Razer’s desktop-replacement laptop is once again trying to excuse you from considering a full-size gaming tower and monitor. The newly revealed Blade 18 gaming laptop is now packing a higher-end Intel chip alongside the most powerful GPU available now. And just as all laptops are getting more expensive due to the ongoing RAM crisis , the 2026 Blade 18 costs $500 more than last year’s model. The $4,000 2026 Razer Blade 18 is virtually indistinguishable from last year’s monstrous gaming laptop, though the new configuration comes with an Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX CPU. The base version comes with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti GPU and 32GB of RAM. If you crank that up to an RTX 5080, the laptop costs $4,500. An RTX 5090 GPU with its full 24GB of VRAM will set you back $4,900. We’ve seen few laptops more expensive than that, such as last year’s $5,000+ MSI Titan 18 HX . What do you get for the extra cash? The Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX was part of an Arrow Lake refresh that Intel launched back in March.…