The problem is everyone knows the blades have a history of random glitches and hardware failures. Shoutout to when Linus bought them for his whole team and they were in a permanent cycle of RMAing those laptops. Thank god I was too poor to get suckered into that at the time
There's no such thing as flawless laptop. Anybody who used one for 5+ years should know that. Razer is no different and the price doesn't really change anything in this regard - you pay not just for specs, but the whole package (CNC aluminum chassis included).
I agree. I had the 2019 Blade 15, within a year I had a fan rattling like a WWII airplane and 2 months later the other one started doing it. Battery started to swell after a year. Never again. Very poorly thought out laptops. The first one I got used to rock on the table because the chassis wasn't straight.
@@gabeBucur ok, is there any other brand with CNC aluminum chassis that's better in terms of QC? Cause the only brand I've seen to get remotely close is Lenovo with Legion Slim 7.
@@bugbuster8598 that's the thing, the biggest selling point of the razerblades is that chassis, and couple it with that league of its own price tag and the frequent missteps Razer seems to make, for most people there's no value there all things considered.
@@anmol3457 ok, my question though was if there's any other brand or particular model that gets remotely close to it in terms of build quality. So, is there any?
Absolutely baffling that they dont use a full-size keyboard. On the 18 there's a massive bezel around the keyboard, they could even have a numpad. When i bought my 17" Toshiba laptop back in like 2003 it had a proper keyboard (with a numpad even) with fullsize arrow keys
Near-immaculate video - nice work! The 4080 Blade 16 definitely feels like the winner here; especially considering the disappointing 4070 Blade 14 performance and minimal 4090 Mobile uplift.
This guy complaining 3kg is heavy for a laptop and calling it a desktop replacement, a true desktop replacement would be the 18 inch monsters of the past from Alienware and Clevo
After owning the Blade 18 and 16 side by side I returned the 18. While the 18 was larger and I liked the larger display size, the 18 panel just couldn’t compare to the mini led in the 16. The blacks were horribly muted on the 18. Also the 16 has great HDR support as well.
I have an Asus M16 Zephyrus with a mini-LED, and couldn't imagine downgrading the screen. I'll take a 18" 240 hz mini-LED any day though -- or in the future, 240 hz OLED. 18" is probably the ideal hardcore gaming desktop replacement for a tax-optimizing semi-nomad like myself. The M16 Zephyrus' 16" is feeling OK, but it's such a size downgrade from the 27" desktop monitor I am accustomed to, so 18" should be much more acceptable. That said, I could just put the laptop in tent mode and bring my desktop 27" Asus AQDM OLED without the stand. Considering doing that in the future when relocating. Still tho, a 18" obviously has better cooling and that would be quite handy. Perhaps I will pick up a 18" in 2024-2025 with a 5090 GPU and great cooling. Budget R.I.P.
I’m On the same Boat. I have a blade 18 4090 since launch and just ordered the Lamborghini model 16. Unsure which I will keep. I like the real estate of larger screen as it gives you more immersive gaming experience but the mini led sure does look nice. I remember testing both models and remembering the 16 having trouble pushing out 4K gaming at decent FPS.
hey, i just wanted to ask you how has your experience been with the blade 16, as for my first gaming laptop i too am looking for a really good option, i just wanna know did you face any issues with you blade 16 and if so what were they, i really like the blade 16 and wanna but the i9, 4080 combo so yea.
"Does laptop screen size matter?" Not if I'm using assistive technology such as a screen reader just to browse the Internet, but I would still prefer a desktop. Even with a magnifier, laptops hurt my back since the screen is too far away from me. That is, unless I put a laptop into tablet mode, put it on top of the foldable table stand, put my mouse and keyboard beneath the stand, and then use my laptop as a desktop. Yes, this defeats portability, but turning a laptop into a desktop with a foldable table and keyboard/mouse helps with my visual disability. Currently, I use my LG 42" C2 TV as my PC monitor that is attached to the VESA arm. My monitor is in front and top of the keyboard and mouse. But if only there's an electric standing desk with a depth of 16" or less. 12" from front to back would be nice for me as I have a monitor arm with 2 USB ports and the USB ports are too far back for me.
Yes the size does matter. The Blade 18 is not there for people who want more performance, it is for people that need a bigger screen. Even if the performance was actually lower than the Blade 16, there are a group of people who the screen size is more of a priority. A bigger screen is more immersive and in games where that matters often the frame rates and resolution is already adequate. The webcam is an important upgrade for gaming while interacting with other players online that is why this doesn't mess around with a privacy shutter.
I do find razer's screen configuration weird , you can't take much advantage of 4k on 16inch , that resolution makes more sense on the 18inch laptop since the screen is huge. Imo they should just stick to 1440p at 165hz mini led display upto 16inch maybe that will drop the prices by 200-300 usd while also giving us slightly better battery backup.
