**Razer Blade 14 Review: A High-Performance Gaming Laptop**

The Razer Blade 14 is a powerful gaming laptop that has been put through rigorous testing to see how it stacks up against other high-end models. In this review, we'll take a closer look at the Blade 14's performance, features, and pricing.

**Blade 14 vs. Other Gaming Laptops**

In terms of performance, the Blade 14 is one of the top dogs in its class. It features an RTX 4070 GPU, which is considered one of the best GPUs available today. In fact, our testing revealed that the Blade 14's RTX 4070 performs about the same as a larger 15 or 16 inch gaming laptop with the same GPU. This is due to the fact that all high-end GPUs hit the same voltage limit regardless of their size. However, this doesn't necessarily mean that a smaller laptop can match a larger one in terms of overall performance.

**Blade 14 vs. Last Year's Model**

We also compared the Blade 14 to last year's model with an RTX 3080 Ti GPU and 6900HX CPU. In our testing, the newer Blade 14 model outperformed the older model by a significant margin. This is not surprising, given the advancements in technology over the past year. The new Blade 14 model features upgradeable memory, a better screen, a bigger battery, and more powerful CPU and GPU.

**Blade 14: A Great Option for Gamers**

So, is the Blade 14 a great option for gamers? Absolutely! While it's certainly an expensive laptop, you get what you pay for. The Blade 14 is one of the smallest gaming laptops on the market that can deliver high-end performance in games at 1440p. Cramming high-end tech into a small space just costs more money, and the Blade 14 is no exception.

**Linux Support**

We also tested the Blade 14's Linux support using an Ubuntu 23.04 live CD. While the keyboard, touchpad, camera, and Wi-Fi worked out of the box, the speakers did not. We were able to adjust the keyboard brightness and screen brightness via shortcuts, but we couldn't change the lighting effect, which defaulted to a one-zone RGB breathing effect.

**Pricing and Availability**

The Blade 14 is currently priced at $2700 for the RTX 4070 model, while the RTX 4060 model starts at $2400. This may seem like a lot of money, but considering the performance you get in games at 1440p, it's not unreasonable. If you're looking for a more affordable option, we recommend checking out the ASUS Zephyrus G14, which is priced around $800 less than the Blade 14.

