Razer Blade 14 (2023) review: our full review –

We often forget, but having a laptop with a larger than average diagonal has a huge advantage for manufacturers. With a wider playing field, they are necessarily more easily able to manage the heating of their products, or even add features that are rarely found on devices. It is therefore on the more common diagonals, of the order of 13 to 14 inches, that a real challenge lies: managing to retain its power without burning the device or making it uncomfortable to carry.

Razer has sometimes proven itself in this field, but has also suffered from the heat of its components at times. With the 2023 edition of the Razer Blade 14, we continue the positive momentum we have had for a few years already.

Razer Blade 14 (2023) Technical sheet

The machine is loaned by Razer for this test.

Razer Blade 14 (2023) Design

It’s a Razer Blade laptop. We are almost now tempted to describe all the manufacturer’s computers in this way, since, like a manufacturer like Apple, the Taiwanese manufacturer always relies on the same formula. But what if not that we do not change a winning team? As always, we are therefore entitled to this high-end chassis made entirely of metal, all in black, of which only the three snakes logo really recalls the gamer origin of the whole.

But in the gaming PC category, few brands can boast of the same advantages. Its thickness of only 1.8 cm and its weight of 1.84 kg make the Razer Blade 14 of 2023 a computer that one would almost be tempted to consider as an ultrabook. Not for the weight, whereas this category now regularly passes under the bar of the single kilo, but rather for the format and the portability of the whole.

Sure, the Razer formula still works. The 2023 Blade 14 continues like its brothers and ancestors to be part of this category of gaming PC that will make even the most fervent defenders of the Apple brand curious. At least, after they’re done accusing the snake brand of plagiarism.

Keyboard and touchpad

Again, everything is homemade at Razer. The keyboard is as always more relative to a classic computer than to a PC for gamers, but the rigidity of the keys, their spacing and the rather good activation distance guarantee comfort over time. The most relentless will always plug in their favorite keyboard. And fans will always enjoy Chroma, with its millions of customizable LEDs that automatically adapt to supported games.

The huge diagonal all-glass touchpad is clearly the star here. There is nothing to say about it except that it is absolutely impeccable.

connectors

Despite the 14-inch format, the Blade 4 does not overlook good connectivity. On the left is the brand’s proprietary power port, a USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 port, a Thunderbolt 3 compatible USB-C 4.0 port, and a combo jack port. To the right is a full-size HDMI 2.1 port, a second USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 port, and a second USB-C 4.0 port.

On this format, no disappointment. We have seen many competitors settle for a single USB-C 4.0 port in this kind of situation. The supreme pleasure would have been to find an SD card reader in addition, particularly considering that this range is aimed at creative people, but this absence is not a negative point for all that.

webcam and audio

The Razer Blade 14 is equipped with a Full HD webcam which is not particularly convincing, without being repulsive. Like all laptops today, therefore. At least, it also supports facial recognition via Windows Hello and a physical cache allows you to block your vision for more security.

The speakers, located to the right and left of the keyboard, are powered by the THX brand (acquired a few years ago by Razer) and support audio spatialization. The manufacturer has certainly focused on the quality of its highs and mids and has quite stupidly abandoned the idea of ​​having quality bass in such a small format.

The result is more convincing than the average, but the final experience still lacks richness. The maximum volume is also not particularly high.

Razer Blade 14 (2023) Screen

The 2023 Razer Blade 14 is equipped in our test configuration with a 14-inch diagonal IPS LCD panel supporting a maximum definition of 2560 x 1600 pixels. It is therefore a 16:10 ratio, which also supports a refresh rate of 240 Hz, supported by the AMD FreeSync Premium label. It is also coated with an anti-reflective treatment, and the colorimetry of the panel is factory calibrated.

Under our probe and with the DisplayCal software, we can see first of all that Razer delivers on its promises. We first find a very solid maximum brightness at 542 cd / m². But also a coverage of the DCI P3 space at 103.9% in volume, for 146.6% of the sRGB space. The average delta E00 is measured at 1.87, a solid score, for a maximum difference of 7.72 which we would have liked to be a little more contained.