That's probably more on the display maker themselves. 18in is a really uncommon display size so the options on the market aren't very big. 16in is a far more common screen size today so their are more options and that's likely more the reason why. Also yes the Blade 16 does have a 1440p option which is 2560x1600 so you don't have to get the 4K MiniLED model
Mercury White looks soooooo damn good! Wish more gaming brands went that "Macbook style" route. As of today, the only brand that gets remotely close in terms of design and build quality is Lenovo with their Legion Slim series.
Gaming laptop companies are being too safe with their laptop designs Asus' Strix laptops being the exception. They need to be more creative with their designs and colors.
@@bugbuster8598 nope, I only mentioned the Strix series because the way they molded the plastics on it is extremely creative. Sure it may seem like it's all "RGB stripes and wacky printing," but the engineering behind all the plastic molding is just extremely cool. It's something that when you look at, you immediately recognize as a strix laptop. What I mean by creative is adding those sort of unique twists to designs. You remember the XPS 13 plus with its futuristic design? That's the sort of uniqueness I'm looking for.
Too bad they nerfed the Legion Pro 7 compared to last year's Legion 7... And the Blade 14 with an RTX 4080 would have been perfect, however, it doesn't exist yet...
The biggest difference with the 4080 and the 4090 is the temperature. The 4090 is on average about 7 degrees celsius cooler than the 4080, which is quite significant.
A Salt Bae tomahawk steak cost $1000 yet people still pay to eat that. And it literally becomes sh¡t the next day. Never be afraid to charge more because there will always be people buying. Nvidia seems to have been taking notes from Razer now
I got the Razer blade 16, upgrading from the 15 and honestly I regret not going for the 18 as the 16 is the same dimensions as 15 and it already feels too small for me even for a mobile device. The 18 is heavier but physically isn’t much bigger in my eyes.
I'm planning to get a razer blade for college. Should I get the 15, 16, or 17? Just a little bit of context, I have horrible eye sight and I am using a custom keyboard so that means the screen will be a little further away. I don't want the screen to be too small or too big.
I wish you would use newer games as benchmarks. Getting 600+ FPS for some of the games benchmarked is laughable. What we really want to know is what can these laptops squeeze out of Cyberpunk 2077 with Path Tracing and RR? How does Alan Wake 2 stack up with its Path Tracing. Using games released 5 years ago as a "benchmark" for a laptop released today doesn't really answer these questions. A good example is Jedi Fallen Order. That game is old man. You *should* be using Jedi Survivor as a benchmark. Just like games/hardware today, reviewers seem stuck in the past. It's time to jettison older titles for benchmarks and start using new tech. Or at least including new tech. Great video none the less.
That's a very valid point...graphics and speeds are different...if you have the best graphics cards it doesn't mean much if the only way you can play mw3 is 1080p or lower to get decent speeds.
I have the 15inch 2020 advance and sometimes when iam pushing the laptop in some games , the metal lines in the middle of the keyboard around the G or H gets very Hot if u touch it ( though not the keys them selves) I think by repasting the gpu/cpu and increasing the fan speed u may get it cooler Also consider reducing the gaming frame rate to somthing more reasonable to avoid putting to much stress in the gpu , if u are paranoid about battery health and etc...
@@fejotore 1. This issue is not exclusive to Razer laptops. My AERO 15X got swollen battery after two years. Same story with any other issues and other brands. 2. Negative comments or reviews will always be more common than positive ones for obvious reasons - if everything works just fine, people won't waste time writing reviews on Reddit. 3. Battery can be easily replaced. Personally, I'd worry about internals I can't replace myself.
@@RadaSmada What do you mean by 'they' ? Only thing 'they' could do is to change the supplier, if this aging is inherend to puch-tech-'cell' then what they 'fixed' is added a 80% charging limiter.
why does razer charge so much for the hardware? it seems other laptop companies have more reasonable price jumps as you go from 4070-4080-4090.. razer is charging more for the jump from a 4070 to 4080 then an entire desktop 4080 card costs
I feel like people who can afford these ultra-premium hardware can definitely invest in a good monitor too. I definitely won't mind the extra cables and dongles.
With the extra 2" of chassis space on the 18" I would have liked the power connection moved to the back < 50 dB noise (boost) & 12 to 15% improved gaming performance
The keyboard alone is a huge deal breaker for me. Tiny up/down directional keys and NO NUMPAD?!?! This seems wild to me, especially on the 18" version. I'll take my money elsewhere.
Hello and thank you for the outstanding review! I am looking for a 17 inch laptop that is light, reasonably powerful, and as quiet/cool as possible. I don't game, but I do photo and music editing. Ideally, there's a laptop whose silent mode hits the sweet spot. I am also open to fanless laptops, but I haven't found any bigger than 15 inch, and there's often a big performance drawback (except for the new Macbooks. But I am not an Apple fan.). I'd like a computer that doesn't have any performance hiccups as I load many webpages, office, and some photo and music editing, and can do the work very quietly and with low temps. I know I am asking for a lot... but I'd love any recommendations you may have. Thank you!