**Conclusion**

In conclusion, the Razer Blade 14 is an excellent gaming laptop that delivers high-end performance in games at 1440p. While it's certainly an expensive laptop, you get what you pay for. The Blade 14's small size and portability make it a great option for gamers who want to play on the go, but are willing to pay a premium for top-notch performance.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enNvidia’s RTX 4070 laptop graphics haven’t looked very impressive this year. But I  think they might start finally making sense in Razer’s Blade 14. Hear me out.4070 graphics hit a voltage limit around 90 to 100 watts, so there’s no real point  in putting them in a thicker and heavier gaming laptop. The extra cooling headroom doesn’t help.This means that the FPS in games from our smaller 14 inch Blade 14 should  be about the same as a bigger 16 or 17 inch gaming laptop with 4070 graphics. Check out this example in 3DMark Timespy. With both GPUs running at 100 watts,  a 4070 performs 16% better compared to the best laptop GPU available last gen,  the RTX 3080 Ti. Of course the 3080 Ti ends up doing better with more power as it scales  better, but that’s only possible in larger laptops with bigger coolers.A smaller 14 inch laptop like the Blade is always  going to be more limited in how much power it can use.So let’s find out if the RTX 4070 laptop GPU has been the gaming  efficiency king this whole time in this review of the Blade 14!But first, this part of the video is sponsored by the Ugreen Nexode 65 watt 7-in-1 charging station!With 3 AC outlets, 2 USB Type-C and 2 USB Type-A ports,  you can organize your desk by powering up to 7 devices at the same time.With the GaN II chip inside, it can deliver 65 watts of power to a 13” MacBook Air M2,  fully charging it in less than an hour and a half!Keep your laptop, phone, tablet and other devices on your desk charged and powered by the Ugreen  Nexode 65 watt 7-in-1 charging station. Check it out with the link below with 38% off this week.As always, the Blade has a solid metal CNC aluminum chassis which feels super  sturdy. It’s easily got the best feeling build quality as far as gaming laptops go,  with very little flex to the keyboard and lid. The rubber feet underneath could be  a bit more grippy though, as I found it would slide with only a small pushIt still has the black anodized finish with green razer logo on the lid that lights up, and you  can use software to change the lid effect between static, breathing, or off if it’s not your thing.I’ve got the black version here, so expect fingerprints to show up, but they’re easy  enough to clean with a microfiber cloth. They probably don’t show up at all on the mercury  white finish, though. But on the other hand, that would probably show other dirt easier.There’s an indent on the front in the middle which makes it easy to get your finger in to  open the lid. The hinges feel sturdy even when ripping the lid open fast,  the motion is nice and smooth.It’s a little thicker and deeper  compared to last year’s version, but not quite as wide, and still very portable.The laptop alone weighs 4.1lb or 1.85kg, increasing to 5.8lb or 2.6kg with the 230  watt charger included - a little heavier compared to ASUS's G14,  which is competition to the blade in the 14 inch space.My Blade 14 has AMD’s Zen 4 Ryzen 9 7940HS processor,  Nvidia RTX 4070 graphics, 16 gigs of RAM, and a 14 inch 240Hz screen.The keyboard has per-key RGB backlighting, and I’ve got to say, the lighting looks excellent.  Razer seems to do this better compared to all other brands. It’s evenly lit and can get nice  and bright. All keys and secondary functions get lit up, and there are 15 brightness levels that  can be adjusted with the F10 and F11 shortcut keys. That many levels feels a bit excessive,  but at least you can be granular. Each key press adjusts it by about 6% in software,  but through software you can change it in 1% increments. The software also lets you pick  from a number of built-in effects, or make your own customizations in Chroma Studio.The key presses feel a bit softer compared to the G14,  probably as it has 1mm of key travel with linear switches, but I still liked typing on it.The large glass touchpad feels super smooth and nice to use. It’s 50% larger compared to  last year’s model, but I didn’t find it to get in the way when typing.There are front facing speakers on either side of the keyboard. They sound similar to last gen,  there’s a little bass and they start getting a bit muffled at higher volume,  and there’s nowhere near as much wrist rest vibration compared to the G14.The Latencymon results weren’t too bad compared to most laptops tested this year.As for ports, the left side has the power input at the back,  a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, a USB 4 Type-C port, and 3.5mm audio combo jack. The right  has the same Type-A and C ports, as well as HDMI 2.1 and a Kensington lock at the back.The power cable can go in two ways. One covers some of the ports, so I guess don’t do that.Both the left and right Type-C ports can be used to charge the Blade with up to 100 watts,  and they both have DisplayPort support so you can connect a screen to