We’re discussing the Razer Blade 16 2025 generation in this review.
This laptop was the partner launch series for the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile chip earlier in 2025, and was sent by Nvidia to many reviewers around February/March, and that’s why it was covered by all the big outlets and YouTubers. I didn’t get one at that time, but I was interested in finding out how this device fares a few months later, with more mature software that should offer better stability and improved overall behaviour with daily use and sustained loads.
My sample was also provided by Nvidia, and it’s the same AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 + Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 configuration that most other reviews covered. I took my time with this laptop, since it’s one of the very few Razer notebooks I got to touch over the years, as Razer don’t sell their notebooks in this part of the world and Derek handled all our past Razer reviews.
This generation of the Blade 16 is a compact, thin and lighweigth premium chassis, especially compared to the past Blades, so I was also interested in how this compares to thicker and higher-power implementations of Nvidia RTX 5000 Blackwell hardware, as well as how it fares against a few other popular options in the thin-and-light creator space, such as the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 and the Asus ProArt P16, as these were fresh in my mind from past reviews. So you’ll find all my thoughts and impressions down below.
2025 Razer Blade 16
Razer Blade 16, 2025 model
Display 16-inch, 16:10, glossy, non-touch,OLED QHD+ 2560 x 1600 px , 240 Hz VRR 0.2ms , 400 nits SDR, 100% DCI-P3 colors
Processor AMD Strix Point, Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, 12C/24T, up to 5.1 GHz
Video Radeon 890M + Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 24GB (up to 155W with Dyn Boost)
Memory 32 GB LPDDR5x-8000 (onboard)
Storage 2 TB SSD (Lite On CA6) – 2x M.2 PCI 4.0 x4 slots
Connectivity WiFi 7 2×2 with Bluetooth 5.4 (Mediatek MT7925 module)
Ports left: DC-in, 2x USB-A 3.2, 1x USB-C 4.0, audio jack
Battery 90 Wh, 330 W power adapter, USB-C charging up to 100W
Size 355 mm or 13.98” (w) x 251 mm or 9.86 (d) x 17.4 mm or – .69″ (h)
Weight 2.1 kg (4.65 lbs),
Extras clamshell format with 135-degree hinge, CNC metal chassis, black design with green Razer logo on the lid,
Design and ergonomics Much like past Blade notebooks, this refreshed iteration is still an all-metal design, a CNC aluminum chassis with a matte anodized black finish. It feels premium to the touch and professionally crafted.
It’s not quite as solid as the past Blades, though, and I’d argue not as solid as the Zephyrus/ProArt either, with some flex in the keyboard deck and especially on the lid, around that Razer logo in the middle. Razer most likely used thinner metal pieces to lower the weight, so I’d probably put this in a sleeve when having it in my backpack. That would prevent scratches as well, which I’d expect would eventually happen on this sort of black finishing – but my unit wasn’t pampered and thrown away between reviewers over these last months, and doesn’t show any tear signs at all. Quite impressive.
And speaking of the black finishing, it shows smudges and finger oils. That could be a reason to install a decal; it helps that there’s an excellent selection of such accessories for the Blade series. A decal would also cover that Razer logo on the lid – I now understand why Derek’s always been mentioning it, it’s big and obnoxious.
That logo is backlit as well, and even though you can switch the lighting off, it’s still not going to be muted into the lid design, since it is physically green. Such a weird decision, especially since all the other branding elements are so nicely integrated, without any markups or engravings, and with a muted Razer writing under the lid.
Design aside, I’ll circle back to the overall dimensions of this Blade 16 generation, much thinner, compact, and lighter than the previous models. It’s only a little bigger than a MacBook Pro 16 or an Asus Zephyrus G16 , and on par in weight, at 2.1 kilos (4.7 lbs). The ProArt P16 is lighter at 1.85 kilos, but that’s also a lower-power lower-specced device, so only an alternative if you’re shopping for a 5060/5070 configuration (at least for now).
Ergonomics are solid overall for this chassis, with premium build quality, a spacious armrest, strong and smooth hinges, and good grip on the desk. Razer handled the fine details so well. For instance, the rear rubber foot is a little taller, allowing for extra space underneath the chassis for ventilation, and they made a crease on the front lip so you can easily grab the lid and open it up. They also made sure there were no lights in the line of sight, as they placed the status LED on the front lip.