@@navaga6701 Hi, I got Dell XPS 17. It's not light. But it's not too heavy. It has a nice, large screen (I got the mat, lower res display on purpose because I don't like reflections, I don't need touch, it saves battery, and I Don't like small user interface on 4k and think 4k is unnecessary even for pro photographers.). It's VERY quiet and cool under normal use. I have not heard the fans much at all. Keyboard is good but a bit stiff. Trackpad is too large and it registers my wrist input by mistake sometimes. Either that or the 2 and 3 finger swipe gestures sometimes have faults. But overall, nothing major. Swipe is still really great on Windows 11. You can program three finger swipe left and right to be back and forth in browsers, which is great too. Ports are good. Only Thunderbolt ports (USB-C type) (4 of them, all of which can charge the laptop). In summary, it's NOT a light laptop. It's more of a classy powerhouse that is not clunky like a gaming laptop. Battery life is good, but nothing like what MacBook pro 16 advertises (the Intel CPUs are not as efficient). But then I don't have to put up with anything Apple, which is a huge blessing for me. Love the onboard SD card reader. Hope this helps!
Love your videos. You do a great job at explaining everything. And your videos are just rock solid good. I'm a content creator. Manly photos. I've used to game way more. But my 13 year old pc is just not cutting it anymore. Razer was one I was looking at a couple years ago.
I'm really torn between getting the razer 16 with a 4080 or the HP Omen 16 that has a 4080 also. The bench marks are a little better in the Razer but the Omen costs £900 less right now. Plus I've heard a lot of bad things about Razer in terms of defects and customer service. But the Razer laptops look so good
Sometimes being poor and cheap saves me a lot of time. I can skip to the part talking about price, see I ain't EVER gonna buy one, like the vid and move on
So Blade 18 is the one with less portability, worse display, smaller battery, basically no performance advantage and higher price. Damn, it must be a tough decision! No? 😅
Not true. I just configured a B16 w/ the 4080 and Mercury white is only an extra $300. What you probably saw was a pre-configured or auto-configured version w/ the white that bumped up the price that much but there were other upgrades as well
I love reviews man your doing a good job I wanted ask can expect next year the dual mini LED display for a laptob like the lenovo legion pro 7i 4090 it would really be great
To be honest in my opinion blade 16 is better because it has better display, maybe it is smaller than blades 18 but I rather 16 because its miniled and also it will fit in your backpack not like blade 18. They also pack the same performance so blade 16 is better
a huge miss putting these front speakers, shoulda used the extra space to put a full size keyboard. Without a full keyboard it wont be a true destop replacement, sadly.
Can someone please answer this for me? because no one ever seems to want to talk about it. I’m willing to shell out for the 18 inch why in the hell am I being saddled with the inferior screen at higher cost Razer, Alienware and asus all do this and for the life of me I cannot figure it out and it baffles the hell out of me
Probably there is no one producing the 18" mini-LED screen yet. You do know they source it elswhere? And you do know that they 'requested' volume is pathetic considering how screen manufacturer has to change 'cutting ratio' just for small batch?
Excellent comparative analysis of the Razer Blade 16 and 18.The only problem was the omission of the poor QA and QC that Razer has historically with their laptops.
They do not have 'resources' to a) cut other alu chasis b) they are cutting corners with one keyboard SKU c) I do not like of center keyboards and really this puts me off when I see numpad.
Wonder if Eber did experience any of the issues the wide community that early adopted this laptops has. Wonky MiniLED (flickering, not turning on when on certain mode, scaling), the ghost trackpad and some other bugs. I dont know if i got scared with all the horror stories on Razer’s reddit about reliability and bad customer support, but this time. i would just get a MBP 16 as a laptop and stick to desktops for gaming.
It's social media effect - negative feedback will always be more common than positive one. It's obvious people enjoying their time with a laptop won't waste their time to share their thoughts on it on Reddit or any other platform.
No, but a 4070 Desktop. Accordingly, I think that RTX 4000 is fast and efficient for machine learning. You just need to install the right combination of driver and Nvidia libraries (CUDA, CuDNN, TensorRT) in suitable versions for your software. Some combinations of libraries work, others don't. Some are 5.3 times faster than others. So trial and error on the installation may be needed. --robert jasiek
now with the m2 and apple's new game port engine... this 5k laptop is almost a rip off. right now, razor needs to cut the price in 1/2.. even then i would recommend getting the m2 max
Nah this is still far better for gaming than the M2 Max is. GPTK isn't perfect and performance isn't the best in many games. Plus most multiplayer games don't work because of anti cheat. Still way too expensive
No. Game Port Engine and M2 chips mean literally nothing until higher-ups at Apple finally realize gaming can be profitable. It's the whole "Apple culture" that holds them back, not hardware or software.
Can you please stop using the goddamn inches for indicating the size? So annoying, just use what the whole world is comfortable with: centimeters. Other than that a lot of very useful information! I wonder if silent mode means that the fans stop at least when youtubing on battery or is it not the case?