either.But the Type-C port on the right always connects to the integrated Radeon graphics,  whether optimus is on or off. The left Type-C port and HDMI on the  other hand always connect directly to the Nvidia graphics, bypassing optimus.And we confirmed that HDMI could run our LG B9 TV at 4K 120Hz 12-bit with G-Sync.There are 8 small TR5 screws to remove to get inside, all the same length. Once  the screws are out, the bottom panel comes right off without any pry tools.Inside we’ve got the battery down the front, single M.2 storage slot on the right,  two memory slots to the left of that, and the Wi-Fi 6E card on the far left.The Wi-Fi speed was faster compared to last year’s Blade 14,  despite both using the same Qualcomm card, though this year’s G14 was faster.The installed 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD was performing well for both reads and writes. I confirmed that  a double sided 4TB drive can fit no problem if you want to upgrade, but as there’s only one  slot that will either need you to clone your existing Windows install, or a fresh install.The upgradeability score was quite good for a 14 inch gaming laptop.  It’s higher compared to the 2022 and 2021 Blade 14, simply because we now  have two memory slots compared to 0 in the past, and I give one point per slot. This  is an awesome improvement. Half a point was removed due to the uncommon TR5 screw type,  as I feel that’s just needlessly making it harder for more people to access their devices.My config has two 8 gig single rank x16 sticks installed. Razer also sells it  with up to 32 gigs, but you can upgrade to 64 gigs if you want to max it out.The Blade 14 is powered by a 68Wh battery.The software gives you some nice options over the lighting. You can  set specific brightness levels for the keyboard when running on battery power,  turn the lid logo off, or make the lighting turn off after a set period of idle time, or after the  battery drops past a certain charge level. All nice features most other laptops don't offer.The software has been updated this year so you can limit the battery’s maximum charge  level between 50 and 80% in 5% increments, which should help extend its lifespan.The software has also been updated to give you the option to have the screen automatically lower to  60Hz when you unplug the charger. This is why the screen flashes black when you do this, and  it automatically goes back to 240Hz when you plug back in. This was a manual change only last year.Battery life was excellent, lasting for 9 hours and 20 minutes in the  YouTube video playback test. This is 12% more runtime compared to last gen,  which makes sense as the 2023 model has an 11% larger battery.Just like the ASUS G14, I was getting worse battery life when running the game on the  integrated Radeon graphics, so there’s no real benefit to disabling the Nvidia GPU,  as the iGPU both performs worse and isn’t as power efficient.Let’s check out thermals next. It’s got two fans and a vapor chamber  cooler covering both the CPU and GPU. Razer doesn't specify if they’re using  liquid metal or paste. There are air intake vents directly above both fans.  Air only gets exhausted out of the back, and the rear vent runs along most of it.Razer’s Synapse software allows us to change between different performance modes, which from  lowest to highest are silent, balanced and custom. Balanced mode gives us the option to customize fan  speed between different levels, while custom mode only lets us set the fans to max speed,  and that’s only possible if the CPU is set to its highest boost mode. You can set any combination of  CPU and GPU power options in custom mode, but we’ve tested with either both on low, medium,  high, or boost + high. It runs in balanced mode on battery power and you cannot change that.The internal temperatures were cool at idle. The rest of the results are from combined CPU and GPU  stress tests which aim to represent a worst case full load scenario. Silent mode is quite similar  to custom mode with the CPU and GPU set to low, while balanced mode is similar to custom mode  on medium. Setting the fans to max speed in custom mode was a little cooler compared to not using it,  but also louder too, as you’ll hear soon. Running with the lid closed and the laptop  docked was only a couple of degrees warmer. The cooling pad I test with,  linked below the video, was able to lower temps by 6 to 7 degrees. Now 100 degrees  Celsius is definitely on the warmer side for a laptop CPU, but I don’t think it’s a problem.The main reason is because all 8 cores are running at 4.8GHz here, which is going to  provide excellent performance. And as you'll see soon, the laptop isn't hot to the touch,  fact is the temp is within spec. There wasn’t that much difference between  setting the CPU on high or boost, but clock speeds run a bit higher as cooling improves,  whether that be from maxing the fans out or using a cooling pad. The GPU ran at the same  speed in most of the modes tested, and that’s because it was hitting Nvidia’s voltage limit.Razer advertises this laptop with 140 watts, which is what Nvidia says the  RTX 4070 mobile GPU is capable of doing, but in the real world and most games,  that’s