Razer’s 2026 Blade 16 Finally Gets the HDR Upgrade We Wanted
The 2025 Blade 16 was praized for its Samsung OLED panel supporting both G-Sync and a high native refresh rate of 240 Hz. As nice as it was, however, HDR support was curiously limited to just 500 nits or DisplayHDR500 whereas the OLED displays on many other high-end multimedia laptops (like those from the Asus series) can reach much brighter maximums. Razer has finally adressed this for the 2026 Blade 16 refresh by doubling the maximum HDR brightness to 1000 nits instead.
Testing Confirms a Massive Leap in Brightness
To confirm this improvement, we enabled HDR on both our 2025 and 2026 Blade 16 units and subsequently ran the HDR brightness test using the maximum brightness setting. We were able to record a maximum brightness of 431 nits on the 2025 model, wheras the 2026 model would reach a far more impressive 1020 nits according to our X-Rite colorimeter. Quality HDR is highly dependent on the brightness extremes between minimum and maximum, so the upgraded viewing experience is indeed not insignificant when upgrading from DisplayHDR500 to DisplayHDR1000.
- 2025 Blade 16 (ATNA60DL04-0): 431 nits measured HDR peak brightness
- 2026 Blade 16 (ATNA60HU06-0): 1020 nits measured HDR peak brightness
- Both panels: Samsung OLED, 240 Hz, same native resolution
Why 2025 Owners Are Left Behind
Unfortunatly, 2025 Blade 16 owners are out of luck. While the 2025 and 2026 models both utilize similar Samsung OLED panels with the exact same refresh rate and native resolution, their panel names are different—ATNA60DL04-0 versus ATNA60HU06-0. Any HDR-related software updates for 2025 model owners are therfore unlikely to ever happen, as the hardware difference prevents backward compatibility.