tl;dr at the bottom
Introduction & Specs
Razer Blade 16 (Model Number RZ09-0483TEH3-R3U1)
Intel Core i9-13950HX (24c/32t, one ‘bin’ above 13900HX)
RTX 4080 12GB, 175W TGP after Dynamic Boost
32GB DDR5 5600MHz Memory, Dual-Channel
1TB Gen4 NVMe SSD (SSSTC CA6-8D1024, 6800MB/s Read & 4800MB/s Write)
QHD+ 240Hz IPS Display, 500 nits, 100% DCI-P3
95WHr Battery with a 330W GaN Power Adapter
Chassis Design and Port Selection
Doesn’t stray far from the well-known design from prior generations – expect fingerprints, even with their new “anti-fingerprint coating”
Still uses unibody aluminum chassis, albeit thicker/deeper to accommodate the larger vapor chamber and taller 16:10 display
Weighs around 5.3 pounds, with an additional 2 pounds for the 330W charger for a total of 7.4 pounds (compared to 4.4 pounds from prior generations)
Extremely rigid and exhibits little-to-no flex anywhere on the chassis, nor does it creak when picked up from various edges/corners of the laptop
Ports:
1 x Thunderbolt™ 4 (USB-C™) (100W USB PD 3)
1 x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 [Supports Power Delivery 3 (100W)]
3 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
HDMI 2.1 output
UHS-II SD Card Reader
3.5mm Combo-Jack
Input Devices (Screen, Trackpad, Speakers & Keyboard)
Display is fantastic – offers great gamut coverage, very fast, and is plenty bright (though, not mini-LED bright)
My unit has very little backlight bleed, but YMMV
Trackpad is insanely spacious – think MacBook Pro 16 spacious. Glass surface, smooth, tracks nicely, and with the recent firmware updates from Razer, handles palm rejection well
Keyboard layout is the same as prior Blade iterations, travel leaves a bit to be desired but is still quite usable; just don’t expect it to be a tactile experience. I was able to get up to my full typing speed with a day or two of familiarization.
Speakers are still not encroaching on the quality of the 16” MacBook Pro lineup, but are much better than much of the Windows competition. I’d say they’re similar in quality to the XPS 15’s top-firing speakers, which are also respectable, but not best-in-class.
Performance & Thermal Comparison
(LOOK AT SCREENSHOTS FOR BENCHMARKS AGAINST LEGION PRO 7I 4080)
All tests were run with a -75mV Core Offset and a +150/+500 GPU Overclock, both modest tweaks that most silicon should allow for without instability
All tests run with max fans in a 71f room
Miscellaneous Callouts
Battery life is slightly better on the Blade when compared to the Legion, even with the smaller battery; I’m seeing closer to 6 hours in iGPU mode at 60Hz vs. 5 hours on the Legion Pro 7i
The 330W GaN Charger is really compact for the power output – it is smaller than the new Legion 330W and Dell’s 300W Gallium Nitride chargers, which further adds to the Blade’s portability, but still has that right-angle connector that can block the left USB port when plugged in a particular way.
Synapse can often interfere with CPU settings from ThrottleStop or XTU – be sure to toggle CPU Overclocking off and on after applying your own settings (Thanks, GQ!) to ensure they apply.
My Razer Factory Image of Windows “broke” the internal display – I had to wipe Windows and reinstall drivers and software to use the laptop properly again.
My thoughts:
For $3599+tax, this thing should have liquid metal or some other better thermal interface material, because it stifles an otherwise nice machine with poor thermals. It's built well, is compact, and performs well, but just runs too hot out of the box and calls for the end-user to repaste with aftermarket materials.