They also blunted all the edges, although the radius is limited, and you might still find that front lip a little aggressive on the wrist, and the corners a little pointy. They’re not as sharp as on a MacBook, but also not as friendly as on the Asus models.
I have to mention the limited back screen angle as well, at around 135 degrees. For a device that is suposedly portable and won’t just sit on a desk, I’d much preffer having a wider opening, ideally flat to 180 degrees.
As for the IO, the ports are lined on the left and right edges, with the power plug at the back on the left, the full HDMI on the right, and USB-C ports on both sides. They’re both USB-C 4.0 ports, with data, DP 1.4, and charging up to 100W.
But you might want to be aware that these USB-Cs are both routed through the AMD Radeon iGPU, and not straight through the Nvidia dGPU. That means they’re not ideal for outputting games on an external monitor. You also don’t get GSync with the USB-C connection; you have to rely on FreeSync and set it properly in the AMD Adrenaline software. The HDMI port, on the other hand, goes into the Nvidia dGPU and supports external DSync.
Overall, this Blade 16 is surely among the better chassis designs available in this space, fairly compact and lightweight, but without sacrificing functionality and ergonomics in any significant way. Having a 180-degree screen and a more subtle Razer logo on the lid would have been ideal, as well as offering the diversity of one USB-C port connected to the dGPU, but all these are minor nits.
Keyboard and touchpad Inputs have been finally redesigned on this 2025 series, and that was a needed update.
Razer still went with a centered keyboard without a NumPad, an approach I preffer, but that could drive some potential buyers away. They also added an extra column of Function keys at the very right, and you’ll need time to get used to it being there, especially when going for Enter, Backspace, or the right arrow. I appreciate having PgUp and PgDn dedicated keys, and all these keys are customizable in the Synapse software. The power button is the top-right key, but it is set by default not to do anything when pressed accidentally – it only works to power up the laptop (you can change its behavior in the settings).
I haven’t touched the previous Razer Blade keyboards, so I can’t properly compare this new implementation to those of the past. Other reviewers claim it’s a massive improvement, so there’s that.
Nonetheless, I found the typing experience on this one alright, but the feedback is still somewhat shallow and loud. It’s a mixture of feedback and travel depth corroborated with the large flat keycaps that I struggled with. Eventually, I got used to it, but overall I preffer typing on a MacBook or a Zephyrus/ProArt over this Blade. I just can’t tell for sure why and put it in words.
For what is worth, I’ve seen reports about double-registering keystrokes in certain conditions. I haven’t noticed this on my unit, so I’m not sure if it’s still an ongoing issue or if it was addressed by the latest software updates. It was related to the Synapse app – closing the app fixed it.
I must praise the backlighting implementation, probably the best there is. It comes with per-key LEDs, bright and uniform, and with no light bleeding underneath the keycaps, with 15+ brightness levels, and multiple light effects. Furthermore, secondaries for F1 to F12 light up more intensely when the Fn key is pressed. They’re still backlit by default, so you can see them in the dark, but they get brighter when you press Fn. Nice trick.
The touchpad is fine, spacious, and smooth. Palm rejection works fine for the most part. Once more, I’ve seen people complain about palm rejection in other reviews and on Reddit, but I found it alright. I also didn’t run into stuttering or the touchpad not responding to any inputs, as mentioned by some reviews – make sure you look into these on your unit, maybe it’s a QC issue of some sort? The physical clicks are smooth and quiet.
I’ll also add that despite being so large, the bevel on the front lip actually helps prevent ghost touches from your clothes to some extent, when using the device on the lap or on my thighs.
For biometrics, the camera at the top supports IR. There’s no finger sensor.
Screen – OLED panel, non-touch, glossy The display is a Samsung non-touch OLED with a glossy finish, rather standard for this segment today. It’s not the latest and brighter Tandem OLED offered by a few devices in 2025 , it’s a standard OLED from last year, similar to the one implemented on the Zephyrus G16.
Nonetheless, this is one of the most stunning displays available out there for general use, content consumption and creation, and gaming. It comes with lightning-fast response times, 240Hz refresh rate, and GSync. And the 1600p resolution is versatile for multi-purpose use and gaming.
This panel is just not very bright, though, at around 400-nits sustained max, making it difficult to use in certain bright-light conditions. It’s also an OLED, so it needs to be used properly to prevent burn-in and flickers at lower brightness levels. But according to NBC, the PWM frequency is high enough so most people won’t notice it at all .
