Razer Blade 16 (2025) Evaluate: Glossy and light-weight however lags in efficiency

The 2025 Razer Blade 16 continues the shaky custom of packing some top-of-the-line PC gaming {hardware} right into a laptop computer chassis that may virtually be thought-about skinny and light-weight. For a 16-inch laptop computer, the Razer Blade 16 impresses at properly below 5 kilos and below 0.7 inches thick, and but it’s nonetheless rocking a strong aluminum design, a unbelievable show, and extra ports than you’d count on. 

There are all the time some downsides to this system, as the brand new Blade 16 ranges in value from $2,399 to $4,499 as examined right here in a high-end configuration and but lags behind some cheaper rivals the place efficiency is anxious. It’s that awkward steadiness of efficiency, value, and design that sees the Blade 16 wrestle with worth. Those that need essentially the most efficiency can get it from one thing just like the Lenovo Legion Professional 7i 16 Gen 10 as an alternative. However the place slimness, weight, and battery life for a gaming laptop computer are involved, this new Blade 16 nonetheless has one thing to supply. 

Razer Blade 16 2025: Specs and options

• Mannequin quantity: RZ09-05289EN9-R3U1
• CPU: AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370
• Reminiscence: 32GB LPDDR5
• Graphics/GPU: Nvidia RTX 5090 (175-watt TGP)
• Show: 16-inch 2560×1600 240Hz OLED
• Storage: 2TB PCIe Gen4 SSD
• Webcam: 1080p + IR
• Connectivity: 2x USB 4 with DisplayPort 1.4 (from iGPU solely) and 100W PD enter, 3x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x SDcard reader, 1x 3.5mm combo audio
• Networking: WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
• Biometrics: Home windows Whats up facial recognition
• Battery capability: 90 watt-hours
• Dimensions: 13.98 x 9.86 x 0.69 inches
• Weight: 4.65 kilos
• MSRP: $4,499 as-tested ($2,399 base)

On the time of testing, the 2025 Razer Blade 16 began out at $2,799 to get you a configuration with an AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 CPU, 32GB of reminiscence, 1TB of storage, and an RTX 5070 8GB GPU. Since then, Razer launched an excellent decrease configuration for $2,399 that drops to an RTX 5060 and 16GB of reminiscence.

Razer permits some totally different customization choices however hyperlinks lots of them with different changes. So though you will have the choice to pick out a special GPU as much as the RTX 5090, can swap for a Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, and might improve storage to 4TB and reminiscence to 64GB, you might not get to combine and match these components as you please. 

As an illustration, the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 is tied to the RTX 5090. If you need one, you’re additionally getting the opposite. Among the different changes are perplexing. As an illustration, for those who select 64GB of reminiscence, you should additionally choose 4TB of storage except you go for an RTX 5080. If you need 2TB of storage, you must choose at the least an RTX 5080.

If you need 4TB of storage, you must get a max-spec system. Nearly each possibility you choose within the configuration device will change different choices, making it a mad sport of guess-and-check to see if you may get the particular configuration you need. On the intense facet, the high-speed OLED show comes customary on all fashions. 

Razer Blade 16 2025: Design and construct high quality

The 2025 Razer Blade 16 maintains the minimalist, understated design that has been a trademark of Razer’s laptops. It’s really a hunk of deep black aluminum with very tightly rounded corners and edges and virtually completely flat surfaces. The massive tells that it’s a gaming laptop computer are the illuminated three-snake Razer brand on the lid and the per-key RGB keyboard.

Whereas prior fashions we’ve examined have had solely slight flex within the chassis, the 2025 mannequin has some extra noticeable bending within the show and flex on the keyboard deck. It’s nonetheless fairly agency, and I’ve by no means been involved whereas holding the laptop computer up at one nook. 

The distinction is probably stemming from how a lot is packed into this mannequin. The 2024 Razer Blade 16 measured in at 5.4 kilos and 0.87 inches thick, however this mannequin has trimmed that method down to only 4.65 kilos and 0.69 inches thick. Whereas each fashions function the highest-end cellular GPU obtainable to them on the time (and each at 175 watts), this new mannequin makes use of a lower-wattage CPU than the Intel Core i9-14900HX discovered within the 2024.

Due to this fact, it might have gotten away with lighter cooling. As skinny because the Blade 16 manages to be for essentially the most half, there’s a raised space on the underside to offer extra room for the motherboard and cooling parts.

Whereas the prior mannequin had impressively skinny bezels across the show, the 2025 unit largely does as properly; the bezel under the display is significantly thicker. The all-black design helps it mix in at the least. The show sits on a agency, vast, smooth-moving hinge that stretches a lot of the width of the laptop computer. It solely has a bit wiggle to it, and it opens simply utilizing a single hand. 

