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I was surprised by just how well this thin and lightweight gaming laptop, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2025), performed – but you’ll have to endure its sizzling temperatures

4:28 pm | September 26, 2025

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2025): Two-minute review

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2025) is a thin and lightweight gaming laptop with a small design but a large spec, allowing it to perform as well as its bigger rivals.

To look at, it seems more like an everyday machine than a gaming powerhouse. The only giveaway is the diagonal LED strip across the lid, which does little to add interest.

It has an impressively compact form, though, making it a contender for the best gaming laptop that’s practical to carry around. It lacks the bulk usually associated with such devices, being exceptionally thin and light by gaming laptop standards.

The lid is especially lightweight, and it opens easily yet remains stable once in place. Also, the bezel around the display is about as thin as it could possibly be, which helps to maximize screen space.

For such a compact device, the Zephyrus G14 (2025) has a generous selection of ports, even putting much larger gaming laptops to shame. There are two USB-C and two USB-A connections, as well as an HDMI port, a headset jack, and a microSD card reader.

More importantly, though, the performance of the Zephyrus G14 (2025) is also impressive. The 5070 Ti in my review unit provided very high frame rates, even with maximum graphics settings.

The 120Hz OLED display contributed to the smoothness, and also rendered scenes with plenty of vibrancy, brightness, and contrast. What’s more, the 3K resolution offered a super sharp image, which was great for gaming as well as other tasks.

Bird's eye view of closed lid on Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2025) on a black background — (Image credit: Future)

However, you’ll have to contend with a fair amount of fan noise and blistering heat in the pursuit of this high-end performance. Temperatures around the keyboard are kept to reasonable levels, but the rear and underside of the unit can get uncomfortably hot, even at the slightest provocation.

The keyboard of the Zephyrus G14 (2025) is another highlight. The switches are deep and tactile, offering enough resistance to provide feedback without being onerous to use. The large size of the key caps and their comfortable spacing also makes them good for typing.

The touchpad is similarly excellent, thanks to its large area and smooth surface, although you probably won’t be using this while gaming. What’ll deter you even more is the fact that it can get in the way when using the WASD keys. Thankfully, there’s a shortcut to easily disable its functionality.

Battery life is poor, though. It only managed a little over two and a half hours in our movie playback test, which is short even by gaming laptop standards. The Razer Blade 14 (2025) and the Acer Nitro V 15 can both outlast it by a considerable margin.

At over $2,000, the Zephyrus G14 (2025) doesn’t come cheap. It’s close to more premium models, such as the Razer Blade 14, which is about the best compact gaming laptop we’ve tested. For some – or perhaps many – it may be worth spending that bit more for the Blade, but the Zephyrus G14 (2025) remains a fine pick if you're after a compact and capable gaming machine.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2025) review: Price & Availability

Close-up of touchpad on Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2025) — (Image credit: Future)

Starts from $2,099.99 / £2,699.99 / AU$3,899
Available now
Premium end of the market

The Zephyrus G14 (2025) starts from $2,099.99 / £2,699.99 / AU$3,899 and is available now. Various models are available with varying Ryzen 9 CPUs and RTX GPUs, from the 5060 to the 5080. RAM and storage capacities alternate between 16GB and 32GB, and 1TB and 2TB, respectively.

It’s cheaper than the Razer Blade 14 (2025), even though both base models get an RTX 5060. However, the price gap isn’t huge, and the Blade 14 is one of the best gaming laptops around right now, impressing us with its incredible performance, design, and display.

If you’re looking for the best budget gaming laptop, the Acer Nitro V 15 is a fine choice. You’ll have to settle for an RTX 5050, but it can still game with aplomb. In fact, when I reviewed the Nitro, I was impressed with its 1080p performance. Like the Zephyrus G14 (2025), it can get quite hot in certain areas, but not to the same degree.

Value: 3 / 5

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2025) review: Specs

	Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 Base Config	Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 Review Config
Price	$2,099.99 / £2,699.99 / AU$3,899	$2,499.99 / £2,699.99 / AU$4,999
CPU	AMD Ryzen 9 270 (8 cores, 4.0GHz)	AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 (12 cores, 2.0GHz)
GPU	Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060, 8GB	Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, 12GB
RAM	16GB LPDDR5X	32GB LPDDR5X
Storage	1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD	1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD
Display	14-inch (2880 x 1800) OLED, 16:10, 120Hz, G-Sync / Adaptive-Sync	14-inch (2880 x 1800) OLED, 16:10, 120Hz, G-Sync / Adaptive-Sync
Ports and Connectivity	2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, 2x USB-C (1x 3.2 Gen 2, 1x USB 4), 1x HDMI 2.1 FRL, 1x microSD, 1x 3.5mm combo audio, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4	2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, 2x USB-C (1x 3.2 Gen 2, 1x USB 4), 1x HDMI 2.1 FRL, 1x microSD, 1x 3.5mm combo audio, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4
Battery	73Wh	73Wh
Dimensions	12.24 x 8.66 x 0.63 ~ 0.64in (311 x 220 x 15.9 ~ 16.3mm)	12.24 x 8.66 x 0.63 ~ 0.72in (311 x 220 x 15.9 ~ 18.3mm)
Weight	3.31lbs / 1.50kg	3.46lbs / 1.57kg

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2025) review: Design

Close-up of left-side ports on Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2025) — (Image credit: Future)

Non-gaming looks
Remarkably small and light
Surprising number of ports

One of the most impressive aspects of the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2025) is that it looks like a normal laptop, lacking the bulk and brash aesthetic of those designed for gaming. This is also helped by the light silver colorway of my review unit, which I found to be an uplifting antidote to the dour shades of many of its rivals (although such a finish is available).

What marks the Zephyrus G14 (2025) out as a gaming device is the diagonal LED strip across the lid and the small shiny embossed logo in the corner. Both are relatively subtle, although the strip is quite incongruous.

Not only is the screen size small for a gaming laptop, but so are all of its dimensions. The lid is especially thin, even beating some of the best MacBooks in terms of how sleek it is. The bezel around the display itself is also about as thin as I’ve ever seen in this class of laptop.

However, the chassis is thicker than you’ll find on many other laptops, and there are a few juts and sharp angles, as well as the thick rubber bars underneath, that sully the smooth planes somewhat. But all things considered, the Zephyrus G14 (2025) remains impressively elegant for its class.

Build quality is also quite good. All the materials feel premium and solid, and there’s only a small amount of wobble to the lid. Crucially, it remains stable once set in position.

Close-up of Zephyrus logo on rear of Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2025), closed on desk with green background

(Image credit: Future)

Despite its small size, the Zephyrus G14 (2025) has a generous keyboard layout. There are some useful shortcut keys, including those for disabling the touchpad and toggling performance modes, and even four customizable M buttons. However, some peripheral keys are truncated in size, with the arrow keys being the worst casualty in this regard from a gamer’s perspective.

The LED backlighting on the keyboard is a nice touch, although it can be hard to make out at times, especially when certain colors and RGB patterns are displayed. This appears to be caused by the narrow openings of the key markings and a lack of overall brightness.

The touchpad on the Zephyrus G14 (2025) stretches right from the back edge of the space bar to the very end of the chassis, offering a larger surface area than you’ll find on other laptops this size.

Another surprise is just how many ports there are on the Zephyrus G14 (2025), putting many gaming laptops much larger to shame. It features two USB-C ports, which both support Power Delivery and DisplayPort standards each, although only one supports G-Sync/ Adaptive Sync displays. There are also two USB-A ports, an HDMI port, a headset jack, and even a microSD reader.