Hardware and performance – AMD Strix Point Ryzen processor, GeForce RTX 5090 dGPU Our test model is a top-specced configuration of the 2025 Razer Blade 16, with an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 dedicated graphics, 32 GB of DDR5-8000 memory, and a middling 2 TB gen4 SSD.
Disclaimer: This unit was sent over for review by Nvidia. I tested it with the mature software available as of late June 2025 (BIOS v2.00, Customer Firmware Updater V1.07).
Spec-wise, this series is based on AMD’s Ryzen AI Strix Point hardware platform paired with Nvidia RTX 5000 Blackwell graphics.
The CPU is the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 , an excellent mobile hybrid design with 12 Cores and 24 Threads. This integrates 4x Performance Zen5 Cores and 8x Efficiency Zen5c Cores, with Hyper-Threading. It runs at 65-80W sustained in this chassis.
Keep in mind that only the RTX 5090 version of this Blade ships with the Ryzen AI 9 370 processor, as all other configurations are paired with a Ryzen AI 9 365 CPU, which is 10 Cores with 20 Threads. So ~20% slower in sustained CPU loads.
For the GPU, this 2025 Blade 16 configuration gets an RTX 5090 GPU 24 GB GPU with a TGP of up to 155W with Dynamic Boost. It runs at 150+W sustained in real use, but it’s not quite on par with the full RTX 5090 175W chips found in larger and thicker devices . Various other configurations are available as well, starting at a 5060 and up to a 5080.
For the RAM, the series is available with 16, 32 or 64 GB LPDDR5x-8000 memory, onboard. RAM amounts are weirdly tied to certain configurations. For the Ryzen 9 370 and 64 GB, you have to opt for a 5090. The 5080 is only available with 32 GB RAM and a Ryzen AI 9 365 processor. The 5060 model only gets 16 GB of RAM, and so on. Razer are forcefully funneling potential clients into higher-end specs this way, with higher prices.
For storage, there are two M.2 2280 PCIe gen4 slots on this series and no support for gen5 drives. Our sample comes preconfigured with Lite ON 2TB drive. It’s fine for general use, but I was expecting a higher-tier SSD on this sort of laptop. Not sure if the retail units get the same SSD or something else.
You need to remove a few Torx screws to get inside to the component, all easily accessible. All the screws are of the same size and length, and the back panel pops out easily once you take out the screws, without requiring any effort or tools.
Inside, everything is neatly packed together, without any space left unused.
Specs aside, Razer offer their standard power profiles in the Razer Synapse control app: Silent, Balanced, Performance, and Custom, with various power settings and fan profiles between them, summarized in the following table.
Silent Balanced Performance Custom
CPU only, SPL/SPPT TDP
35/40W
40/45W
64/80W
78/80W
GPU only, max TGP
90W
120W
155W
155W
Crossload
~115W, 25 + 90W
~140W, 25 + 115W
~175W, 20 + 155W
~175W, 20 + 155W
Noise at head-level, tested
~42 dBA
~44 dBA
~50 dBA
~52 dBA
Take these power levels with a grain of salt, as they are my estimations based on recorded logs.
Performance mode is loud on this laptop, but it offers plenty of power and capabilities for a device this thin. Balanced and Silent modes are aggressive on the power and fan levels as well. The existing Silent mode settings are what I’d expect from a mid-level profile in this class, while a true Silent mode should aim at around 35 dBA fan noise and lower power. You can tweak some things in Custom mode, and you can also manually adjust the fans. But overall, these profiles could use some polishing.
I’d also mention that Synapse can be buggy, creating stuttering in games and even double-registering of certain key presses in some situations. I noticed some on my unit, especially the unexpected stuttering in games, which seems to be fixed if you don’t open Synapse. However, it’s important to understand that you can’t run the laptop at higher power without Synapse, as it needs it for the higher-power profiles and settings. So even if you install a fresh Windows copy on your unit, you’d still have to install Synapse as well.
Before we jump to the performance section, here’s how this laptop handles everyday use and multitasking on the Silent profile, unplugged from the wall. The fans are rarely idle on this device, but run quietly and constantly with mixed use, even if you don’t switch to the Silent profile. Other devices in this space tend to run noisier unless you deliberately set them on their lowest-tier profile.
