Razer Blade 18 Review | PCMag

Another new Razer Blade gaming laptop has muscled its way onto our test benches but, this time, it’s in an all-new size. First seen at CES 2023, the Blade 18 (starts at $2,899.99; $3,799.99 as tested) pairs its new namesake 18-inch QHD 240Hz display with the latest Intel 13th Gen Core i9 processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 graphics processor. That naturally leads to blazing-fast gaming performance—DLSS 3, in particular, makes high-frame-rate gaming possible at QHD in the few demanding games that support it—and it’s all wrapped up in the premium Blade build we’ve come to expect. However, it's pricey even for this category: It’s a bit costlier than the superior-performing, RTX 4090-bearing Asus ROG Strix Scar 18, so you have to particularly want the best-in-class Blade design to take the plunge.

A Bigger Blade: 18-Inch Screens Are Here

Despite the new size, the Blade 18 doesn’t stray from the signature Blade look. This is the same slick, all-metal all-black slab we’ve come to know, just in a larger footprint. Even then, at 0.86 by 15.7 by 10.8 inches (HWD), it’s actually not all that much bigger than the past Blade 17 models: The 2020 Razer Blade 17 edition measured 0.78 by 15.5 by 10.2 inches. With incremental advancements in design and ever-thinner bezels, that extra inch of diagonal screen real estate comes at a fairly minimal increase in the size of the overall laptop.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

It is quite hefty at 6.8 pounds, though. The few 18-inch laptops we’ve seen so far certainly aim to be desktop replacements that are chiefly meant to stay put on your desk and can come with you when needed. The Blade 18 fits this description, adding a pound to the Blade 17 and going all-in on power. The Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 measures 1.2 by 15.7 by 11.5 inches—much thicker and bigger all around, but actually a hair lighter, at 6.7 pounds.

For its size, the Blade 18 is relatively slim, and we’ve seen heavier laptops, but there’s still no world in which you’d call this laptop especially portable. At least the power brick isn’t as enormous as some competitors—the Scar 18 and the 17-inch MSI Titan GT77 both include massive adapters.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

Everything else about the build delivers the premium Blade experience we’ve come to expect. Naturally, the aluminum chassis is sturdy and feels worth its price. The touchpad on this big system is extra roomy, and it remains one of the smoothest and most responsive around. The keyboard is well made, but it looks and feels small given how big the laptop’s overall body is, especially considering there's no number pad. (You'd at least hope for larger keys with the sacrifice of a numpad, which other 18-inch rivals, such as the Scar 18 and the Alienware m18, do include.) These keys don't provide much in the way of tactile feedback (certainly nothing like the Cherry low-profile mechanical keyboards we see on some competitors), but I feel just enough key travel to be satisfied.

The main beneficiary of the larger laptop is of course the display, so let’s zero in on those details. We’ll see a lot of the same panel in this first wave of new 18-inch screens. Like the Scar 18, this is a 16:10 QHD+ resolution (2,560-by-1,600-pixel) IPS panel with a 240Hz refresh rate, 3ms response time, and G-Sync compatibility.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

That’s mouthwatering for most gamers, between the sharper-than-1080p panel and fast refresh rate. Based on our initial testing, even with the RTX 40 Series GPUs, dodging a 4K panel is still the smart call for the time being—it’s still too demanding for most laptops. As for the quality of the screen, there’s no room for complaint: This is a sharp, vibrant, and bright panel that really sings at this size, delivering a monitor-like experience.

Connectivity and Extras

Razer's Blade 18 is supported by an array of extras and connectivity. You'll find quite a few physical ports available despite the thinner chassis, starting with the two USB Type-A ports, one USB-C (Thunderbolt 4) connection, a headphone jack, and even an Ethernet port on the left flank alongside the dedicated power connector. The right side rounds out the offerings with another USB-A, an additional USB-C port (no Thunderbolt here, but DisplayPort support), an HDMI connection, and an SD card slot. This is a more robust offering than most laptops provide, so definite thumbs up on connectivity.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

The webcam on the top bezel is a full HD 5MP camera, and the picture is generally above average for a laptop webcam. It’s not as crisp as a discrete USB webcam, though, and I did see some odd horizontal lines running across parts of the picture on video, so don’t expect the world if webcam quality is important to you.

Razer's included Synapse software allows you to customize the system’s lighting, mainly in the form of the per-key RGB keyboard backlighting. You can choose from a range of effects, millions of colors, and toggle the lid's logo lighting from on to off, and from static to breathing.

Synapse isn’t just for lighting: You can monitor and tweak the performance mode (with presets for silent and balanced, as well as manual settings for the CPU and GPU levels), change battery settings, and alter display settings. A new CPU overclocking tool is now included to tweak voltage, turbo boost, and the time window, and it will work with Intel’s Extreme Tuning Utility (XTU).

