Not much has changed in the latest Razer Blade 16 gaming laptop. It’s still very expensive, it’s still much thicker than the Blade 15’s ancestors, and I still think Razer’s laptops have lost some of their edge. But what sets it apart is that gorgeous 240Hz OLED display, because hoo boi, it’s a disaster.
And maybe, just maybe, it’s so good that the Blade 16 might top my most-wanted list of big-screen gaming laptops for no money.
While I think these expensive MacBook gaming slicks need a serious update in their next iteration, I still have a lot of love for these machines. It’s not like I’d seriously recommend anyone spend $3,600 on the Blade 16 over the $2,000 you might spend on the similarly sized Lenovo Legion 7i Pro or the diminutive Asus Zephyrus G14, but Razer’s most recent review is much more positive than mine. He expected it to happen.
I guess I’m a sucker for a good display, so I was giddy over the Legion 9 and its mini LED panel, despite the odd keyboard layout and weird vapor chamber cooling. This is what I call the free gaming laptop I would buy in the pre-Christmas frenzy. But today, following the launch of Asus’ next-generation Zephyrus machines, the laptop I really covet is the gorgeous G14 with its beautiful OLED screen. However, in light of the recent RMA issues that Asus has been supporting worldwide, I might take a break from making such a personal recommendation.
Blade 16 features
PROCESSOR: Intel Core i9 14900HX
GPU: Nvidia RTX 4080 (175W)
Screen size: 16 inch
Panel technology: OLED
Native resolution: 2560×1600
Refresh rate: 240Hz
Reaction time: 0.03ms
Storing: 1TB NVMe SSD
Memory: 32GB DDR5-5600
Links: 1x Thunderbolt 4, 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen2, 3 USB-A 3.2 Gen2, HDMI 2.1, UHS-II SD card reader, 3.5mm audio
Dimensions: 21.99mm x 244mm x 355mm (0.87″ x 9.61″ x 13.98″)
Weight: 2.45kg | 5.40lbs
Price: $3,600 | £3,600
But from a product standpoint alone, it would be the G14 machine for me because I’m also a sucker for a slim 14-inch gaming laptop. However, if I were looking for something with a little more screen real estate, I’d have a hard time looking past the Blade 16 with this system standing in front of me. The OLED panel would almost convince me that the extra money would be worth it. Almost.
The 16-inch 1600p OLED used in the new Blade 16 is key to the cutting-edge design. It’s a beautiful 240Hz panel and makes all your games look amazing™️. The HDR implementation is the best I’ve ever seen, and it easily looks better than any OLED I’ve used on my desktop. This will largely be due to the extra pixel density on the 32-inch 4K panels we’ve been working on recently, but it’s also because the 400 cd/m² peak brightness is consistently better than big Samsung or LG desktops. panels.
When placed side by side with the Lenovo Legion 9 and its super bright mini LED display, they all looked pretty similar on first inspection. This isn’t a bad thing at all, considering I loved the Lenovo display when I first reviewed it. But even when playing the best HDR videos on two laptop screens, you can see the mini LED working a bit. more difficult.
It tries to over-saturate some details in dark areas and colors a bit too much in others. But the Blade 16’s OLED gives a natural feel, like how the scene looks to want Look at real life.
But moving to Cyberpunk 2077, the poster child for HDR gaming on PC, Razer’s OLED is clearly just looking better. The Legion 9’s brightness starts to be a bit of a curse when compared to the rock-solid Blade 16 panel. Even adjusting the HDR settings in-game to dial back the brightness doesn’t level the playing field between mini LED and OLED.
If you want the best gaming visuals, especially HDR gaming visuals, nothing I’ve seen can beat a good OLED panel. And Razer definitely has one of those in the Blade 16. The mini LED isn’t bad at all, I just know which one to buy next to each other.
But as I said, not much has changed elsewhere. Sure, it now has a 14th Gen CPU inside, but the Raptor Lake Refresh is just that, a refresh. We’re not talking about particularly different silicon inside the chip, just the same configuration of eight performance cores and 16 efficient cores. This Core i9 14900HX is clocked much faster than the Core i9 13950HX in last year’s Blade 16… but it’s also slower.