Performance and benchmarks On to more demanding loads, we start by testing the CPU’s sustained performance in the Cinebench R15 loop test.
I’ve tested the laptop raised off the desk, in order to favor proper cooling. The performance isn’t impacted when keeping it flat on the desk, but internal and external temperatures run hotter by a few degrees.
On Performance mode, the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor runs stably at 64W of power for the entire test, with temperatures in the mid 70s °C and scores of ~3300 points. The fans spin at ~42 dBA at head level in this mode. With the laptop flat on the desk, the CPU would run in the low 80s °C, with similar performance.
Then there’s the Custom profile, where you can set the CPU to High mode. The fans are still kept on Auto, and still spin at around 42 dBA, but the CPU runs at ~78W sustained, which results in temperatures around 82-84 °C, and scores of 3400 points. The difference in scores between Custom and Performance modes is minimal, within 1-2%, despite the higher sustained TDP on Custom.
Balanced is the mid-level profile and sets a 40W TDP cap on the CPU in this test, with quiet fans (sub 35 dBA) and low temperatures (mid-60s °C). Performance drops about 15% compared to the top profiles, at around 2850 points.
On Silent mode, the CPU runs at 35W, with sub-30 dBA fan noise and temperatures still in the mid-60s °C. The CPU scores around 2700 points on this profile, which is about 80% of the score on Performance.
Finally, the CPU runs at ~35 W of power on battery use, on the Balanced profile, and still scores around 2700 points, just like Silent mode plugged-in.
To put these findings in perspective, here’s how this AMD Ryzen AI 9 370 implementation fares against other modern platforms in this test.
This Ryzen AI 370 scores about on par with other implementations of the same hardware, despite running at lower power and with quieter fan noise. It’s also faster by about 10% than the Intel competing hardware of this generation, the Core Ultra 9 285H, running at 80W. And faster by 10-20% than previous-gen mobile hardware.
At the same time, it’s notably slower than the Intel Core HX hardware implemented in the previous iteration of the Blade 16 series, which scored 4000+ points.
We then went ahead and further verified our findings with the more taxing Cinebench R23 loop test and Blender – Classroom, which resulted in mostly similar findings to what we explained above (75-78W for Custom on High CPU, 60-64 W on Performance, 35-40W on Balanced, 25-35W on Silent).
We also ran the 3DMark CPU test on the Performance profile.
Finally, we ran our combined CPU+GPU stress tests on this notebook. 3DMark stress runs the same test for 20 times in a loop and looks for performance variation and degradation over time. This review unit easily passed the test both with the laptop flat on the deskm and raised on a stand, which means thermal throttling is never an issue on this chassis. We’ll further discuss this in the Gaming section below.
Next, we ran the entire suite of tests and benchmarks, on the Performance profile with the fans set on Auto, the Nvidia GPU set on Advanced Optimus, and the screen set at the native 2.5K+ resolution.
All these tests are running on Nvidia GameReady drivers. Some results might differ with Nvidia Studio drivers.
Here’s what we got:
3DMark 13 – CPU profile: max – 9550, 16 – 8961, 8 – 6943, 4 – 4444, 2 – 2352, 1 – 1190;3DMark 13 – Fire Strike (DX11): 38507 (Graphics – 55886 , Physics – 30875, Combined – 13003);3DMark 13 – Port Royal (RTX): 15519;3DMark 13 – Time Spy (DX12): 18761 (Graphics – 22359, CPU – 9813);3DMark 13 – Speed Way (DX12 Ultimate): 6073;3DMark 13 – Steel Nomad (DX12 Ultimate): 5854;3DMark 13 – DLSS: 28.39 fps DLSS Off, 133.08 fps DLSS On;
Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 13660;Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Medium: 31026;
PCMark 10: 8524 (Essentials – 10516, Productivity – 9917, Digital Content Creation – 16116);GeekBench 6.2.2 64-bit: Multi-core: 15741, Single-Core: 2854;CineBench R15 (best run): CPU 3533 cb, CPU Single Core 314 cb;CineBench R20 (best run): CPU 9269 cb, CPU Single Core 797 cb;CineBench R23: CPU 23742 cb (best single run), CPU 23693 cb (10 min run), CPU Single Core 2040 cb;CineBench 2024: GPU – pts, CPU 1279 pts (loop run), CPU Single Core 119 pts.
