Razer’s Blade 18 is getting a $500 price hike with a new Intel chip

Razer has just announced a new Blade 18 gaming laptop with an Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus chip. A premium laptop is available now on the Razer websitestarting at $3,999.99 with the Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti and upgradeable to the RTX 5090. The starting configuration is $500 more than the 2025 model with the same GPU, and it comes a year after the 2025 Blade 18. they got expensive before we sell.

The new Blade 18 looks like a chip bump from Intel Arrow Lake Arrow Lake Refresh. It has the same GPUs as last year and a unique display of two 18-inch displays. Razer says the screen is 20 percent brighter this year, and it can still run 3840 x 2400 at 240Hz refresh rate or 1920 x 1200 at 440Hz refresh rate. This is the highest refresh rate for a laptop computer, but 1200p across an 18-inch display won’t look like 4K. The 2026 Blade 18 also retains a host of connectivity options, 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 the Blades just keep getting more expensive. In addition to the higher prices of the Blade 18, the Intel Panther Lake-based Blade 16 is also more expensive. 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 the prices on Razer’s website are now up. $3,999.99 ($500 more) and $4,899.99 ($400 more), respectively.

Razer did not respond to inquiries from Seaside of the reason for this increase at the time of publication, but the Blades seem to be still there another victim about Ramageddon