(Credit: Molly Flores)

The system is cooled with an extra-large vapor chamber and three fans working in conjunction. Additionally, one desktop-like feature is upgradable memory and storage, a welcome touch for tinkerers. You can access these by removing the bottom panel, and the laptop can take up to 64GB of DDR5-5200MHz memory (RAM) and up to 8TB of storage total. For the latter, you'll find an open M.2 PCIe 4.0 slot to start.

Components and Configurations

Intel 13th Generation high-end “HX” CPUs, and Nvidia GeForce RTX 40 Series GPUs, both relatively recent releases, are the stars of this show. The same processor is used in every Blade 18 model, which is the potent 24-core/32-thread Core i9-13950HX chip. This is similar to the slightly faster Core i9-13980HX we tested in our initial “Raptor Lake” mobile deep dive. The different configurations also all use the same display described above. On the flip side, a range of the new Nvidia 40 Series GPUs are used across these models.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

Of course, the Razer has several Blade 18 models to choose from, starting at $2,899.99. That base model gets you the Core i9 CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB solid-state drive (SSD). Our review model is pricier, mainly due to the GeForce RTX 4080. For $3,799.99, our unit includes the Core i9 chip, the RTX 4080, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD.

Razer also sells a $3,199.99 model with a GeForce RTX 4070, and the top model contains an RTX 4090 GPU for $4,499.99. Needless to say, all of these are quite pricey, even the base model. Top-end components like these will always cost you, and Razer puts a premium on its slim metal design.

An important aspect to cover for gaming performance before we get into the results is the CPU and GPU wattage (W). The power delivery makes a significant difference in real-world performance, even from the same GeForce GPU in one laptop to another. The Blade 18’s Core i9-13950HX is configured at 65W thermal design power, or TDP, and the RTX 4080 in this system at 175W. The latter, in particular, can sway performance as much as (or more than) which GPU is being deployed, so keep that in mind going forward. For the record, the Blade 18’s RTX 4060 is configured to 140W, the RTX 4070 is at 140W, and the RTX 4090 is also at 175W. This is our first chance to test an RTX 4080 inside a laptop, as well.

Testing the Razer Blade 18: Where Form Supersedes Function

We pitted the Blade 18 against some truly top-end competition, comprising both current- and previous-generation GPUs and CPUs. Since 18-inch systems are new, this batch is a mix of 16-, 17-, and 18-inch laptops. You can see their names and specs in the table below.

These are all expensive and high-end gaming laptops, even if the parts vary. The Scar 18 and the mighty MSI Titan GT77 are the obvious 18-inch comparisons with the same-generation parts. The Lenovo Legion 7 Gen 6 is an AMD-based representative that brings the RTX 3080 as the last-gen point of comparison for the RTX 4080, and the Alienware x17 R2 represents the best of last generation with a 12th Gen Core i9 chip and an RTX 3080 Ti.

Productivity Tests

Our primary benchmark, UL's PCMark 10, simulates a variety of real-world productivity and content-creation workflows to measure overall performance for office-centric tasks, such as word processing, spreadsheeting, web browsing, and videoconferencing. We also run PCMark 10's Full System Drive test to assess the load time and throughput of a laptop's storage.

Three further benchmarks focus on the CPU, using all available cores and threads, to rate a PC's suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon's Cinebench R23 uses that company's Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene, while Geekbench 5.4 Pro by Primate Labs simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning. Finally, we use the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to convert a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution (lower times are better).

The three media tests are the best measure of these processors, as the PCMark 10 results hint that the Blade 18 faced some stiff opposition. As expected, the other 13th Gen systems really soared on these tests, and show where the particularly thin design of the Blade 18 hurts its maximum potential by limiting cooling. These thicker 13th Gen machines with more thermal headroom—the Titan and the Scar 18—easily cruised past the Blade 18, and even the Alienware x17 R2 and its 12th Gen chip traded blows.

Razer's Blade 18 produced still-impressive processing results overall, proving to be more than performant enough for anything but the most demanding professional workloads. But if that’s what you’re shopping for, some of the others here are superior. The Blade 18, whether from the slightly lesser CPU (unlikely to cause this much of a gap on its own) or thinner cooling-limited design, definitely leaves some performance on the table compared with the other 13th Gen systems.

Graphics and Gaming Tests

We test graphics on Windows systems with two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL's 3DMark: Night Raid (more modest, suitable for laptops with integrated graphics) and Time Spy (more demanding, suitable for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs). Two more tests from GFXBench 5.0, run offscreen to allow for different display resolutions, wring out OpenGL operations.