And here are some workstation benchmarks, on the same Turbo profile:
Blender 4.3.2 – BMW scene – CPU Compute: 1m 43s;Blender 4.3.2 – BMW scene – GPU Compute: 10.38s (CUDA), 5.27 (Optix);Blender 4.3.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 4m 42s;Blender 4.3.2 – Classroom scene – GPU Compute: 17.81s (CUDA), 10.53s (Optix);
SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax: 214.89;SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia: 113.90;SPECviewperf 2020 – Creo: 127.45;SPECviewperf 2020 – Energy: 73.14;SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya: 697.02;SPECviewperf 2020 – Medical: 62.68;SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX: 38.93;SPECviewperf 2020 – SW: 502.47;V-Ray Benchmark: 13442 – CPU, 2957 – CUDA, 4004 – RTX.
As mentioned already, the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 scores on par with other implementations tested so far in the ROG Zephyrus G14, and a few percent higher than in the ProArt P16. More importantly, internals temperatures and fan noise in sustained CPU-only loads is lower on this system than on others in the same space.
However, the noise aspect changes completely once the GPU kicks in. For mixed loads, fan noise in Performance mode jumps to 50 dBA, which is noisier than the other devices tested so far.
GPU performance is solid for a device of this sort. This unit scored within 5% of the RTX 5090 in the Scar 18 in synthetic GPU tests, and even bested the Scar in some tests, but keep in mind that the Scar was tested with much earlier drivers. It also scored higher in GPU tests than the RTX 5090 120W in the Zephyrus G16, by about 10-20%. For mixed use, though, the Scar is about 10% faster on average in GPU-heavy loads, and the Zephyrus is 10-20% slower.
I noticed that other reviews mention that the GPU only runs at around 140W TGP in sustained loads, but that’s not the case here. I’m consistently seeing 150-155W in the tested loads and games on Performance mode, so I’d reckon Razer changed things with their more recent software updates. More on this in the logs in the gaming section.
Overall, this configuration offers excellent mixed-use performance, and is undoubtedly one of the fastest thin-and-light performance notebooks available on the market at this point. At the same time, you can get faster CPU performance with Intel HX implementations, as well as somewhat faster GPU performance with full-power 175W devices. But those are generally larger, thicker, and heavier.
Now, whether you need a 5090 on this sort of device is questionable, especially when factoring in the paid price at 4.5K USD or 5.5K EUR. For mixed-use, there’s better value for your money in a mid-specced configuration with a 5070Ti, but too bad that’s only available with a Ryzen AI 365 processor and only 32 GB of RAM on this Blade. Other brands offer the Ryzen 9 370 on all variants, but Razer decided to only bundle it with the 5090 version. The Ryzen AI 365 scores about 20% lower than the Ryzen AI 9 370 in this unit, with an impact on workloads and games as well. They should have put the Ryzen 9 370 on all configurations!
Silent Mode – still plenty fast, but noisy as well at 42 dBA Silent mode limits the CPU and GPU to some extent, but not as aggressively as I’d expect from this sort of profile. As a result, fan noise is not quiet in sustained mixed loads, at around 42 dBA (with the fans on the Auto setting). Sure, with light use and daily multitasking, the fans keep barely audible, but noise ramps up quickly once you power the GPU.
Here’s what we got:
3DMark 13 – CPU profile: max – 8576, 16 – 8237, 8 – 6296, 4 – 4088, 2 – 2314, 1 – 1176;3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 32756 (Graphics – 48276, Physics – 24884, Combined – 11155);3DMark 13 – Port Royal (RTX): 12577;3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 15216 (Graphics – 17161, CPU – 9266);Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 10038;CineBench R23 (10 min loop): CPU 17691 cb, CPU Single Core 2021 cb;Blender 4.3.2 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 5m 44s.
The CPU is limited to 35W TDP in this mode, which means it only performs at about 75-80% of its capabilities in Performance mode in sustained loads.
The GPU runs at an average of 90-100W TGP, which is high power for this sort of profile. That explains the excellent scores for this sort of profile, at 75-80% of Performance mode.
In conclusion, this Blade 16 performs excellently on this Silent mode, but in reality, these settings are rather appropriate for a mid-level profile on this sort of laptop. I’d expect at 35 dBA noise target on Silent, not 40+ dBA. You can achieve that with a Custom fan profile, but not on the Auto fan setting.