The average color temperature is measured at 6127 K, which is very slightly warmer than the NTSC standard, which probably explains this difference measured on midnight blues and royals. Finally, the contrast ratio of 1239:1 is very good for this type of panel.

Overall, therefore, a very good panel with beautiful colors, but which could have been even better calibrated from the factory, as are those from Samsung, for example. However, the competition is in the pocket at this level and the 240 Hz refresh rate is excellent for the first consumers targeted: gamers.

Razer Blade 14 (2023) Software

Razer has the excellent taste of installing no adware on its computers and the Blade 14 from 2023 is no exception. We can even rely on Windows Update for the vast majority of updates for the device itself.

The control center for performance and the usual customizations of this type of device is Razer Central, a concise software that does not do frills, but which still eats a little too much resources and deserves to take a little more users by hand. Still, he does what is asked of him, and does it well.

Razer Blade 14 (2023) Performance

Our Razer Blade 14 test configuration is the best equipped of the lot. Here we find an AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS, an 8-core and 16-thread processor that can turbo up to 5.2 GHz, coupled with 16 GB of LP-DDR5 RAM at 5600 MHz. We are also entitled to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile with 8 GB of GDDR6 for a TGP of 140 W, the most powerful configuration possible once again, and 1 TB of storage in PCIe 4.0.

Benchmarks

In turbo mode, the Blade 14 manages to make the Ryzen 9 7940HS roar, as proven by our measurements under Cinebench R23. Scores of 16,335 points in multi core and 1835 points in single-core are rarely achieved by this chip in continuous use, but this is indeed the case here. It was not won on such a small chassis, which thus gives us a final score of 8046 points under PCMark 10.

On the video side, the RTX 4070 mobile is also very efficient, with scores of 2899 points on Speed ​​Way, 7179 points on Port Royal or 5574 points on Time Spy Extreme. Admittedly, we are not at the level of performance displayed by the desktop version, but its 33.23 FPS average on the test ray tracing from 3DMark underlines what we have already observed on PC: the 3rd generation RT cores at NVIDIA are doing wonders for technology.

Stakes

Without any help in native definition, and by pushing all the settings to the maximum, including the ray tracing, the Razer Blade 14 pulls it off like a boss. We find without too much difficulty an average 50 FPS on Cyberpunk 2077or even 104 FPS on Diablo IV. Spider-Man Miles Moraleswhich is a good representative game of the first wave of PS5/Xbox Series X games, even holds 52 FPS without twisting.

But obviously, this is without counting on the DLSS3 which generation 40 benefits from. Thanks to this, we find 82 FPS on Cyberpunk 207769 FPS on Hogwarts Legacy or even 111 FPS on The Witcher 3.

To top it all off, more competitive gamers will be able to enjoy titles like Valorant at 325 FPS on average, enough to really justify the 240 Hz of the integrated screen.

Cooling and noise

But managing to maintain such performance is not without a hitch. If the Razer Blade 14 runs around 52°C at the chassis, like most of its counterparts, the fans must necessarily work hard to cool this small chassis. These are quite audible and have a slightly high-pitched sound that is not particularly pleasant. Nothing to worry about, but headphones will be strongly recommended to play in peace.

Razer Blade 14 (2023) Autonomy

The 2023 Razer Blade 14 is equipped with a 68.1 Wh battery, which is recharged through the brand’s proprietary power brick at 230 W. Note that you will necessarily have to plug the device in to enjoy of its maximum power, but that the USB-C sockets are also compatible with the Power Delivery standard allowing it to be recharged with many different products. What to restore a little momentum in case of problem.

If the manufacturer advances up to 10 hours of autonomy, its tests have certainly been carried out under very specific conditions. In daytime use, with the screen brightness at 50% on various office tasks and in balanced mode, we find rather an autonomy of 6/7 hours. Considering the small format of the Razer Blade 14 of 2023, we can consider this as a rather positive point, although some AMD gamer configurations can really last 10 hours without too much sacrifice.

Razer Blade 14 (2023) Price and availability

The Razer Blade 14 of 2023 is marketed from 2799 dollars in the United States. Its launch is not yet dated in France. We contacted Razer France who tells us that the machine is not currently scheduled for launch in France. Let’s hope the brand changes its mind.

There are no offers at the moment