Razer has announced the renewal of two Razer Blade series gaming laptops, the Razer Blade 16 and 18, which will be fully unveiled at CES 2024.
According to Razer, the Razer Blade 16 is the first 16-inch OLED screen with a 240Hz refresh rate and a 0.2ms response time. It is also claimed to be the world's first VESA-certified ClearMR 11000 laptop which, combined with its 1M:1 contrast ratio and QHD+ (2560×1600) resolution, improves image clarity and sharpness.
There's also the Razer Blade 18, which Razer claims is the world's first 4K 165Hz 18-inch display, a pretty impressive feat considering the much higher resolution the screen displays. It also features a 3ms response time and Nvidia G-Sync support, as well as a 100% DCI-P3 color gamut. The screen offers a smooth gameplay experience and also acts as a solid screen for creatives thanks to its high color accuracy.
At this time, Razer has not released any pricing, release date or availability as this will most likely be revealed during CES 2024 itself. We can expect the MSRP to be quite expensive, especially since these are the desktop replacement models that will most likely have the currently highest possible specs.
Razer puts the display first
Considering that we still don't know what Nvidia will offer in terms of graphics cards, aside from the rumored RTX Super refreshes, the focus this time for the new Razer Blade laptops is on screen improvements, rather than the more obvious improvements with raising the bar in terms of specifications and performance.
And if that turns out to be the case, we don't know how much more performance can be squeezed out of the Super versions of the RTX 4070, 4070 Ti and 4080, or any other factors that could disrupt Razer Blade production ( if integration with the Super series could have delayed the renewal of Blade 16 and 18, etc.). So focusing on upgrading the displays to better handle the more advanced GPUs is a solid way to go.
It's also likely to suit the upcoming Intel Ultra Core CPUs, which would benefit from the screen improvement. But that wasn't mentioned by the manufacturer either, which is also interesting considering Intel announced this in December 2023.
It will be interesting to see the other Razer Blade laptops, such as the Razerblade 14 and 15 once they are revealed later in 2024. And if the 16 and 18 aren't equipped with the Super series GPUs or the Ultra Core CPUs now, will there be other models released in 2024 that feature these specs?