Razer Blade 14 assessment: Big energy, small bundle | Engadget

Razer has lastly discovered the right steadiness between energy and portability with the Blade 14. It options AMD’s newest processor, NVIDIA’s RTX 30-series GPUs, and a responsive 14-inch show, nevertheless it wraps all of that collectively in a sub-four-pound bundle. What’s to not love? While Razer’s 13-inch Blade Stealth is even lighter, I’ve at all times discovered it to be woefully underpowered and dramatically overpriced. But the Blade 14 represents what Razer does greatest: delivering highly effective {hardware} that feels extra polished than the competitors.

Imagine a shrunken-down model of the Blade 15, and you’ve got just about bought the 14-inch. It has the identical glossy black aluminum case, and a minimalist aesthetic that resembles Apple’s MacBook Pro greater than a typical gaming laptop computer. That, in fact, has been Razer’s main accomplishment over the previous couple of years: Its computer systems are nonetheless the closest Windows customers can get to Apple’s polished {hardware}. The solely main characteristic that screams “gaming laptop” is the Blade 14’s RGB LED keyboard, which permits each key to show its personal colour (one thing you can too flip off simply, too).

Like most 14-inch gaming laptops as of late, the Blade 14’s greatest promoting level is that it is lighter than most 15-inch notebooks. Here’s the place Razer’s personal improvements begin to work in opposition to it, although. The Blade 15 presently weighs round 4.4 kilos, whereas the 14 clocks in at 3.9 kilos. That’s solely a half-pound distinction, one thing that might be noticeable if you happen to had been evaluating these laptops in every hand, however much less so in regular utilization. The Blade 14 would have appeared extra spectacular when the 15-inch mannequin was upwards of 4.6 kilos, however now it is really a bit hefty in comparison with opponents like the three.5-pound ASUS Zephyrus G14.

This is not the primary time that Razer has had a 14-inch laptop computer both, which takes among the luster away from the Blade 14. The final mannequin dropped round three years in the past, toting a Seventh-gen Intel CPU and weak NVIDIA GTX 1650 graphics. What makes this new model stand out is beneath the hood. It’s the primary time Razer has used an AMD processor — each Blade 15 comes with the highly effective Ryzen 9 5900HX — and it additionally has NVIDIA’s quickest RTX 30 graphics.

Still, it is value noting even these graphics playing cards are constrained by the Blade 14’s dimension. NVIDIA lets each PC maker tweak the wattage of their GPUs, which is useful for coping with thermal constraints, however that additionally means efficiency can differ wildly. Basically, not each RTX 3080 is created equal, particularly in relation to gaming laptops. Keep that caveat in thoughts, as a result of it will clarify among the efficiency benchmarks I ended up seeing.

Our assessment unit was the most costly configuration, a $2,800 construct with the Ryzen 9 5900HX, RTX 3080, 16GB of fastened RAM, 1TB SSD, and a quad HD 165Hz show Given that caliber {hardware}, the Blade 14 had no troubling dealing with demanding video games and torturous benchmarks. In Destiny 2, reached as much as 120fps whereas taking part in in 1,440p with maxed-out settings. It additionally appeared easy on the laptop computer’s 14-inch display, with wonderful colour copy and strong brightness. Ray tracing efficiency was additionally strong; I used to be in a position to see between 60 and 70fps in Control whereas taking part in in 1,440p with maxed graphics, DLSS and medium ray tracing.

Still, I undoubtedly observed the compromises Razer needed to make to squeeze the RTX 3080 into such a small case. It was slower than the bigger Lenovo Legion 5 Pro, outfitted with an RTX 3070 GPU, in all of our 3DMark assessments and Geekbench 5’s compute benchmark. Clearly, Lenovo was in a position to squeeze out extra efficiency from what’s purported to be a slower GPU. Compared to the ASUS Zephyrus G15, which has a Ryzen 9 5900HS and an RTX 3080, the Blade 15 lags behind barely in all of our 3D benchmarks.

I additionally observed that the Blade 14 might get toasty, with its CPU reaching as much as 94 levels Celsius once I actually burdened it out. It’s uncommon for me to see processors going past 85 Celsius in gaming notebooks right now, in order that was notably shocking. There had been instances when the underside of the Blade 14 felt too sizzling to the touch. I used to be glad that the GPU usually stayed beneath 84 Celsius beneath load, which is extra in keeping with opponents. Despite operating so sizzling, it lasted 10 hours and 50 minutes in our battery benchmark. That’s primarily for productiveness duties, although. Expect it to final so much much less if you happen to’re gaming unplugged.