Let me break this down for you. While the nominal 5.8GHz is indeed higher than the last-gen CPU’s 5.5GHz, you won’t see it. It’ll give you 5.6GHz in the single-threaded Cinebench R23 test, which is narrowly better performance, but it hits the system’s power limit so quickly in multi-threaded tasks that you’ll never get above 3.8GHz at best. We measured up to 3.9GHz in Cinebench with the 13th Gen Core i9, which explains why it can post higher performance numbers.
The Blade 16 with this RTX 4080 really highlights what a joke having an RTX 4090 in this chassis is.
Speaking of performance, this Blade 16 with RTX 4080 really highlights what a joke it is to have an RTX 4090 in this chassis. There are cases where you will get some extra frames per second, but this cannot be ignored considering the amount of extra money and heat you have to spend to get there. In the comparisons between this model and last year’s model, you can see how close the GPUs are in terms of performance, despite being very different in terms of silicon.
There’s more of a difference at 1600p than at 1080p, thanks to the mobile RTX 4090’s extra VRAM, but the limitations of the Blade chassis, even that thicker one, still limit Nvidia’s top-end laptop GPU to be relevant .
This limiting factor also comes into play when you compare the Blade 16 with 175W RTX 4080 to our favorite Lenovo Legion 7i Pro with 150W RTX 4080. Despite this disparity in power levels, the Legion laptop is able to deliver the same or slightly higher gaming performance, thanks to its larger chassis (though still not large).
When this is a laptop with essentially the same specs as the Blade 16, available for around $2,000, it’s hard to make any value judgments on the Razer machine’s part for the best part of a year. The main difference is the OLED display, but do you really want to spend $1,600 extra just for that beautiful panel?
So, we’re back to that money-no-object thing again, because value considerations pretty much have to go out the window when you’re dealing with a Razer laptop. And honestly, that’s probably largely by design. On the gaming MacBook issue, the price premium will definitely make anyone comfortable spending that kind of money feel like they’re getting the best of the best. If it’s this expensive it must be good…
And the Blade 16 is Good. Aside from the price, my only real issue with this is the extra weight added to the previously lightweight Blade case design having to nominally cool something like the mobile RTX 4090 silicon. When the latest Blade 15 and 16-inch machine are placed side by side, it looks like an older laptop due to its extra thickness.
If you buy…
✅ You want the best laptop screen in the industry: The 240Hz 1600p OLED Razer has fitted into this laptop has to be seen to be believed. It’s a fascinating feature for gaming and any HDR video you want to throw at it.
✅ You want a trackpad you can actually love: The large area of the Razer trackpad is worth seeing. And it’s also super responsive.
Do not buy if…
❌ You should ask how much it costs: There is no reasonable value judgment here; There’s only one notebook with a premium price tag that’s much cheaper, struggling to make sense against the competition in terms of performance.
❌ You want a slim machine: The Blade 15 was a skinny machine, but the Blade 16 was definitely heavier in comparison, making it a pretty heavy machine.
Until you open it. Not to mention the gorgeous OLED panel with just ultra-minimal bezels because I totally love that MASSIVE trackpad. I wasn’t a big fan of Razer pads before, but this one feels responsive and decently usable. The Legion 9’s postage stamp trackpad is a joy to be around.
I was also impressed with how easy it was to open completely. Removing the back of the Blade 16 is a matter of a handful of Torx screws and pops off. There’s no need for shims or disassembling the chassis to remove, which is a real plus.
Two SODIMM slots are easy to access for upgrading RAM, and there’s also a pair of M.2 slots. Even though they are on top of each other, you need to make sure your second SSD is single-sided only. I tried installing a drive with memory chips on the front and back, but it definitely wouldn’t fit.
In terms of relative fan noise, the Razer also performs impressively well. You can crank up the Windows and Razer Synapse performance levels to get the highest frame rates out of this thing, and you’ll pay the price in noise, but it’s not that well screened more intrusive But even at the top performance setting, Synapse lets you balance the fans, which makes a huge difference in sound, doesn’t overheat the GPU, and doesn’t drop overall gaming performance by more than a few FPS here and there.
I then went back to recommending Razer’s Blade 16 as my all-around no-money laptop pick. It’s not a machine that everyone should go out and buy – it’s too poor value for money for that – but if you’re after a great screen, good gaming performance and a well-designed functional layout, for my well-heeled friends… it’s the Blade 16.