4 days ago
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ZDNET's cardinal takeaways
- The Razer Blade 14 (2025) is connected merchantability present starting astatine $2,000.
- It's a gorgeous laptop that redefines portability for gaming machines.
- However, the ultraportable signifier origin results successful trade-offs erstwhile it comes to show and upgradability.
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The Blade 16 has been Razer's flagship gaming laptop for years, but the thinner, sleeker plan connected 2025's Blade 14 (the thinnest Blade exemplary yet) gives thing abbreviated of a stunning archetypal impression.
The caller exemplary is 11% thinner and 11% lighter than its predecessor, weighing conscionable 3.5 pounds and 0.6 inches thick, with a slick, matte achromatic decorativeness that looks and feels premium. The signifier challenges the brand's ain aesthetic with a instrumentality that looks much similar a Dell XPS 14 oregon MacBook Pro than a gaming laptop.
Also: Is the Razer Blade 16 yet an mundane laptop? Its caller slimmed-down plan says 'yes'
The carnal physique is surely 1 of this laptop's champion features. Despite its bladed and airy frame, it feels expressly durable, with minimal flexing oregon surface wobble. I besides emotion the ample rubber posts connected the bottommost of the instrumentality that support it from sliding astir and let for much airflow.
By highlighting this caller and improved signifier factor, Razer is taking purpose astatine competing 14-inch gaming laptops, peculiarly the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, which reigns ultimate arsenic 1 of the champion 14-inch gaming laptops retired determination (one of our favorites, arsenic well).
There are a fistful of differences betwixt these 2 laptops, however, with the Blade 14 trading a small spot of that powerfulness for its svelte signifier factor, opening up a usage lawsuit arsenic a instrumentality that's arsenic susceptible connected the Steam dashboard arsenic it is successful the office.
The 3K, 120Hz OLED show is gorgeous, going close up to the precise borderline with ultrathin bezels specified millimeters thick. Similarly, the trackpad is ample (but not ridiculously so), going arsenic acold to the edges arsenic it perchance can, exuding a precise, expertly crafted carnal aesthetic.
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There are trade-offs to this design, however. The thinner signifier means little robust cooling and limits hardware, which The Blade 14 opts for successful speech for the other portability. You've got an AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 processor paired with Nvidia's caller Blackwell architecture successful the GeForce RTX 50 series, up to the 5070, and up to 32GB of soldered RAM.
Sure, it's not the almighty loadout you tin get connected a gaming laptop, but that isn't truly the constituent here. Razer scaled things backmost with the Blade 14 for a susceptible instrumentality that errs connected the broadside of artillery efficiency, alternatively than trying to strongarm show with dense hardware.
For example, the Blade 14 supports 100W of full graphics power, going up to 115W with Dynamic Boost on, truthful technically this laptop has much than capable powerfulness to enactment a higher-end GPU similar the RTX 5080. However, Razer apt opted for the 5070 to reign successful vigor and powerfulness consumption.
To compare, the 14-inch Asus Zephyrus G14 has the 5080, and that happening gets hot. Even with the fans cranking (which are not quiet), the world of gaming connected a 14-inch means accounting for these factors, of which the Blade 14 mitigates with this hardware.
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Gaming show portion plugged successful is fantastic, with smooth, lag-free visuals successful "Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered", "Diablo IV", and "Cyberpunk 2077". The latter, astatine 3K resolution, pushes things to the apical end, with an mean close astir 40 FPS and immoderate airy ocular stuttering, but thing that feels problematic. Swapping to a much manageable 1200p solution drastically improved performance.
In presumption of benchmarking, the Blade 14 holds its ain against 2 almighty 16-inch gaming laptops we've tested this year, the MSI Stealth 16 AI, and the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i, but shows a flimsy dip successful earthy powerfulness to the hardware successful those (much larger) systems.
The Blade 14 has bully I/O coverage, arsenic well. You've got 2 USB4 Type-C ports with Display Port 2.1 and powerfulness transportation enactment connected either side, 2 USB-A ports connected either side, an HDMI larboard (on the close side), and a MicroSD paper reader.
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On the near side, you besides person the proprietary charging larboard for the 200W powerfulness brick. This is the astir businesslike signifier of powerfulness delivery, but it volition complaint via USB-C arsenic agelong arsenic you person the due wattage. Just don't expect plugged-in show if you're gaming connected this with a 65W charger.
The RGB lighting effects connected the keyboard don't disappoint, either. Razer does a large occupation astatine maximizing the strength and punch of each idiosyncratic key, with minimal airy leakage from the corners of the keys for a melodramatic effect.
If you similar per-key customization, the keyboard present has each the effects you tin inquire for successful the accompanying Razer Chroma app. If you privation to formal things down with a much subtle, office-ready aesthetic, you tin bash that conscionable arsenic easily.
The keyboard itself feels nice, with soundless activation unless you're truly hammering away. However, I tin spot immoderate gamers not being wholly satisfied with the question distance, arsenic though it feels premium, it errs much toward a MacBook oregon concern laptop than an explicit gaming board. Conversely, the speakers are alright. They're amended than average, but a small lacking successful bass oregon richness.
Also: I traded my concern machine for a Lenovo Legion laptop for work, and didn't miss it
The Razer Synapse app acts arsenic the device's dashboard for controlling everything from show modes to overclocking to at-a-glance metrics similar operating temps and CPU usage. However, the app itself feels a small unfinished, and it became unresponsive a fewer times during my testing. It's utile capable to negociate settings, however.
Just enactment that erstwhile you're connected battery, the laptop forces you into Balanced mode -- with nary enactment to power retired of it. Obviously, this is the preferred mounting for erstwhile you're untethered from the outlet, but eliminating the enactment for abbreviated sprints of show connected artillery powerfulness isn't my favourite thing.
Hopping into Balanced mode goes a agelong mode toward maximizing artillery life, however. Turning the refresh complaint down to 60Hz and reducing brightness to fractional resulted successful a small implicit 9 hours of runtime during our artillery investigating -- precise bully for a gaming laptop.
For sustained gaming connected battery, you tin expect 2 to 3 hours, which is much oregon little standard, though little demanding games volition undoubtedly propulsion that past that to 4 to five. The takeaway present is that the Blade 14 tin enactment live successful low-demand sessions oregon portion idle overmuch longer than astir gaming laptops, which thin to beryllium a batch thirstier.
ZDNET's buying advice
The Razer Blade 14 is simply a gaming laptop, but it's not constricted to that usage case. You tin instrumentality it to the bureau oregon battalion it successful a question container conscionable arsenic easy arsenic you tin get those headshots successful the latest top-tier gaming titles connected Steam.
It's a gorgeous laptop, and it resonates with maine personally arsenic a "mature" gamer whose all-day gaming sessions are (mostly) a happening of the past, but inactive enjoys a regular portfolio of games to log into.
Also: I replaced my enactment PC with this Dell laptop, and it was 1 of my champion decisions
I'd urge this laptop to anyone looking for a susceptible gaming laptop, but who is not funny successful a monolithic 16- oregon 18-inch behemoth. In that sense, the Blade 14 speaks to the user who is comfy with the trade-offs discussed and appreciates the lightweight signifier factor.
The Blade 14 comes successful respective antithetic configurations, with 16GB, 32GB, oregon 64GB of soldered RAM and either the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 oregon 5070 GPU. The astir high-end loadout retails regularly for $2,999, which isn't precisely inexpensive and requires committedness to its niche usage case. However, close now, it's connected merchantability for $2,599 -- a terms that's a batch much palatable.
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