The floor of the laptop computer is essentially occupied by the keyboard, which has been barely expanded to incorporate an additional column of shortcut keys alongside the suitable edge. Quite than go for a quantity pad, which might have been squished anyway, the Razer Blade 16 has a pair of speaker grilles at both sides of the keyboard. The grilles are the identical peak because the keyboard, although they’re solely packing a pair of tweeters inside. A second set of audio system sits on the underside of the laptop computer. 

The system pulls air in via grilles on the underside of the laptop computer and vents it out of a heatsink fin stack on the again. That fin stack will not be solely fairly small but in addition solely has a small quantity of clearance between it and the show hinge. Transferring as a lot warmth as this method can produce makes for followers which can be a bit noisy whereas operating at full blast, however they’re not shrill or annoying. They blow with extra of a relaxed, breezy tone to them. 

Altogether, the Blade 16 2025 is an impressively constructed machine, contemplating its measurement and weight alongside the actual fact it’s packing in an RTX 5090. However the tight confines actually increase considerations concerning the efficiency potential.

Razer Blade 16 2025: Keyboard, trackpad

The Razer Blade’s keyboard is a combined bag. On the one hand, Razer has stabilized its keycaps considerably properly, and so they have a clear, poppy journey. Sadly, Razer has gone the route of the Dell XPS line of late, choosing keycaps which can be flat and completely sq.. There’s at the least a bit extra space between keys to offer a bit tactile sense of the place one key ends and the following begins, however I nonetheless discover it arduous to kind away with my fingers centered.

Consequently, I discover I grasp up after a typo and take simply sufficient time to appropriate my place that I can’t maintain a typing velocity a lot above 100 phrases per minute in Monkeytype. If I’m fortunate and don’t make (or discover) my errors, I can hit 110-115 phrases per minute, however I didn’t really feel comfy going past that. 

IDG / Mark Knapp

The keyboard’s structure is a bit curious. Razer took benefit of the laptop computer’s additional house, however solely barely. It added a single additional column on the proper fringe of the keyboard with a couple of shortcut keys. This can be helpful for those who use them, but it surely makes discovering the Delete and arrow keys just a bit extra tedious. Razer additionally had a possibility to make use of full-size arrow keys while not having to shrink the suitable Shift key an excessive amount of however didn’t benefit from that additional house. 

And this being a Razer machine, the keyboard naturally has full, per-key RGB backlighting that’s extremely customizable in Razer’s software program. Whereas the RGB lighting illuminates all the main legends on the keycaps, it doesn’t accomplish that for any of the secondary legends. And for the operate row, meaning you’ll solely get the F1-F12 legends lit up and never the useful shortcuts tied to them. 

Razer’s trackpad is correctly large. It takes up virtually all the house obtainable to it on the vertical axis, leaving only a slender strip above and under. It’s additionally virtually as vast because the alphanumeric keys on the keyboard. That is nice for mousing across the system, as I virtually by no means must take care of repositioning my finger.

I’ve run into a pair small hiccups with multi-finger gestures and much more with very frequent palm rejection failures, with the trackpad registering unintended touches which can be arduous to keep away from because of its measurement. However total, its measurement is a profit. The trackpad has a brief and agency bodily click on. It’s pleasing to the contact, although it takes simply sufficient pressure that I discover I typically fail to get it on the primary try. 

Razer Blade 16 2025: Show, audio

The Blade 16 gives a wonderful show. It’s exceedingly sharp with a 2560×1600 decision on a 16-inch panel, and that may spin as much as 240Hz for ultra-fast movement. Mix that with the truth that it’s an OLED panel, and also you get not solely the velocity of the refresh but in addition the fast pixel response time. The show may hit 411 nits of fullscreen brightness, lots for many environments besides brilliant open air.

Razer claims that is an anti-glare show. And it’s, to a level. I can clearly see reflections in it, so don’t count on a matte high quality. However exterior, within the daylight, the glare is barely subdued. The show’s brightness combines with pitch blacks for infinite distinction, and the display can ship one hundred pc protection of the DCI-P3 colour house alongside a excessive diploma of colour accuracy (common dE1976 of 0.69 and max dE1976 of 1.44).

IDG / Mark Knapp

The audio system can get fairly loud, however at max quantity, they’re overbearing and warp some, particularly with robust bass, and so they produce a little bit of resonance within the laptop computer chassis. At decrease volumes, they put out fairly clear and clear sound with brilliant treble and pronounced mids. Bass is a bit weak, however not solely absent, as it may be on many laptops.