Gaming performance I ran our standard set of gaming tests on this Razer Blade 16, and the results are down below. I’m using GameReady drivers, fans on Auto, and the Nvidia GPU is set on Nvidia GPU Only in the Nvidia Control Panel app.
The Custom OC profile keeps the fan on Auto and applies a +100 MHz Core +200 MHz Memory GPU overclock.
Razer Blade 16 RTX 5090 Laptop 130-155W QHD+ Performance QHD+ Custom OC QHD+ Balanced QHD+ Silent
Black Myth: Wukong 68 fps (45 fps – 1% low)
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Black Myth: WukongMFG On 2x 92 fps (34 fps – 1% low)
94 fps (35 fps – 1% low)
85 fps (30 fps – 1% low)
78 fps (28 fps – 1% low)
Black Myth: WukongMFG On 4x 168 fps (28 fps – 1% low)
174 fps (30 fps – 1% low)
154 fps (27 fps – 1% low)
138 fps (22 fps – 1% low)
Cyberpunk 2077 74 fps (42 fps – 1% low)
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Cyberpunk 2077 24 fps (15 fps – 1% low)
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Cyberpunk 2077MFG On 2x , Ray Reconstruction On, 106 fps (36 fps – 1% low)
108 fps (36 fps – 1% low)
100 fps (36 fps – 1% low)
92 fps (34 fps – 1% low)
Cyberpunk 2077MFG On 4x , Ray Reconstruction On, 185 fps (36 fps – 1% low)
188 fps (40 fps – 1% low)
174 fps (34 fps – 1% low)
152 fps (28 fps – 1% low)
Far Cry 6 114 fps (81 fps – 1% low)
117 fps (82 fps – 1% low)
109 fps (81 fps – 1% low)
99 fps (74 fps – 1% low)
Horizon Forbidden West 81 fps (58 fps – 1% low)
83 fps (58 fps – 1% low)
73 fps (55 fps – 1% low)
63 fps (46 fps – 1% low)
Horizon Forbidden West 158 fps (76 fps – 1% low)
163 fps (78 fps – 1% low)
150 fps (74 fps – 1% low)
136 fps (76 fps – 1% low)
Red Dead Redemption 2 115 fps (85 fps – 1% low)
118 fps (86 fps – 1% low)
111 fps (82 fps – 1% low)
95 fps (74 fps – 1% low)
Cyberpunk, Horizon FW, Witcher 3, Resident Evil – recorded with MSI Afterburner fps counter in campaign mode;
Black Myth, Far Cry 6, Red Dead Redemption 2, Tomb Raider – recorded with the included Benchmark utilities;
Red Dead Redemption 2 Optimized profile based on these settings .
All these games ran smoothly at 2.5K resolution with Ultra settings in all profiles, including on Silent, due to how the power settings are designed for these profiles.
Overall gaming performance is within 5-15% of the Core Ultra 9 275HX + RTX 5090 175W implementation in the ROG Scar 18 , and within 5% of the Ultra 9 275HX + RTX 5080 175W in the Legion Pro 7i , just keep in mind that those were tested earlier in the year.
At the same time, this Blade performs 10-15% better in games than the Core Ultra 9 285H + RTX 5090 120W implementation in the ROG Zephyrus G16.
However, you must be aware of potential bugs that can cause stuttering in games. In some titles, such as Witcher and Shadow of Tomb Raider, the performance is lackluster, with stuttering and dropped frames. From what I’ve read online, the issue seems to be the Synapse software – closing it fixes things. But sometimes games work just fine with Synapse running in the background. Unfortunately, there’s no way to get the Performance power settings without Synapse. With a fresh Windows copy and no Synapse, the GPU only runs at setting similar to Balanced mode, so around 120W TGP.
Let’s go over some performance and temperature logs.
First, here’s Performance mode with the laptop flat on the desk. The CPU averages 77-80 °C, and the GPU runs at around 80-83 °C. Bit hot on the GPU side, but excellent temperatures on the CPU side – mostly because the system only applies about 20-25W of power to the CPU in these loads. There’s no power throttling of any kind, though, which is rare for a laptop of this kind for desk use. Fan noise is loud, though, at 50 dBA.
Bump the laptop off the desk by at least a few cm, and temperatures improve quite significantly, averaging 72-74 °C on the CPU and 76-80 °C on the GPU. I’d recommend this use case for long gaming sessions or demanding work apps.
