Razer Blade 14 (2021)

[RedTheReader]

This looks like a truly phenomenal machine. It's got an AMD CPU, and up to an RTX 3080 GPU. It's small and light, and of course you've got Razer's MacBook-level chassis rigidity and finish.

What do you guys think? Is anyone interested? Personally, I'm not too eager to replace my MacBook, but I'd like to play some games after a few years of not taking the time to get into it. Building a proper tower is sort of out of the question at the moment, so I'm seriously considering jumping ship to this machine.

Razer’s Blade 14 is the first Blade laptop with AMD Ryzen processors

Available now for $1,799.99.

www.theverge.com

 

[maflynn]

Interesting, I own a Razer and I love it. Even though I have a desktop that I built, I still find myself going back to the Razer often and its my go to travel machine.


Here's some random thoughts

• Battery life, on Razer's website, they're advertising 12 hours, even if they get 10 hours, that's just simply awesome. I'm sure that's not 12 hours of hard game playing but still, much much better battery.
• Ram is soldered onto the motherboard and its max is 16gb
• Dave2D has a pre-production unit, and so we don't know how hot this baby will get, but a thin a light with a 5900X and 3080 will get hot (and/or the fans will be loud)
• While Dave2D did say the keyboard didn't feel cramped it does look cramped.
• Ports - Razer's website seems to imply that there's no thunderbolt, so no eGPU (if that's important to you)

Overall, it looks like a very impressive machine and personally, If I was looking to buy a laptop, I'd probably forego the 3080 model and get the 3060 for 1,700, first, I don't think I'll be seeing 1,000 dollars worth of performance in the 3080 and secondly, the 3060 equipped laptop is rocking with a 1080p display. I have a Razer 15" with a 1080p and its awesome, I'm thinking right now a QHD resolution may be a bit too high for a 14" display. I'm waffling on this, but overall, given that I'd rather have great battery performance, a cooler machine the low end fits my usage better (if I were to buy one, but my wife would crucify me )

 

[thunng8]

Here's some random thoughts

• Battery life, on Razer's website, they're advertising 12 hours, even if they get 10 hours, that's just simply awesome. I'm sure that's not 12 hours of hard game playing but still, much much better battery.

Unless they throttle the RTX3080 model hard when using battery, the laptop wouldn't last any more than 45 min with a graphics heavy game. I'm sure these laptop are meant to be plugged in when gaming.

 

[GoldfishRT]

Super interesting device. Way more reasonably priced than Razer's 15 Advanced of a similar spec (QHD and 3070 for $2199 seems great). However, still very much off-put by Razer's quality control and issues. That's a lot of money to spend still, and I'd prefer to not play the quality control roulette. Even if they do appear to be improving over time.

 

[nStyle]

I’m glad Razer is finally putting out AMD machines but I think the Asus G15 w/ 3070 still takes the cake for $400 cheaper unless you just really want a 14“. Being the thinnest always comes at a price…you can’t fully defy physics. Also would you even pay $700 more for this than the Asus G14 with a 3060?

This would have definitely interested me had it came out a year ago though.

 

[RedTheReader]

If I was looking to buy a laptop, I'd probably forego the 3080 model and get the 3060 for 1,700, first, I don't think I'll be seeing 1,000 dollars worth of performance in the 3080 and secondly, the 3060 equipped laptop is rocking with a 1080p display. I have a Razer 15" with a 1080p and its awesome, I'm thinking right now a QHD resolution may be a bit too high for a 14" display.

I wanted to stay away from the 3080 model because, like you, I doubt that I'll see extra frames when the GPU's limited to such a low wattage. However, I've got to disagree on the screen. I recently tried the 1080p Asus G14 for a week and man, it's just not enough pixels! I think I'm too spoiled by MacBooks, which have WQHD screens (1600p) at 13" sizes. The 3070/QHD was the sweet spot for me. I'll report back with initial findings once it comes in.

Also would you even pay $700 more for this than the Asus G14 with a 3060?

I tried the G14 recently, and I had 2 major problems with it. First off, the build quality just wasn't where I would have wanted it to be. Even though it was largely made out of magnesium, it didn't feel much like metal to me. Second, the screen was only 1080p, and while I didn't think that would be a problem since Windows has ClearType, I was wrong. There is a QHD model, but it's $2000 and scarcely available. At that point, it's not much cheaper than the Blade 14. There were a few other things, like a weird fan curve (it would go silent for 30 seconds then flare up super loud for 30 seconds while just browsing) and a pretty small trackpad.

