The 2024 edition of the Razer Blade 18 video gaming laptop computer was revealed a couple of days back at CES 2024 and pictures of the monster have actually flowed online (here here and hererevealing the yearly refresh of the popular DTR (desktop PC replacement) laptop computer is a considerable one.
While its main market is – and stays – players, there’s no rejecting that the total plan will attract creatives and even additional afield, for a variety of factors; a mobile workstation to rule all mobile workstations?
Unlike many of its rivals (Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 MSI GT77 Titan Lenovo Legion 7i Prothe Razer Blade 18 does not appear like a video gaming laptop computer at all. It would not look out of location at all in an executive management group conference in a confidential London-based conference room. With its absence of a devoted keypad, a long hinge and brushed metal surface, it looks more like a 16-inch Apple MacBook Pro albeit at practically two times the weight.
There’s the Thunderbolt 5 (TB5) port, capable of providing a bandwidth of 120 Gbps, and is more beneficial for content developers than players. Razer’s own marketing literature describes “much faster information backup/archiving and quicker export and making” thanks to two times the quantity of bandwidth for external SSDexternal GPU and other developer tools. I have actually seen a variety of docking stations (e.g. J5 Create) and portable SSD (e.g. OWC) that support TB5 at CES 2024; anticipate that number to grow this year.
Workstation-class requirements
Thunderbolt 5 likewise supports refresh rates of approximately 540 Hz at low resolutions, 144Hz on 3 4K displaysapproximately 2 8K screens and a single 10K/16K screen, the latter most likely at 30Hz (ed: still have not seen a single mainstream 8K screen on sale yet for the previous couple of years, so will not hold my breath for a 16K one).
If the specifications of the smaller sized Razer Blade 16 are the very same for its larger bro, anticipate a 14th generation Intel Core i9 CPU (14900HX) and a desktop-grade Nvidia RTX 4090 with a 175W TDP. Based upon Geekbench benchmark CPU test resultsI anticipate the 14900HX – which Intel calls the world’s fastest mobile CPU – to be competitive with crème-de-la-crème from AMD (within a comparable power envelope).
And in a thinly-veiled nod to material developers and specialists, it nearly particular that – based upon the existing specifications of its 2024 16-inch brethren – the brand-new Razer 18 will feature as much as 8TB SSD and 96GB of RAM, a really considerable increase from its 2023 variation which might just summon 32GB of RAM and 2TB SSD, enough for players however not for Pros. Anticipate to pay north of $5,000 (about ₤ 4,000, AU$ 7,500) simply for these 2 upgrades however, essentially doubling the rate of the base setup.
It’s not the ideal mobile workstation though, let’s not kid ourselves. It does not use Windows 11 Pro by default, features 12 months service warranty just without any alternative for longer durations or onsite service warranty. There’s no numerical keypad, a need to for pros, there’s no finger print reader or assistance for vPro, Intel’s management platform.
Still, I would happily put it in our best laptop computer for engineering trainees or best laptop computer for video modifying purchasing guides when it goes on sale later on this year.
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