the Razer Blade 16 is arguably one of the fastest gaming laptops available right now for its form it’s insanely powerful ridiculously expensive and it’s somehow just 69 in thin is it perfect not even close is it overkill probably but it’s also a bold statement about what’s possible in a premium Windows laptop this size and on the other side we have Apple’s MacBook Pro 16 with the M4 Max chip it’s quieter cooler more efficient and unapologetically locked into Apple’s ecosystem it’s not built for gaming though that’s a conversation that Apple’s slowly getting into but it crushes in creative workflows all while sipping power and lasting all day you see these are two of the most powerful and portable 16-in laptops you can buy but they come from two completely different worlds but despite their different philosophies both are now appealing to the same crowd we’ve got creators developers designers even those diving into AI workflows so the real question is which one actually makes sense for you that is if you have more than $4,000 to spend on a laptop look these machines aren’t even pretending to be budget friendly but there is a market for this kind the Blade 16 aspect here comes with AMD’s Ryzen 9 HX370 with 12 CPU cores 32 GB of RAM a 2 TB gen 4 SSD and an RTX 5090 laptop GPU with 24 GB of VRAM all for $4,500 and the MacBook Pro 16 I’ve got here fully maxed out the M4 Max chip with a 16 core CPU 40 core GPU 120 GB of unified memory 2 TB of storage that’ll run you $5,550 US you can spec this with 64 GB of memory which costs about the same as the Blade if your wallet’s still conscious after hearing that congrats the rest of us are just going to look at our bank accounts and cry anyways you see the price tag now let’s look at the actual packaging the Blade 16 sticks to that Razer’s familiar design language it’s a boxy shape with sharp edges uh CNC mil aluminum chassis and the signature green lit Razer logo at the lid it looks premium and stealthy but just like every other matte black laptop it’s a total fingerprint magnet on the other hand the MacBook Pro’s exterior design hasn’t changed all that much in the last 4 years i mean the most noticeable update uh actually came with the M3 lineup which is this new space black finish that looks very sleek but it also shows fingerprints its design leans into softer curves and rounded corners that flows consistently across the chassis even the lid and the display feel perfectly matched i think it’s something I like about this laptop it’s very clean it’s minimal and cohesive build quality on both of these laptops they’re top tier but I think Apple takes the edge over here just because the MacBook’s hinge for example it just feels smoother and fluid while the Blades hinge has a bit of that wobbly loose feel there’s also some flex in the keyboard and especially the palm rest area whereas the MacBook Pro I mean this thing just feels like a solid slab of metal one hand open test both pass but Apple makes it just a bit more comfortable thanks to the deeper groove on the front lip it’s just a lot more forgiving for those who don’t have longer nails physically they share nearly identical form factors i mean technically the MacBook Pro is.77 mm thinner but they both weigh around 4.7 lb or roughly 2.15 kilos so the difference is barely noticeable in everyday use moving on to the IO this round easily goes to the Blade 16 i mean for a laptop this powerful and thin it’s surprisingly well equipped so you get two USBC ports one of which supports Thunderbolt 4 and 100 Ws of power delivery three USBA 3.2 Gen 2 ports HDMI 2.1 headphone jack and you even get a full-size UHS2 card reader that’s a lot of flexibility especially for creators the MacBook Pro 16 on the other hand it just keeps it clean and minimal you only get three USBC Thunderbolt 5 ports and a full-size SDXC card reader a headphone jack and that’s about it but I’ve got to say Max Safe is honestly underrated it’s fast super convenient it’s reversible it has a little charging LED to show the status and the braided cable even matches the space black finish which is a nice touch plus the 140 watt USBC power brick is surprisingly compact and lightweight it barely takes up space in my backpack compared to the Blade 16’s 280 watt GAN charger which is thick braided and honestly kind of a pain to pack i know I for one value space on my backpack especially when I’m traveling with all of my camera gear to shows like Computex for example so if you’re someone who likes to keep your everyday carry minimal just be aware of these extra items the Blade’s power cable is noticeably longer than the MacBooks which can actually be super handy in setups where the nearest outlet isn’t within reach as for the MacBook while its compact power adapter is great for portability it can feel a bit flimsy when plugging directly into a wall and depending on the outlet orientation it might even block nearby plugs now let’s talk about the keyboard and trackpad because this is where the user experience really starts to diverge so the Blade 16 comes with Razer’s signature perky RGB keyboard and honestly it is one