Razer Blade 18 (2024) Laptop Review

The Razer Blade 18 2024 is available in a Mercury White or Black colorway. See the bottom of the laptop.

The Razer Blade 18's build quality is outstanding. The whole device feels well-assembled, with no obvious gaps in the construction. Its full-aluminum chassis feels sturdy; there's only a little bit of flex on the lid, but only if you apply intentional force. The keyboard deck is rock solid, and the display doesn't twist when manipulating it. The finish is fairly scratch-resistant; fingerprints and smudges aren't a problem on the Mercury White model, though it's likely worse on the Black model. The feet feel sturdy and stick firmly to the bottom.

The Razer Blade 18 has an outstanding hinge. It feels smooth when opening and closing the lid, and it's very stable, exhibiting little to no wobble when moving the laptop or typing heavily.

Serviceability is good. To access the internals, you only need to remove 10 T5 screws and pull off the bottom panel. While a prying tool isn't necessary, it does take some effort to remove the panel. All the screws are of the same size, so you don't have to worry about keeping them organized. You can upgrade the memory up to a maximum of 96GB. Both storage slots support M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSDs.

Razer doesn't provide a service manual.

• 330W power adapter and cord
• Documentation
• Microfiber cloth

Note: Models with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU come with a 280W power adapter.

The Razer Blade 18 is available with the following displays:

• 18" Mini LED 2560 x 1600 300Hz (matte, 100% DCI P3)
• 18" IPS 3840 x 2400 200Hz (matte, 100% DCI P3)

The 4k+ display looks very sharp, with a pixel density in the same ballpark as the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (M3, 2023)'s Mini LED screen. The QHD+ isn't as sharp (168 PPI), though the difference might not be immediately noticeable when playing fast-moving games in which you don't have the time to appreciate the graphics. Both panels have a 16:10 aspect ratio, which doesn't affect gaming much but is great for productivity, as it gives you more vertical space than a standard 16:9 screen, allowing you to see more information when reading a document without having to scroll. The downside is that you'll almost always have black bars at the top and bottom when watching standard 16:9 videos.

The 200Hz 4k+ display has a fast response time, resulting in a clear image with minimal ghosting in fast-moving scenes. The 300Hz QHD+ display will give you even smoother motion and better responsiveness. Both displays support G-SYNC to reduce screen tearing.

When running on battery, the system limits the refresh rate to 120Hz in light workloads that only engage the integrated GPU. You must force the system to use the dedicated GPU if you want the display to run at 200Hz.

The 4k+ IPS panel has an okay contrast ratio that's within the typical range of most IPS panels. However, it's still pretty low compared to other display technologies like VA and OLED. This contrast level makes blacks look gray in dim settings. The QHD+ Mini LED display has a much higher contrast ratio since it has local dimming. This means it can produce deep blacks, but there might be some blooming around bright objects in dark scenes, similar to the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (M3, 2023)'s display.

The 4k+ IPS panel gets bright enough for use in most indoor environments. Outdoor use is possible during the day, but you may have trouble seeing dark-color content. It gets very dim at the lowest brightness setting, which helps reduce eye strain when viewing content in the dark. Razer doesn't advertise the QHD+ Mini LED display's brightness.

The screen technically has a matte finish, but it looks and behaves like a cross between a glossy and matte display. It's better at handling direct, mirror-like reflections than a true glossy finish, but it doesn't suffer as much from the halo-like effects around bright objects often seen on matte finishes. For the most part, you'll only have trouble seeing dark color content if there's bright light shining directly on the screen. The QHD+ Mini LED display has the same anti-reflective coating.

The QHD+ Mini LED display's black uniformity is likely much better since it has local dimming.

The display's horizontal viewing angle is passable. The image quality is good enough from the side for sharing casual content or text documents, but it's best to be close or directly in front of the screen if you need perfect accuracy for color-critical work.

The display's vertical viewing angle is okay. Again, the image looks dimmer and more washed out from above or below. You need to look at the screen more or less straight on to see an accurate image.

The 200Hz 4k+ display's accuracy is okay out of the box. The panel uses the DCI P3 color space when there isn't a set color profile, resulting in some oversaturation. Some people may prefer this oversaturated look; just know that it isn't accurate. The white balance inaccuracies are relatively minor, and the color temperature is only slightly cooler than the standard 6500K target, which isn't enough to make a huge difference visually. The gamma follows the curve fairly well; most scenes are a tad too dark, while bright scenes are slightly too bright.

Razer Synapse has several preset color profiles, including DCI P3, Adobe RGB, Rec. 709, and sRGB. However, selecting a color profile doesn't seem to have any effect. This may be a software bug; let us know in the discussions if you've experienced the same issue.

The Razer Blade 18's 4k+ IPS display has an outstanding color gamut. It has full coverage of the sRGB and DCI P3 color spaces, making it suitable for viewing and producing SDR and HDR content. Its Adobe RGB coverage is excellent but likely not enough for professional print photography and art prints, as it can't reproduce the highly saturated greens that define Adobe RGB. The QHD+ Mini LED display has the same advertised color gamut.

