Razer Blade 16 hands-on: a dream gaming laptop

The next few months will see the release of the Razer Blade 16 and Razer Blade 18. Right now, I'm impressed.

The biggest and most powerful blade that has ever been released is the Blade 18. I am even more excited about the Blade 16 because it will be the first time that someone has ever seen it on a blade.

There's a mini screen. It looks good. Some shades looked bright against a black background, where they might have looked washed out on other displays. The black areas looked great.

The mini LEDs in the panel next to the Blade 16 model mirrored what the Blade 16 was doing. Local dimming zones were brighter and dimmer on the blade. You can see what I am talking about in the photo below. We were told that the screen of the Blade 16 had 1000 local dimming zones, and that feels like a big number on paper, but this panel really highlighted just how many teensy, independent lights are crammed into that laptop, and how much work they are all doing.

We weren't able to play any games on the Blade models since they were pre-production units. If you want to know more about the feature, my colleague wrote about it earlier today.

I am thrilled that these laptops have 16:10 screens, which makes the 16-inch panel seem endless compared to the blades that I have used before. With all the fancy screen features this device needs to power, it might be a real necessity to have a large 95.2Wh battery.

I was able to take the keyboard and touchpad for a spin, and I can confirm that they are the same large, sturdy keyboard and touchpad that we have seen on other platforms. The 13th-Gen Core i9-13950HX and the 4090 graphics are included. $2,699.99 is the starting price for the blade 16.

All of these additions have a single change that I consider a compromise. The size is what it is. The blade has a weight of over five pounds and a length of over ten feet. It is almost a full pound heavier and a tenth of an inch thicker than last year's blade 15.

The device is heavy and difficult to lift up, and it doesn't feel as sleek as the blade 15 did last year. It is fair to say that some people will be willing to make a compromise in order to get the MiniLED screen.