Design: 4.5 / 5

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2025) review: Performance

Close-up of right-side ports on Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2025) — (Image credit: Future)

Great gaming at max resolution
Fantastic OLED display
Gets very hot in places

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2025) benchmarks

Geekbench 6
(Single Core): 2,939 (Multi Core): 15,680

Cinebench R23
(Single Core): 2,017 (Multi Core): 20,803

Cinebench R24
(Single Core): 117 (Multi Core): 1,192

Crossmark Overall: 1,974

3DMark
Fire Strike: 32,113 Steel Nomad: 3,488 Solar Bay: 71,022 Speed Way: 4,031 Port Royal: 10,119

BlackMagicDisk
Read: 4125MB/s Write: 4015MB/s

25GB Copy Test: 1,729MB/s

Civilization VII
(1080p, Medium): 193fps
(Max Resolution, High): 123fps
(Balanced Upscaling, Max Resolution, High): 94fps

Shadow of the Tomb Raider
(1080p, Medium): 168fps
(Max Resolution, Highest): 118fps
(Balanced Upscaling, Max Resolution, Highest): 158fps

Total War: Warhammer III: Mirrors of Madness
(1080p, Medium): 119fps
(Max Resolution, Ultra): 47fps

Cyberpunk 2077
(1080p, Medium): 371fps
(Max Resolution, Ultra): 143fps
(Balanced Upscaling, Max Resolution, Ultra): 133fps

F1 2024
(1080p, Medium): 256fps
(Max Resolution, Max Quality, No RT): 127fps
(Balanced Upscaling, Max Resolution, Max Quality with RT): 93fps

I found the performance of the Zephyrus G14 (2025) to be excellent. My review unit was equipped with an RTX 5070 Ti, and it handled the AAA titles I threw at it very well. When I played Cyberpunk 2077, I got between 200-230 frames per second on average. This was with the Ray Tracing: Ultra preset selected (which the game chose by default for the laptop) and DLSS Auto scaling and Frame Generation enabled.

This was also with the Zephyrus G14 (2025) running in Turbo mode. As you might expect, this causes the fans to produce a fair amount of noise, but it was nothing the best PC gaming headsets couldn’t drown out.

Dropping down to Performance mode didn’t seem to make much difference to frame rates, and only marginally decreased fan noise. Despite the raucous, though, the fans weren’t able to disperse heat as effectively as I would’ve liked.

During my sessions with the Zephyrus G14 (2025), it became very hot in places. The keyboard and front section of the chassis only remained tepid (thankfully, since this is where you’ll be making the most contact), but the area above the keyboard became too hot to handle.

Close-up of keyboard and touchpad on Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2025) — (Image credit: Future)

The same was true of the underside of the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2025). Despite the aforementioned ground clearance created by the rubber bars, there’s still not enough for optimal cooling it seems; this is certainly a laptop I’d recommend using with one of the best laptop cooling pads if you can.

The OLED display is pleasingly sharp and vibrant, which makes it great for all kinds of tasks, not just gaming. That aforementioned ultra-thin bezel means the 14-inch display projects a bigger image than you might expect, too.

The keys are tactile, thanks to their surprising resistance and deep travel relative to those of other laptops, even ones designed for gaming. This makes them well suited to the task, while still being light and snappy enough for comfortable typing.

The touchpad is great as well. Its impressive size, along with its very smooth surface, makes navigation easier. However, this will likely be irrelevant for most gamers, since it’s still no match for the best gaming mouse.

What’s more, it gets in the way when you’re using the keyboard, even if you stick to the WASD position. This means you’ll likely want to disable it when gaming, but you’ll be more reluctant to do so while typing, given its usefulness for productivity purposes.

Performance: 4.5 / 5

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2025) review: Battery Life

Close-up of M buttons on keyboard of Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2025) — (Image credit: Future)

Poor battery life
Quick to charge

The battery life of the Zephyrus G14 (2025) is quite poor. When we ran a movie on a continuous loop, its battery lasted just over two and a half hours. This is way down on its key rivals, such as the Blade 14 and the Nitro V 15, both of which manage over twice that duration.

Thankfully, the Zephyrus G14 (2025) is quick to charge, taking about 90 minutes to fully replenish via the included power adapter.

Battery Life: 2.5 / 5

Should I buy the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2025)?

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2025) Scorecard
Attributes	Notes	Rating
Value	The Zephyrus G14 (2025) is at the higher end of the market, and there are slightly better rivals for not much more.	3 / 5
Design	The Zephyrus G14 (2025) is surprisingly compact and elegant for a gaming laptop. It also seems built to a high standard.	4.5 / 5
Performance	The RTX 5070 Ti in my review unit handled AAA titles brilliantly, and the display rendered them in their full glory. There’s a worrying amount of heat in places, though.	4.5 / 5
Battery Life	Poor even by gaming laptop standards; there are plenty of rivals that can outlast it. At least it’s quick to charge.	2.5 / 5
Total	The form factor, performance, and display are all excellent, but the heat, noise, and steep price mean you’ll have to assess your priorities before determining whether it’s the right gaming laptop for you.	4 / 5

Buy the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2025) if...

You want something truly portable
Thanks to its small dimensions and light chassis, the Zephyrus G14 (2025) is easy to carry around, especially compared to other gaming laptops.

You want great performance
Gaming is smooth even with maximum settings, while the 3K OLED display shows them off at their best.

Don't buy it if...

You want something cool and quiet
The Zephyrus G14 (2025) makes a fair amount of noise, and it can get extremely hot in places.

You’re on a budget
The Zephyrus G14 (2025) is expensive, rubbing shoulders with some true icons in the space.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2025) review: Also Consider

Razer Blade 14 (2025)
For not much more than the Zephyrus G14 (2025), you could also have the Blade 14, which we think is one of the best gaming laptops around at the moment. There’s little to fault here, since its performance, design, and display are all exemplary. It can get quite hot and the keyboard isn’t anything special, but in every other regard it’s a brilliant gaming laptop that’s easy to carry around.

Read our full Razer Blade 14 (2025) review.

Acer Nitro V 15 Intel
If you’re looking to spend a lot less on a gaming laptop, the Nitro V 15 is a great budget pick. You’ll have to settle for an RTX 5050, but I found this offered plenty of power for smooth 1080p gaming. It’s certainly not as portable as the Zephyrus G14 (2025), but that’s the sacrifice you make for the saving.

Read our full Acer Nitro V 15 Intel review.

How I tested the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2025)

Tested for a week
Used for gaming and other tasks
Plentiful gaming laptop experience

I tested the Zephyrus G14 (2025) for a week, using it for gaming, working, and general browsing. I also connected various peripherals to it.

I played AAA titles such as Cyberpunk 2077 with various graphics settings, and conducted our series benchmark tests designed to test multiple facets of gaming laptops. I also ran our battery test, playing a movie continuously until the battery depleted.

I've been PC gaming for over a decade, and have used numerous machines in that time, both desktop and laptop. I've also have plenty of experience reviewing gaming laptops, as well as those made for productivity and everyday use.

First reviewed: September 2025
Read more about how we test

I’ve reviewed more gaming laptops than I can remember, but the new Razer Blade 14 is the only gaming laptop I’d happily carry everywhere

5:26 pm | September 10, 2025

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Laptops Windows Laptops | Tags: Battery Life, CPU, GPU, Razer Blade | Comments: Off

Razer Blade 14 (2025): Two-minute review

The new Razer Blade 14 (2025) really wants to be the ultimate portable gaming laptop, and after spending two weeks with it, I can say it mostly succeeds.

Packed into a lightweight 14-inch aluminum chassis, the Blade 14 houses the latest specs you can get for a 14-inch form factor, including AMD’s new Ryzen AI 9 365 processor and up to an Nvidia RTX 5070 GPU.

Those updated specs come at a price though, as the model I tested cost $2,699.99 / £2,299.99 / AU$4,144.95 (equipped with an RTX 5070, 32GB LPDDR5X RAM, and a 1TB SSD). Entry-level models start around $2,299.99 / £1,999.99 / AU$3,599.95, while top-end configs climb as high as $2,999.99 / £2,699.99 / AU$4,899.95.

What impressed me most wasn’t just raw gaming power—it was how well this machine stayed cool and quiet under load.

Running Cyberpunk 2077 with ray tracing at 1800p, I averaged around 50 FPS with DLSS and frame generation enabled, though to be honest, you’ll likely want to tone down the RT if you’re gaming at max resolution for best results, regardless of title. For most of the titles tested, you can comfortably get over 60 FPS at 1800p resolution without ray tracing, or about 60 FPS with ray tracing if you use DLSS upscaling.

Equally impressive is the OLED 2.8K 120Hz display. Colors popped, response times were lightning fast, and the DCI-P3 coverage made both games and creative work shine. Add in six surprisingly loud, clear speakers, and I found myself reaching for headphones less often.

The battery life on the Blade 14 isn’t great, lasting about five to six hours in my day-to-day work mix—emails, writing, streaming, light Photoshop—before I needed a charger. While this is pretty decent for a gaming laptop,it’s still not great for day-to-day productivity.

