Razer’s Blade 18 gets a $500 price hike and a new Intel chip

Razer has just announced a new Blade 18 gaming laptop with an Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus chip. The flagship laptop is now available On the Razer websitestarting at $3,999.99 with an Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti and configurable with up to an RTX 5090. This initial configuration is $500 more than the 2025 model with the same GPU, and comes a year after the 2025 Blade 18 Got a price increase Even before it goes on sale.

The new Blade 18 looks a lot like a chip from Intel’s Arrow Lake Arrow Lake update. It has the same GPU offerings as last year and once again a unique 18-inch dual-mode display. Razer claims the screen is 20 percent brighter this year, and can still run at 3840 x 2400 HD at 240Hz or 1920 x 1200 at 440Hz. That’s a very high refresh rate for a laptop screen, but 1,200p across an 18-inch screen won’t look quite as sharp as 4K. The 2026 Blade 18 also retains a plethora of connectivity, including Thunderbolt 5, HDMI 2.1, three USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, an SD card slot, and even Ethernet.

Razer is no stranger to high prices, but blade prices are constantly increasing. In addition to the Blade 18’s higher prices, the smaller Blade 16 built on Intel’s Panther Lake also costs more than When it was announced in March. It started at $3,499.99 with the RTX 5080 and $4,499.99 with the RTX 5090, but those prices on Razer’s website are now $3,999.99 ($500 more) and $4,899.99 ($400 more) respectively.

The scanner did not respond to questions from Edge The reason for these increases was confirmed by press time, but it appears that the codes have not yet been determined Another victim to Ramageddon