Razer Blade 18 (2024) Review (2025)

Razer’s 18-inch Blade is the biggest and most powerful laptop in its arsenal, and the latest version ups the ante even further. The 2024 Blade 18 (starts at $3,099; $4,499 as tested) includes Intel’s 14th Gen Core i9 HX processor, and our costly review configuration employs Nvidia's top-shelf GeForce RTX 4090 GPU to really push the frame rates on its roomy 300Hz QHD+ display. The performance is as fast as you’d expect, and the thinness of Razer's category-best premium metal build only marginally limits its power ceiling compared with chunkier powerhouses. The Blade 18 hits its marks as the somewhat niche, design-first gaming laptop with all the high-end trimmings, held back only by the exorbitant price and frustratingly short battery life (even if the latter is hardly essential for this class). It won’t disappoint if you are attracted to the total package, but those downsides and a far superior value proposition mean the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 9 16 remains our Editors’ Choice pick for high-end gaming laptops.

Configurations: Extreme Performance for Exorbitant Prices

If it wasn’t clear from the price quoted above, even the base model of this laptop is expensive, and that among high-end gaming laptops. All versions of this laptop include the blazing-fast Intel Core i9-14900HX processor, one of two super-advanced displays, the luxe metal build, and a higher-end RTX 40-series GPU. The i9-14900HX is as fast as it gets on the consumer side for Intel processors, currently, meant for laptops just like this one. It features 24 cores (eight Performance cores, 16 Efficient cores) and support for up to 32 threads, with a max 5.8GHz turbo frequency.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The Blade 18 starts at $3,099, which nets you an RTX 4070 GPU, 32GB of memory, and 1TB of storage alongside the i9-14900HX and the QHD+ 300Hz display. A $3,699 model includes mostly the same parts but jumps to an RTX 4080 GPU. The final model, with the QHD+ panel, bumps the GPU further to an RTX 4090 and the storage to 2TB for $4,499—this is the model reviewed here. The RTX 4090 is configured at 175W, unleashing its significant power.

Beyond those, you'll find two more configurations. One is another $4,499 SKU (the only one that comes in white) with a 4K 200Hz screen instead, an RTX 4090, a 2TB SSD, and 32GB of RAM. The most expensive model is a $4,799 configuration that takes each category to its extreme, using the same display and GPU as the previous version but boosting the storage to 4TB and the RAM to 64GB.

Design: The Biggest Blade is Still 'Razer' Thin

This supersized signature Blade gaming laptop remains unchanged in design this year. Last year’s Blade 18 had the same look and dimensions, coming in at 0.86 by 15.7 by 10.8 inches (HWD) and 6.8 pounds. The Acer Predator Helios 18 is thicker (1.14 inches) and heavier (7.1 pounds), while the all-powerful MSI Titan 18 HX is even meatier at 1.25 inches thick and 7.93 pounds. Alienware's machines are generally on the thin side, and even then, the Alienware m18 R2 comes in at 1.05 inches thick and 8.9 pounds, so the Blade 18 is in a tier of its own at this screen size.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

I have nothing new to say about the design that hasn’t been said for most recent Blade machines, the 18-inch version included. This is a slim, premium metal build with an all-black paint job and a big green Razer logo on the lid. It is one of the more luxuriant gaming laptops you can buy, as they often opt for plastic designs, even at this size and price tier.

Using the Razer Blade 18: An Ultra-Premium Panel, and Plenty of Ports

The quality extends to other aspects, particularly the touchpad and the display. The touchpad is massive on this laptop, taking advantage of the substantial chassis real estate—something larger laptops often don’t do, leaving an odd amount of empty space on the wrist rest. The keyboard is merely decent by comparison—typing feels OK, but the travel and feedback are a little shallow, leaving something to be desired on such a big laptop.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

As for that screen, this sharp, roomy display is one of two major reasons to get an 18-inch laptop next to the power ceiling. This 18-inch screen comes in two flavors: an IPS 4K resolution panel with a 200Hz refresh rate, or a QHD+ (2,560 by 1,600) resolution mini LED panel with a 300Hz refresh rate. Our review unit has the lower-resolution, faster screen, which is still plenty sharp. The 4K panel could make sense, mind you: Cutting-edge games are challenging to run smoothly at 4K, but the Blade 18’s rarified components could pull it off. And 200Hz is more than enough for most games.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

However, an argument exists for the QHD+ version we got: It’s still plenty sharp, and you’ll get much higher average frame rates. You’ll likely use the same QHD+ resolution for desktop work and for gaming, while getting a higher refresh-rate ceiling for competitive titles. And the panel is extra bright and colorful in general use, even if it can’t match the richness of OLED alternatives.