Design-wise, there’s not much to knock here other than the somewhat shallow keyboard and a chassis that picks up fingerprints pretty much instantly. Performance-wise, you’re almost certainly going to get a better value out of Razer’s various rivals, who often offer more raw power for less money. But as a total package, the Razer Blade 14 (2025) easily contends as the best gaming laptop released this year, even if it isn’t spotless.

Razer Blade 14 (2025): Price & availability

A Razer Blade 14 (2025) on a desk showing the Windows 11 desktop — (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

How much does it cost? Starting at $2,299.99 / £1,999.99 / AU$3,599.95
When is it available? It's available now
Where can you get it? You can buy it in the US, UK, and Australia through Razer’s website and other retailers.

The Razer Blade 14 (2025) is available now, starting at $2,299.99 / £1,999.99 / AU$3,599.95, coming in with an entry-level RTX 5060 GPU, 16GB RAM, and a 1TB SSD.

My review unit, which comes with an RTX 5070 GPU, 32GB RAM, and 1TB SSD, comes in at $2,699.99 / £2,399.99 / AU$4,144.95. The top-spec config bumps up the storage to 2TB and the memory up to 64GB for $2,999.99 / £2,699.99 / AU$4,899.95.

It’s available in the US, UK, and Australia directly from Razer’s website, as well as major regional retailers like Best Buy and Currys.

Understandably, the Blade 14 isn’t going to be making any best cheap gaming laptop lists anytime soon, given the laptop's premium pedigree, but it's still very expensive for what you're getting. A laptop like the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, which starts off about $200 cheaper at $2,099.99 in the US (though it is tougher to find in the UK at the moment, and what models are available in Australia end up being more expensive). The US starting configuration for the Zephyrus G14 does get you a better RTX 5070 GPU compared to the Blade 14's RTX 5060 starting GPU. You can also get up to an RTX 5080 on the Zephyrus G14, for some serious portable gaming power that simply isn't available on the Blade 14.

You’re ultimately paying the Razer tax here if you opt for the Blade 14, but if you want a Razer Blade laptop, this is pretty much par for the course, and there's no denying the laptop's other premium qualities that it brings to the table. Just be prepared to pay the higher bill at the end.

Also, in the US and UK, you have the option to select the Mercury colorway rather than the classic Razer Black, though it is only available on the RTX 5070/1TB SSD/32GB RAM configuration.

Value: 3.5 / 5

Razer Blade 14 (2025): Specs

The internal spec stickers on the palmrest of the Razer Blade 14 (2025) — (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Up to RTX 5070 GPU, 2TB SSD, and 64GB RAM
AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 processor
Not upgradeable and not a whole lot of configuration options

The starting configuration of the Razer Blade 14 (2025) gives you the essentials for modern portable gaming: an AMD Ryzen AI 9 365, Nvidia RTX 5060 GPU, 16GB LPDDR5-8000MT/s RAM, and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD. That’s more than enough for strong performance in esports and AAA titles at 1080p, high settings, and medium raytracing enabled when using upscaling, but storage will feel tight if you're planning on installing a lot of big games.

Razer Blade 14 (2025) base configuration
	US	UK	Australia
Price	$2,299.99 at Razer	£1,999.99 at Razer	AU$3,599.95 at Razer
CPU	AMD Ryzen AI 9 365	AMD Ryzen AI 9 365	AMD Ryzen AI 9 365
GPU	Nvidia RTX 5060	Nvidia RTX 5060	Nvidia RTX 5060
Memory	16GB LPDDR5-8000MT/s	16GB LPDDR5-8000MT/s	16GB LPDDR5-8000MT/s
Storage	1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD	1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD	1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD
Display	14-inch QHD+ 120Hz OLED	14-inch QHD+ 120Hz OLED	14-inch QHD+ 120Hz OLED
Ports	2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 2 x USB4 Type-C (Power, DP2.1 , Data), 1 x HDMI 2.1, 1 x MicroSD Card Reader, 1 x 3.5mm Combo Jack	2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 2 x USB4 Type-C (Power, DP2.1 , Data), 1 x HDMI 2.1, 1 x MicroSD Card Reader, 1 x 3.5mm Combo Jack	2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 2 x USB4 Type-C (Power, DP2.1 , Data), 1 x HDMI 2.1, 1 x MicroSD Card Reader, 1 x 3.5mm Combo Jack
Battery	72WHr	72WHr	72WHr
Wireless	Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4	Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4	Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
Camera	1080p IR w/ Windows Hello	1080p IR w/ Windows Hello	1080p IR w/ Windows Hello
Weight	3.59 lbs \| 1.63 kg	3.59 lbs \| 1.63 kg	3.59 lbs \| 1.63 kg
Dimensions	12.23 x 8.83 x 0.64 ins \| 310.7 x 224.3 x 16.2mm	12.23 x 8.83 x 0.64 ins \| 310.7 x 224.3 x 16.2mm	12.23 x 8.83 x 0.64 ins \| 310.7 x 224.3 x 16.2mm

The top configuration quadruples the available memory and doubles the storage over the base spec while bumping the GPU up to an RTX 5070 GPU. That makes it a very solid mobile workstation for creatives in addition to being a fantastic 1440p gaming platform in an impressively thin 14-inch form factor.

The one knock I do have on the max spec is that other thin and light gaming laptops, like the Zephyrus G14, do manage to give you options for the RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5080, so those who want even more power do have alternatives to the Blade 14.

Razer Blade 14 (2025) top configuration
	US	UK	Australia
Price	$2,999.99 at Razer	£2,699.99 at Razer	AU$4,899.95 at Razer
CPU	AMD Ryzen AI 9 365	AMD Ryzen AI 9 365	AMD Ryzen AI 9 365
GPU	Nvidia RTX 5070	Nvidia RTX 5070	Nvidia RTX 5070
Memory	64GB LPDDR5x - 8400MT/s	64GB LPDDR5x - 8400MT/s	64GB LPDDR5x - 8400MT/s
Storage	2TB M.2 PCIe NVMe	2TB M.2 PCIe NVMe	2TB M.2 PCIe NVMe
Display	14-inch QHD+ 120Hz OLED	14-inch QHD+ 120Hz OLED	14-inch QHD+ 120Hz OLED
Ports	2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 2 x USB4 Type-C (Power, DP2.1 , Data), 1 x HDMI 2.1, 1 x MicroSD Card Reader, 1 x 3.5mm Combo Jack	2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 2 x USB4 Type-C (Power, DP2.1 , Data), 1 x HDMI 2.1, 1 x MicroSD Card Reader, 1 x 3.5mm Combo Jack	2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 2 x USB4 Type-C (Power, DP2.1 , Data), 1 x HDMI 2.1, 1 x MicroSD Card Reader, 1 x 3.5mm Combo Jack
Battery	72WHr	72WHr	72WHr
Wireless	Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4	Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4	Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
Camera	1080p IR w/ Windows Hello	1080p IR w/ Windows Hello	1080p IR w/ Windows Hello
Weight	3.59 lbs \| 1.63 kg	3.59 lbs \| 1.63 kg	3.59 lbs \| 1.63 kg
Dimensions	12.23 x 8.83 x 0.64 ins \| 310.7 x 224.3 x 16.2mm	12.23 x 8.83 x 0.64 ins \| 310.7 x 224.3 x 16.2mm	12.23 x 8.83 x 0.64 ins \| 310.7 x 224.3 x 16.2mm

My review unit fell somewhere in between, with 32GB RAM and a 1TB SSD. Of the available configuration options, it offers what I think is the best balance between cost and performance.

With this setup, I never worried about performance bottlenecks in games or creative workloads, and the 1TB drive gave me enough space for my go-to Steam titles, currently Helldivers 2, Satisfactory, and a heavily modded Baulder's Gate 3. But unless you're loading up on small indie titles, you can expect to have to do some storage juggling for this configuration.

It's also worth noting that this laptop is not easily upgradable, and the RAM here is soldered. There are also a limited number of configuration options to choose from, so it's not a very customizable laptop, opting for the MacBook route rather than a more DIY approach.