The QHD+ Mini LED display is likely similar.

The Razer Blade 18 2024 has an outstanding keyboard. The keys have a good amount of travel, require little force to actuate, and provide clear, satisfying tactile feedback. However, keycap stability is a tad inconsistent, as some keys feel more wobbly than others. While there isn't anything weird about the layout, the keyboard's large size can take some time to get used to, and it may cause fatigue over time, too, as you'd have to move your hands more to reach certain keys if you have small hands. You can customize the per-key RGB backlighting via the Razer Synapse application. The backlight's uniformity is good but not great, as it looks dimmer on some keys, particularly the bottom row.

The Razer Blade 18 2024 has an excellent touchpad. It's large and responsive to all movements and gestures. There are no issues when performing actions like dragging and dropping or zooming in and out of images. However, palm detection doesn't always work, resulting in occasional triggers when typing. This is a diving board touchpad with mechanical buttons, so you can't click in the top quarter portion of the touchpad. The buttons work well but feel a bit mushy.

The speakers get very loud with minimal compression artifacts at high volume levels. They sound clear, relatively natural, and full, with a decent amount of bass. However, the treble sounds a tad tinny, and there isn't much soundstage.

The Razer Blade 18's webcam is outstanding. The image looks clear and detailed, with only a little bit of noise. However, the exposure is too low, and the color temperature is a tad too warm. Voices come across loud and clear over the microphone, with little to no background noise. The privacy cover is a physical barrier that also disables the camera and microphone at the software level.

The Razer Blade 18 has an outstanding port selection. All three USB-As support USB 3.2 Gen 2 data transfer speed of up to 10Gbps. The two USB-Cs are slightly different; the right one supports Thunderbolt 5 (Thunderbolt 4 on models with an RTX 4070), while the left one supports USB 3.2 Gen 2. Both USB-Cs support DisplayPort 1.4 and have a direct connection to the dGPU. They also support Power Delivery for fast charging; however, they can only take up to 100W of power, meaning the battery will discharge if you perform intensive tasks while charging. The Ethernet port has a maximum speed of 2.5Gbps.

The Razer Blade 18's wireless adapter is an Intel Wi-Fi 7 BE200 320Hz. Like Wi-Fi 6E, Wi-Fi 7 gives you access to the 6GHz band but with even faster speeds and lower latency. However, to benefit from these features, you need a router that supports Wi-Fi 7. If you want to upgrade your router, check out our recommendations for the best Wi-Fi routers.

The Razer Blade 18 2024 is only available with an Intel Core i9-14900HX, a high-performance processor typically found in gaming and workstation laptops. This 24-core CPU (eight performance and sixteen efficiency cores), a refresh of Intel's Raptor Lake chips, is among the fastest of its generation. It can handle general productivity tasks like web browsing and video playback, as well as highly intensive tasks like gaming, simulations, and 3D modeling. See more information about the Core i9-14900HX on Intel's product specifications page.

The Razer Blade 18 is available with the following GPUs:

• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU 8GB GDDR6 (140W TGP /w Dynamic Boost)
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU 12GB GDDR6 (175W TGP /w Dynamic Boost)
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU 16GB GDDR6 (175W TGP /w Dynamic Boost)

The available GPUs range from the upper mid-range RTX 4070 to the top-end RTX 4090 in NVIDIA's 40-series lineup. All three GPUs support the same features, so you aren't losing any features if you get a model with a 4070 or 4080. As for the intended gaming resolution, the RTX 4070 is mainly for 1440p gaming, while the RTX 4090 is mainly for 4k gaming. The RTX 4080, which sits between the RTX 4070 and 4090, can handle most titles at 4k, but you'll have to tweak the graphical settings and rely on features like DLSS and/or Frame Generation to get playable frame rates. It's worth noting that even though the RTX 4070 can deliver a relatively good gaming experience at 1440p, its 8GB of VRAM is quite limiting and may cause stutters in memory-intensive games. This will only get worse as games become more demanding in the future. All three GPUs are well-suited for content creation; however, if you plan on doing more specialized work like 3D modeling and simulations, you're better off getting a laptop with a professional GPU, like the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 (2024). See more details about the 40-series laptop GPUs on NVIDIA's product specifications page.

You can configure the Razer Blade 18 with 32GB or 64GB of RAM. The memory is user-upgradeable up to 96GB.

You can configure the Razer Blade 18 2024 with 1TB, 2TB, or 4TB of storage. The SSD is user-replaceable. There are two storage slots; both support M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSDs.

