Razer Blade 14 (2021) review: The portable gaming laptop of your dreams

(Pocket-lint) - The Razer Blade 14 is the MacBook Pro equivalent of portable gaming PCs. Its plan matters astir arsenic overmuch arsenic its quality to play games. 

This isn't conscionable a front. That gloss extends to things similar the surface image, the consciousness of the touchpad, and your quality to transportation it astir without risking a sore shoulder. 

Our Razer Blade 14 has an GeForce RTX 3080 - a ridiculously almighty graphics processing portion for thing this bladed and light. Is it magic? No, but it's not acold off. Like each laptops of this size it uses the slightest punchy mentation of Nvidia's GPU, but the show per quadrate inch successful sensational. 

We similar this laptop a lot. It's conscionable a shame we can't spend 1 - arsenic it costs nigh-on 3 grand. But if you tin past it's good worthy it.

Design

• Dimensions: 16.8 x 220 x 319.7mm
• Weight: 1.78kg (1.75kg measured)
• CNC aluiminium ammunition design

The Razer Blade 14 is astir apt the best-looking gaming laptop wealth tin buy. If it were not for the colour Razer logo connected the back, lit up by LEDs, the mean onlooker would person nary thought this is really a superior show machine. 

That is benignant of the point, though, and has been 1 of the cardinal appeals of Razer laptops for years. Put it adjacent to an older-generation MacBook Pro and the Razer Blade 13 hardly seems larger oregon louder, successful a ocular sense. 

This laptop besides weighs conscionable 1.75kg. Yes, that is excessively dense to acceptable into the ultraportable category. But for a machine with an Nvidia RTX 3080? We deliberation that's impressive. You tin usage the Razer Blade 14 arsenic a stylish portable laptop. An other 400g value seems a tiny terms to wage for the added show here. 

This happening is dripping with ultra-high physique quality, conscionable arsenic overmuch arsenic immoderate slim-and-light luxury laptop. The lid, keyboard and underside are each aluminium, telegraphing that chill consciousness of metallic each clip you prime up this laptop. Its keyboard sheet is ultra-rigid, the show does not wobble astatine all, and we find its minimal ocular benignant much appealing than beauteous overmuch immoderate different performance-led gaming laptop you mightiness buy. 

We similar its all-black styled conservatism truthful much, we kinda privation it conscionable said “Razer” connected the lid alternatively of utilizing the company's signature trio of intertwined snakes. Yes, we are aged and boring. 

Display 

• 14-inch LCD panel, 2560 x 1400 resolution
• 98.8% DCI P3 colour gamut
• 353-nit max brightness
• 165Hz refresh rate

The Razer Blade 14's surface situation is the 1 portion astatine hazard of making this laptop look similar a exemplary from a fewer years ago, alternatively than a style-led laptop from 2021. There's a large blank artifact of achromatic beneath the surface panel, mostly due to the fact that this is simply a 16:9 facet ratio screen. 

At this constituent we request to interaction connected the realities of laptop manufacturing. Razer tin lone usage surface panels that exist, and a high-end gaming laptop this similar can't, oregon shouldn't, conscionable usage immoderate looks champion wrong the shell. 

Refresh complaint is the cardinal constituent of differentiation. The Razer Blade 14 has a 165Hz refresh complaint screen, susceptible of refreshing its representation astatine 165 times a 2nd alternatively than the modular 60 times. While determination whitethorn beryllium 60Hz panels Razer could person used, 60Hz conscionable wouldn't chopped it successful this model. 

The solution is 1440p, which is besides the implicit perfect solution for this laptop. It offers a sharp-looking Windows 10 desktop, and lets you jack up the solution successful games beyond 1080p to marque usage of the GPU's sizeable power. 

Colour extent is excellent, and maximum brightness is bully capable - though not exceptional. Still, we deliberation you could comfortably enactment extracurricular penning documents connected the Razer Blade 14 acknowledgment to its matte-finish screen. It means reflections are overmuch little of an contented present than successful a glossy laptop. 

Contrast is thing special, but we spot the aforesaid effect successful a batch precocious refresh complaint gaming screens. It's lone going to beryllium evident if you play successful a dimly-lit room. And if you privation overmuch amended results you're going to person to hold until Mini LED gaming laptops go common. 

The close resolution, colour extent and refresh complaint are capable to support america much than blessed with the Razer Blade 14's show quality. 

Keyboard and touchpad

• Glass touchpad
• Per-key RGB keyboard backlight

For the astir portion we emotion the mode Razer emulates the benignant of thin-and-light ultraportables successful the Blade 14. Its keyboard is the 1 contentious side-effect. 

While this is simply a prime keyboard, its keys are reasonably shallow - with conscionable 1.1mm depth. Just a fraction of a millimetre of added question would marque it consciousness much similar a large gaming keyboard. 

Thankfully, the Razer Blade 14's cardinal consciousness is light, alternatively than featherlight. There is simply a tenable magnitude of absorption to the cardinal depress. It doesn't consciousness similar you're tapping connected pieces of ovum ammunition near connected a room enactment top. These keys consciousness accelerated too. 

The keyboard's lighting strategy is excellent. The Razer Blade 14 has per-key RGB lighting that looks refined and elegant, if you privation it active. There's minimal airy bleed astir the cardinal borders and the Chroma Studio app offers heavy power implicit however these lights behave if you don't simply privation to usage a static colour oregon 1 of the ‘animated' presets. 

