Razer's 2024 Blade Laptops Bring All the Newness
The latest Intel and AMD gaming CPUs and newest screens are on deck for this year.
The Blade 14 (left), Blade 18 (middle) and Blade 16 (right).
Razer's laptops launched at CES may look the same as before, but inside, all three have the latest components, and you'll be looking at some new screens.
The company could only tease the Blade 18, which it says won't ship before April and the price is still TBD, but the company did show off its new display -- a 165Hz 4K IPS panel -- and highlighted the laptop's support for Thunderbolt 5 and its ability to drive three 4K monitors and its support for higher bandwidth. TB5 also implies it will (unsurprisingly) incorporate an Intel 14th-gen HX CPU unless there's a newer CPU on the horizon.
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At the other end of the spectrum, the 2024 Blade 14 will incorporate the AMD Ryzen 8945HS, the top model of the new processors AMD unveiled in December during Intel and AMD's "all our chips love AI" pre-holiday launchathon. Razer goes for all the options, which in this case means USB 4 and Wi-Fi 7. You'll be able to configure it with a 1600p 240Hz display and up to a GeForce RTX 4070, and the design allows for upgradeable DDR5 memory. You'll be able to preorder starting Jan. 23 for availability sometime in February. Razer still hasn't set the price yet.
The Razer Blade 16
As for the middle child, the Blade 16, it's sporting one of its fancy new 2,560x1,600-pixel, 240Hz OLED displays or its dual-refresh mini-LED IPS screens that can switch between 4K (2400p) 120Hz and 1200p 240Hz. It also and incorporates the new Intel Core i9-14900HX and up to a GeForce RTX 4090. The OLED display is rated ClearMR 11000 (a new measure of motion blur sponsored by VESA) and DisplayHDR True Black 500 certified; despite the ClearMR rating, Razer seems to classify it as a creator system rather than a gaming system, shipping it with Nvidia Studio drivers, although they're effectively the same.
The Blade 16 does have pricing and availability! It will start at $3,000 and you can buy it now. Razer has eliminated the RTX 4060 configuration; an RTX 4070 makes that base price a little more palatable.