Razer Blade 14 (2025) review configuration
	US	UK	Australia
Price	$2,699.99 at Razer	£2,399.99 at Razer	AU$4,299.95 at Razer
CPU	AMD Ryzen AI 9 365	AMD Ryzen AI 9 365	AMD Ryzen AI 9 365
GPU	Nvidia RTX 5070	Nvidia RTX 5070	Nvidia RTX 5070
Memory	32GB LPDDR5x - 8400MT/s	32GB LPDDR5x - 8400MT/s	32GB LPDDR5x - 8400MT/s
Storage	1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe	1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe	1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe
Display	14-inch QHD+ 120Hz OLED	14-inch QHD+ 120Hz OLED	14-inch QHD+ 120Hz OLED
Ports	2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 2 x USB4 Type-C (Power, DP2.1 , Data), 1 x HDMI 2.1, 1 x MicroSD Card Reader, 1 x 3.5mm Combo Jack	2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 2 x USB4 Type-C (Power, DP2.1 , Data), 1 x HDMI 2.1, 1 x MicroSD Card Reader, 1 x 3.5mm Combo Jack	2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 2 x USB4 Type-C (Power, DP2.1 , Data), 1 x HDMI 2.1, 1 x MicroSD Card Reader, 1 x 3.5mm Combo Jack
Battery	72WHr	72WHr	72WHr
Wireless	Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4	Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4	Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
Camera	1080p IR w/ Windows Hello	1080p IR w/ Windows Hello	1080p IR w/ Windows Hello
Weight	3.59 lbs \| 1.63 kg	3.59 lbs \| 1.63 kg	3.59 lbs \| 1.63 kg
Dimensions	12.23 x 8.83 x 0.64 ins \| 310.7 x 224.3 x 16.2mm	12.23 x 8.83 x 0.64 ins \| 310.7 x 224.3 x 16.2mm	12.23 x 8.83 x 0.64 ins \| 310.7 x 224.3 x 16.2mm

Specs: 4 / 5

Razer Blade 14 (2025): Design

A Razer Blade 14 (2025) on a desk with its lid closed — (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Thinner and lighter than Blade 14 2024
OLED Display
Black finish is a fingerprint magnet

The Blade 14 (2025) doesn't take any real risks with the design of the iconic laptop model, being more of a modest refinement of Razer's aesthetic.

The biggest move here is the display, which is a gorgeous-looking OLED panel rather than the more standard IPS of the Razer Blade 14 (2024). It also comes in thinner and lighter than last year's model, managing to shave off nearly half a pound of weight (about 0.2kg) and shrink its height by just over half an inch (nearly 2mm).

The chassis corner of the Razer Blade 14 (2025) — (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

The CNC-machined aluminum chassis feels solid in the hands, with zero flex in the lid or keyboard deck. It carries that understated “MacBook for gamers” vibe that a number of the best thin and light gaming laptops hope to hit but often fall short of reaching.

The under-display ventilation ports on the Razer Blade 14 (2025) — (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

The matte black colorway on my review model looks sleek, but it attracts fingerprints almost instantly. I didn’t particularly care all that much, but if you do, expect to be wiping this laptop down almost constantly if you're sticking with the Razer Black finish.

The ports on the Razer Blade 14 (2025) — (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Port selection is generous for such a compact laptop: two USB4 (with PD, DP2.1, and data), a pair of USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, an HDMI 2.1 output ports, and a microSD card reader, something creatives will appreciate.

A masculine hand tilting the Razer Blade 14 (2025) upward to show off the keyboard — (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

The keyboard offers per-key RGB customization through Razer Synapse, so you have lots of options for customizing the lighting design to your liking. While twinkly, the shallow 1mm key travel left typing feeling somewhat flat compared to a competing MacBook Pro or Lenovo Legion laptop, though the keyboard does feel more comfortable than that of the Dell 14 Premium.

The touchpad, by contrast, is excellent—large, smooth, and every bit as responsive as you’d find on the best MacBook.

One of the speakers along the side of the keydeck of the Razer Blade 14 (2025) — (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

The six-speaker setup also deserves mention. I've been on a The Sword kick lately, and their entire catalog sounded fantastic, filling the room with surprising depth. Meanwhile, the chaos of Helldiver 2's recent updates never sounded better, making it one of the few gaming laptops where I felt I didn't need to bother with an external speaker or headphones.

The webcam of the Razer Blade 14 (2025) — (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

The 1080p IR webcam is great, but the lack of a physical privacy shutter isn't, though you do get the enhanced security of Windows Hello.

Like Razer Blade 14s of the past though, the design of this laptop doesn't lend itself to much upgradability, so if you're hoping to spec-up in the future, you'll need to plan for that at checkout before you buy and configure it for the long-haul.

Design: 4.5 / 5

Razer Blade 14 (2025): Performance

Helldivers 2 playing on a Razer Blade 14 (2025) that is surrounded by gaming peripherals — (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Phenomenal gaming performance
Outstanding creative performance
Not always an improvement over previous-gen models

Day to day, the Blade 14 felt like a solid desktop PC stuffed into a svelte, lightweight 14-inch frame, making it easy to carry around with me and get things done on the go.

Over the course of about three weeks (including one week of dedicated benchmark testing), I used it for writing, photo editing, and heavy multitasking and didn't experience any real hiccups. Even with my downright abusive Chrome-tab-habits, adding Spotify streaming to the mix and some Photoshop and Lightroom exporting sent to the background, the Blade 14 (2025) stayed fluid and never stuttered.

In my CPU benchmarks, the new Blade 14 generally outclassed its predecessors, and while it doesn't really compete with the performance of the Apple M4 chip for professional workloads, it does generally come in second against Apple's best mobile workstation.

Naturally, the upgraded Nvidia RTX 5070 GPU in the new Blade 14 beats the last two Blade 14 models, both of which we reviewed with an RTX 4070 GPU. There aren't a lot of tests where we can use for an apples-to-razers comparison of the GPU in the MacBook Pro 14 and Blade 14, unfortunately, but at least in the cross-platform 3DMark Steel Nomad, it's not even a contest, as the Blade 14's RTX 5070 GPU scores about 3.6x better in this synthetic GPU test.

In terms of creative performance, the Blade 14 2025 more than holds its own against its predecessors and its main rival amongst the best Windows laptops for creatives, the Dell 14 Premium, falling behind only the MacBook Pro 14 in my Crossmark Creativity testing, and even then, not by much.

When it came to gaming, though, the Blade 14 really impressed me. At its native 2880×1800 resolution, Games like F1 2024 and Helldivers 2 ran well into the high double and even triple digits on ultra settings with balanced DLSS (not counting Frame Generation), while games like Satisfactory (my personal go-to) stayed above 100 FPS constantly.

Cyberpunk 2077 with ray tracing at 1080p pushed the GPU hard, averaging around 50 FPS, but enabling DLSS 4's Transformer model made it silky smooth at 1080p and very playable at 1440p, hovering between 50-80 FPS depending on the DLSS setting used.

Since the base frame rates are north of 50 FPS when using DLSS, you can turn on Frame Generation as well to push that FPS higher to max out the display's 120Hz refresh without having to worry about input latency, which wasn't noticeable in my time gaming on the laptop when I used the feature.

The key standout for me though wasn’t just raw average framerates—it was stability on the low-end. Minimum frame rates on just about every game I tested with balanced upscaling were well north of 50 FPS unless I did something like trying to run Cyberpunk 2077 on its max settings with Ray Tracing Overdrive at native resolution.

This means that for pretty much any title, you're going to get exceptionally smooth gameplay on the go, which is what a laptop like this is really all about.

Performance: 5 / 5

Razer Blade 14 (2025): Battery Life

The Windows 11 battery indicator on a Razer Blade 14 (2025) — (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

How long does it last on a single charge? It lasted about five hours on my standard 'performance' test settings
Proprietary charger required to charge it quickly, but you can use USB4 for slower charging

The battery life on the Blade 14 2025 isn't fantastic, but it's pretty solid for a gaming laptop, especially with some power-saving tweaks.

In my normal test settings, with max resolution and frame rate with the laptop set to Windows 11 Performance mode, the Blade 14 2025 fell behind a lot of other competing 14-inch laptops on the market, as well as its two immediate predecessors, with an average battery life of just five hours and one minute in our Web Surfing test.