 

[dmr727]

I'm looking at the 14" as well. I'm not a hardcore gamer but dabble in CUDA programming so having Nvidia onboard is nice. I'd actually prefer a 13" machine and don't need more performance than the 1650 Ti, but like @RedTheReader, my 2015 MBP has ruined me for pixel density and 1080p just isn't gonna get it done. I understand why a gamer would want it, but I was just at a Microcenter trying like hell to love the 13" Blade Stealth and simply couldn't get my head around being able to see the pixels.

So the 14" 2070 QHD seems like a good compromise. Not happy with the 16GB limit, but otherwise seems like a solid buy. Hopefully Razer has some of their build quality issues ironed out.

 

[maflynn]

So the 14" 2070 QHD seems like a good compromise. Not happy with the 16GB limit, but otherwise seems like a solid buy. Hopefully Razer has some of their build quality issues ironed out.

I've owned a couple and i've been very pleased with both the quality of the machines, but also tech support, but I did opt for Amazon's support on this razer. In all honesty, I felt it was safer to buy it from Amazon, and include their support.

As for the memory, my Razer has 16, and its decent, I don't run into memory issues, but I do notice a difference between my desktop 32GB and my Razer.

 

[pi=e=3]

Can't seem to find any info on the peak brightness of these. I am interested, but prior Razer displays seem to top out at or bellow 300 nit, which doesn't cut it for me.

I will probably just end up going for an XPS 9710, but I'd really have liked a 3070.

 

[dmr727]

I've owned a couple and i've been very pleased with both the quality of the machines, but also tech support, but I did opt for Amazon's support on this razer. In all honesty, I felt it was safer to buy it from Amazon, and include their support.

As for the memory, my Razer has 16, and its decent, I don't run into memory issues, but I do notice a difference between my desktop 32GB and my Razer.

Appreciate the report! That's not a bad idea wrt Amazon. The Microcenter near me had the 15" and 13" Razers on display and I really liked the feel of both.

 

[Never mind]

Can't seem to find any info on the peak brightness of these. I am interested, but prior Razer displays seem to top out at or bellow 300 nit, which doesn't cut it for me.

I will probably just end up going for an XPS 9710, but I'd really have liked a 3070.

Nits about 360. Wish it was more, but one YouTuber mentioned the screen brightness was very good and seem like more than 360.

 

[RedTheReader]

As soon as I started up a video on the Blade 14, I noticed something weird about the colors. It looks like something wonky's going on in the red spectrum, because skin tones are way, way off. I don't understand why; people are measuring the screen to be pretty accurate. Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

Spoiler: Color Difference

I'm not the only one who thinks this is weird, right? I did a bit of Googling to see if people have had these issues with past Blades, and I only got a few results, none with solutions. Has anyone here seen anything like this? @maflynn, I know you've got some experience with Blades. Is there a fix to this?

 

[mi7chy]

Check HDR settings. It could cause colors to either be flat or oversaturated.

 

[iHorseHead]

Laptop for gaming?

 

[Never mind]

Laptop for gaming?

Yes. Why of course laptops are good for gaming if you get the right one. And they are mobile in addition, which is a plus over a desktop.

 

[maflynn]

Has anyone here seen anything like this? @maflynn

I've not seen anything like this with my razer. Try and see if anyone else has delt with this over at Razer's user forum. They've been pretty useful to me. https://insider.razer.com/index.php?forums/systems.88/

Laptop for gaming?

Yes, gaming laptops are actually quite popular and I think Razer is one of the best. Great performance, built inside an awesome looking laptop

 

[Steve Adams]

As soon as I started up a video on the Blade 14, I noticed something weird about the colors. It looks like something wonky's going on in the red spectrum, because skin tones are way, way off. I don't understand why; people are measuring the screen to be pretty accurate. Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

Spoiler: Color Difference

View attachment 1797948

I'm not the only one who thinks this is weird, right? I did a bit of Googling to see if people have had these issues with past Blades, and I only got a few results, none with solutions. Has anyone here seen anything like this? @maflynn, I know you've got some experience with Blades. Is there a fix to this?

Maybe she went to the tanning bed and the colors are spot on? ha ha ha! Looks like it just needs to be adjusted in the red spectrum. You can do that via software in windows.

 

[1rottenapple]

So is the keyboard and track pad good? How about screen brightness. I’m somewhat interested in this but man I am spoiled with MacBook screen brightness, keyboard and trackpad feel. I was trying out gaming laptops in Best Buy and I just don’t know about the quality. Need this for work and some gaming. My air m1 feels way nicer and brighter, and forgot about the my 16in MacBook Pro which is more expensive that most gaming laptops. Seems like the money was spent on the gpu and cpu on these gaming laptops and Keyboard and track pad weren’t the same quality and never mind the speakers which aren’t great.

