Razer Pulls Blade Gaming Laptops From Its US Store, Can You Guess Why?
Razer has sheathed its line of Blade gaming laptops at its online store in the US and we have a pretty good idea of the reason why. It starts with the letter 't' and—*spoiler*—spells the world 'tariffs'. That's the as-yet unofficial reason, anyway. Officially, Razer is not saying why its Blade laptops suddenly have 'Notify Me' buttons in place of 'Buy' buttons on its US portal.
The bigger question is how many laptop makers and sellers will follow suit. We suspect major OEMs like Dell and HP will figure out how to weather the tariff storm, though Razer is not the only company to hit the pause button sales in the US. So has Framework, which makes modular laptops. Framework this week announced it was halting sales "on a few Framework Laptop 13 systems" in the US, citing "new tariffs that came into effect April 5th."
If you've been following the tech scene, you know that tariffs are also the reason why Nintendo announced a Switch 2 preorder delay in the US. The announcement came just two days after the Switch 2's full reveal. Incidentally, President Trump announced a new round of reciprocal tariffs just hours after Nintendo's Switch 2 launch event wrapped up.
It's a fluid situation. For example, after announcing more tariffs last week, which included an additional 34% fee on Chinese goods, China responded with a tariff of its own in the same amount. This prompted Trump to tack on another 50% duty, bringing the Chinese tariff to a whopping 104%, according to CBS News.
Razer's Australian site showing Blade laptops available to buy
The same Blade laptops page but on Razer's US site
Regarding Razer's gaming laptops, you can no longer preorder the Blade 16 or buy the Blade 18 or 14 from Razer's US store. The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine shows that the Blade 16 could have been preordered as recently as April 1 (the last time the page was indexed) as spotted by The Verge. The site pinged Razer to find out if tariffs were the reason why, and a public relations manager replied, "We do not have a comment at this stage regarding tariffs."
No comment is necessary because it's clear what is going on. If you visit Razer's Australian site, you'll see that all three models (Blade 18, Blade 16, and Blade 14) are available to buy or preorder (Blade 16). But hit the 'Switch To United States' button at the top the buy/preorder options disappear.
Our best guess is that Razer, like Nintendo, is taking some time to assess the impact of tariffs. However, how long the laptops remain unavailable to buy direct from Razer remains to be seen, as does whether or not they'll return with a price increase.