It manages to do a little bit better on the gaming battery test, though it still lags behind its immediate predecessors. One thing to consider though is that of all the 14-inch laptops I tested here, only the Dell 14 Premium has an OLED panel to match what the Blade 14 is sporting, while the earlier Blade 14s and the MacBook Pro aren't bogged down by the OLED display's higher power consumption.

It is worth noting though that slowing down the refresh rate to 60Hz rather than 120Hz and you turn off the RGB lighting on the keydeck, you can stretch this battery life out to over eight hours.

Also, the Blade 14 2025 comes with a proprietary charging brick and port for the fastest charging and best plugged-in performance while gaming, but the USB4 ports do allow for USB-C charging, just at a slower rate.

Battery Life: 3.5 / 5

Should you buy the Razer Blade 14 (2025)?

A Razer Blade 14 (2025) on a desk with its lid facing the viewer — (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Razer Blade 14 (2025) Scorecard
Category	Notes	Rating
Value	You are absolutely paying the Razer tax here, and you can get the same performance from other laptops for cheaper.	3.5 / 5
Specs	The specs are fairly solid for this laptop, but the lack of upgradability and high-end specs allow rivals to swoop in and offer more for enthusiast gamers.	4 / 5
Design	The Blade 14 2025 doesn't disappoint with its design, slimming down over the previous year and keeping true to its iconic style.	4.5 / 5
Performance	Fantastic performance all around makes this one of the best gaming laptops for on-the-go PC gamers who don't want to fuss with a PC gaming handheld.	5 / 5
Battery Life	The OLED panel on this laptop absolutely tanks its battery life, and anyone needing a work laptop for longevity are better off with a Snapdragon X Elite-powered system or a MacBook Pro 14.	3.5 / 5
Final Score	Overall, between iconic style and fantastic performance, the Blade 14 is a phenomenal slim and light gaming laptop, though it'd be great if it was just a bit cheaper considering its rivals can offer similar or better performance for less.	4.5 / 5

Buy the Razer Blade 14 (2025) if...

You want the best design the iconic Razer style can offer
The Blade 14 (2025) truly is the MacBook of gaming laptops, with a thinner and lighter form factor than last year.

You want the best OLED gaming laptop going
The OLED panel on the Blade 14 is fantastic, beating out mini-LED rivals and absolutely burying IPS laptops without breaking a sweat.

You want the perfect balance of performance and portability
If what you care about most is getting the fastest frame rates possible in your games, the Blade 14 won't beat any current S-tier gaming laptops, but if you're looking to maximize performance and portability, you'll find few better than the Blase 14 2025.

Don't buy it if...

You want desktop-replacement class performance
The Blade 14's performance is great, but if you're looking for face-melting framerates, a laptop with a RTX 5080 or RTX 5090 will be a better option.

You're on a budget
This laptop starts at two grand and only gets more expensive the better its configuration. A cheap laptop, this is not.

You don't want to deal with the quirks of OLED care
OLED displays are gorgeous, but they suffer from burn-in over time, which might be a dealbreaker for anyone looking to use this laptop for more than 3-4 years.

Also consider

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is one of the best gaming laptops in this size, and it offers higher-level configurations than the Blade 14 2025 can, while its entry-level model comes in cheaper than the Blade 14.

Read more about the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14

Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M4, 2024)
Creative professionals who might be considering the Blade 14 2025 will almost always get better creative performance from the MacBook Pro 14-inch across non-3D-modeling workloads, like video editing and photography.

Read the full Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M4) review

How I tested the Razer Blade 14 (2025)

I spent about three weeks with the Razer Blade 14 (2025)
I used it for everyday gaming, work, and creative tasks
I ran it through our standard suite of benchmark tests

I had the chance to test out the Razer Blade 14 2025 for about three weeks, which is about 50% longer than I usually have to devote to a single laptop review, so I really got to know this laptop.

I used it for day-to-day writing tasks (including drafting this review), as well as general productivity and creative work, including Adobe Photoshop for editing the photos shown above.

For gaming, I used it extensively as my primary gaming device, focusing on more demanding titles like Helldivers 2, Satisfactory, as well as more requirement-friendly titles like Hollow Knight: Silksong.

I've reviewed dozens of gaming laptops for TechRadar over the course of half a decade, ranging from the very best desktop replacements to the best budget gaming laptops, so I know what the market has to offer. I leverage that insight and expertise to help readers by offering the best advice I can on what gaming laptops offer the best value, and which are worth the splurge.

First reviewed September 2025

I tested an outrageous Acer Predator laptop with Nvidia 5090 GPU, and I wish I could recommend it, but I just can’t at this price

12:10 pm | July 31, 2025

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Gaming Computers Gaming Laptops | Tags: Battery Life, Razer Blade | Comments: Off

Acer Predator Helios 18 AI: Two-minute review

The Acer Predator Helios 18 AI is a top-tier gaming laptop with a phenomenal spec that’s sure to whet the appetites of even casual gamers. Despite what lurks inside, its exterior is remarkably restrained. At 18 inches, it's obviously very large, but the black finish and lack of branding keep its profile reasonably low. However, that large rear protrusion and ostentatious RGB lighting give away its intentions.

I think Acer has done well to keep the Predator Helios 18 AI as slender as possible. Of course, this is all relative given the size of laptop we’re dealing with here, but it’s impressively thin for the most part, although it thickens at the rear.

Build quality is also excellent, equaling the best gaming laptops in this regard. Premium materials are employed everywhere, and the hinge for the lid is smooth and easy to operate, while offering plenty of stability once set.

The keyboard is tactile and snappy, and the generous spacing of the keys makes it easy to type and game on the Predator Helios 18 AI. The number pad somewhat compromises the layout, though, with the space bar paying the highest price; it’s a little too short for my liking.

On the other hand, the large trackpad does a fine job of not interfering while using the keyboard, with accidental contact failing to register in my experience. It’s also very smooth and accurate, should you wish to use it over one of the best gaming mice.

Considering its mighty spec, the Predator Helios 18 AI performs as well as you might expect. Cyberpunk 2077 and Doom: The Dark Ages ran with aplomb, each delivering fps figures in the hundreds with maximum graphics settings, including those for ray tracing.

Rear of Acer Predator Helios 18 AI open on desk with pink background — (Image credit: Future)

You will have to endure constant fan noise when gaming, but thankfully this isn’t egregious when the default Balanced mode is selected in the Predator Sense app. The Predator Helios 18 AI also generates a fair amount of heat, which can spread to the sides and the keyboard after a while. Again, though, this isn’t bad enough to cause an issue.

The biggest price you’ll have to pay for all this performance is… well, the price. Starting at $3,000, the Predator Helios 18 AI is incredibly expensive. I struggle to think who’ll need such a large and powerful laptop, and be willing to pay this much for one.

Of course, the entire gaming laptop market is a premium one, but there are better value alternatives out there if you don’t need an 18-inch display and triple-digit frame rates, such as the excellent Razer Blade 16 (2025) or the MSI Katana 15 (2023), the latter of which we think is currently the best budget gaming laptop around.

Acer Predator Helios 18 AI review: Price & Availability

Starts from $2,999.99 / £3,499.99 / AU$7,299
Hugely expensive
Better value alternatives

The Predator Helios 18 AI starts from $2,999.99 / £3,499.99 / AU$7,299 and is available now. It comes with spare WASD and arrow keys, as well as a thermal pad upgrade kit for the RAM.

You don’t need me to tell you what an eye-watering sum this is. It’s understandable considering the spec, and my review unit was even more outlandish, equipped with a 3840 x 2400 display and 192GB of RAM(!).

Prices are similar to the Razer Blade, which performs similarly too. If you want something that’s even better value, the MSI Katana 15 (2023) is, in our view, one of the best budget gaming laptops around, if you’re happy to game at 1080p.