You can tweak certain things around, both the fans’ behaviour and the CPU/GPU power allocations in Custom mode. If performance is what you’re after, the default Performance mode already offers plenty. For our tests, I’ve overclocked the GPU in Custom mode, with a minor impact on framerates, 1-3% on average.
Balanced mode keeps fans a little quieter, around 44 dBA at head-level. It limits the GPU at around 115-120W TGP, though, and impacts framerates by about 10%.
Temperatures are fine, though. With the laptop flat on the desk, we measured 73-75 °C on the CPU and 76-78 °C on the GPU.
Raised off the desk, we measured 73-76 °C on the CPU and 73-77 °C on the GPU. Minimal variations.
And then there’s Silent mode, which isn’t that silent here, as it targets a 42 dBA noise floor. The GPU runs at about 80-90W TGP in this mode, which is high power for such a profile, and that’s why framerates are at about 80% of Performance mode. These settings would be excellent for a mid-level profile, but they should be quieter for a Silent profile.
Temperatures are excellent, 74-78 °C on the CPU and 74-76 °C on the GPU, both with the laptop on the desk and raised off.
Noise, Heat, Connectivity, speakers, and others The cooling module on this 2025 Razer Blade 16 comes with a large vapor chamber, two fans, and two heatsinks on the rear edge.
This does an excellent job taming the hardware inside this laptop in all sorts of sustained loads, both with the laptop flat on the desk and with it raised off on a stand. Unlike many other thin-and-light high-performance devices, this Blade 16 is perfectly usable at high-power flat on a desk, without any thermal throttling and with still acceptable internal temperatures. I’d still place it on a stand for longer work and gaming sessions, though.
For noise levels, expect 52+ dBA on Custom with max-fans, 50 dBA on Performance, 44 dBA on Balanced, and 42 dBA on the Silent profile. High levels for Balanced and Silent.
These fan settings could use some work. Silent mode for sustained loads isn’t that silent, at 42 dBA, and that means you will hear the fans with heavier multitasking as well. Furthermore, the fans never idle with casual use, not even with the lightest of activity.
With daily use, we measured chassis temperatures in the 30s °C, and sometimes around 40s °C at the top of the keyboard. The fans keep quiet, but never idle, so you will hear them in a silent environment.
*Daily Use – streaming Netflix in EDGE for 30 minutes, Silent profile, fans at <30 dB
With sustained loads, the WASD and arrows regions stay comfortably cool, usually at sub 40 °C, but the middle of the laptop and especially the areas around the exhaust heat up to high-50s °C and even low-60s °C. Some of the heat blows towards the screen, but most is pushed to the back and away.
Here’s what we measured on Performance and Silent modes, both with the laptop raised off the desk. On desk, these readings would be a little higher in Performance mode.
Overall, though, despite being a thin all-metal chassis, this Blade never feels uncomfortable to the touch in sustained loads.
*Gaming – Performance, raised – playing Cyberpunk for 30 minutes, fans at ~50 dB
For connectivity, there’s Wireless 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 on this generation, through a Mediatek module. Both worked fine.
The audio quality is decent, but not great. You do get an array of 6 speakers here, including up-firing tweeters, but the volumes and quality are merely average and not on par with a MacBook Pro 16 or a ProArt P16 / Zephyrus G16.
Finally, there’s a camera placed at the top of the screen and flanked by microphones. It’s 2MPx resolution and alright in very good light, but at the same time, pixelated and pretty much unusable in dim light. The camera comes with IR, with support for Windows Hello.
Battery life – poor runtimes There’s a 90Wh battery inside this Blade 16, fair-sized for this sort of device.
Here’s what we got on our review unit in terms of battery life, with the screen’s brightness set at around 120 nits (~60 brightness), on Advanced Optimus GPU mode, Balanced mode in Synapse, and Best Battery Efficiency mode in Windows 11. The screen automatically switches to 60Hz on battery power.
18-22 W (~4-6 h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Balanced Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON;15-18 W (~5-6 h of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Balanced Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON;20-22 W (~4-5 h of use) – Netflix 4K HDR fullscreen in Edge, Balanced Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON;22-25 W (~4-5 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Balanced Mode, screen at 50%, WiFi ON.
Somewhat shorter runtimes on average compared to other implementations of this Ryzen AI hardware. Oddly, only Balanced mode is available on this device on battery power, as Silent mode is only offered for plugged-in use.