The Razer Blade 18's Intel Core i9-14900HX is one of the fastest CPUs of its generation, scoring remarkably well in the Geekbench 5 benchmarks. This level of performance is suitable for even the most demanding productivity tasks. However, it's important to note that, unlike other laptop reviews, the posted results here—as well as the results in the other benchmarks—are scores obtained in the Turbo mode with the fans set to max speed. We've deviated from the normal testing procedure, which is to use the default Balanced mode, because the Blade 18's Balanced mode causes significant throttling in multi-threaded workloads, reducing the score by roughly 30% to 13,954. The Balanced mode score isn't representative of the Blade 18's performance, and posting it would have made the Blade 18 seem like it's underperforming compared to other laptops with the same CPU (Dell Alienware m18 R2 (2024)), which isn't really the case, as it's merely a matter of changing the performance mode. Moving forward, we'll be conducting all benchmarks in the maximum performance mode available. This will give users a better idea of the laptop's full potential (knowing that you can always turn it down if you prioritize battery life and/or lower fan noise and thermals), whereas the Balanced mode score would only show the manufacturer's tuning of that mode, leaving users wondering what the laptop can actually do if everything were set to max.

As for the GPU, all available GPUs can handle intensive workloads, so choose based on your budget and needs. Switching to the Balanced mode reduces the score to 244,381, which is only a 2.9% performance drop.

The Razer Blade 18's Intel Core i9-14900HX scores remarkably well in Cinebench R23, making it suitable for intensive applications and heavy multitasking. Again, these are numbers obtained in the Turbo mode with the fans set to max. The Balanced mode reduces the multi-thread score by roughly 46% to 15,097.

The Razer Blade 18 is outstanding for Blender work. Every GPU configuration can handle 3D rendering, so choose based on your budget and needs. Switching to the Balanced mode roughly doubles the CPU rendering time to three minutes but has little to no effect on GPU rendering times.

The Basemark GPU score is outstanding and in the expected range for an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU running at 175W (/w Dynamic Boost). As mentioned in the GPU section, the RTX 4090 is mainly for 4k gaming. You'll have to tweak the graphical settings a bit to get playable frame rates in the most demanding games, though not as much as the RTX 4080. The RTX 4070 is mainly for 1440p gaming; it can handle some titles at 4k, but only with relatively low settings and performance boosting features like DLSS. Switching to the Balanced mode reduces the score to 194,760, roughly a 17% performance loss.

Note: When running on battery, the system limits the display's refresh rate to 120Hz in lighter workloads that only engage the integrated GPU but keeps it at 200Hz in demanding workloads that require the dedicated GPU. As such, we've conducted the battery life for web browsing and video playback tests with the display at 120Hz and the gaming test with the display at 200Hz.

Although the average frame rate is high in Borderlands 3, the gameplay is sometimes choppy due to frame drops, with the frame rate dropping well below 60 fps. On an RTX 4090 model, running the game at the native 4k+ resolution results in a lower average frame rate of 139 fps with high settings, but the overall gameplay feels smoother because the frame drops aren't as drastic. Configurations with an RTX 4070 and 4080 can also handle this and other similar games, but you'll have to play with the settings a bit to get the best experience.

Here are additional benchmarks in Red Dead Redemption 2 to give you a better idea of the performance:

• Avg. FPS, 1080p, high settings: 133 fps
• Avg. FPS, 4k+, high settings: 66 fps

Every configuration of the Razer Blade 18 2024 can handle Civilization VI and other similar strategy games with no issues, whether you play at 1080p, 1440p, or 4k. The average frame rate at the display's native 4k+ resolution is 160 fps with high settings and 219 fps with low settings. The average turn time is good and among the fastest you can get on current generation CPUs.

Every configuration of the Razer Blade 18 can run Counter-Strike 2 and other similar games smoothly at 1080p, 1440p, or 4k with few tweaks in the graphical settings. There are some micro stutters, but they don't happen often enough to affect the gameplay significantly. At the display's native 4k+ resolution, the average frame rate is 112 fps with high settings and 291 fps with low settings.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider runs very smoothly on the Razer Blade 18 at 1080p. You can even play this game and other similar titles at 4k on configurations with an RTX 4080 or 4090, with the latter pushing an average frame rate of 92 fps with high settings and 137 fps with low settings (no DLSS).

Except for the Fan Noise While Idle measurement, the posted results are temperatures and fan noise levels obtained using the Turbo mode with the Max Fan setting on. The Max Fan setting makes the fans run at full speed, even in an idle state. Though away from where most people rest their hands, it's worth noting that the back of the deck (where the vents are) can get as hot as 50.2 °C (122.36 °F) in the Balanced mode and 54 °C (129.2 °F) in the Turbo mode. The bottom of the laptop reaches 45.4 °C (113.72 °F) in the Balanced mode and 57.8 °C (136.04 °F) in the Turbo mode.

We've conducted this test using the laptop's best performance (Turbo) mode with the fan speed at max instead of the default Balanced mode we've used in previous laptop reviews.

The Razer Blade 18 has a few pre-installed applications, including:

• Razer Synapse: Lets you change or make a custom power/performance profile, change the fan speed, and change the display's color profile. You can also use it to customize the keyboard's RGB backlighting and other Razer peripherals. See our recommendations for the best Razer mice and best Razer keyboards.
• THX Spatial Audio: Adds support for 7.1 surround sound.

The Razer Blade 18 2024 has a facial recognition IR camera. You can use it to log in quickly, authorize purchases in the Windows Store, and auto-fill saved passwords on supported websites. The keyboard has per-key RGB backlighting; you can customize it via the Razer Synapse application.