In addition, we run two real-world game tests using the built-in benchmarks of Rainbow Six Siege and F1 2021, which represent a mix of multiplayer-shooter and simulation titles. We run Siege twice at different image-quality presets, and F1 2021 with and without Nvidia's performance-boosting DLSS anti-aliasing. These tests are run at 1080p resolution so results can be compared fairly among systems, with some additional anecdotal resolution testing to follow. We normally run Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, as well, but the game repeatedly failed to launch (which happened with the MSI Titan, as well).

A similar story unfolded on the graphics side of things as it did on the processing tests, except now the RTX 4080 was clear of its last-gen counterparts. The RTX 4090 systems proved to be superior, as expected, and often by a comfortable margin.

Outside of these head-to-heads and what that means in practical terms, the Blade 18 and RTX 4080 are clearly effective gaming performers. Maximum settings in these titles were a breeze, at least at 1080p. You will see sky-high frame rates that can make use of your high-refresh display in competitive multiplayer games like Siege, and smooth performance in simulation titles like F1. The lack of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla limits these results somewhat with no demanding open 3D world, so we also ran some additional tests below at higher resolutions to fully put the new GPU to the test.

Supplemental Gaming Testing: 1440p and DLSS

While the GeForce RTX 40 Series represents a raw horsepower increase over the 30 Series, its main draw revolves around performance with ray tracing active at high resolutions and with DLSS 3 active—the latter is something only the new GPUs have. As such, we bumped the Blade 18 to 1440p resolution, switched on the fancy real-time lighting features, and tested a couple DLSS 3-enabled titles. We ran F1 2022 and Cyberpunk 2077 with DLSS off and on, plus the new frame-generation feature (“FG”) off and on.

Of course, you can only compare these results with other new RTX 40 Series, DLSS 3-capable laptops, which limits the field. The Blade 18 also doesn’t have a 4K screen, further limiting the head-to-head options. We’ll have to settle for some anecdotal numbers here.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

On Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p with ray-tracing and ultra settings active, the Blade 18 averaged 34 frames per second (fps). Turning on DLSS bumped the frame rate to 65fps, and DLSS with FG active jumped the frame rate even higher to 104fps. You can see how much of a difference the new technology options make, even on this high-end hardware. These results also go to show how demanding these games are to run, and why 4K is a stretch for most laptops if 1440p is this straining. However, 104fps in a demanding title at a sharp resolution and these settings is an impressive showing for a laptop, though clearly it will cost you.

We also have some 1440p Cyberpunk numbers from the Gigabyte Aero 16 and its RTX 4070: It averaged 76fps with FG and DLSS active, and as opposed to just 22fps with DLSS off entirely. The RTX 4080 looks decent in that regard, though the Aero is running at a maximum graphics power of only 105W, whereas the Blade 18 GPU runs at 175W. For more context, at 4K the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 and its RTX 4090 averaged 20fps with no DLSS, 57fps with DLSS, and 84fps with DLSS and FG.

Battery and Display Tests

We test laptop battery life by playing a locally stored 720p video file with display brightness at 50% and audio volume at 100% until the system quits. We make sure the battery is fully charged before the test, with Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting turned off.

To test laptop displays, we also use a Datacolor SpyderX Elite monitor calibration sensor and its Windows software to measure a laptop screen's color saturation—what percentage of the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 color gamuts or palettes the display can show—and its 50% and peak brightness in nits (candelas per square meter).

Battery life proved merely average on this laptop, which is mostly fine for its intended use cases. Most of the time, you’ll have this plugged in at your desk for gaming. When you just want to take it to the couch or somewhere close, it’s not like it will last just a couple of hours—only long trips will be a stretch, but it’s not that portable to be your first choice for a cafe table or airplane, anyway. The display, meanwhile, showed impressive color coverage bested only by the MSI Titan, and its maximum brightness was among the best on this chart, backing up the eye test.

Verdict: Best-in-Class Design That Will Cost You

Razer made a powerful laptop in the Blade 18, showing off a beautiful and fast display and the same high-quality build we’ve come to expect from this product line. It’s also quite expensive, which is hardly a surprise, but bears repeating even in this price range. It’s pricier than the Scar 18 despite an inferior GPU and half the storage, so you really have to want the Blade 18’s design to justify the cost.

Of course, “value” is less of a concern once you’re shopping in this range, so that may be a moot point for deep-pocketed shoppers, but the point still stands on a performance-first case. The Scar 18 is also lighter despite the thicker chassis, and it has a battery that lasts a bit longer. It may then come down to taste, and the Razer Blade 18 is certainly a well-made object of envy, but it’s not our first recommendation in this tier unless you specifically want the (excellent) design.