Razer Blade 16 2025: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

You’ll get a serviceable webcam and microphone setup on the Blade 16. In good lighting situations, the digital camera captures a decently sharp image and avoids an excessive amount of noise or poor publicity. Should you’re simply attempting to depend on overhead lights, although, the image will find yourself a good bit grainier. 

The mics have considerably uncommon processing, even in a quiet room. This makes for a loud and current voice however has minor artifacts. The flipside of that processing is that background noise is nearly obliterated. Even with a fan operating at full velocity beneath the desk I had the laptop computer on, the mics captured solely my voice. Much more wild, I started snapping my fingers and clapping whereas I spoke into the mics, and so they utterly neutralized the snapping and clapping. Good if you wish to make sure your voice is captured, however possibly not so good for those who need somebody to listen to your clapping.

Whereas the Blade 16 actually has house for a fingerprint scanner, it doesn’t embody one. The webcam does work with Home windows Whats up for fast facial recognition, although.

Razer Blade 16 2025: Connectivity

At first look, the 2025 Razer Blade 16 may seem to have the identical ports as its predecessor, albeit with a slight shift to their positioning (the SD card reader is now nearer to different ports on the suitable facet). However this mannequin has upgraded ports. Whereas its predecessor had a single Thunderbolt 4 port, the brand new Blade 16 has two USB4 ports. It retains one on both sides (a plus for flexibility), and so they each help DisplayPort 1.4 and might obtain 100 watts of PD charging in case you don’t wish to deliver the 1.77-pound charging brick with you in all places. 

The laptop computer nonetheless has three USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports — two on the left and one on the suitable — in addition to a 3.5mm combo jack, HDMI 2.1 port, and full-size SD card reader. There’s a Kensington safety lock slot as properly. 

IDG / Mark Knapp

Curiously, the USB-C ports could help DisplayPort, however just for video indicators coming from the CPU’s built-in GPU. Because you’ll wish to sport on the discrete GPU, you’ll have to make use of the HDMI port to get essentially the most out of the system’s efficiency. 

For wi-fi connections, the Blade 16 nonetheless helps Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, and each have confirmed dependable in my testing. 

Razer Blade 16 2025: Efficiency

This take a look at unit of the Razer Blade 16 is geared as much as be an excessive performer. However the chassis thinness doesn’t enable the identical type of warmth administration you may count on from large and beefy gaming laptops. So though you’re getting among the most premium internals you’ll be able to for a laptop computer, you shouldn’t essentially count on them to outpace rivals.

Whereas we haven’t but examined different RTX 5090-powered laptops, the Razer Blade 16 reveals itself solely worthy of competing with RTX 5080-powered laptops anyway. On many fronts, it struggles to take care of the $3,599 Lenovo Legion Professional 7i Gen 10, $3,299 Asus ROG Strix SCAR 16 (G635LW), $3,769 HP Omen Max 16, and $4,059 Lenovo Legion 9i (Gen 9). 

IDG / Mark Knapp

The Razer Blade 16 is a potent machine. Scores upwards of 8,000 factors in PCMark 10 don’t come simply, however the Blade 16 managed it properly. This holistic benchmark supplies an concept of how properly the system can deal with all types of frequent workloads, and this type of rating leaves little doubt that the Blade 16 can sustain with a lot of what the common consumer will throw at it. That mentioned, Razer is trailing the pack right here. And as we dig into extra focused efficiency assessments, it’ll turn into fairly clear why. 

In follow, the Blade 16 does handle on a regular basis use properly. However this may see the system handing off show administration between the dGPU and iGPU, and it’s not seamless. It could be fast, but it surely tends to occur proper in the midst of me doing one thing, so I continuously really feel the momentary freeze of the show because it switches over.

IDG / Mark Knapp

The Razer Blade 16 could sport a high-end CPU, but it surely’s not main the pack by any measure. Throughout Cinebench R15, R20, R23, and R24, the Razer Blade 16 and its AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 CPU (which has a 4+8 core configuration) lag behind the Intel Core Extremely 9 275HX (which has an 8+16 core configuration) present in three of those different laptops. Throughout the board, it falls quick in single-core and multi-core efficiency. Solely towards the Legion 9i’s Core i9-14900HX does the Blade 16 rating any wins, and even there it’s solely in single-core efficiency.

This isn’t to say the Blade 16 is a weak system, however for those who’re in search of essentially the most uncooked energy, these different programs usually have it beat. And certain sufficient, this uncooked CPU brunt bears out in Handbrake as properly, the place the Razer Blade 16 takes greater than 50 % longer to finish its encoding duties subsequent to the Intel Lunar Lake-equipped laptops and even falls over a minute behind the Lenovo Legion 9i Gen 9 with its older (although no slouch) Intel Core i9-14900HX.

