Razer’s Blade family of gaming notebooks are among our favorites: not cheap, but elegant powerhouses for hardcore gamers. Its compact chassis is only 0.66 inches thick, but features an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 graphics. This is a stunning offering for gamers on the go, and our test confirms that it achieves top frame rates at high settings. Its performance, high-quality build, long battery life, and high-resolution display make the Blade 14 a groundbreaking 14-inch powerhouse that won the Editors’ Choice Award for its outstanding performance and unique positioning.
Aside from the new screen size, the Blade 14 looks and feels exactly like its 15.6-inch sibling and other relatives. That’s a good thing, unless you hate slim metal and the Razer logo with the entwined snakes. The build quality is one of the best among Elite laptops, especially for gaming rigs. This style has been a trendsetter among vendors making slimmer and sleeker gaming laptops, and it’s nice to see it in this size. The all-black paint, modern square design, thin screen bezels, and RGB backlit keyboard are all present and in some ways even more noticeable in a more compact chassis.
Like the Blade Stealth 13, you can really tuck this system under your arm and take it with you, which feels especially satisfying given its comprehensive features and gaming performance. To be precise, the Blade 14 measures 0.66 x 12.6 x 8.7 inches (HWD), an impressively compact size in any notebook category. Our favorite 14-inch competitors are the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE and the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, which are very thin at 0.7 inches each, but the Blade 14 beats them in terms of overall dimensions. The margins are so small that they shouldn’t influence your purchase decision, but the dimensions are impressive and easy to see.
Speaking of small margins, the Blade 14 is a touch heavier than the others at 3.92 pounds, though by less than half a pound. All are still light for gaming machines. For anyone who hasn’t been paying attention to the world of processors in recent years, the Ryzen 9 5900HX is very interesting news for two reasons. Ryzen chips have proven to be extremely fast and efficient (both in laptops and desktops), and this is a departure from the Intel-only solutions Razer has been using.
