Hello followers! Nuked here, and I just had the chance to get my hands on the new Razer Blade 16 and 18 laptops. Let me tell you, I am impressed.

The Blade 18 is the biggest and most powerful Razer Blade ever released, which is cool in itself. But I’m even more excited about the Blade 16, which has some features we’ve never seen before on a Razer Blade. One of the standout features is the Mini LED screen. It looks fantastic. Some shades look blindingly bright against black backdrops, while black areas look beautifully black.

We also got to see a panel made of Mini LEDs that mirrored what the Blade 16 was doing. The Blade 16’s screen has 1,000 local dimming zones, and the panel really highlighted just how many independent lights are crammed into that laptop and how much work they’re all doing.

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to play any games on these Blade models since they were pre-production units. But we did get to see a video of game footage and I can’t wait to try out the toggle feature that allows you to easily swap between 4K/120Hz and 1920 X 1200/240Hz modes.

I’m also thrilled that these laptops have 16:10 screens, which make the 16-inch panel seem endless compared to Blades I’ve used in the past. As a bonus, the taller screen makes for a longer chassis, which gives Razer room for a large 95.2Wh battery.

I was also able to try out the keyboard and touchpad, and they are the same large, sturdy keyboard and touchpad we’ve seen on Razer Blades in the past. Inside, configurations come with Intel’s 13th-Gen Core i9-13950HX and up to Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4090 graphics. The Blade 16 starts at $2,699.99.

Now, all of these additions do come with one compromise: size. The Blade 16 is 5.4 pounds and 13.98 X 9.61 X 0.87 inches. That’s almost a full pound heavier and over a tenth of an inch thicker than last year’s Blade 15. It’s a heavy device and doesn’t feel as slim and sleek as the Blade 15 did last year. But some people will be willing to make that compromise to get the Mini LED screen and improved performance of the Blade 16, and that’s fair enough.