of the best in the game the lighting is vibrant clean and has minimal bleed around the keys razer is one of the few brands that actually gets keyboard lighting done right they’ve also improved these switches with this generation offering 1.5 mm of key travel which uh feels snappy and responsive it’s not mechanical but for gaming and general use it gets a job done it’s seriously a whole lot better than some of the previous blades from the past you also get a dedicated row of macro keys which is super handy through Razer Synapse you can map them to launch apps control streaming software uh you can also program custom shortcuts or even set in-game commands now over to the MacBook Pro there’s no RGB obviously the keyboard is back lit but there is a bit of bleeding around the keys and they’re noticeably dimmer than the Blade 16 even at maximum brightness the keys themselves are low profile and I mean very low profile heat travel is minimal and while some people love how shallow and fast they feel personally I find it a little unsatisfying it bottom outs quickly and it just lacks that tactile feedback that I’m used to on some of the other gaming laptops but they are consistent plus you also get Touch ID which is built into the power button and it is genuinely useful i mean it makes logging into the OS effortless uh it works with secure payments and it ties right back to Apple’s whole walled garden experience that I talked about earlier then there is the trackpad and this is arguably where the user experience it just splits hard so the MacBook Pro’s massive force touch trackpad is still bestin-class it’s ultra precise perfectly responsive across the entire surface area i’ve edited countless videos on it and it’s been dead reliable i have to appreciate the optimizations Apple has done with their hardware and software it just makes sense they control it all and it again just works the Blade 16’s glass trackpad on the other hand man where do I start it’s been a complete headache now about half the time it’s smooth and responsive the other half it’s like trying to catch a mouse hiding in your basement it’s jumpy unpredictable sometimes slow to respond sometimes it actually doesn’t even work it flat out refuses to respond to my gestures and it’s not just me there’s a whole Reddit thread with people sharing the same frustration and that right there sums up a big part of the experience because when you look at a laptop you want to make sure everything sort of works cohesively the Blade 16 has raw power and it’s gamer focused but it still stumbles on the basics the MacBook Pro might not be as exciting on paper but it nails the fundamentals and it does so consistently now displays play a massive role in the overall laptop experience especially if you’re a bit of a display nerd like I am look I’m I’m obsessed with bright color accurate screens and if they’re smooth too even better so if you’re dropping $4,000 on a laptop you’d expect the best of the best and thankfully both the Blade 16 and the MacBook Pro 16 they deliver but in completely different ways so these two displays are what I’d call polar opposites the Blade 16 comes with a quad HD plus OLED panel at 240 Hz it’s fast vibrant has those deep inky blacks that OLEDs are known for meanwhile the MacBook Pro features a highresolution 3.4K miniLEDD 120 Hz panel with the optional nanoexture feature that really cuts down reflections now that nanoexture option is underrated it’s a specialized matte coating etched directly into the glass and it makes a big difference when you’re working in brighter uh and uneven lighting conditions compared to the Blade 16’s glossy OLED the MacBook is just way easier on the eyes especially in tough lighting conditions i have to say the nanoexture option on the MacBook Pro is a bit of a higher maintenance task because you need to use a very soft microfiber cloth to clean the actual surface the Blade on the other hand it’s a smooth glossy screen while it being super reflective a simple swipe with just a simple or something basic a basic towel it gets the job done on the color front Apple’s Move to Quantum Dot MiniL LED covers 99% of the P3 color gamut which is excellent but the Blade fights back hard so Razer has actually partnered with Calman to properly tune the OLED panel giving it uh not only a wider Adobe RGB coverage but even better color accuracy our blade unit clocked in at a delta E of 0.52 compared to 0.82 on the MacBook Pro now on the brightness front the MacBook Pro takes the win our sample sustained over 600 nits of peak SDR brightness while the Blades OLED maxed out around 400 nits now when it comes to refresh rate the Blade 16 should have the upper hand with that 240Hz panel and it does when you plug it in and start gaming on it it is awesome but here’s a catch on battery it automatically drops to 60 Hz the MacBook Pro on the other hand stays locked in at 120 Hz whether if it’s plugged in or not that consistency makes a difference during day-to-day use when it comes to PWM flicker the MacBook Pro has the clear advantage thanks to its mini LED panel there’s virtually no flicker