Razer Blade 14 – 14 Inch AMD Gaming Laptop (AMD Ryzen 9
Razer Blade 14 – 14 Inch AMD Gaming Laptop (AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, QHD-165Hz, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Chroma RGB Lighting, Vapor Chamber Cooling) UK Layout | Black
| Weight: | 1.78 kg |
| Dimensions: | 43.9 x 40.6 x 10.2 cm; 1.78 Kilograms |
| Brand: | Razer |
| Model: | RZ09-0370BWA3-R3W1 |
| Colour: | Black |
| Batteries Included: | Yes |
| Manufacture: | Razer |
| Dimensions: | 43.9 x 40.6 x 10.2 cm; 1.78 Kilograms |
The machine is a beast. I’m a casual gamer who needed a laptop for business and photo editing, and was still portable. This has great processing power, the graphics and screen look amazing and the overall look & feel of the laptop is premium. For me – not a problem to stick into a rucksack and use on the go either (though you’ll need the charger with you for sure). Really enjoy the Razer software that comes with it to manage the laptop – setting performance modes can be really helpful to save power when just word processing for example, and choosing the lighting patterns on the keyboard is surprisingly fun!
Slight annoyances – finger marks really show up as I’d read elsewhere due to the material. Microfibre wipes it down quite easily but it is annoying. And when using for something demanding (e.g. gaming) the fans can get loud to try and keep it cool. For me that was to be expected so not a problem but might be something to bear in mind.
Positives far outweigh these minor cons though – yes it’s expensive but I don’t think I’ll need to replace it for years and it more than delivers so far on everything I use it for. Fingerprints aside – it really looks beautiful too!
High performance laptop. Looks and feels premium. 14″ size is really good. Laptop is light. Battery lasts long. Packs crazy hardware for this size. High refresh rate screen, 3070, 5900hx… There is nothing to say about that.
I use it with 1440p 144 Hz monitor. I have a type-c to DP cable. There is no problem at all as long as you buy a high quality cable. Both ports works great. My settings are 1440p, 144 Hz and 10 bit color. That is the limit for the cable I have and for my monitor(LG 27gn880-b). Great product overall.
It gets toasty while playing demanding games (Cyberpunk, Witcher 3, RDR 2 ect.). When fans ramp up it makes a lot of noise. Though, I didn’t have any problem at all even after long sessions (3-4 hours in general) of playing AAA games. The chassis overall is a fingerprint magnet. As long as you clean it occasionally it’s ok. I clean it with 99% IPA and water mixture (70 IPA, 30% water) using a microfiber towel.
I think looks had big influence on the design of this product compared to other laptops. This is a good thing in my opinion since this is a laptop not a portable desktop Does more than you can ever want from a laptop and does it perfectly.
Many laptops that check all the boxes this Razer does are as pricy if not more. There was no discount on this product when I bought it but if you are lucky you can get it when it’s on sale.
I despise PC gaming, mostly because I have had bad experience in the past. This laptop is a welcome change as everything just works effortlessly straight out of the box. Minimal setup and games run smooth.
After setting up the laptop and doing some playtests on games such as: Star Citizen, MW2 (2022), Fortnite, Escape from Tarkov, etc, I’m very impressed with the power this thing has.
The 165hz Display can be toned down to 60hz if you are using another monitor and want to use the built in screen as a secondary monitor, which helps the power consumption of the laptop massively to reduce lag and buffering times.
Overall a brilliant laptop. the 3070 seems to be a sweet spot for the Ryzen9 5800X, but if at the right price, may as well go for the 3080 model.
Very fast, very fun, very durable. That being said it still has a couple of flaws. One being the battery life. This laptop can charge from the USB C ports so I don’t mind bringing a beefed up phone charger with me to wherever I might want to work but while gaming you’ll want it plugged in. The fans get very loud, but I’d rather hear the fans than have my laptop die of heat and the screen doesn’t go very bright but that’s not really something you will need to worry about indoors. Overall an excellent little laptop and great for gaming. 100-200 in Minecraft, 70-160 in Modern Wardare on Ultra/Ray Tracing, even 60-100fps in Star Citizen which I wasn’t expecting for a laptop.
Like:
The size is great for travelling, and even the power brick isn’t too huge compared to another laptop in the house (Lenovo).
Performance is perfect – the right balance of portability and speed. Can play games with ease, handles video editing just fine.
The screen is fantastic!
It has enough ports for the type of machine, and thankfully has an HDMI port (often missing in other thin/small laptops)
It’s pretty quiet when running, even under some load.
Dislike:
It’s a tiny thing, but the light under CAPS doesn’t illuminate the whole of the “caps” word.
When hitting the “fn” key for alternate function keys, it lights up the top. However the alternate function key commands (e.g.volume up/down, play/pause, screen brightness etc) are not illuminated making it difficult to see what the buttons actually do.
Battery life is not good. Goodness knows how they suggested you can get 10 hours life from it. In reality, with a balanced profile, I’m getting about 2-3 hours of light use, or perhaps one if doing anything CPU/GPU heavy (e.g. photo/video editing, gaming)
The Razer software seems pretty poor. I’ve had it crash (for example, buffer overruns, .net errors multiple times, which freezes the entire machine. I’ll probably lose the RGB customisation and ditch the software at some point.
I’ll finish with one final observation. I bought this in a sale, some 500 off the already discounted amazon price. At this price point it was good value, but at retail I would be looking at other options
3080: Apart from the battery life and camera quality, idk why these 14 inch laptops are not the standard. I was in between getting a desktop or laptop, I’m glad I got the laptop.
This beast can run VR games without any problems even though it’s not supported.
