Razer Blade 16 review: An athletic gaming laptop with quirks

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 beautiful chassis and constant person expertise, and the corporate has remained dedicated to that mission ever since. The Blade 16, which is the center little one of the Blade line-up, additionally delivers wonderful efficiency. It’s not an ideal laptop computer, although, and homeowners might want to settle for just a few flaws.

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

Razer Blade 16: Specs and options

I initially acquired the Razer Blade 16 in Mercury White with an Intel Core i9-149000HX processor and Nvidia RTX 4070 cellular 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 cellular 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 beneath, after they differed, and this overview considers each configurations.

• CPU: Intel Core i9-14900HX
• Memory: 16GB DDR5 5600MHz / 32GB DDR5 5600MHz
• Graphics/GPU: Nvidia RTX 4070 cellular / Nvidia RTX 4090 cellular
• 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 essentially the most inexpensive mannequin obtainable from Razer. All 2024 mannequin 12 months Blade 16 laptops have an Intel Core i9-14900HX processor, however costlier variants could equip as much as Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4090, which ups the worth to a minimum of $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 feel and look is a recognized amount. Much like Apple’s MacBook Pro, you possibly can count on explicit parts throughout generations. That means a inflexible chassis milled from a single block of aluminum, an expert and stylish aesthetic, and super-slim show bezels. 

I personally favor the “Mercury White” colorway which, although extra silver than white, appears to be like improbable. 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 appears to be like 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 factor that minimizes the laptop computer’s footprint and retains the scale of the underside show bezel to a minimal.

Don’t get me unsuitable: this isn’t a small laptop computer. The Razer Blade 16 is nearly 14 inches extensive and 9.6 deep, in addition to near nine-tenths of an inch thick. It suggestions the scales at 5.4 kilos. You will discover this laptop computer in your backpack or messenger bag. With that mentioned, its measurement is reasonable for its capabilities. It’s thicker than a Dell XPS 16, for example, however barely extra slender. And, crucially, the Blade 16 ought to match within the majority of backpacks, baggage, 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 potential. While that’s clearly not nice for those who want a numpad, that is my most well-liked structure for a contemporary laptop computer. It permits for fast, straightforward, comfy 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, but it surely’s stiff and picket in comparison with many high-end laptops, together with inexpensive 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 properly. Razer’s secret sauce is its software program, Synapse, which controls system settings. Synapse is extra enticing and simpler to make use of than rivals’ software program, which is vital, and it after all ties into Razer’s Chroma ecosystem, so it will possibly coordinate with different Razer Chroma appropriate units, in addition to these appropriate with Dynamic Lighting on Windows 11, which Chroma helps. 

But the touchpad is the star of the laptop computer’s person interface. It’s an enormous piece of glass that’s over six inches extensive and nearly 4 inches deep. The touchpad’s giant, easy floor makes Windows multitouch gestures straightforward to execute and permits for fast scrolling by net pages and paperwork. I just like the touchpad a lot that I favor to make use of it over a mouse in lots of conditions although, after all, it’s nonetheless vital 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 fee 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 supplies most sharpness, and in esports titles, the place a refresh fee of 240Hz can enhance responsiveness and movement readability.

The Mini-LED show was faulty, nevertheless, which brought about vital movement blur even when scrolling by an internet site. Razer blamed it on early firmware and mentioned 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 improbable. 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 fee 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 sturdy sound with an inexpensive trace of bass in music and action-packed video games. The presentation can start to really feel harsh at larger 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 high bezel. It’s a lot better than common with a pointy picture, good shade replica, and wonderful conduct in high-contrast conditions that often idiot a webcam’s automated publicity. You’ll look wonderful in video calls, and whereas I wouldn’t say the digital camera is nice for streaming or YouTube, you can do worse.

The microphone sounds nice with robust 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 properly with near-immediate facial recognition in all kinds of lighting circumstances. A fingerprint reader isn’t obtainable.

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 gives 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 3.5mm 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 widespread 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, somewhat than the highest, which implies the rear isn’t obtainable for ports. Razer well locations most ports close to the rear of every flank, although, so cable administration stays pretty straightforward. 

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

It helps that the Blade 16 helps the newest Wi-Fi 7 commonplace in addition to Bluetooth 5.4. This is the leading edge in trendy wi-fi networking—a lot in order that most individuals, myself included, don’t but have a appropriate 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 stable state drive. The Mercury White mannequin had 16GB of RAM and Nvidia RTX 4070 cellular graphics, whereas the Black mode had 32GB of RAM and Nvidia RTX 4090 cellular 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 assume this represents a problem with the Blade 16, as PCMark 10 can fail occasionally, 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 decent rating of 7,931. That’s not going to set information, but it surely’s very a lot consistent with what I’d count on. The Razer Blade 16 is just barely behind bigger, costlier 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 properly on this check, beating not solely the Razer Blade 16. However, the rankings shift after 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 spot. 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 appear shocking, however our assessments of Intel Core i9-14900HX processors up to now point out the 14th-gen’s benefit over the 13th-gen is somewhat slim, and the Vivobook Pro 16X OLED’s efficiency was robust 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 by 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 somewhat 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 p.c enchancment over the RTX 4070. That’s aggressive with different RTX 4090 laptops we’ve lately reviewed.

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

Real-world recreation efficiency is an analogous 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 larger, 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 might full my check. The Blade 16 carried out properly, nevertheless, with a median of 84 FPS. That’s positively in 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 big achieve.

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 perfect expertise, but it surely’s tolerable.

All of the outcomes above have been achieved within the laptop computer’s Turbo efficiency profile, which is the default. It’s vital 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 often 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 10 p.c achieve. I noticed comparable or barely better positive factors 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, but it surely bumped into difficulties in our commonplace battery check. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

The Blade 16 with RTX 4070 endured our commonplace battery check, which loops a 4K file of the quick movie Tears of Steel, for over 4 hours. The RTX 4090 lowered 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 avoid wasting energy. Optimus may 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 brought about the display screen 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 p.c. Most of that point was spent viewing net pages and PDFs. 

Razer Blade 16: Conclusion

The Razer Blade 16 is a beautiful and speedy gaming laptop computer with a slim footprint and good connectivity, however just a few flaws soured my impression. Razer’s Mini-LED show was faulty as a result of a firmware problem, 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 robust CPU and GPU efficiency in a glossy, enticing Windows laptop computer however, given the worth, I’d count on a extra constant expertise.