Value: 2.5 / 5

Acer Predator Helios 18 AI review: Specs

Acer Predator Helios 18 AI Specs
	Acer Predator Helios 18 AI Base Config	Acer Predator Helios 18 AI Review Config
Price	$2,999.99 / £3,499.99 / AU$7299	TBC
CPU	Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX (24 Cores), 2.70 GHz	Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX (24 Cores), 2.70 GHz
GPU	Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 (16GB)	Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 (24GB)
RAM	64GB DDR5	192GB DDR5
Storage	2TB PCIe NVMe SED SSD	2TB PCIe NVMe SED SSD
Display	18-inch WQXGA (2560 x 1600), 16:10 ComfyView (Matte), 250Hz, IPS	18-inch WQUXGA (3840 x 2400), 16:10 ComfyView (Matte), 250Hz, IPS
Ports and Connectivity	3 x USB-A, 2 x USB-C, 1 x RJ-45, 1 x SD card, 1 x HDMI, 1 x 3.5mm audio in/out; Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4	3 x USB-A, 2 x USB-C, 1 x RJ-45, 1 x SD card, 1 x HDMI, 1 x 3.5mm audio in/out; Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
Battery	99Wh	99Wh
Dimensions	401 x 308 x 29.6mm	401 x 308 x 29.6mm
Weight	3.5kg / 7.7lbs	3.5kg / 7.7lbs

Acer Predator Helios 18 AI review: Design

Close-up of left side ports on Acer Predator Helios 18 AI open on desk — (Image credit: Future)

Large but surprisingly thin
Relatively understated
Excellent build quality

Given its large display size, the Predator Helios 18 AI is a reasonably understated gaming laptop. The rear bulge that extends beyond the lid hinge gives it some distinction, and the RGB lighting can light up the whole unit like a Christmas tree if you want it to (the bar that runs along the front edge and wraps around the side is especially striking). But switch this off and you’ll struggle to tell it apart from the best business laptops.

It’s quite bulky, although I think the Predator Helios 18 AI does an admirable job of keeping its dimensions contained considering the beastly components that lay within. The front end is reasonably thin, but thickens as it moves towards the back. This increased size does allow for larger vent openings, though, so it’s a worthy sacrifice to improve cooling performance.

The overall build quality is hard to fault. All the materials that are used look and feel premium and durable. The lid is also impressively smooth to operate yet remains sufficiently stable when set in position.

Underneath you’ll find three feet that run across the width of the Predator Helios 18 AI, and they provide plenty of grip on desktop surfaces. They also raise the chassis from the surface by a significant degree, again allowing for improved ventilation.

There are plenty of ports on the Predator Helios 18 AI. On the left, you’ll find an ethernet and a USB-A port, as well as an SD card slot and a 3.5mm audio in/ out jack. On the right are two more USB-A ports, which is a sensible location considering this is where you’ll likely be connecting external peripherals.

On the rear are two USB-C ports, an HDMI port, and a large power cable port. As you would imagine, the power supply is large, but unfortunately the cable running from the brick to the jack end is quite short. Owing to my setup, this meant I had to keep the brick on my desk rather than placing it on the floor, which was quite the inconvenience.

Design: 4 / 5

Acer Predator Helios 18 AI review: Performance

Close-up of rear ports on Acer Predator Helios 18 AI open on desk — (Image credit: Future)

Fantastic AAA performance
Vibrant and sharp display
Some fan noise and heat

Gaming with the Predator Helios 18 AI didn’t get off to a particularly auspicious start. When I ran Cyberpunk 2077 for the first time, the game’s benchmark function recorded a disappointing 42fps, with the maximum 3840 x 2400 resolution and Ray Tracing: Ultra preset selected.

Some tinkering with the graphics settings resulted in modest improvements to performance, but it wasn’t until after restarting the game a couple of times that things suddenly improved: I started getting about 100fps, even in busy in-game environments, without lowering the resolution or any other graphical settings.

Similar figures were achieved when I played Doom: The Dark Ages, although I did have to change the DLSS mode from Auto to Ultra Performance to get there. Thankfully, this made no discernible difference to the image quality.

And on that front, both games looked fantastic on the WQUXGA display. Colors were accurate and vibrant, if very slightly washed-out. This is a common issue on many IPS displays, but here the effect did little to detract from the awesomeness of the visuals.

The ultra-high 3840 x 2400 resolution in my review unit offered incredible levels of sharpness, while the high response times resulted in super-smooth gameplay. It’s also capable of very high brightness levels, which helps to keep pesky reflections at bay.

Close-up of trackpad on Acer Predator Helios 18 AI open on desk — (Image credit: Future)

Acer Predator Helios 18 AI Benchmarks

Here's how the Acer Predator Helios 18 AI performed in our series of benchmark tests:

Geekbench 6.2:
Single - 2,803
Multi - 16,720
Cinebench R24:
Single - 125 13.89x
Multi - 1,728
3DMark:
Fire Strike - 36,158
Time Spy - 17,341
Port Royal - 12,994
Night Raid - 60,951
PCMark10:
8,885
Cyberpunk 2077:
1080p Low - 469fps
1080p Ultra - 361fps
1080p Ray Tracing: Overdrive - 128fps
Battery test:
Movie playback - 3 hours and 2 minutes
PCMark10 (Gaming) - 1 hour 27 minutes

Fan noise is constant when gaming on the Predator Helios 18 AI, but I didn’t find it distractingly loud. The volume increases considerably if you set the Predator Sense profile to Performance mode, though – then you’ll really need one of the best PC gaming headsets to drown out the noise.

The Predator Helios 18 AI does a good job of keeping temperatures down. Its underside doesn’t get too hot, although over time heat leaks out of both sides, which can be a little distracting for your mouse hand. After a couple of hours of gaming, I noticed the bottom of the keyboard became quite hot, too, especially around the space bar.

It wasn’t hot enough to make using the keyboard a problem, though. And what’s more, the keyboard on the Predator Helios 18 AI is great to game with. The keys are clicky but damped enough to make them tactile.

They’re a little on the small side (although they’re generously spaced apart), owing to the inclusion of the aforementioned number pad. This compromises the layout somewhat – especially the space bar, which isn’t as long as I would’ve liked, and therefore somewhat awkward to hit with my left thumb.

The trackpad on the Predator Helios 18 AI is large and very smooth, making it easy to use. Mercifully, it also appears unaffected by contact with the sides of your palms, meaning it won’t accidentally register movements while your hands lean over it to use the keyboard.

Performance: 5 / 5

Acer Predator Helios 18 AI review: Battery Life

Close-up of keyboard with RGB lighting on Acer Predator Helios 18 AI — (Image credit: Future)

Large 99Wh capacity
Underwhelming longevity
Quick to charge

The battery life of the Predator Helios 18 AI isn't particularly impressive. Despite its 99Wh capacity, it lasted just under 90 minutes PCMark10's battery test for gaming scenarios.

This makes it considerably worse than the Razer Blade 16 (2025), which managed about an hour more, but much better than the MSI Katana 15 (2023), which didn’t even last one hour.

Charging the Predator Helios 18 AI back up to full is a surprisingly quick process, though – and given the size of the power brick, you would hope it would be.

Battery Life: 3.5 / 5

Should I buy the Predator Helios 18 AI?

Acer Predator Helios 18 AI Scorecard
Attributes	Notes	Rating
Value	The Predator Helios 18 AI is incredibly expensive, and only worth it if you need the absolute best gaming performance in laptop form.	2.5 / 5
Design	The Predator Helios 18 AI is very large, but is admirably thin considering what’s inside. It’s brilliantly made, too, and the RGB lighting is tastefully vibrant.	4 / 5
Performance	My review unit had an RTX 5090 and an Intel Core Ultra 9, so naturally its performance is out of this world. The display is excellent, too.	5 / 5
Battery Life	The Predator Helios 18 AI can't last an especially long time, but at least it's capable of replenishing quickly.	3.5 / 5
Total	There’s no denying this is a ferocious gaming machine; you can’t really ask for more from a gaming laptop. But the astronomical price puts it beyond the reach of many gamers, and there are many better value propositions out there.	3.5 / 5

Buy it if...

You want the best portable performance
With Nvidia RTX 5000 series GPUs available, the Predator Helios 18 AI can achieve astonishing fps figures, while the CPU and configurable RAM are equally capable components.

You want a large display
At 18 inches, the screen is more than big enough for laptop gaming, and renders AAA titles in all their glory.

Don't buy it if...

You want to save money
You’ll need plenty of cash to buy even the base model, and there are better value options out there.

You want a truly portable device
You’ll want something much smaller and lighter than the Acer Predator Helios 18 AI if you’re constantly on the go.

Acer Predator Helios 18 AI review: Also Consider

Razer Blade 16 (2025)
We were already big fans of the Razer Blade 14 from 2024, but the Blade 16 (2025) surpasses it in many ways. Like the Predator Helios 18 AI, it too can be equipped with an RTX 5090, and is built to a similarly high standard. It’s a shame there’s no 4K option this time round, though, and it’s still about as expensive as the Predator Helios 18 AI. Read our full Razer Blade 16 (2025) review.