Oh when you unplug, the device performance turns into generic HP laptop though. I only use it at some so I don’t mind having it hooked to cable all the time. So it’s mostly for home use rather than travel (for gaming purposes)
The battery life is now half an hour, maybe Ann hour max while running a game!
Without running a game the battery life can last 3,4,5-6 hours.
The temperature will rise above 100C and the Fans will spin extremely fast and loud when running a game on max settings.
This laptop can handle the max settings of roughly 80% of games
The mousepad is slightly on the large side, so accidental touch happens.
Very lightweight and easy to use!
The screen quality is amazing!
Nothing has gone wrong yet, being I am one of the first to purchase this laptop.
I may add more to this review.
Cons:
– No backlighting on secondary functions. Some of the other reviews state there is but are misunderstanding. I’ve attached photos to show the difference, on the Stealth symbols like , $ etc are backlit, but on all UK models of the Blade 14 these are missing.
– The power adapter is a brick, weighs more than the laptop itself. On the Stealth I was able to get a lighter third-party 100W USB-C adapter, but the Blade 14 needs 230W.
– Performance is crippled if you are not plugged in. Razer’s BIOS on all sub-15 inch laptop models is hardwired to cut CPU power if the battery goes below 30% (even when plugged in) or if on battery power. Even if you charge back up past 30% all the way up to 100% it doesn’t restore the CPU power. Only a full restart resets the BIOS. Absolutely no way around this.
– Fingerprint magnet, dbrand cover is a must (around 30 for both top cover and palm rest areas)
– Can get more power in cheaper laptops (but only in much larger and thicker form factors)
I knew all of the above before buying but still went with this laptop – it still has the best build quality and best power to size ratio of all laptops available right now.
I thought I’d leave a review on the 3080 version since there’s not many here on Amazon although I bought the laptop from another site.
If extremely portable thin & light high end gaming is your thing? Then this 14 inch powerhouse will surely fit the bill.
Build quality is excellent, the display is excellent, the keyboard is OK considering its small size. The sound is also quite decent again taking into account it’s small form factor.
The obvious standout of this little gem though is the kick butt performance. This thing runs everything & anything game wise you will throw at it with ease. Thanks to its Ryzen 5900 CPU it’s great for video editing & any other work / app related stuff also as & when needed.
The fans don’t get that loud when running at full pelt & it actually surprised me by how quiet they were all things considered.
One thing to note though is that unless you’re using the PSU when gaming it will downlclock the CPU & GFX when only on battery alone, so bare that in mind.
It’s fine for watching videos & movies etc… However it’s obviously not that great for listening to music on but that’s to be expected I would assume.
Bad points… It’s obviously expensive. The RAM isn’t upgradable. Here in the UK Razor still haven’t given us back-lit function keys/ secondary keys info on the RGB keyboard but I for one don’t really find it an issue & have become used to it. It’s definitely a fingerprint magnet but again I guess that’s to be expected.
Overall though this is an excellent gaming laptop & I’d highly recommend it due to its high end performance & small form factor.
I was trying to decide between this and the G14, but wanted the more premium built device. Future proofed with the RTX3070 so I know it will play games that I want to run moving forward. Also, I think the 3070 is the perfect pick, I think you lose the benefits of the 3080 in an enclosure this size.
Amazing laptop, battery life could be better, but it’s a gaming laptop first, so you can’t expect too much from battery whilst running AAA games. I have this hooked up to my 34″ ultrawide LG and it’s great, and I take it around with me and I’m able to game.
Thermals are fine. Can get a little hot when running intense games for long periods, but the vapour chamber in general does a great job.
Very powerful considering the size and weight. Battery life no too bad. Camera could be better.
Palm rest does become a bit uncomfortably warm when playing heavy demanding titles.
Case can easily get damaged or scratched.
The best laptop I’ve owned so far. Perfect balance for work and play.
I was looking for something super portable but with powerful performance for high-end games. The Razor 14 is a perfect fit for me, as the performance is excellent in such a compact size. The device does get hot on most games, however this is towards the top of the keyboard and shouldn’t be uncomfortable for most. Its a small device running high-end games on almost max settings so what can you expect. Screen is nice and the battery is pretty good too – though slightly less than what the manufacturer claims I think. Obviously the price may be a problem for some, as for the specs you are spending more than what most of the competition are offering. Saying that the razor form factor is what you’re paying for, as for me it was worth the extra cost. Go for 3070 if you can as this is the sweetspot.
I’d recommend a dbrand skin or similar for protecting the anodised black finish which can chip quite easily. A lot of people grumble about finger prints on the Razer and the good news is the new finish is better and they aren’t so visible. Although frankly I still find the finger prints are quite visible on the particular dbrand skin I use anyway. In the end, I went for the Razer over the Asus G14 because of the RTX 3070 option, better build quality and the port placement. Plus, I’m not a fan of the matrix lid on the Asus that just seems to accumulate crap.
However, I have one gripe. The point raised by Slopey in his review is spot on, and if anything the visibility of the secondary functions is made worse by how strong the Razer chroma lighting is on the primary functions. Its not a deal breaker for me, as most of time I’ve got an external keyboard plugged in and I’ve found the easiest way to deal with this issue is simply switch off the keyboard lighting.
The fact Razer think its ok to cheat UK customers by not offering the proper keyboard with secondary functions backlit after all these years is frankly an insult. For all the UK influencers on YouTube etc who are reviewing Razer laptops and doing so with US models and/ or not flagging this issue – YES TECH CHAP, I’m looking at you – the decent thing to do would be to flag this up and hope Razer change their attitude. It’s a pity this issue will irk people and why it only gets four stars from me, because this is a damn fine and almost flawless laptop – my little rant on backlighting aside – I’d easily recommend it.
This all is great considering how light and small it is.