The laptop ships with a 280W main charger with a proprietary plug. It’s reversible, connects sturdily to the laptop, and has a 90-degree cable angle, making it very easy to hide the cable away behind the laptop. This is everything the new Asus square plug is not.
I’ll also mention the braided cable on this charger, at least on my unit. Other reviewers mention non-braided cables on their model, so that might differ for some regions.
USB-C charging is supported as well, up to 100W, but I didn’t get to properly test this laptop on PD power.
Price and availability- Razer Blade 16 2025 Razer only sell their laptops in select markets, not worldwide. Among others, you can get it in North America and some European countries.
You mostly find these on Razer’s website, and sometimes at third-party retailers. If you buy from Razer in the US, it has come to my attention that they only have a 14-day return window, so make sure to properly look for any issues and bugs within that limited timeframe.
As far as prices go, at the very top, the Ryzen 9 370 + RTX 5090 + 64 GB RAM + 4 TB SSD configuration sets you back $4900 in the US and 4800 EUR on their EU site.
The Ryzen 9 365 + RTX 5080 + 32 GB RAM + 1 TB SSD version comes at $3500 in the US and 3500 EUR in the EU.
The mid-level Ryzen 9 365 + RTX 5070Ti + 32 GB RAM + 1 TB SSD version comes at $3000 in the US and 3000 EUR in the EU.
EU prices are actually not that bad compared to the competition. But US prices are steep. A similar 5070Ti Zephyrus G16 goes for $2600, and with a more capable Core Ultra 9 processor.
In fact, the configurability segmentation offered by Razer is an issue to me. They only give you the top Ryzen 9 with the 5090 model, and tie certain amounts of RAM to certain SSD configurations. For instance, you can only get 32 GB RAM with a 1 TB SSD on the 5070Ti model, and if you want 64 GB of RAM, you can get that with a 2 TB SSD on the 5080 version, but only with 4 TB SSDs on the 5090, driving up the price between variants.
Follow this link for updated configurations and prices in your region at the time you’re reading this article.
Final thoughts on the 2025 Razer Blade 16 This notebook is one of the best hardware available in the thin-and-light high-performance space today, with a premium chassis, good ergonomics, a beautiful OLED display, and excellent performance and thermals for this form factor. Fine, you’re not getting quite the same performance offered by a full-size laptop with higher power settings and beefier cooling, but let’s not forget this device is compact and only weighs a little over a kilo, while giving you 80-95% of what you could get with a full-size device. Plenty good if you ask me.
Sure, I can nitpick on the limited screen angle, the somewhat shallow and clicky typing experience, and the poor camera in dim lighting, but those are rather minor complaints. Perhaps not from a nearly 5K laptop, but again, probably not deal breakers.
Software and greedy configurability are the real culprits of this Blade 16, though. The Synapse control app can be buggy and sometimes cause stuttering in games and applications for no obvious reason, which is unacceptable at this level, especially since you can’t properly use the Blade at its full potential without Synapse. Then there’s battery life, where the Blade doesn’t run as efficiently as other implementations of this same Ryzen AI hardware, and audio, where this doesn’t match the competition in terms of volumes or quality. These are hard to stomach at this price level.
As for my issue with configurability, Razer should offer the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor across all configuration options. There’s no point in forcing a lower-end CPU on this sort of device. I also find it annoying that they limit specs for certain configurations, so if you want a certain amount of RAM, you need to opt for a higher-tier GPU and usually more SSD storage at their pricing. This approach just puts the Blade 16 several hundred USD over the Zephyrus G16, which is its main competitor. For what is worth, over here in Europe the Blade 16 is actually more affordable than the Zephyrus, but that doesn’t change the way their configurator is designed to funnel you into higher-tier and more expensive specs than you might want or need.
So there you have it, these are my thoughts on the Razer Blade 16 2025. Great hardware and plenty of potential, but needs more work on the software end to meet expectations at this stratospheric price level.
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Review by: Andrei Girbea
Andrei Girbea is a Writer and Editor-in-Chief here at Ultrabookreview.com . I write about mobile technology, laptops and computers in general. I've been doing it for more than 15 years now. I'm a techie with a Bachelor's in Computer Engineering. I mostly write reviews and thorough guides here on the site, with some occasional columns and first-impression articles.
will blake
July 3, 2025 at 5:07 am
I can't stand Razer logo