Razer Blade 16 (2023) review

The design of the Razer Blade 16 opts for a extra stylish aesthetic, slightly than the everyday gaming laptop computer look you could be used to. Our overview unit appears as if somebody’s spray-painted a 16-inch MacBook black and added an illuminated Razer brand, however the machine can also be out there in a ‘Mercury White’ colour scheme. There are not any two methods about it, it is a beautiful trying machine that received’t look misplaced whether or not you’re working arduous or taking part in arduous. It’s on the marginally heavier aspect at 2.45kg, nevertheless it’s completely manageable to hold round in your arms or bag.

These fashionable and sensible appears additionally lengthen into the within of the Blade 16. There isn’t a lot in the best way of a bezel across the giant 16-inch Mini LED display screen, though the highest one is simply giant sufficient to pack in a 1080p webcam that in itself gives a good high quality picture. It’s quite a bit higher than the extra commonplace 720p webcams I’ve used on laptops up to now. The sleek end of the Blade 16’s aluminum chassis additionally contributes to its fashionable really feel, even when it may be a magnet for fingerprints. The highest lid is particularly responsible of this, so it’s greatest to hold it in a bag or sleeve slightly than together with your naked arms.

Typing on the Blade 16 feels snappy, with keys that don’t really feel mushy and quantity of tactility with each press. In truth, it jogs my memory of the 2020 MacBook Professional keyboard, and Apple keyboards extra typically, albeit with extra journey. I do want it had a mechanical keyboard, however laptops with these switches are few and much between. RGB followers might be happy to listen to that the per-key lighting is sharp, vibrant, and gives nice protection throughout the board.

Whereas they keyboard isn’t full-size, the Blade 16 makes up for this with one of many largest (if not the largest) trackpads I’ve ever used. It’s comprised of glass and by no means misses a step in studying my inputs accurately, with its really feel virtually matching the standard of its accuracy.

Other than the specs below the hood of the Razer Blade 16, the principle attraction of this laptop computer is undoubtedly its glorious 16:10 show. The Mini LED panel helps outputs of 3840 x 2400 (UHD+) decision at 120Hz and 1920 x 1200 (FHD+) at 240Hz. The latter is geared extra in the direction of aggressive gamers, however this silky clean output choice is to not be snuffed at.

Listed below are the Razer Blade 16 (2023) specs:

It’s among the best screens on a laptop computer I’ve ever seen, with marvelous vibrancy and excessive peak brightness of 1,000 nits with HDR enabled. The show shines, no matter whether or not you’re watching content material or taking part in video games, with David Attenborough’s Wild Isles collection making for an incredible watch on the laptop computer. The panel itself is particularly color-accurate too, boasting 100% of the DCI-P3 gamut, making the Blade 16 equal components content material creation powerhouse and gaming behemoth.

The internals of our overview unit characteristic an Intel Core i9 13950HX processor, the quickest laptop computer chip workforce blue has to supply. It gives 24 cores and 32 processors, full overkill for gaming, full with a staggeringly quick increase clock of 5.50GHz. Working alongside this CPU is 32GB of DDR5-5,600MHz RAM, which gives a great deal of headroom for gaming and artistic workloads, particularly the latter. Two 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs convey lightning quick pace and beneficiant storage capability to the Blade 16. Then there’s the GPU, the monstrously highly effective Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090, nevertheless it’s not fairly a 1:1 likeness of its desktop namesake, with simply 16GB of VRAM. Every thing feels particularly snappy and premium right here, however that’s to be anticipated given the laptop computer’s worth.

Razer has spared no expense with connectivity choices with its new Blade 16, both. Ports embody a single Thunderbolt 4 succesful USB-C port that’s additionally in a position to provide as much as 100W energy supply, three USB-A inputs, an HDMI 2.1 output, a 3.5mm enter, and an SD card reader. There’s no Ethernet, however Wi-Fi 6E ought to assist maintain your connection dependable and quick, offering your community is, whereas Bluetooth 5.3 rounds out the Blade 16’s bleeding-edge wi-fi connectivity.

For my Razer Blade 16 benchmarks, I’ve collected body price information for native 1200p and 2400p resolutions. I additionally ran DLSS Body Technology assessments individually. Every benchmark was run thrice to supply a mean consequence, utilizing the sport’s highest settings with ray tracing enabled. I’ve additionally included PCMark assessments too with a view to measure battery life.

The highest-spec Razer Blade 16 is, as you’d anticipate, extraordinarily performant. It’s able to working nearly any sport at a excessive decision or body price, typically each. Suffice to say, it doesn’t disappoint, with some glorious benchmarks that made the video games I examined look and play the most effective I’ve ever seen them on a laptop computer.

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 within the Blade 16 proves to be an particularly beautiful pixel pusher. Even at 2400p, the GPU was greater than able to hitting 120fps in video games like Hitman 3 with settings cranked to max, by the ability of DLSS 3. As talked about earlier, this iteration of the 4090, although, is extra akin to a desktop RTX 4080, with 16GB of VRAM. Naming grumbles apart, it nonetheless comes by in making the Blade 16 among the best laptops I’ve ever used.

Whereas the Blade 16 can get toasty and a contact loud below full load, even with Razer’s vapor chamber cooling doing its greatest to tame its warmth output. Nonetheless, it’s quiet as a mouse throughout much less intense and extra on a regular basis duties. Consider it because the equal of driving a Bugatti Chiron together with your little toe touching the pedal. There’s a punch there available, however you don’t want all of it simply but.

Confronted with artificial benchmarks in 3DMark and PCMark 10, the Blade 16 continues to excel. Right here, Razer’s behemoth of a laptop computer recorded a few of the highest scores I’ve ever seen, proving its price as a tool greater than able to each gaming and duties like rendering and enhancing too.

Even the battery lifetime of the Blade 16 is fairly good, lasting simply shy of six hours in PCMark 10’s Trendy Workplace benchmark with display screen brightness set to 50%. For a laptop computer of this spec, lasting 5 hours or above is an effective consequence. In fact, to get the complete energy of the Blade 16, you’ll need to maintain it plugged into the mains, however be warned – the ability brick that it comes with is kind of the beast.

The Razer Blade 16 begins from $2,700 / £2,700, however kitting one of many these laptops out with the best specs brings issues as much as an eye-watering $4,300 / £4,400.

Razer merchandise have a tendency to hold a premium versus competing choices, and the identical is true right here. Nonetheless, the construct high quality on present right here does make it simpler to reside with the additional price the Blade 16 incurs.

Whereas it’s attainable to configure a Razer Blade 16 that prices much less and higher fits your wants, I do want the corporate didn’t lock so a lot of its options behind explicit specs. For instance, the Mini LED dual-mode show isn’t out there with an RTX 4080 GPU, and requires that you simply go for an RTX 4090 or 4070, with 2400p feeling mismatched on the latter.

Briefly, the Blade 16 doesn’t supply the most effective worth or essentially the most handy mixture of specs, however I’d be hard-pressed to see the way you’d be sad with no matter configuration you determine on.

So, must you purchase the model new Razer Blade 16? Effectively, if cash is actually no object, then it’s going to be arduous to discover a higher all-round gaming laptop computer when it comes to energy, type, and what’s genuinely the most effective laptop computer show I’ve ever used.

The Razer Blade 16 (2023) is offered from retailers reminiscent of Amazon and Greatest Purchase, in addition to immediately from Razer. Listed below are the most effective offers on the laptop computer proper now: