciting addition is the updated core components. Both devices will work with the Nvidia 40 Series graphics processor that was announced at CES and Intel 13th Gen processors as well. Read on for the details below.
The screens are 18 inches
The Blade 18 is particularly significant: We’ve seen 16-inch laptops over the past couple of years, but the Blade 18 is part of a new wave of 18-inch laptops that debuted at CES 2023. Along with the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 and Alienware m18, Blade 18 is looking to be one of the top competitors in the high end gaming market this year. The Blade line is known for being thinner and made with premium materials, so we’ll take a look at how we can improve that with this larger chassis.
(Credit: Brian Westover)
Dimensions of the Blade 18 laptop are about (27.5 * 40 * 2) cm, with a weight of 3 kg. In fact, it is almost the same dimensions as the previous 17-inch version, with a slight increase of course, but the noticeable difference here is the weight that you will immediately feel due to the internal components. Almost the same thing happened to the Strix Scar 18 laptop from Asus and the Alienware M18 laptop from Dell. The same anodized aluminum material is used for the exterior, so it will likely look exactly the same as previous Blade models.
Fortunately, the basic ingredient options are numerous. The base model comes with the newly announced Nvidia RTX 4060 graphics processor, and a less modest 13th-generation Intel Core i9-13950HX processor. The GPU is configured for up to 165W of power, and the system is powered by vapor chamber cooling to manage its heat.
(Credit: Brian Westover)
The processor remains the same across all available options, but there are several GPU options: the Blade 18 can be ordered with RTX 4070, RTX 4080, and RTX 4090. It’s important to determine your purchase budgets, as the most important thing you’ll pay for is refresh rate. Framerate and ray tracing capabilities due to the lack of high resolution screen options to pair with the superior GPUs.
Besides powerful GPU options, you can add RAM and storage to your laptop configuration. The base model starts with 16GB of DDR5 memory and a 1TB SSD, but can go up to 32GB and a 2TB SSD. The user can also upgrade the memory after purchase to a maximum of 64 GB, and the same applies to the storage memory of up to 4 TB.
Of course, wait for the review of this laptop, which we will compare with the Strix Scar 18 laptop from Asus and also the Alienware M18 laptop from Dell of the same screen size for games. The Blade 18 starts at $2,899.99 and will hit the market this first quarter of 2023.
The screens are 16 inches
These 16-inch gaming laptops may not be new, but they are a new size in the Blade lineup. It’s a little more traditional than the ultra-sized Blade 18.
It measures 24.4 x 35.5 x 2.2cm (HWD) and weighs 2.44kg – much more portable than the Blade 18 – although still very close to the dimensions of the previous Blade 15. But the larger screen size and updated components add almost half a pound.
(Credit: Brian Westover)
The Blade 16 is also available with a small LED display that can switch between Full HD + 240Hz (1080p equivalent for 16:10 aspect ratio, 1920 x 1200 pixels) or UHD + 120Hz (4K equivalent for 16:10 aspect ratio, 3840 by 2400 pixels). This dynamic resolution panel allows you to change the resolution and refresh rate between these two options to best suit your gaming session. Mini LED screens have a maximum brightness of 600 nits, while a standard IPS screen is 500 nits.
Not surprisingly, this laptop also uses the latest Intel and Nvidia components, which feature 13th-generation CPUs and 40 GPUs. The options are the same as the Blade 18 too, with the Core i9-13950HX processor as the solid pick across all models, and GPU options running from RTX 4060 to RTX 4090.
(Credit: Brian Westover)
One major difference is that the Blade 16 has a maximum graphics power of 140W due to its smaller size and therefore limited thermals. Memory also ranges from 16GB to 32GB (user can also upgrade to 64GB after purchase), and storage from 1TB to 2TB (user can also upgrade to 4TB). The Blade 16 will launch at a starting price of $2,699.99 in the first quarter of this year.
Both laptop sizes benefit from Razer Chroma’s customizable per-key RGB lighting, Razer Synapse customization and control software, USB-C support with Thunderbolt 4, a precision touchpad (which we’ve traditionally rated as the best among Windows laptops) and Windows Hello via IR full HD cameras. Always follow us to know our full reviews on the two devices as soon as they become available.