IDG / Mark Knapp

That CPU deficit comes again to chew the Razer Blade 16 once more relating to less-demanding 1080p gaming. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the Blade was largely sure by its CPU, so though it was the one system on this pack with an RTX 5090, it carried out in the back of the pack. It was so CPU-bound, actually, that bumping the decision from 1080p to 1440p noticed efficiency drop solely to a mean of 161 FPS.

IDG / Mark Knapp

Sadly, at the same time as extra weight is placed on the GPU, the Razer Blade 16 doesn’t handle to hurry away from the competitors. Metro Exodus stays fairly demanding even at 1080p. Right here, the Razer Blade 16 is providing undeniably glorious efficiency, but it surely’s merely no extra glorious than the opposite programs right here, and the Lenovo Legion Professional 7i Gen 10’s efficiency is sweet for an virtually eight % lead. 

IDG / Mark Knapp

Ray tracing seems to be a giant equalizer for these programs. Operating Cyberpunk 2077 at its Extremely preset with none ray-tracing results, the Blade 16 once more falls method behind. However with the RT Overdrive preset, all the programs drop to inside a body or two of 40 FPS (besides the Legion 9i, which was not examined with Cyberpunk 2077). 

IDG / Mark Knapp

3DMark’s Port Royale benchmark additional reveals this equalizing impact. The place the Blade 16 had been trailing in different assessments, it’s again within the sport when heavy ray-tracing results are referred to as for. It will get a minor lead over the ROG Strix Scar 16 and HP Omen Max 16, but it surely’s an extremely marginal enchancment over the RTX 4090 seen within the Lenovo Legion 9i. However extra crucially, the Blade 16 nonetheless lags behind the Lenovo Legion Professional 7i Gen 10 and its RTX 5080. 

Razer Blade 16 2025: Battery life

To the Razer Blade 16’s credit score, it at the least does a great job managing its battery. Some gaming laptops wrestle to wrangle their discrete GPUs when working on battery energy, and that may see them rip proper via their battery. In my testing, the Blade 16 usually managed to disable the GPU and lean on the iGPU when it was away from its charger. That paid off in our battery take a look at, operating an area 4K video with the show set between 250 and 260 nits and the system in airplane mode, the place the Blade 16 managed to run for a bit over 10 and a half hours. 

IDG / Mark Knapp

That efficiency noticed the Razer Blade 16 virtually double the runtimes of its competitors right here. Solely two of those different machines managed to interrupt 5 hours, and neither exceeded 6 hours. The Blade 16 even managed to carry up properly in on a regular basis use, usually making it via a lot of the day. On at the least one event, I did discover the discrete GPU remaining lively on battery energy, however I used to be capable of manually finish functions that had been utilizing it, after which it deactivated. 

Regardless of having among the most extreme-performance {hardware} yow will discover for a laptop computer in the present day, I discovered the Razer Blade 16 continuously holding me up whereas attempting to do easy issues in Home windows whereas working on battery energy. It continuously stalled out whereas attempting to get into varied settings menus, and casually searching with movies operating would often see the video sputter or have the show freeze solely (a not unusual expertise on laptop computer iGPUs).

Razer Blade 16 2025: Conclusion

Each time I’ve examined a high-end Razer Blade, I’ve seen it sacrifice efficiency in its pursuit of a slimmer, lighter design. That’s true once more right here, placing it at odds with the form of high-performance elements you’ll be able to configure the 2025 Blade 16 to incorporate. The Blade 16’s RTX 5090 falling behind different programs operating RTX 5080 and RTX 4090 GPUs is a foul look, particularly when the Blade 16 hits such a lofty value to offer that RTX 5090. For these searching for excessive efficiency, the Blade 16 simply doesn’t stand out as wise. 

The lower-tier fashions of the Blade 16 may very well be the place it begins to make sense. The Legion Professional 7i 16 Gen 10 that has harried the Blade 16 so completely via our benchmarking suite has a base value of $2,849 and comes with an RTX 5070 Ti. The Blade 16, in the meantime, comes with an RTX 5070 for $2,799 (although the CPU additionally drops to a barely slower Ryzen AI 9 365 CPU), or you’ll be able to bump it to $2,999 to get an RTX 5070 Ti. With closer-matched internals and costs, the Blade’s slimmer design, decrease weight, and longer battery life can assist buoy its worth subsequent to the Lenovo system. And optimistically, the Blade 16’s thermal and energy designs could also be higher in a position to deal with the lower-tier internals to truly run them at their full potential.