Razer’s 2022 Blade laptops are basically blacked-out MacBook Pros with RTX GPUs

After a decidedly “Razer” take on PPE with the Zephyr mask, the company is returning once again to its gaming bread and butter at CES 2022, with updates to its line of Razer Blade gaming laptops.

Everybody wins — The 2022 Razer Blade laptops feature a new hinge design that the company claims allows for a slimmer profile and better airflow, regardless of what size laptop you get. The aluminum bodies of 2022 Blade laptops also now feature milled aluminum speaker grills, which besides being chic, may improve overall sound quality. Perhaps most importantly — at least to me — the new Blade line features a redesigned keyboard that is not only larger and more ergonomic but also comes with larger keycaps for easier typing and fewer mistakes.

Razer Blade 14 — Razer’s smallest laptop, the Razer Blade 14, is not even a year old and already Razer is trying to make it an even more enticing mobile PC gaming package. The company’s first AMD Ryzen gaming laptop is getting updated in 2022 with the latest AMD Ryzen 6000 series processors, specifically AMD’s Ryzen 9 6900HX, and can include up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU.

The display on the Blade 14 is either a 16:9, FHD (1,920 x 1,080p) 144Hz refresh rate display if you purchase the entry-level option, or a 16:9, QHD (2,560 x 1,440p), and 165Hz refresh rate on the high end. There are also nice quality-of-life improvements like a 1080p webcam with support for Windows Hello, a fingerprint-resistant coating, and a MUX switch for improved graphical performance using the Blade 14’s discrete GPU exclusively.

Razer Blade 15 — The 2022 15-inch Razer Blade features a 12th-generation Intel Core i7 processor and up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti. For display options, the Blade 15 comes in two main varieties, the now familiar 360Hz “Full HD” 16:9 LED screen or a new 240Hz 4K 16:9 LED screen. Both have matte finishes and comparatively small 4.9mm bezels.

Razer is also doing away with the “Advanced” version of the Blade 15 it launched with. Rather than locking certain features and configurations under a more expensive option, most of the good stuff — like an SD card reader and a larger 80Whr battery — will be on every model.

Razer Blade 17 — Razer’s largest gaming laptop carries over all the same design benefits as the rest of the Blade line. There’s the 12th-generation Intel Core i7, up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, and 16GB of RAM. Display options breakdown on similar lines as the Blade 15: the Blade 17 can come with either a matte 144Hz FHD display or a matte 165Hz QHD display.

Other notable changes include eight speakers for “THX Spatial Audio” and an even bigger 82Whr battery, over 10Whrs more than the previous Blade 17 and 2WHRs more than the Blade 15. To keep the Blade 17 charged, Razer is also introducing a new 280W GaN charger.

The Razer Blade 14 starts at $1,999.99 and can be preordered from Razer on February 1. The Razer Blade 15 starts at $2,499.99 and can be preordered from Razer on January 25. And the Razer Blade 17 starts at $2,699.99 and can also be preordered from Razer on January 25. The company hasn't offered a specific date for when the laptops will be available from other retailers but says all Blades will be available in Q1 2022.