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Last year, the Razer Blade series of laptops were largely considered to be some of the best laptops outside of the late-2021 MacBook Pro models. These were the first Razer laptops to sport AMD chipsets while being paired with the latest NVIDIA 30-Series graphics cards.
At CES 2022, Razer is back with a vengeance as the company has announced a major refresh for the Blade 14, 15, and 17 laptops. The Blade 14 sticks with AMD using the Ryder 9 6900Hx, while the Blade 15 and 17 use Intel’s Core i7 and Core i9 chipsets, along with using NVIDIA’s RTX 30-series GPUs. But another major addition to this crop of laptops is the addition of DDR5 RAM and Thunderbolt 4 ports.
Razer’s decision to go strictly with AMD in 2021, led to a bit of frustration due to the lack of Thunderbolt support. Instead, users were stuck with using traditional USB-C for connecting their docks, monitors, and other peripherals. These concerns have been rectified, at least for the Razer Blade 15 and Blade 17. The Razer Blade 14 retains the dual USB-C ports with Power Delivery.
Starting with the 14-inch model, there are two different display types that you can choose from; FHD w/ 144Hz or QHD w/ 165Hz refresh rates. The 15-inch model sees the same two resolution offerings, however, the QHD model supports a 240Hz refresh rate. There’s also a new UHD 4K display resolution, complete with a 144Hz IPS panel. The Blade 17 offers the same resolutions and refresh rates as the Blade 15.
Port selection is largely the same across the board, outside of the dual Thunderbolt 4 ports and SD card reader that are only available on the Blade 15 and Blade 17. The Blade 17 also adds a single RJ45 2.5Gb Ethernet jack.
Windows Hello support returns to the Blade lineup courtesy of the 1080p IR webcam found on all three models. Razer has also included support for Wi-Fi 6E along with Bluetooth 5.2 for connecting your various peripherals.
As expected, pricing for the Razer Blade models could be a tough pill to swallow. The Razer Blade 14 in its base configuration, starts at $1,999. Moving to the Blade 15 starts at $2,499, and the Blade 17 starts at $2,699. All of these prices go up depending on what model you end up deciding on.
Pre-orders for the new Razer Blade 15 and Blade 17 will begin soon, before hitting the Razer website on January 25th. The Razer Blade 14 will be available beginning on February 10th. No matter which model you pick, you’ll be left ordering online for an undetermined amount of time, as Razer states that the laptops will make it to “select retailers” over the course of Q1 2022.
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