Razer’s Blade line of gaming laptops are among our favorites, not cheap but arguably the cream of the crop for hardcore gamers. We’ve reviewed and applauded 13-, 15-, and 17-inch models, and the new Blade 14 (starts at $1,799) hopes to hit a power and portability sweet spot. This compact chassis is just 0.66 inch thick but manages to pack an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX processor and up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 graphics, a head-turning proposition for gamers on the go. The system seen here is a pre-production unit, so we haven’t given it the official review and benchmarking treatment, but can still share our impressions of this sleek premium machine.
The Beloved Blade Build, Now at 14 Inches
Outside of the new size, the Razer Blade 14 looks and feels just like its 15.6-inch sibling and other relations. Unless you hate svelte metal and Razer’s tangled-snakes logo, this is a good thing—the build is one of the best around among elite laptops, and especially among gaming rigs. Here’s a quick hands-on with the machine below…
This style has been a trend-setter among vendors creating trimmer and classier gaming laptops, and it’s nice to see it at this size. The all-black paint job, modern squared design, thin screen bezels, and RGB-backlit keyboard are all present, and in some ways even easier to appreciate in a more compact chassis.
As with the Blade Stealth 13, you can really tuck this system under your arm and take it on the go, which feels extra satisfying considering its full-fledged features and gaming power (more on that in a moment).
To be specific, the Blade 14 measures 0.66 by 12.6 by 8.7 inches (HWD), an impressively compact volume in any laptop category. Our favorite 14-inch competitors are the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE and the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, which are plenty thin at 0.7 inch each, but the Blade 14 has them beat in overall footprint. The margins are small—so little difference really shouldn’t sway your buying decision—but it’s impressive and easy to appreciate.
Configuration Options: AMD and Nvidia Bring the Heat
Of course, it’s not all about the size; given the Blade 14’s premium price, you’d hope for a fast and feature-filled as well as highly portable system. Available components and features are tied to certain configurations, so before we discuss them, let’s take a look at the models offered.
There are three configurations, priced at $1,799, $2,199, and $2,799. First, what they share in common: the same CPU, AMD’s marquee “Zen 3” Ryzen 9 5900HX, an eight-core, 16-thread mobile processor with base and boost clocks of 3.3GHz and 4.6GHz respectively. All three models also come with 16GB of memory and 1TB of solid-state storage.
From there, the components vary. The base model nets you a 144Hz full HD display and GeForce RTX 3060 GPU. The $2,199 middle model bumps the screen up to a 165Hz panel with QHD resolution backed by RTX 3070 graphics. Finally, the $2,799 flagship comes with the same QHD screen but upgrades to a GeForce RTX 3080. All of the displays feature AMD FreeSync Premium.
Component Deep Dive
For anyone who hasn’t been paying attention to the processor world in recent years, the Ryzen 9 5900HX is a very exciting inclusion for two reasons: Ryzen chips have proven extremely fast and efficient (in both laptops and desktops), and this is a departure from the Intel-only solutions that Razer has previously employed.
It should be said that gaming is one area where there isn’t much of an AMD advantage, if any, but we’ve repeatedly seen Ryzen 5, 7, and 9 CPUs best their Core i5, i7, and i9 counterparts in multitasking and media editing. Expect this machine to be very snappy.
The graphics options deserve some focus as well. For a system this compact, you’d be forgiven for assuming Nvidia’s most powerful GPUs aren’t available, but Razer’s offering the RTX 3070 and 3080 is impressive. It’s a big contrast with the 14-inch competition: The Zephyrus G14 maxed out at the previous-generation RTX 2060, and the Triton 300 SE stops at the RTX 3060. The fact that you can go up to an RTX 3080 on the Blade 14—again, even smaller than these rivals—is a head-turner for mobile gamers.
There is a caveat to that, however. As we’ve seen with numerous laptops with RTX 30 Series GPUs we’ve tested so far, there’s a lot of variation in performance even between, say, two RTX 3070 notebooks. The reason is that Nvidia allows manufacturers to set the GPU wattage that best fits their laptop, dictating the power that a given GPU can push.
This is a handy way to obtain as much power as a laptop can take without going beyond its thermal restrictions, but the real-world results can be confusing. For example, a lower-wattage RTX 3080 may perform like (or even lose to) a higher-wattage RTX 3070. It’s important to pay attention to wattage when studying laptop specs and to look carefully at the results of hands-on testing like ours.
Again, since this is a preview of a pre-production model, we haven’t run the Razer Blade 14 through our suite of benchmark tests to bring you a concrete verdict on its 3D performance. Rest assured that we’ll wring out whichever GPU is in the production unit Razer sends for review to bring you some empirical results.
If you’ll entertain some conjecture, it’s a fair bet that, say, the GeForce RTX 3080 in the compact Blade 14 won’t outrun the same GPU in larger laptops. With so little space for thermal considerations, it almost certainly won’t be configured near maximum wattage, even setting aside the fact that we’ve seen some diminishing returns the higher you go up Nvidia’s mobile GPU stack (with RTX 3080s behaving more like 3070s even in 15-inch systems).
Display, Keyboard, and Ports
The good news is that any of these GPUs will make good use of the Razer’s high-refresh-rate display. Competitive multiplayer games will run at high frame rates, and even the RTX 3060 should be capable of AAA gaming at 60fps. The base GPU might be a bit underpowered for 1440p resolution, but it’s smartly paired with the 1080p screen option, so that won’t be an issue. The screen looks bright, sharp, and vibrant, though we can’t tell you how high this pre-production unit pushed the frame-rate ceiling.
As with the other Blade laptops, the 14’s keyboard and especially touchpad are superior to those of your average Windows laptops. The keys are individually, colorfully backlit and deliver a nice typing experience. They don’t break new ground (unlike Alienware’s Cherry MX laptop keyboard) and don’t offer a ton of feedback, but the keyboard still earns a thumbs up overall. The power button has also been moved to a key in line with the function row, rather than the small button of other Blade laptops. The touchpad is extremely responsive, smooth, and roomy. It feels great to use, which is key for a system you’ll often take on the road without a mouse (even if you’ll probably use a mouse for gaming).
The ports round out the build, a respectable number on this smaller system. The left flank holds a USB 3.1 Type-A port and a USB-C port, while the right side offers one more of each plus an HDMI connection. Given the AMD processor, the USB-C ports don’t support Thunderbolt (an Intel technology), but they do offer power delivery. The laptop also sports a 720p webcam with Windows Hello face recognition, Wi-Fi 6E, and Bluetooth 5.2.
Turning Heads in the Sweet Spot
While we’ll have to wait for a final retail model of the Blade 14 to give an official verdict, our initial impressions are very positive. It’s not exactly surprising that the well-received Blade design is a hit again in a different size, but the new gaming rig should be a substantial step above the Blade Stealth 13 in performance while notably more portable than the Blade 15. Real-world performance results remain to be seen, but having our hands on this prototype and scanning the specs tells us it’ll be a highly capable gaming machine with a fast screen and a top-tier physical build. Check back soon for a full review.
