Razer has always been known to go a little over the top in conventions like CES. They like to show off their latest innovations, tease new concepts specifically for gaming, and they have always launched some very interesting products. This year is not so different from before, maybe just a tad subdued.
The launched the new Razer Blades for 2023 in CES, rightly so. The announcement of the new Razer Blades could also be a domino effect from the announcement of NVIDIA’s latest GeForce RTX 40 series for mobile platforms and AMD’s latest Ryzen 7000 series for laptops. Oddly enough, you are not going to be seeing AMD’s best on the announced 2023 line-up of Razer Blades.
They launched a 16-incher Razer Blade 16 and a desktop replacing Razer Blade 18 with a behemoth sized 18-inch display. Both come with Intel’s latest 13th generation Core CPUs (up to Core i9 HX). You also get NVIDIA’s latest GeForce RTX 40 series mobile GPUs (up to GeForce RTX 4090) in these laptops with up to 175W TGP. Of course, you get DDR5 5600MHz memory to make these laptops the fastest ever you might see for a while. To ensure you get the best performance to begin with, the new Razer Blades also come with a redesigned vapor chamber cooling technology for even more effecting heat management. In a smaller, tighter space.
Razer Blade 16
Just as its name suggests, the Razer Blade 16 packs a 16-inch 16:10 display. The panel is Mini-LED technology which means you get colours like you’ve never seen before on a laptop display. Well, you can technically get almost the same experience with OLED, but Mini-LED has its own advantages you might not get on a regular OLED panel. The display is also HDR capable with up to 1000 nits in brightness. The NVIDIA G-Sync capable display also offers up to 100% in DCI-P3 colour gamut to offer one of the richest display experience you can get on a laptop.
You can also opt for up to UHD+ in resolution on the Mini-LED panel. It is not a slow UHD display too, like you might expect on most UHD displays on a laptop. It responds in 3ms, which is mighty fast even in QHD resolution, we are talking double the number of pixels here. You also get up to 120Hz in refresh rate with the 4K display. You can get more speed too at 240Hz if you go FHD+ in resolution. You can choose between the two in one laptop device. They call the UHD+ 120Hz mode the ‘creator mode’ and the FHD+ 240Hz configuration the ‘Gamer Mode’.
They also say that the Razer Blade 16 will be the most powerful 16-inch laptop of its size in terms of graphics power. The use Graphics Power Density (GPD) as a measuring metrics, and this has 1.50 of them. It supposedly offer 35% processing power than any other 16-inch gaming laptop currently.
They did not mention the exact number for the DDR5 RAM they will be fitting the Razer Blade 16 with. We are guessing that they might go with 32GB or possibly 64GB at the top scale of things. They mentioned a speedy 5600MHz transfer speeds though, which is plenty fast in a laptop. They also mentioned that it is upgradeable, so even if you only get 16GB, you can spend a bit more money to bring it up to 32GB or even 64GB, if you have the budget.
Otherwise, you get what you can expect on most laptops from Razer. There is a Full HD webcam for video calls and even streaming purposes if you really need to. They quote up to 9.5 hours in battery life from a single charge. You get an infrared blaster near your webcam too for facial recognition security via Windows Hello, something you rarely find on gaming laptops. Of course, Razer’s Chroma RGB platform is available on the laptop. You can also expect great audio with THX Spatial Audio available on the Razer Blade 16.
Razer Blade 18
Then there is the gargantuan 18-incher that is the Razer Blade 18. Again, as its name suggests, it is am 18-inch display that you get from the desktop replacement. It is not meant to be used for remote working conditions unless you are talking about setting up a workstation for a week in a hotel room. But it is meant to be a gaming and content creation rig that is meant to keep your desk clean and minimal.
Its large 18-inch 16:10 display boasts QHD+ resolution. While a UHD+ display might serve the entertainment buffs better, the QHD+ resolution is a great compromise between gaming and content creation without too much fuss. You also get 240Hz in refresh rate at 3ms response time, perfect for gamers. At the same time, you get clarity like no other with 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut coverage.
Internally, other than Intel’s and NVIDIA’s latest processors, you can opt for up to 64GB of DDR5 RAM at 5200MHz transfer speeds. Alongside the ample memory is up to 2TB of M.2 NVMe drive for all your games. They say that the two M.2 slots can support up to 8TB in storage.
On top of those you get a 5MP webcam capable of Full HD resolutions on your video calls and even streaming headshots. You can get an infra-red sensor too with the Razer Blade 18 for facial recognition via Windows Hello. Unlike the Blade 16, it comes with six speakers with THX spatial audio so that you can save on buying a sound bar.
Price and Availability
Razer points at a Q1 2023 availability of the new Razer Blade 16 and Razer Blade 18 in Razer.com. There are no mentions on its specific availability in Malaysia. Razer has not been bringing their Blade laptops to Malaysia in an official manner though. In that case, we can expect that the Razer Blade 16 and Blade 18 will not be coming to Malaysia anytime soon or ever, in an official capacity anyway. This does not mean that you cannot hope that Razer changes their stance though. Prices start at US$ 2,699 (MYR 11,810*) for the Razer Blade 16 and US$ 2,899 (MYR 12,686*) for the Razer Blade 18.
*Approximately based on conversion rate of US$ 1 = MYR 4.38 as of 09/01/2023 on xe.com