Another benefit of Razer's larger chassis is the above-average number of ports. One of the main things smaller laptops lose is all but the essential ports, so part of replicating the desktop experience with a laptop like the Blade 18 is broader connectivity. On its left flank, the Blade 18 includes two USB Type-A ports, a USB Type-C port, a headphone jack, an Ethernet jack, and Razer's proprietary power connector. On the right, you’ll find another USB-A port, one more USB-C port, an SD card slot, and an HDMI connection.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Larger ports, like the SD slot, HDMI, and especially the Ethernet jack, are usually the first to go on smaller laptops, so you’re not short of options here. On the RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 versions of this laptop, the right-side USB-C port features Thunderbolt 5—this was actually the first laptop sold with this generation of the technology. The fifth generation supports 8K monitors with as much as 540Hz of refresh (if the external display is capable) and greater bandwidth for external SSDs, eGPUs, and other accessories. On the RTX 4070 version of this laptop, that right port is Thunderbolt 4 only.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The Blade 18 also features a 5-megapixel webcam, which delivers clear video quality—definitely better than average. Other, more hidden premium features include the advanced cooling system (a thin vapor chamber and three fans) built to handle the super-powerful parts in such a thin laptop, six speakers with full sound quality and volume, and user-upgradable RAM (up to 96GB) and storage (two M.2 SSDs, up to 16TB total using dual-sided 8TB drives).

Testing the Razer Blade 18: Core i9 and RTX 4090 Powers Combine

To gauge the performance of our particular model, we put it through our usual suite of benchmark tests and compared the results with those of the following laptops:

These are all super-powerful alternatives, and these are all supersize 18-inch laptops except the 16-inch Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 9 16, which we loved for its value at $2,441.49 as tested—our Editors’ Choice pick for the seemingly impossible price given its components and performance. It’s hardly cheap but a lucrative deal for this top tier of gaming laptops. The Acer Predator Helios 18 ($3,099.99 as tested), Alienware m18 R2 ($3,599.99 as tested), and MSI Titan 18 HX ($5,399 as tested) are much more expensive. Finally, we have the previous Razer Blade 18 from 2023 to show how much the 2024 model has improved—though we must note we tested an RTX 4080, not an RTX 4090, in last year’s model. Now, let’s see how the new edition performed.

Productivity and Content Creation Tests

We run the same general productivity benchmarks across both mobile and desktop systems. Our first test is UL's PCMark 10, which simulates a variety of real-world productivity and office workflows to measure overall system performance and includes a storage subtest for the primary drive.

Our other three 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 from 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).

Finally, we run PugetBench for Photoshop by workstation maker Puget Systems. It uses Adobe's famous image editor, Creative Cloud version 22, to rate a PC's performance for content creation and multimedia applications. It's an automated extension that executes various general and GPU-accelerated Photoshop tasks, ranging from opening, rotating, resizing, and saving an image to applying masks, gradient fills, and filters.

The new Blade 18 and its 14th Gen Core i9 processor churned through these tests, and crucially, it was right in line with the thicker laptops running the same chips. Thinness mostly didn’t hurt it here, though you'll notice a couple of instances where it lagged behind—most notably in Cinebench—but the margins weren't wide. You can also see how much of an improvement this model made over last year’s Blade 18. All of these current-generation laptops are more than capable of content creation and media editing tasks when you’re not gaming and, in fact, are overkill for all but the most demanding professional-grade workloads.

