Razer Blade 14 (2023) Gaming Laptop computer Assessment
The Backside Line
The Blade 14 is a feature-packed gaming machine with among the finest keyboard/trackpad combos and top-notch connectivity and show.
Execs
- + Keyboard and trackpad
- + Strong improve over last-gen
- + USB4
- + QHD 240Hz show
Cons
- – Value v efficiency
- – Fingerprints
Must you purchase it?
Keep away fromTake into accountShortlistPurchase
Introduction, Specs, and Pricing
Earlier within the 12 months, AMD introduced and launched its Ryzen 7000 collection cell CPUs to market. Shortly after, we began reaching out to distributors to see how good these new CPUs can be. With its Blade 14, Razer was one of many first to produce us with a evaluation pattern.
VIEW GALLERY – 35 IMAGES
Our build-out of the Razer Blade 14 is the entry-level mannequin, that includes an AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS CPU, which gives eight cores and sixteen threads, enhance clocks peak at 5.2GHz, and TDP is configurable as much as 54w. Razer has paired this with DDR5 reminiscence, 16GB at 5600MHz, although it’s upgradable through SO-DIMM slots. Graphics are provided by the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 cell, which is linked to a 14″ IPS show able to 240Hz and QHD+ decision.
Equipped storage is a 1TB NVMe, whereas enlargement features a single Key E M.2 for Wi-Fi. Connectivity on the Blade 14 consists of two USB 3.2 Gen 2 utilizing the Sort-A connector, whereas two USB4 makes use of USB-C. Further options embrace a 3.5mm audio jack and HDMI port. Wi-Fi is provided by Qualcomm with their WCN6856 chipset.
As configured above, the Razer Blade 14 pricing is available in at $2399.
Razer Blade 14 Gaming Laptop computer (2023)
Pocket book Overview
The Blade arrived in Razer’s commonplace packaging, as seen above.
The facility adapter for the Blade 14 is a 230-watt GaN adapter.
Unboxing the Blade 14 allowed us to take a look at Razer’s new skins. These enable customization of your Blade pocket book with many designs now obtainable.
The left facet gives the facility enter, USB 3.2 Gen 2, USB4, and three.5mm audio jack.
On the appropriate facet, we discover the Kensington lock, HDMI, USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, and one other USB4.
The highest of the Blade 14 with the Razer pores and skin put in.
The underside of the Blade 14 consists of two air intakes for the followers and risers back and front to raise the laptop computer off your desk. This materials gathers fingerprints very simply, as seen in our picture.
Opening up the Blade 14, now we have the 67wH battery alongside the underside. Above, now we have two SO-DIMM slots, NVMe to the appropriate and Wi-Fi to the left. Throughout the highest, we discover the cooling system, which incorporates two followers and a vapor chamber system in between.
Opening the pocket book, now we have the big glass trackpad centered within the chassis, and above the keyboard sinks into the chassis with its ten keyless design.
Lighting on the Blade 14 consists of per key RGB on the keyboard.
BIOS/UEFI and Software program
UEFI
The BIOS for the Blade 14 is your primary textual content mode setup. The principle menu gives {hardware} data for the laptop computer. Shifting into the superior menu, you will discover choices for configuring energy and efficiency, Thunderbolt units, and USB. Chipset configuration will mean you can disable NVIDIA dynamic switching for individuals who need to run the discrete GPU solely. You can too tune the battery charging right here as properly.
Software program
The software program for the Blade 14 is Razer Synapse 3, as seen above.
Customization begins with keyboard macros with a gaming mode that disables the Home windows key and ALT+ F4 combos.
Efficiency tuning will mean you can tune each the CPU and GPU and allow a max fan mode to get much more from the Blade 14.
Show means that you can select the refresh charge whereas coloration profile is accessible under.
Final, now we have lighting the place you may configure lighting, together with presets, on the backside left.
System/CPU Benchmarks
Cinebench
Cinebench is a long-standing render benchmark that has been closely relied upon by each Intel and AMD to spotlight their latest platforms throughout unveils. The benchmark has two exams: a single-core workload using one thread or 1T. There may be additionally a multi-threaded check that makes use of all threads or nT of a examined CPU.
Cinebench kicks off our testing of the Blade 14. The 7940HS picked up a large bump during the last gen with 1694 single core and 15856 multi-cores.
BAPCo CrossMark
CrossMark⢠is an easy-to-run native cross-platform benchmark that measures the general system efficiency and system responsiveness utilizing fashions of real-world functions. CrossMark⢠helps units working Home windows, iOS, and macOS platforms.
CrossMark picked up 1763 total, practically 200 factors larger than final 12 months’s Blade 14.
AIDA64 Reminiscence
Reminiscence efficiency gave us 61K learn, 74K write, and 62K copy. Reminiscence latency was 90ns.
Geekbench 6
Geekbench scored 2732 single core and 12443 multi-cores.
The Blade 14 outperformed the Blade 18 in our testing – the RTX 4060 picked up 94K in OpenCL and 91K in Vulkan.
Graphics, System I/O, Battery, and Gaming
System I/O Efficiency
PCMark
PCMark Prolonged scored 10603 for the Blade 14.
3DMark
CPU Profile lands us at 1045 single core and 2076 with two cores.
4, eight, and sixteen threads, the Blade 14 completed at 8128.
Time Spy was our first gaming workload. The Blade 14 picked up 10611 total, practically 1000 factors over final 12 months’s mannequin.
Velocity Approach scored 2647 for the Blade 14, a contact larger than the Blade 18 we had in-house earlier within the 12 months.
Operating 3DMark Storage, the Blade 14 landed in the course of the pack, with storage bandwidth at 445 MB/s.
Gaming
Gaming on the Blade 14 was higher than the Blade 18. We picked up a peak of 112 FPS at 1080p and 74 FPS at 1440p.
Battery Life landed at 112 minutes utilizing the PCMark Gaming workload.
Worth and Last Ideas
Worth
Worth for the Blade 14 landed close to the underside of our chart at 99.3%.
Last Ideas
The Blade 14 is but once more a murals from Razer. The design continues to be among the finest whereas being relatively easy on the similar time. I applaud Razer for the persevering with R&D on this small kind issue laptop computer as a result of these techniques are the place many distributors would throw within the towel and depart customers with soldered reminiscence and storage. Razer has not executed that, providing two SO-DIMM slots for DDR5, together with m.2 for each storage and Wi-Fi. It is an enormous plus for customers who need to improve their machines over time.
Moreover, Razer has among the finest keyboards available on the market, with excellent tactile suggestions and per-key RGB for these intent on utilizing it. Additional, the trackpad is large and retains the know-how discovered within the Blade 18 with simply the appropriate tactile click on when utilizing it day by day.
Efficiency, then again, is each good and dangerous. The Ryzen 9 7940HS gives equal efficiency to Intel’s thirteenth Gen CPUs in single thread, however multi-thread will increase warmth and throttles again clocks relatively rapidly, leaving us with subpar scores. We famous this in Cinebench R23 however much less so once we moved into 3DMark CPU Profile.
Gaming workloads picked up efficiency in comparison with the last-gen Blade 14, practically a thousand factors in Time Spy, and taking a look at CyberPunk, we picked up 112 FPS peak from the Blade 14, which matched our Blade 18 SKU.
Pricing is the largest place Razer takes a success. At $2399 MSRP, the Blade 14’s worth v efficiency lands close to the underside of our charts, matching final 12 months’s mannequin at 99.3%. With the inflow of recent Ryzen 7000 cell components, it is going to be attention-grabbing to see how aggressive the market will get and if Razer does decrease the worth of the Blade 14.