MSI Katana 15 (2023)
Our current pick as the best gaming laptop for those on a budget, the MSI Katana 15 (2023) gets the balance right between price and performance, impressing us with its 1080p gaming. The trackpad and battery life might be weak points, but these are areas in gaming laptops where we’re willing to forgive shortcomings. As your first foray into the sector, it’s a great place to start. Read our full MSI Katana 15 (2023) review.

How I tested the Predator Helios 18 AI

Tested for a few days
Played AAA games
Extensive PC gaming experience

I tested the Predator Helios 18 AI for a few days, during which time I played games such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Doom: The Dark Ages, both AAA titles that provide stern tests for rigs owing to their demanding, cutting-edge graphics.

I also ran TechRadar’s series of benchmarking tests, including a battery test where I played a movie on a continuous loop until the Predator Helios 18 AI shut down.

I have been PC gaming for over a decade, and during that time I have experienced a number of systems and components. I have also reviewed laptops previously, as well as copious amounts of gaming hardware.

First reviewed: July 2025
Read more about how we test

Can a gaming laptop replace your PC? I put the MSI Titan 18 HX AI to the test for three weeks

2:43 am | July 17, 2025

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Gaming Computers Gaming Laptops | Tags: CPU, GPU, PC, Razer Blade | Comments: Off

MSI Titan 18 HX AI: Two-minute review

MSI Titan 18 HX AI gaming laptop's back lid — (Image credit: Future / Marcus Mears III)

When I think "gaming laptop," I think of a portable machine with just enough juice to squeeze out 60 FPS in modern titles at medium settings. The MSI Titan 18 HX AI, however, seeks to break that mold and offer something closer to a desktop replacement, boasting a tagline of "total dominance."

With enough power under the hood to crank out 90+ FPS in fairly demanding titles like NBA 2K25 and Black Myth: Wukong, the MSI Titan 18 HX AI lives up to its name. It's a behemoth of a laptop, weighing in at 7.93 lbs (3.6kg) and sporting an RTX 50-series GPU.

It's not going to live out of your backpack - it's going to sit still on your desk and look pretty doing it. But it does offer much more portability than a traditional desktop PC.

As for that massive 18-inch display, it's a joy to game on. The miniLED 4K resolution and 120Hz refresh rate offer the perfect balance between high refresh rate competitive gaming and high fidelity story gameplay. You're probably not going to hit 4K and 120 FPS in most titles, but the ability to pick is enough for me, especially on a laptop.

There are only a few areas I wish the Titan 18 HX executed differently - namely, the trackpad and cooling system. While the trackpad is a nice size, I found myself muttering under my breath at the accidental inputs and unclear distinction between left- and right-clicks far too often.

As for the cooling system, I can tell you with complete certainty that this is not a fanless laptop. If you've ever heard a jet engine whirring up, you have a good idea of what the MSI Titan 18 HX AI sounds like under load.

And then there's the price. There's no beating around the bush; this system is going to cost you an arm and a leg. But when you consider the hardware on offer in a (somewhat) portable machine, that price point starts to make more sense. Still, it's a tough pill to swallow.

When all is said and done, the MSI Titan 18 HX AI is an incredibly performant machine with a few scant drawbacks and a price point that makes it perfect for a select few.

MSI Titan 18 HX AI: Price and availability

How much does it cost? Starting at $5,799.99 / £5,999.99 / $11,799AU
When is it available? Available now
Where can you get it? US, UK, and Australia

With great power comes great...asking prices. You get what you pay for with the MSI Titan 18 HX AI, and you get quite a bit. At a starting price point of just under $6,000, with options to upgrade the CPU, RAM, and display for a higher premium, that's going to prove a very high barrier to entry for most.

Frankly, you can find a lot of the best gaming PCs on the market well under that price point and still have some cash left over to get yourself a gaming handheld or decent gaming laptop.

But if you're set on a top-of-the-line laptop, you'll have to pay for it.

It looks like the only model available in Australia is the MSI Titan 18 HX AI Dragon Edition Norse Myth, which features the same set of specs along with a unique graphic on the lid and trackpad.

Price: 2.5 / 5

MSI Titan 18 HX AI: Specs

MSI Titan 18 HX AI A2XWJG: Specs
Price	Starting at $5,799
CPU	Up to Intel Core Ultra 9 200HX series
GPU	Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 laptop GPU, 24GB GDDR7
RAM	Up to 96GB DDR5-6400
Display	18-inch UHD+ (3840x2400), MiniLED, 120Hz
Storage	3x M.2 SSD slot (NVMe PCIe Gen4), 1x M.2 SSD slot (NVMe PCIe Gen5)
Ports	2x Thunderbolt 5, 3x Type-A USB3.2 Gen2, 1x SD Express Card Reader, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x 3.5mm headphone jack
Wireless	802.11 be Wi-Fi 7 + Bluetooth v5.4
Camera	IR FHD (1080p, 30 FPS)
Weight	3.6 kg (7.93 lbs)
Dimensions	404 x 307.5 x 24-32.05 mm

MSI Titan 18 HX AI: Design

MSI Titan 18 HX AI gaming laptop on black mouse pad — (Image credit: Future / Marcus Mears III)

Big and bulky
Clean aesthetics
Noisy fans under stress

In terms of design, the first thing you'll notice is how large this laptop really is. It's not afraid to take up space, and at 7.93 lbs (3.6kg), there's some serious heft to it. It's not making our list of the best thin and light gaming laptops anytime soon, but it was never trying to.

Instead, the MSI Titan 18 HX AI's design lends itself more to a desktop replacement than a portable gaming rig. Don't get me wrong, it would still be far easier to lug this laptop around in a large backpack, tote, or suitcase than a traditional gaming PC. But I wouldn't opt for a Titan if you're planning to take your gaming laptop to and from college or a friend's house.

Imposing size aside, the Titan 18 HX looks great. It features an understated black and grey design with subtle accents like an MSI logo on the clamshell lid and light texturing on the speakers and chassis. If you have to have your RGB, you'll be happy to know the Cherry mechanical keyboard is per-key customizable.

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MSI Titan 18 HX AI's keyboard and trackpad — (Image credit: Future / Marcus Mears III)

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MSI Titan 18 HX AI keyboard and trackpad — (Image credit: Future / Marcus Mears III)

Speaking of the keys, this is one of the first gaming laptops that didn't make me want to break out my own typing piece. It does come with a high-pitched metallic pinging sound on some keys that I'm not crazy about, but the typing feel is quite springy and satisfying. Plus, you get a full-sized keyboard with a tenkey numpad and function keys here, which is a big plus for quick adjustments and games that utilize a lot of inputs.

Moving to the port selection, you've got a Kensington security slot, two USB-A 3.2 Gen2 ports, and an SD Express card reader on the left side. On the right, you get two Thunderbolt 5 USB-C ports, another USB-A 3.2 Gen2 slot, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Around the back side, there's an HDMI 2.1 port, an RJ45 slot, and a slot for your 400W power adapter.

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MSI Titan 18 HX AI port selection — (Image credit: Future / Marcus Mears III)

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Overall, that's a really solid port selection you'd be hard-pressed to complain about. I love seeing the USB-A and USB-C combo here as a lot of PC peripherals (including the best gaming mice) still use that tried and true USB-A connection.

Now, for something I wish were a bit different: the cooling. When I tell you these fans are loud, it doesn't quite do it justice until you've heard them yourself. I had to raise the volume of the game I was playing multiple times just to hear over the whir required to keep that RTX 5090 cool.

This is only when the laptop is under load, so if you're just browsing the web or listening to music, you get a pretty noise-free experience. But this is a gaming laptop after all, and unless you're sticking to Stardew Valley (in which case, don't shell out for this laptop), those fans are going to make themselves known.

Design: 4 / 5

MSI Titan 18 HX AI: Performance

MSI Titan 18 HX AI Intel and Nvidia stickers — (Image credit: Future / Marcus Mears III)

Outstanding 1080p and 1440p performance
Solid 4K capabilities
Offers fast-paced, competitive gaming and gorgeous story gameplay

Performance is the name of the game for the MSI Titan 18 HX AI. With an Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX processor, RTX 5090 laptop GPU, and a whopping 64GB of DDR5 RAM (upgradeable to 96GB), this laptop is the heavyweight main event of the evening.