The Razer Blade 14 has 1 of the best-looking gaming keyboards, but it's not arsenic satisfying to benignant distant connected arsenic those of a bigger gaming laptop - similar the Alienware X17 R1.

However, the Razer's touchpad is simply a people above. It's a textured solid pad with a bully “dark” clicker, not the agleam and insubstantial benignant you often spot successful gaming laptops. Razer intelligibly wanted to marque a pad that compares good with ultra-premium portable laptops, not conscionable gaming ones. This is simply a ample pad too, which is precise important if you mightiness usage the Razer for plan oregon photography apps arsenic good arsenic conscionable games. 

Performance

• 100W Nvidia RTX 3080 GPU
• AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU
• 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD

We are utilizing a precise almighty mentation of the Razer Blade 14. It has a Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU, 16GB RAM, and an Nvidia RTX 3080 graphics card. This is the mentation commonly sold successful the UK, though different specifications look to beryllium disposable elsewhere.

While immoderate compromises are made to bring the laptop down to the size and value it is, we can't assistance but beryllium impressed by what Razer has managed.

The Razer Blade 14 has the lower-power mentation of the RTX 3080 graphics card, but Razer sucks each past spot of foodstuff retired of it. This paper is designed to let for 80-100W of powerfulness draw. In the default mode it hovers betwixt 80W and 90W erstwhile playing a challenging game. But if you excavation into the Razer Synapse app you tin acceptable it to a show mode that lets it instrumentality to the maximum 100W the full time. 

You whitethorn perceive much instrumentality noise, but lone a small extra. The show mode seems to marque the Razer Blade 14 footwear up into its max instrumentality velocity mode much often, but doesn't enactment determination the full time. 

Whichever mode you use, you tin play Control comfortably astatine 60fps with Ultra settings, but whitethorn want to usage DLSS to acceptable the render solution to ~1080p alternatively than 1440p. Subnautica hits astir 100fps with everything turned up to max and, erm, 2011's The Witcher 2 runs astatine astir 70-85fps with everything switched connected astatine 1440p. That's not the Blade 14's fault, The Witcher 2 conscionable has an incredibly demanding supersampling mode that makes it much challenging to tally than The Witcher 3. 

This is not the astir almighty gaming laptop successful the beingness though. If you privation the champion powerfulness for your currency and inactive privation a grown-up looking laptop, cheque retired the acold cheaper Lenovo Legion 5 Pro. It has the high-power mentation of the step-down RTX 3070, but show is going to beryllium akin acknowledgment to its importantly greater powerfulness draw. 

However, if we needed a laptop to usage arsenic a semi-portable instrumentality we'd take the Razer Blade 14 each time. 

The mode the Razer handles vigor is astute too. While the agelong of metallic supra the keyboard does get uncomfortably blistery aft playing for a spell, you'd conscionable ne'er cognize successful astir games. One of the 2 superior fans sits close nether the WASD keys, pulling aerial done the underside and the abstraction betwixt the keys, keeping this portion chill the full time. These fans ne'er really make overmuch noise, adjacent erstwhile moving flat-out.

But the Razer Blade 14 does person an contented communal to beauteous overmuch each comparatively thin, tightly packed laptops. While the measurement of the fans whitethorn not beryllium high, the transportation of the dependable often is. We find this acold harder to disregard than the lower-frequency sound furniture you thin to get successful the champion larger gaming laptops. A laptop this petite and almighty has to woody successful compromises but we don't truly spot however Razer could person pulled this disconnected overmuch better. 

Even the speakers are beauteous good, for a gaming laptop. They beryllium to each broadside of the keyboard, offering an engaging stereo dependable tract with amended positional imaging than most. Sure, there's lone the slightest proposition of bass present and the upper-mids tin dependable fibrous and somewhat abrasive. But galore gaming laptops speakers look similar an afterthought. The Razer Blade 14's don't.

Battery beingness and connections

• Ports: 2x USB-C, 2x USB-A, 1x HDMI 2.1
• 61Wh artillery capacity, 230W charger

We deliberation artillery beingness is acold much important successful the Razer Blade 14 than successful astir larger gaming laptops. You could feasibly usage this laptop arsenic an mundane portable.

Our video streaming tests suggest you tin get astir 7.5 hours of airy usage retired of a charge. While this doesn't conscionable the benignant of modular we'd look for successful an ultraportable, it is agelong capable to marque the Blade 14 a utile portable productivity laptop. We tried dropping the refresh complaint to 60Hz, but this didn't alteration its longevity. 

It's kinda a imagination pupil laptop - not that we could person remotely afforded thing arsenic bully arsenic this backmost erstwhile we were 21 years old. 

We person conscionable a fewer bits near to over. The Blade 14 has 2 USB-C ports. Neither is an ultra-fast Thunderbolt connector, which is simply a shame, but some enactment DisplayPort. Its full-size HDMI is simply a 2.1 spec socket, worthy of a fewer bonus points, and determination are 2 classical USB-A ports too. 

Oh, and let's decorativeness connected a uncommon downer: the webcam is terrible. We're not surprised, but wouldn't it person been bully if it was good?

Writing by Andrew Williams. Editing by Mike Lowe. Originally published connected 20 October 2021.