Razer Blade 16 (2025): Sleek and light but lags in performance

Temper your expectations.

- MARK KNAPP

The 2025 Razer Blade 16 continues the shaky tradition of packing some top-of-the-line PC gaming hardware into a laptop chassis that can almost be considered thin and light. For a 16-inch laptop, the Razer Blade 16 impresses at well under 5 pounds and under 0.7 inches thick, and yet it's still rocking a solid aluminum design, a fantastic display, and more ports than you'd expect. There are always some downsides to this formula, as the new Blade 16 ranges in price From $2,399 to $4,499 as tested here in a high-end configuration and yet lags behind some cheaper competitors where performance is concerned.

It's that awkward balance of performance, price, and design that sees the Blade 16 struggle with value. Those who want the most performance can get it from something like the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i 16 Gen 10 (fave. co/4kZY0od) instead. But where slimness, weight, and battery life for a gaming laptop are concerned, this new Blade 16 still has something to offer.

SPECS AND FEATURES

Model number: RZ09-05289EN9-R3U1

CPU: AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370

Memory: 32GB LPDDR5

Graphics/GPU: Nvidia RTX 5090 (175-watt TGP)

Display: 16-inch 2560×1600 240Hz OLED

Storage: 2TB PCIe Gen4 SSD

Webcam: 1080p + IR

Connectivity: 2× USB 4 with DisplayPort 1.4 (from iGPU only) and 100W PD input, 3× USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, 1× HDMI 2.1, 1x SDcard reader, 1× 3.5mm combo audio

Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4

Biometrics: Windows Hello facial recognition

Battery capacity: 90 watt-hours

Dimensions: 13.98×9.86×0.69 inches

Weight: 4.65 pounds

MSRP: $4,499 as tested ($2,399 base)