Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Razer Blade 14 Review: Little Monster”.
If you’re like me, when you hear the term gaming laptop, you probably think of massive 17-inch desktop replacement monster machines, in other words, pretty much every laptop i covered during the quarantine days of 2020.. Well, i still love those, but now that we’re getting back to being mobile, there’s a lot to be said for packing all that gaming pc power into something a lot more portable. The blade 14 is instantly recognizable as a razer product, and not just thanks to the glowing pile of snakes on the lid. No other windows brand has been as committed to the narrow radius corner minimal matte black design, which is as distinctive here as it was on the blade pro 17 that i covered a year ago now, while i personally prefer a little more pizazz in my notebook designs, It’S nice to have the option of a somewhat subdued gaming laptop on the market, and the build quality follows right along, despite weighing less than four pounds, there’s almost no flex to the anodized aluminum chassis, which floats a few millimeters above a table surface thanks to a Pair of robust rubber standoffs and it passes the one-handed opening test, it’s also impressive to see that portability paired with this much power.
This is the first razer blade with an amd processor, which is backed up by an rtx 3080 laptop gpu on my review unit. Now, as seasoned gamers will know, that doesn’t mean this machine packs as much power as desktop class 3080 gpus, but look not everyone’s a gpu geek. So if you want to learn more about that, i’ll link you to an excellent video from hardware unboxed explaining the differences down in the description also, while we’re learning things remember to take into account that, while several laptops offer this graphics processor, not all of them run, It at the same power level, the blade 14 runs this gpu at 100 watts which, as pcmag points out, is lower than the 140 watts of dell’s alienware m14, which performs better on some benchmarks, despite being classed as a 30-70. Instead of a 3080, it’s a very complicated world, and it makes me glad i spend most of my time in the simpler mobile phone space now, despite all those qualifiers, the blade 14 games just great. My principal test titles continue to be star wars, squadrons and microsoft. Flight simulator, not just for the graphics requirements, but also their practical ones, hands-on, throttle and stick setups still require usb-a ports for the most part, and this machine furnishes two of them, so you can just plug and play star wars. Squadrons is the less demanding of the two titles by far and as such, it ran utterly without fault: achieving consistent frame rates of 80 fps and, above even with all graphics options, maxed out and even after sustained campaigns of up to two hours at a time, razer’s Vapor chamber cooling system and those twin 88 bladed fans on the undercarriage seem to do their jobs quite well.
Microsoft, flight simulator, on the other hand, could only achieve frame rates of between 20 and 30 fps when intentionally pushing the machine to its limits. But you know that’s a title that can always be counted on to bog down a laptop gaming or no and frankly, i don’t mind settling for those frame rates or even a slightly lower quality setting in exchange for scenery. That looks this good on this matte finish. Quad hd display is that screen a little small for gaming yeah personally, i’d prefer a 15 or 17 inch model if i’m buying a gaming laptop.
But it’s nice to have a powerful machine to work on the go and when you come home, you hook it up to your tv or a gaming, monitor through the hdmi 2.1 port for a bigger picture. While you cut loose and whether you’re using it for play or productive purposes, you’ll love this keyboard, there’s plenty of travel, lovely punchy feedback with just a hint of mechanical clack and, of course, the chroma rgb lighting, that’s just as fun as it is useful. Continuing with the compliments, i was surprised at how long this thing lasted with my usual chrome cocktail of 15 to 20 tabs, plus evernote and telegram. My review unit averaged seven to eight hours between charges.
As long as i was using it indoors now, as richard devine points out in his review for windows, central, this comes at the expense of significantly reduced ssd and gpu performance on battery power. So don’t plan on doing much gaming or even video editing without being plugged in speaking of you’ve, got a big 230 watt, brick in the box, or you can charge via either of the type c ports on the sides. Razer actually sent over a nice companion review sample for that purpose, its new wall charger that uses gallium nitride technology to split 130 watts of output across four usb ports at about 180 bucks.
It’S too expensive in my opinion, but there’s no denying it’s useful if you’re getting back on the road this year, combined with the other offerings like the anzu, smart glasses and the wireless charging pad with chroma underlighting, it’s easier than ever for razer super fans to extend The company’s aesthetic beyond the laptop to the rest of its accessories – it’s just a shame. The company doesn’t make phones anymore. Now we can’t get out of here without discussing the downsides, and one of those is that the aesthetics suffer the more you touch this machine, fingerprints, sweat, iced, coffee, condensation.
If something secretes it, the blade 14 will soak it up. I’M not just saying that, because today’s sponsor is dbrand, but d branding sure does help that problem with a ton of options for texture and color. It also helps bring some of that pizzazz. I lamented the lack of in my intro and best of all these sharp corners and right angles make it very easy to install, even if you haven’t done it a hundred times like i have de-brand your device at the link in the description and thanks to dbrand For sponsoring this, video other disappointments were few, but still worth a mention.
Remember how i said before that you’d want to use this thing indoors. Well, a recurring theme in my laptop reviews of late has been a lack of brightness on the screen and maxing out at just over 300 nits. This display, too, doesn’t get bright enough to use outdoors or sometimes even near a window, and since you do need to max that brightness constantly you’ll find the battery life often cut in half. That’S something i’ve been spoiled by on my macbook pro, which gets not only bright enough, but also loud enough to hear over almost anything by comparison, the razer blade, 14 sounds okay, but still a bit tinny for my taste. Also.
While i appreciate the diversity of usb ports, i do miss the built-in sd card reader from the 17-inch razer blade pro and while the lack of thunderbolt, 4 and upgradeable ram doesn’t bother me too much that i have to say that yet again, another 720p laptop webcam Has let me down does bother me, stop making bad webcams, stop it. The razer blade 14 starts at 17.99, but that entry level model makes do with a slightly slower, lower res 1080p display and an rtx 3060 gpu. The top shelf model in this article will run you an extra thousand, but honestly, i think it earns it. This machine can last a full day of writing and surfing on the road or on the river, and when i come home to plug in and unwind, it packs enough power to run even the most demanding games, i’m actually in the market for a gaming laptop right. Now – and i definitely need a bigger screen for that, but that’s really the only reason i’m not gon na buy this machine myself if display size is less of a concern to you, no other pc that i’ve tested or even seen recently straddles the line between work And play portability and power so effectively. Bravo razor. This review was produced following four weeks, with a razer blade, 14 review sample provided by razer, but as always, the company did not provide any compensation in exchange for this coverage, nor did it receive any editorial input, or even an early preview of this video they’re, seeing It right alongside you for the first time please subscribe to the mr mobile on youtube.
If you’d like to see more videos like this until next time, thanks for watching and stay mobile, my friends .