Razer’s Blade 18 laptop pairs a drool-worthy 4K display with Thunderbolt 5

Razer has launched the Razer Blade 18 laptop with what the company says are two firsts: an optional 18-inch, 200Hz 4K panel and Thunderbolt 5 capabilities.

Pricing on the updated, New Razer Blade 18 is apparently somewhat variable: it’s listed as starting at $2,899.99, but Razer is apparently selling it for $2,699.99. However, Razer’s buying page says that the Razer Blade 18 pricing begins at $3,099.99.

Razer is positioning the Blade 18 as a creator-class laptop, pre-installing Nvidia’s content-aligned Nvidia Studio drivers rather than its Game Ready drivers. But make no bones about it: This is a top-of-the-line gaming laptop, too. You’ll have the option of either buying a model with a 13th-gen Core i9-13950HX, or a more modern Core i9-14900HX, and pairing it with a Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060, 4070, 4080, or 4090.

Memory options range from 16, 32, or 64GB of DDR5-5600 memory, paired with either a 1TB, 2TB, or a 4TB PCIe 4.0 SSD configuration. (The latter is shipped as a pair of 2TB drives in adjoining M.2 slots.) Razer says that all of the Blade 18s will ship with two available M.2 slots, one of which will be filled with the stock SSD.

Interestingly, one of the Blade 18’s features sort of undercuts the other.

The Razer Blade 18 is the first laptop we’ve heard of with support for Thunderbolt 5, an updated version of Thunderbolt 4 found in most Thunderbolt docking stations. Thunderbolt 5 supports bi-directional bandwidth of 80Gbps, or 120Gbps one way. The idea is that the Thunderbolt 5 specification will be used for supporting a pair of 4K displays at refresh rates up to 144Hz, which pairs high resolution with a high refresh rate, too.

Razer, however, already ships an optional 4K, 200Hz internal display — which means that, somewhat ironically, an external display connected to a Thunderbolt 5 dock won’t be able to achieve the same refresh rate as what the Blade 18 already offers. On the other hand, Razer’s Blade 18 also offers the option of a more conventional 18-inch 300Hz 2560×1600 miniLED display, potentially offering an intriguing combination of a fast 4K external display paired with an even faster laptop display.

It’s all moot for now, since Thunderbolt 5 docks don’t exist and probably won’t until later this year. But Razer has plans for those, too: Razer representatives told my colleague Adam Patrick Murray that the company plans to ship a Thunderbolt 5 dock, probably a followup to the surprisingly good Razer Thunderbolt 4 Dock Chroma.

The other possibility that Thunderbolt 5 opens up again is the opportunity to ship an external GPU docking station — and Razer apparently has at least a prototype in a back room, Murray reports. Again, buying a laptop with a GeForce RTX 40-series GPU inside of it makes this feature largely moot — but GeForce RTX 50-series parts can’t be too far away?

If Thunderbolt 5 matters to you, however, make sure you buy a version of the Blade 18 with a RTX 4080 or 4090, as Thunderbolt 5 won’t be in the 4070 models and below. You’ll find other ports up and down the Blade 18 lineup, however: 2.5Gbps Ethernet, a second USB 3.2 Gen 2 (with DisplayPort) port, a UHS-II SD card reader, and HDMI 2.1. Inside is either WiFi 6e or WiFi 7, depending on the model.

The laptop measures 15.74 x 10.84 x 0.86 inches, and weighs a pretty hefty 6.8 pounds, even finished with aluminum. A GaN power adapter (280W/330W, depending on the model) will charge the internal 91.7Wh battery.

Further reading: The best gaming laptops we’ve tested

Additional reporting by Adam Patrick Murray.