not actually going to happen due to the voltage limit. Best case in these tests,  we almost hit 90 watts, which is pretty normal for a full powered 4070.Outside of silent mode, there’s almost no performance difference between the different  performance modes in Cyberpunk 2077. That makes sense based on the GPU power levels that we just  looked at. The 4070 was running up to 90 watts regardless of performance mode. Kind of makes  you wonder what the point of having different performance modes is. But you'll see soon.The CPU power level can run much higher when the GPU isn’t active, like in Cinebench, where boost  mode was maxing out around 80 watts. Boost mode uses a 67% higher TDP to reach a 10% higher score,  which demonstrates that the AMD processor is more efficient at lower power levels.It’s a great result compared to other 8 core 16 thread laptops tested, and right in-line  with the only other Ryzen 9 7940HS that we’ve tested so far in the ASUS Zephyrus G14. I think  it’s impressive when you consider that the larger HP Omen 16 is less than 5% better in multicore,  despite having an Intel processor with way more cores and threads. Single core performance is 20%  higher compared to last year’s Blade 14, while multicore performance has a larger  32% gain. The difference between the 2021 and 2022 Blade 14s was much smaller in comparison,  because the difference between Zen 3 and Zen 3+ was minor. AMD’s new Zen 4 offers nice gains,  which is why even a handheld gaming console is beating last year’s Blade 14.Performance lowers if we unplug the charger and instead run purely off of battery power.  Unfortunately the single core performance suffers significantly here. This happened  in the 2021 Blade 14 as well, though last year’s wasn’t quite as bad. I have to imagine that this  is a Razer power limit, rather than something caused by AMD, as ASUS’s G14 with the same  processor was scoring basically the same in single core as it was when plugged in. The G14  is 36% higher in multicore too, so the Blade’s performance on battery isn’t that impressive.Most laptops I test are in the low 30 degrees Celsius range on the keyboard at idle,  and the Blade 14 was right in-line with this. It’s warmer with the stress tests running,  but considering we saw the CPU peak at 100 degrees Celsius,  these results aren’t bad at all. The exterior felt a bit warm in the middle,  but it’s fine. This is quite different compared to ASUS’s G14, which was hotter on the keyboard  despite its CPU running cooler and clocking lower. Let’s have a listen to the fan noise.The fans were audible, but quiet, when just sitting there idle. It gets louder in the  higher modes, as expected, so that seems to be the main reason to use the other modes.  Given the performance difference in a game was barely any different between the different modes,  you might as well just use a lower mode to have a quieter laptop. At least if the game is GPU bound.Razer has joined the 16:10 screen club this year,  which means there are more pixels vertically compared to last year’s  Blade 14. And the refresh rate also goes up to 240Hz this year compared to 165Hz last year.The screen looks good. Color gamut is high enough even for content creation work,  it’s quite similar to last year’s version in that regard.The screen gets much brighter this year though. Razer says that it’s a 500 nit panel,  but mine was a fair bit above this at full brightness, though that will depend on the  panel lottery. Still though, this is 200 nits brighter than last year’s version.Mine had no backlight bleed, but again like the brightness, this will vary a bit between panels.Average grey-to-grey response time was good at 3.8ms, and most transitions were  below the 4.17ms needed to occur within the 240Hz refresh window - a good result. There  was some overshoot and undershoot detected, but you can’t do anything about it as Razer  don’t give us any options in software to turn the default overdrive mode off.It’s a good result compared to other laptops, and in-line with other larger  2560 by 1600 240Hz panels tested. It’s a little faster compared to this year’s Zephyrus G14,  and significantly better compared to the 2022 and 2021 Blade 14s.The total system latency is the amount of time between a mouse click and when  a gunshot fire appears on the screen in CS:GO. Again it’s a fair bit faster  compared to older Blade 14 laptops, and this time it was also quicker compared to  ASUS’s G14. So just goes to show there’s more to life than how fast the screen is.There’s a 1080p camera above the screen with IR for Windows Hello face unlock,  just like last year, but they added a privacy shutter in 2023.Here’s how the camera and microphones look and sound,  and this is what it sounds like while typing on the keyboard.Unfortunately there’s no advanced optimus, just like last year,  but there is still a standard MUX switch, so you have to reboot to turn optimus on  and off. There’s no G-Sync either, but FreeSync Premium is available when optimus is enabled.Now let’s find out how well this year’s Blade 14 actually performs  in games. We’ve tested it with these settings for best results.Cyberpunk 2077 was tested the same on all laptops, and the Blade 14 is shown by the  red highlight. Although it’s above all other RTX 4070 laptops tested in this game at 1080p so far,  the difference in average FPS is basically nothing and within the margin of error  range. Still though, those other laptops are all bigger, so this is an impressive  result from the Blade. At 1440p it’s a bit lower than most other 4070 laptops now,  but again the difference isn’t that big and one you’ll be too likely to notice. It’s 9%  faster compared to last year’s Blade 14 with 3080 Ti, or about 5 FPS quicker.Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested with the game’s benchmark. Again at 1080p,  the Blade is right in-line with other larger RTX 4070 gaming laptops. The fact that it’s  slightly ahead of last year’s way bigger Blade 17 with RTX 3080 Ti is quite impressive. I think  this really shows where the RTX 4070 can shine. The Blade 17 was able to pull ahead  at the higher 1440p resolution though, but the much smaller Blade 14 isn’t too far  behind. This time the new Blade was just 7% faster compared to last year’s best.The older but bigger Blade 17 was ahead in Control at 1080p,  but this year’s 14 inch model had a larger 14% higher average FPS compared to last year’s best  14 inch config. It’s one of the lower 4070 results at 1440p, but again, the best 4070  result is only 2 FPS faster, so they’re all much the same despite the size differences.Here are the 3DMark results for those that find them useful, now for some content creator tests.Adobe Photoshop was tested with the Puget Systems benchmark tool. It’s scoring 15%  higher compared to last year’s model, though last year's G14 with older CPU was ahead.The Adobe Premiere test recently changed, so we’re still building up our data. It’s only a  little below other 4070 results, so there’s not that much difference like in the games.GPU power matters more in DaVinci Resolve,  but again there’s not much difference between a number of bigger 4070 and even 4060 laptops here.It’s the same in Blender, where the Blade 14 was actually the best 4070  result out of the gaming laptops, basically matching the 3080 Ti  from last year’s bigger 16 inch Legion 7i. And that's high powered 3080 Ti.We’ve also tested SPECviewperf which tests out various professional 3D workloads.The BIOS looks basic compared to more modern options from say ASUS, MSI or Lenovo,  but that’s not the problem. There’s not really any customization available through here.Linux support was tested with an Ubuntu 23.04 live CD. By default the keyboard,  touchpad, camera, and Wi-Fi worked, but the speakers did not. Shortcuts  for adjusting keyboard brightness and screen brightness worked,  but you can’t change the lighting effect. It defaulted to a one zone of RGB breathing effect.Pricing and availability will change over time, so check the link below the video for updates  and current sales. And if the Blade 14 does have a good sale, we’ll be sure to add it to  our gaminglaptop.deals website. We update that everyday to include all of the latest sales,  so make sure you check it out regularly to save money on your next gaming laptop.At the time of recording, Bestbuy have the RTX 4060 model starting from $2400  USD. while the RTX 4070 version I’ve covered here goes for $2700. That’s 12.5% more money,  for around 14% more performance in games at 1440p. So not too unreasonable of an increase.Just for some context, last year’s Blade 14 with older RTX 3080 Ti graphics and  6900HX CPU is currently the same price as the new 4070 model when on sale.But even with this sale, the older 3080 Ti model is not worth it. This newer 4070 model  just beats it in every way. So forget about the older 2022 model unless it  gets way cheaper. Especially as this year’s model is now giving us upgradeable memory,  a better screen, a bigger battery and more powerful CPU and GPU.And speaking of GPU,  I think Razer’s Blade 14 starts showing where Nvidia’s RTX 4070 makes sense.The game benchmarks show us that the 4070 in this 14 inch laptop  perform about the same as the 4070 in larger 15 or 16 inch gaming laptops.And that’s just because all those high powered 4070s hit the same voltage limit anyway,  whether or not they’re in a thin laptop or a thick laptop, it doesn’t really matter.Now don’t get me wrong. The Blade 14 is a very expensive laptop. You can obviously  get similar specs that will perform about the same in a much cheaper machine. But  they won’t be as small and portable compared to this. Cramming high-end  tech in a small space just costs more money. That’s literally how tech has always worked.Just being able to get this level of efficiency  and performance in games from a laptop this size is kinda crazy.My point is that the 4070 in this smaller laptop performs the same  as a 4070 in a bigger laptop. So I think the 4070 just makes more sense  in a smaller device like this. Of course, if you can afford it!If you are considering a 14 inch gaming laptop like the Blade 14,  but can’t afford the higher prices, then check this video next where I’ve covered  ASUS’s Zephyrus G14. The 4060 G14 is like $800 less than a 4060 Blade 14,  but it still packs quite a punch in that smaller 14 inch size. So I’ll see you in that one next!\n"