Graphics and Gaming Tests

We run synthetic and real-world gaming benchmarks for gaming laptops and other mobile gaming hardware. The former includes two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL's 3DMark: Night Raid (more modest, suitable for systems with integrated graphics) and Time Spy (more demanding, suitable for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs). Additionally, we use the cross-platform GPU benchmark GFXBench 5, which gauges OpenGL performance. These GFXBench tests are rendered offscreen to accommodate different native display resolutions; more frames per second (fps) means higher performance.

Our real-world gaming testing comes from the in-game benchmarks of F1 2021, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and Rainbow Six Siege. These three games—all benchmarked at 1080p resolution—represent simulation, open-world action-adventure, and competitive/esports shooter games, respectively. Valhalla and Siege are run twice (Valhalla at Medium and Ultra quality, Siege at Low and Ultra quality). In contrast, F1 2021 is run twice at Ultra quality settings with and without AMD's and Nvidia's performance-boosting FSR and DLSS features turned on.

Much like on the processing tests, the 14th Gen 18-inch laptops hung together, and the Legion impressed despite its smaller size and lower price. The mighty Titan 18 sometimes separated itself from the pack, but these were all over-the-top performers. The new Blade 18 performed exceptionally well on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, though its thin design reared its head at other times; its results on F1 2021 and the synthetic tests couldn’t always keep up with the others. Outside of these specific head-to-heads, the Blade 18 delivers performance in the class you’d expect—it posted frame rates firmly leveraging the panel's high refresh rate on the real-game tests, living up to that fast display. If you didn’t think any games would reach the display’s 300Hz refresh rate ceiling, look no further than competitive shooters like Rainbow Six Siege, which blazed at well more than 300fps.

Our standardized 1080p results, run as default so we can compare all systems with different panels, are only part of the story. We also ran these games at the Blade 18’s native QHD+ resolution. Naturally, the frame rates were slower, but they were still speedy: On the maximum settings run, Valhalla dropped from 161fps to 120fps, F1 2021 (with DLSS on) from 172fps to 157fps, and Siege from 361fps to 257fps. Those are notable drops, but it doesn’t change our general performance classification or the actual playability. This is a powerful gaming machine, and while some of the others here may give you a bit more performance for this much money, shoppers eyeing the Blade 18 know the premium design is an appealing part of the cost.

Battery and Display Tests

We test each laptop's battery life by playing a locally stored 720p video file (the open-source Blender movie Tears of Steel) with display brightness at 50% and audio volume at 100%. We ensure the battery is fully charged, with Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting turned off before the test.

To gauge display performance, we use a Datacolor SpyderX Elite monitor calibration sensor and its Windows software to measure a laptop screen's color coverage—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 is this laptop’s greatest weakness, lasting a brutally brief two-and-a-half hours on our rundown test. All 18-inch laptops are meant as stationary desktop replacements, so you probably won’t travel with them often. But you’d at least like the option to take it from your desk to your couch without also needing to plug it in soon after. As you can see from some of the other potent 18-inchers we tested, the battery life just doesn’t have to be this short.

The display results were much more positive. Razer's panel has comprehensive color coverage, which is exciting news for creative professionals considering the machine. Mini LEDs usually deliver high brightness scores like these, reaching 556 nits at maximum.

Verdict: A Pricey Treat for Enthusiasts

The Blade 18 is a case of delivering exactly what’s expected and getting what you pay for. This signature sleek design is as luxe and thin as ever, and its components and price tag also mean top-end performance. That thinness also means a slightly lower power ceiling than meatier alternatives, but the gap is less than we’ve seen before and won’t make or break your experience. This is especially true given the real standout performer, MSI’s Titan 18 HX, is a far more expensive laptop.

All told, if you have a big enough budget to be considering any of these powerhouses, and the Blade design appeals to you most, go for the Blade 18. Aside from the cost, our only caveat is the dismal battery life, which may not be relevant for many users in this category but could be a deal-breaker for you. This is the one laptop category in which we can overlook such short battery life, and otherwise, the Blade 18 is at least worth your consideration. It just can’t unseat the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 9 16 as our Editors’ Choice pick in the over-$2,000 range, an excellent value and performer for much less money. If you’re set on an 18-inch screen and prefer the Blade’s design, though, its quality and power won’t disappoint.