even at lower levels making it a safe pick for those who are sensitive to eye strain especially at lower brightness levels the Blade 16 on the other hand does exhibit some PWM flickering you’ll notice thin black scan lines at lower brightness settings it’s not as aggressive as what you’d see on some other cheaper OLED panels but it’s still definitely present especially if you’re flicker sensitive or working long hours in dim environments so the Blades display it’s gorgeous it’s fast and it’s tuned for gamers and creators as well it’s a bit too saturated for my liking um which is why I’m more leaning towards the MacBook Pros panel because it’s a lot more versatile it’s brighter it’s just better in every lighting conditions it’s more consistent overall and again this nano texture feature is just incredible i mean look you can’t really see any of these reflections whereas the MacBook Pro is just Wait no macbook Pro Razer Blade 16 this is what the webcam looks like on the Razer Blade 16 it’s a 1080p sensor and this is what the microphone sounds like and this is what the webcam looks like on the MacBook Pro 16 and this is what the microphone sounds like let me know which one looks and sounds better both these laptops have front-facing speakers i believe the Razer Blade 16 has six of them in total including some at the bottom i have to say the MacBook Pro takes the edge here um I don’t know what Apple did to their driver tuning with the speakers but it just sounds a lot more um boommy uh there’s just a lot more volume and the trebles they sound more crispier compared to the Blade 16 but either way they’re both awesome options for you know that on the-go entertainment if you want to watch a movie with some of your friends on a couch they both get the job done okay so upgradeability is a big part especially a big deal for laptops that are aimed for professionals your workflow can evolve over time and ideally your system should be able to grow with it unfortunately the MacBook Pro is a complete dead end in that department everything from the storage to the memory is soldered directly onto the motherboard so whatever specs you configure or choose at checkout you’re locked into that for life no second chances the Blade 16 offers a bit more flexibility but it’s still a mixed bag on the plus side you get two M.2 two slots giving you the ability to expand the storage up to 8 TB which is great but like the Mac the memory is still soldered that said you can configure the MacBook Pro with up to 120 GB of unified memory which let’s be honest is already more than enough for most of the demanding creative or AI workloads it’s just preloaded for the future meanwhile the Blade it tops out at just 64 GB which is still plenty for gaming editing and most pro applications i mean look this all comes down to trade-offs these machines are pushing the limits of performance and portability so to keep them super thin and compact some compromises had to be made just make sure that you know when you spec them right from the start do it according to your workflows because there’s just no turning back all right time for the best part of this video performance now I’m going to be breaking this down into a few categories so it’s just easy to follow uh we’ll look at real world CPU workloads GPU accelerated tasks creator focused benchmarks local AI testing which is becoming a big deal lately uh and of course gaming yeah we’re going to get there let’s kick things off with Cinebench 2024 just to establish a baseline and here the M4 Max in the MacBook Pro is 73% faster than the Ryzen EI9 HX370 in the Blade 60 and to be fair the Blade was running in performance mode with 75 watts allocated to the CPU while the Mac is just sipping back around 52 W single core performance again the MacBook Pro dominates here and you actually feel it beyond synthetic tests especially when I use these laptops side to side the Blade it turns itself into a bit of a sloth the moment it’s unplugged simple actions like opening File Explorer or just navigating within the export settings of Adobe Premiere’s render output it just it takes significantly longer meanwhile the MacBook Pro stays full throttle plugged in or not switching to realworld CPU stress tests like Blender and Houdini the HX370s 24 threads do their best but the M4 Max it just team rolls here apple’s silicon architecture combined with its memory system just eats these tasks for breakfast now in Photoshop and Lightroom where there’s a mix of masking some generative AI and a batch of RAW exports Apple’s deep optimizations with Adobe really shine the Mac feels more responsive faster to apply edits and it’s just quicker to export that said creator workloads are where things get really interesting when it comes to video editing both systems are neck and neck one of Nvidia’s biggest flexes is the third generation Nvank encoders on the RTX 1590 which drastically improves render times in Premiere Pro and Da Vinci Resolve but even then the M4 Max often pulls ahead in Resolve thanks to Apple’s crazy good metal uh acceleration and speaking of GPU accelerated tasks like