 

[RedTheReader]

So is the keyboard and track pad good? How about screen brightness. I’m somewhat interested in this but man I am spoiled with MacBook screen brightness, keyboard and trackpad feel… Seems like the money was spent on the gpu and cpu on these gaming laptops and Keyboard and track pad weren’t the same quality and never mind the speakers which aren’t great.

I’ll try to arrange this list from good to bad.

Brightness: It’s quite nice. Apparently reviewers have measured it to be 360 nits, which is a fair bit below the MacBook’s 500 nits, but it seems brighter than that to me. It’s more than enough for bright indoor lights, but I think it’ll have some trouble in direct sunlight.

Trackpad: It’s nice. It’s not as big as a 13” MacBook trackpad (see the photo in my post above), but it’s big enough. The surface and tracking is excellent. Unfortunately, the left and right side click isn’t the same. The right side is a little looser. It doesn’t feel bad per se, but the fact that each side is different is distracting.

Speakers: They’re okay. They’re not nearly as good as a modern MacBook, and they’re not as good as a MacBook form 5 years ago. But compared to 90% of gaming laptops, they’re good. They don’t sound tinny or small, thankfully.

Keyboard: It’s bad. I know keyboards are a highly subjective topic, but I don’t like it. The travel’s noticeably shorter than the current MacBooks (which aren’t exactly known to have long travel, even compared to other laptops). They’re also mushier to boot. It comes together as a poor typing experience. I was pretty bummed out when I first tried it out, but I think most people will be able tolerate it if they like everything else about the laptop.

There ya go!

 

[1rottenapple]

I’ll try to arrange this list from good to bad.

Brightness: It’s quite nice. Apparently reviewers have measured it to be 360 nits, which is a fair bit below the MacBook’s 500 nits, but it seems brighter than that to me. It’s more than enough for bright indoor lights, but I think it’ll have some trouble in direct sunlight.

Trackpad: It’s nice. It’s not as big as a 13” MacBook trackpad (see the photo in my post above), but it’s big enough. The surface and tracking is excellent. Unfortunately, the left and right side click isn’t the same. The right side is a little looser. It doesn’t feel bad per se, but the fact that each side is different is distracting.

Speakers: They’re okay. They’re not nearly as good as a modern MacBook, and they’re not as good as a MacBook form 5 years ago. But compared to 90% of gaming laptops, they’re good. They don’t sound tinny or small, thankfully.

Keyboard: It’s bad. I know keyboards are a highly subjective topic, but I don’t like it. The travel’s noticeably shorter than the current MacBooks (which aren’t exactly known to have long travel, even compared to other laptops). They’re also mushier to boot. It comes together as a poor typing experience. I was pretty bummed out when I first tried it out, but I think most people will be able tolerate it if they like everything else about the laptop.

There ya go!

Maybe they expect people to use an external keyboard? Damn. Thanks for the feedback

 

[pi=e=3]

Nits about 360. Wish it was more, but one YouTuber mentioned the screen brightness was very good and seem like more than 360.

Hmmm, 350-400 would be acceptable... I'll look into picking one up.

Thanks for letting me know!

Also considering the X1 Extreme 4th gen, seeing as it's getting a new 16:10 display and cooling system with better GPU options... But optioned out my way would likely be $$$ over the Blade.

 

[maflynn]

Keyboard: It’s bad. I know keyboards are a highly subjective topic,

I'm generally happy with the keyboard, I have the opti-mechanical ones that came as a high end option for the 15" model, back when I bought it. I'm not sure if those made are now considered standard or not.

The only thing I don't like, is that the model keyboard that I do have has the arrow key and "/?" key in a non-standard placement. I find myself hitting the wrong key at the wrong moment.


Here's Linus' take on the new model, its not a review, just a first impressions. If you follow him at all, you'll now that he has a love/hate relationship with Razer. He loves the design, performance but prior QC issues really frustrated him

 

[GoldfishRT]

I love how the new Blade looks. As with all of them, they're very expensive. Shame about the lack of upgradable ram. I would hope with each model they make progress on their reliability issues but who knows.

Maybe I'll take another chance when, like the Blade 15, they inevitably have great deals in a year. You can get a Base OLED from last year for well south of 2 grand.

 

[maflynn]

Shame about the lack of upgradable ram

Its only a shame simply because they were a bit stingy. I think if it was configured for 32 or 64GB of ram, then it wouldn't really matter if it was soldered

16 is fine for many use cases, but I do think in 2021 its a bit meager

 

[dmr727]

Its only a shame simply because they were a bit stingy. I think if it was configured for 32 or 64GB of ram, then it wouldn't really matter if it was soldered

Yeah it used to bother me, but I've thrown in the towel when it comes to upgradable laptop components. Wish they had a 32GB option, but if I'm being honest I don't think 16 is gonna slow me down at all, even in a few years.