18 Area-51 Gaming Laptop 2025 - NVIDIA RTX 5080 16GB GDDR7, Intel Ultra 9 275HX (Up to 5.4GHz), 18" 2.5K QHD+ 300Hz, Backlit KB, Win 11 Pro, w/Accessories (64GB DDR5 RAM, 8TB SSD)

You know, when you spend almost 5 grand on a laptop, you'd expect it to last for a while. My old 'gaming' laptop, that I wind up using for business, has an RTX 2060. It's been a great laptop, but the 14" screen is too small for my old eyes. I opted to replace it with this Razer Blade (2024) model as Razer Blade has the reputation for being the best. I want my new laptop to last a good 7-9 years. I got the laptop, booted it, performed the MS updates. I rebooted again, I got blue screens saying that the hard drive was inaccessible. I didn't have the time to mess with the laptop for another day. When I went to boot it, I got a blue screen and a red light on the front of the laptop. I figured that if it was just a bad hard-drive, no biggie as I had planned to either replace the 2TB NVMe that it came with, with a 4TB NVMe (or just add the second drive as this computer can supposedly accept two NVMe drives. Before opening the system, I decided to attempt to recover the OS. It didn't work locally -- couldn't access the drive. I researched recovering the OS on the razer blade website. It was rather cumbersome, but I managed to figure out how to download the image. I attempted to load it, which of course failed. I figured that maybe their image had issues and since I wanted Windows 11 Pro instead of home, I went to Microsoft's website and spent $200 on a Windows 11 Pro license. Couldn't load the image from MS. I had the red light on the front of the laptop. About 3 minutes later, the laptop powered off. With the battery being fully charged and the laptop power supply plugged in, I knew the laptop hadn't powered off due to a dead battery. I tried pressing the power button a few times but the system would not power on.This is my first foray into the world of Razer Blade. It will be my last. I returned the laptop as I didn't want to take a chance (and wait) on 'warranty' work.You blew it, Razer Blade. Crappy reliability and a cumbersome recovery process. I have already purchased a 27" monitor to use with my old laptop and a new wireless keyboard and mouse. Now I can see it and I'll save the 5 grand that I now have invested in it.Your mileage may vary, but I think I'll still with the ASUS ROG. I've never had a problem with their systems, pre-made or built myself.

I got this Blade 18 recently. I bought it after doing a lot of search. The performance is on par with other top 2024 gaming laptops. But the build quality is another level. It is like a larger MacBook. Also, noise level is very important for me and it is almost silent at low workloads. The monitor is THE BEST monitor I've seen on any laptop. I don't even understand the 1 star review that says "Make a limited edition white with candy red and gold streaks". Why people write random reviews? Anyways, you will not regret getting this (expensive) beast.