Handbreak or uh rendering GPU rendering in Blender the RTX 1590 is no joke it’s powerful fast and it can chew through complex scenes in no time now render times convey one part of the story but the remainder actually revolves around the editing experience you know I feel like that’s what sort of encapsulates whether or not if these laptops are worth your investment uh so for me I need that instantaneous playback performance when I move the markers within the timeline so I have Da Vinci Resolve project open on both these laptops and the Blade 16 it’s fairly fast it’s plugged in of course cuz that’s where you get the most amount of performance if I start playing back again this is full resolution it takes maybe a millisecond to catch up whereas the MacBook Pro it’s super fast it’s right there it starts I would say both of them are fairly equal when it comes to timeline performance when they’re plugged in now this next test is very interesting i’m going to unplug both these laptops and I’ve opened Adobe Premiere which is another editing application with our usual uh project file and the Blade just takes forever to catch up with uh the marker for example if I’m playing back right over here does drop frames significantly as you can see uh with this file over here it’s really really hard to catch up i feel like the 1590 just turns itself into a sloth you certainly have to drop down the resolution to maybe 1/4th to be able to at least get something but even then it still starts to skip frames whereas the MacBook Pro I’m on full resolution right over here there’s absolutely no drop frames it’s perfectly smooth perfectly fine i can zoom in and out what’s even interesting is that it retains that 120 Hz refresh rate whereas on the Blade 16 it kind of goes back to 60 Hz again in order to preserve battery but also the performance takes a huge dive speaking of which performance on battery is another important part of our laptop testing methodology and this is where the MacBook Pro it continues to impress whether if it’s Handbreak Lightroom or Resolve Studio this thing it just delivers nearly the same performance unplugged as it does when plugged in the Blade 16 on the other hand takes a massive hit in Resolve Studio for example render times jump from 4 minutes and 46 seconds plugged in to over 7 minutes on battery despite the app leveraging those shiny new NBank encoders lightroom and Handbreak show similar slowdowns as well i should also point out that I didn’t include this in the chart but the same Adobe Premiere project uh that was rendered on the Blade 16 it took about you know four 4 to 5 minutes to render on battery it took more than an hour to complete on the Blade 16 that’s how bad it is so if you need consistent reliable performance even when you’re not near an outlet it’s an easy win for the Mac now if you’re someone who’s getting into local AI workflows this is where the Blade 16 pulls ahead with 24 GB of VRAM the RTX 1590 is incredibly well suited for running local LLMs stable diffusion and other AI models without needing to offload to the cloud nvidia’s CUDA and Tensores along with their mature software stack it gives you the flexibility of fine-tuning these models gaming is a conversation Apple’s been trying to enter lately but let’s be honest they’re moving at a painfully slow pace take Cyberpunk 2077 for instance right the developers made a huge deal about it coming to Mac OS last year there were demos press coverage even early builds running on the Mac Studio but months later still no sign of a proper release or any updates so if gaming is even remotely a priority for you or at least if that’s your top priority the answer is simple go with the Blade 16 or honestly any other gaming laptop with a discrete GPU running Windows apple’s still not there yet that’s just a fact but that said I was really curious what happens if you try a head-to-head comparison between the M4 Max versus the RTX 1590 now obviously I couldn’t run our full suite of gaming benchmarks because most of them just don’t natively run on Mac OS but I was able to run a few 3D Mark tests and yeah no surprise the Blade 16 walks away with a clean win it’s not even close but still it does make me wonder what if Apple gave the M4 Max a little bit more headroom maybe a little bit more power better thermal management could that gap start to close maybe but that’s a speculation now I did manage to run a few native games on the MacBook Pro uh Boulders Gate 3 for example at quad HD plus 120 Hz the M4 Max averaged around 70 frames per second compared to around 110 frames per second on the Blade 16 with identical settings i have to say I was pleasantly surprised with the experience on the Mac uh it was surprisingly smooth and the visuals look fantastic uh you do get an even better experience on the Blade with its 240Hz refresh rate and of course all the performance coming out of that 5090 total Warhammer 3 on the other hand the M4 Max it hovered around 60 frames per second while the Blade 16 it stayed well above 100 frames per second so yes the MacBook can game and it’s not a terrible experience but if