Razer unveils 'desktop replacement' Blade 18 laptop at CES 2023

The company also revealed the latest iteration of the Razer Blade 16.

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Razer has been in the business of premium laptops for many years, but the new Blade 18 marks a first for the company. Unveiled on Thursday to help kick off CES 2023, this is the first 18-inch laptop in the Razer library and the company is claiming that it's so powerful, it's labeling it a "desktop replacement."

The Blade 18 features an 18-inch QHD+ display with a 240Hz refresh rate. It's comparable in size to the Blade 16, but also features premium components like a 5MP camera, a THX spatial audio 6-speaker array, hyper-efficient vapor cooling chamber, larger touchpad, multiple ports (USB A, USB C, and Thunderbolt), and a compact 280W GaN power supply that helps bring it on par with high-end desktops. Like a desktop, it will also be possible to upgrade. It comes with a base 16GB DDR5-5600MHz memory and a 1TB SSD drive, but can be upped to 64GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. PCIe and SATA SSDs are also supported, making it possible to go all the way up to 8TB of SSD storage. Interested users can take a closer look over on the Razer website.

Teaser images for the Razer Blade 18 and 16
Both the Razer Blade 18 and 16 were teased earlier this week.
Source: Razer

Razer also unveiled the new Blade 16 and while it doesn't boast the horsepower of the Blade 18, it's certainly nothing to sneeze at. The latest Blade 16 adds an HDR-capable dual-mode mini-LED display, comparable to a versatile OLED display, suitable for both creators and gamers. When set to Creator mode, users can work with a UHD+ native resolution with a 120Hz refresh rate. Set it to Gamer mode via the included Razer Synapse software and the display will shift to native FHD+ with a 240Hz refresh rate.

One thing that both the Blade 18 and 16 have in common is that they'll feature the latest line of GPUs from NVIDIA, which was revealed earlier this week. Razer will be among the partners to roll out RTX 40 Series laptops. The new cards' progress in power efficiency looks to prove not only beneficial to end users, but also to manufacturers. Razer has noted that the new Blade laptops will deliver high performance gaming, while also offering better battery life and resource management without overheating.

Razer is betting heavily on big performance upgrades with the brand new Blade 18 and the updated Blade 16, largely thanks to the latest reveals from NVIDIA and Intel. Those interested in checking these out won't have to wait too long. They're both expected to release in Q1 2023. The Blade 16 will cost $2,699.99 USD, while the Blade 18 goes for $2,899 USD. That's just a small sample of the news coming out of CES. Be sure to check out Shacknews for more and visit our product reveal guide for anything you might have missed.

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

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