gaming is your thing I repeat the Blade 16 is the way to go but when you pack this much power into a thin chassis the big question becomes are you sacrificing thermals or fan noise to get there both laptops have solid cooling solutions and they actually hold up surprisingly well under load if you’re concerned about surface temperatures don’t be they’re very close to each other most of the heat gets exhausted out the back and even under heavy workloads the WA region stays relatively cool to the touch razer did make some meaningful upgrades this year the Blade 16 it features an updated vapor chamber cooling system and they’ve swapped in a new thermal interface gel which certainly helps with the heat transfer from the CPU and the GPU but here’s where things start to split fan noise check it out well if you’re editing videos coding or just trying to get work done in a quieter space the MacBook Pro is the best choice it’s near silent most of the time and even when the fans do kick in it’s a low sort of a controlled hum um the Blade 16 on the other hand you’ll definitely need to wear some really good noise cancelling headphones uh whether you’re gaming or exporting a video the fans they just ramp up aggressively it’s not unbearable but yeah something to keep in mind okay so battery life this is another important part when shopping around for a laptop the MacBook Pro has a slightly larger 99.9 watt hour cell versus the Blade 16’s 90W hour cell so it is at a slight disadvantage now in our light load web browsing test and YouTube playback tests at 150 nets the MacBook lasted nearly 18 hours while the Blade topped at around 10 to 11 hours now of course I have to say with the Blade 16 that uplift in runtime is thanks to the Ryzen CPU cuz if they did pair it with an Intel Aero Lake HX processor I don’t think those numbers would have been 10 or 11 it would have been more like 7 or 8 or probably even less so uh kudos for that combination but still the difference i mean that’s almost a full workday of extra runtime with the MacBook Pro ironically in Cinebench where the CPU is fully stressed the blade does last longer but that’s because it feeds the CPU with much less power resulting in lower performance the last topic that I wanted to share is the software or I guess the OS experience now this is where the MacBook Pro and the Blade 16 start to feel like they come from two very I mean two entirely different planets obviously let’s start with the Mac OS if you’re already in the Apple ecosystem you’ve got the iPhone the iPad AirPods everything just works right hand off AirDrop universal clipboard iMessage on your laptop the integration is seamless and it actually is very useful it’s pretty stable and fast there’s not a lot of bloatware stuff other than Apple Intelligence which was a complete flop but that’s a video for another day updates are on your own terms you install them when you want them not when your system suddenly decides you need a quick restart that takes 45 minutes windows 11 on the other hand brings more flexibility you’ve got a broader app compatibility especially in fields like architecture engineering and 3D modeling where legacy software or plugins are still Windows only and of course game support is unmatched that you can run emulators niche plugins stuff that would never fly in Apple’s walled garden but Windows has its own caveats updates often feel intrusive you might be in the middle of a deadline and suddenly it’s like seriously auto updating now how long till I impact 11 minutes and 44 seconds microsoft there’s also this whole thing about co-pilot to recall and all this AI stuff that’s being pushed to our faces it feels like Microsoft is throwing features at the wall hoping that something sticks sometimes I just feel like I want a clean stable OS that boots up fast searches intelligently that’s very important and it just stays out of my way with less friction so what’s the takeaway well your workflow might pick your OS for you so if you’re someone who values reliability and wants a machine that fades into the background uh and just you know want to get work done without constant driver issues trackpad weirdness or performance hiccups the MacBook Pro is still the better overall pick the fact that it holds up together while still being on battery is a testament to Apple’s incredible hardware and software optimizations and of course their engineering as well but if you’re in that hybrid demographic where gaming is important and you also need that broad app support Windows is where it’s at there is no wrong choice here guys because one of these machines is probably more you thanks so much for watching i hope uh you were able to take away something from this comparison i’m Eber with HUD Connects and I’ll talk to you guys in the next one and of course don’t forget to spend responsibly i don’t think the Blade 16 likes the MacBook Pro at all i mean check this out i mean I’m trying to you know unify these guys give it a little bit of that bonding moment here but nope doesn’t turns out the display and it goes back to sleep turns it back on here I’ll try it again