MSI Titan 18 HX AI Benchmarks
Benchmark		Score
Geekbench 6.4 Single Core		3,046
Geekbench 6.4 Single Core		22,082
Crossmark Overall		2,269
Crossmark Productivity		2,033
Crossmark Creativity		2,757
Crossmark Responsiveness		1,760
25GB File Copy Transfer Rate (MB/s)		2,636
3DMark Fire Strike		40,374
3DMark Time Spy		22,437
3DMark Fire Strike Ultra		15,621
3DMark Time Spy Extreme		11,644
3DMark Speed Way		6,094
3DMark Steel Nomad		5,530
3DMark Port Royal		15,289
Assassin's Creed Shadows (Ultra High, 1080p)		54 fps
Black Myth: Wukong (Cinematic, 1080p)		59 fps
Cyberpunk 2077 (Ultra, 1080p)		71 fps
Metro: Exodus (Extreme, 1080p)		93 fps
Monster Hunter Wilds (Very High, 1080p)		87 fps
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Very High, 1080p)		196 fps
Total War: Warhammer III (Ultra, 1080p)		220 fps
Web Surfing Battery Informant		2:16
PCMark 10 Gaming Battery Test		1:37

I've been on a sports sim kick lately, with titles like NBA 2K25 and Rematch dominating my playtime. While 2K25 is fairly demanding, the Titan chewed through it like nothing, easily spitting out 90-120 FPS at 2K resolution. Rematch, on the other hand, is pretty lightweight, but that just means the 120Hz display can really shine.

I also ran the MSI Titan 18 HX AI through synthetic benchmarks and tested it in several triple-A games, including Cyberpunk 2077, Black Myth: Wukong, and more, which you can check out in the chart above.

Performance definitely takes a hit at 4K, but many of the games are still playable at around 30-70 FPS. Plus, if you tweak a few settings and use upscaling where available, you can definitely land a sweet spot between decent frame rates and gorgeous 4K visuals, even without Frame Generation.

You'll also get a solid rendered FPS at 4K with DLSS 4, so Multi-Frame Generation won't introduce the kind of noticeable input latency that it would on less powerful devices, so feel free to turn it on and maximize the capacity of the 120Hz display when you can.

Performance: 5 / 5

MSI Titan 18 HX AI: Battery life

MSI Titan 18 HX AI gaming laptop closed lid — (Image credit: Future / Marcus Mears III)

Considering this is a gaming laptop with a 50 series GPU, Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX and a massive 120Hz display, the battery life here is actually pretty passable. Not to mention that with a machine this bulky, it's going to be plugged in most of the time anyway, so battery life isn't a big concern in my eyes.

It's not going head-to-head with the Razer Blade 16 anytime soon in terms of battery life, so if you're looking to game on the go at 4K without a power bank or outlet nearby, forget it.

But it does buy you about an hour and a half from full charge to dead under moderate stress (at 60Hz with RGB off), and if you need to break it out of your bag to send a few quick emails and watch a little Netflix, it'll get the job done.

Battery life: 3 / 5

Should you buy the MSI Titan 18 HX AI?

MSI Titan 18 HX AI scorecard
Category	Notes	Rating
Value	While you do get a lot of horsepower with the MSI Titan 18 HX AI, the price tag isn't pretty. You're looking at well over $5,000 for a gaming laptop here, even if you do get a mobile RTX 5090.	2.5 / 5
Design	Gripes are far and few between when it comes to design - I wish the trackpad was a bit more consistent, and the fans get very loud under load. But you get a fantastic port selection, gorgeous display, satisfying keyboard, and sleek aesthetics.	4 / 5
Performance	This is where the Titan 18 HX really shines. You can crank the settings at 1080p or 1440p, and even get a respectable 60FPS at 4K with some settings tweaks.	5 / 5
Battery Life	It's a powerful gaming laptop, so you shouldn't expect all-day battery here. But for the hardware under the hood, it's actually pretty decent.	3 / 5
Final score	Overall, the MSI Titan 18 HX AI is a fantastic desktop replacement that offers more portability than a traditional tower PC.	4 / 5

Buy the MSI Titan 18 HX AI if...

You need more portability than a tower PC
While "portable" isn't one of the first words I would use to describe the MSI Titan 18 HX AI, it is definitely easier to move than a traditional tower PC, monitor, and peripherals setup.

You want paramount performance from your laptop
There's serious power packed into this gaming laptop, including an RTX 5090, Intel Core Ultra 9 processor, and 64GB of DDR5 RAM.

Don't buy it if...

You're looking for something affordable
While the MSI Titan 18 HX AI is many things, affordable is far from one of them. You're going to have to pay for what you get here, and there are plenty of gaming laptops at half the price or cheaper.

You need to move your laptop often
While the Titan offers some semblance of portability, it wouldn't be my first pick for tossing in a bag and taking to work or a friend's house.

Also consider

MSI Vector A18 HX A9W
The Vector A18 HX A9W is like the Titan's little brother. It still packs a punch in the performance department, but at half the asking price.

Read our full MSI Vector A18 HX A9W review

Razer Blade 16 (2025)
The Razer Blade 16 (2025) is our top pick of the best gaming laptops for a reason - well, several reasons actually. It also comes equipped with an RTX 5090, but comes in at nearly $2,000 cheaper.

Read our full Razer Blade 16 (2025) review

How I tested

I used the MSI Titan 18 HX AI for over three weeks
Gaming, media, and everyday browsing
Our suite of gaming laptop benchmarks, including synthetic and in-game

I used the MSI Titan 18 HX AI A2XWJG as my primary gaming system for three weeks. I played several different titles, including NBA 2K25, Rematch, and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered. I also put the Titan to the test with everyday browsing and media enjoyment on YouTube, Max, Gmail, and more.

We put the Titan 18 HX through its paces in our suite of gaming laptop benchmarks, including synthetic tests and in-game benchmarking.

If you want to learn more about how we test our laptops and desktops, check out this page.

First reviewed July 2025

Asus ROG Flow Z13 review: great on-the-go gaming, but at a cost

5:02 pm | July 15, 2025

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Gaming Computers Gaming PCs | Tags: AAA, Razer Blade, Total War | Comments: Off

Asus ROG Flow Z13: Two-minute review

This year has seen some of the best gaming laptops and gaming handhelds ever made hit the market, which means it can be hard to decide which device you want to pick up for your on-the-go gaming needs.

However, what if you were to take both device categories and smoosh them together? You get the Asus ROG Flow Z13: a high-performance gaming tablet which, unlike other gaming tablets on the market, actually allows you to play ambitious AAA titles and achieve not just playable but good frame rates, all while staying cool and quiet.

Asus ROG Flow Z13 gaming tablet on wooden surface — (Image credit: Future)

The downsides, which stop this device from achieving a perfect score, is the battery life not being great when gaming. However, it does last a decent amount of time when using it for general browsing or watching videos.

It’s also very expensive, coming in at over $2,000, which means this device is not for those who are on a budget, with gaming laptops in the same price range delivering much higher performance.

Asus ROG Flow Z13 review: Price and availability

How much does it cost? $2,099 / £2,199
When is it available? Available now
Where can you get it? Only available in certain regions

Coming in at $2,099 / £2,199, this is an exceptionally expensive device in terms of gaming tablets. However, with alternatives unbale to offer a similar level of performance, it's hard to compare price-wise with other gaming tablets.

More similar alternatives are products like the Asus ROG Ally X, the gaming handheld from the same company, which comes in at $799 / £799 and provides you with the same kind of performance.

The Asus ROG Flow Z13 is available in certain regions including the UK and US, however unfortunately it cannot be picked up worldwide.

Value: 3 / 5

Asus ROG Flow Z13 review: Specs

This gaming tablet from Asus ROG Flow Z13 comes in one iteration in 2025. You get an AMD CPU with a built-in NPU and GPU paired with 32GB of RAM and 1TB SSD making for a powerful machine.

Price	$2,099 / £2,199
CPU	AMD Ryzen AI MAX 390 12-Core Processor
Graphics	Integrated
RAM	32GB DDR5
Screen	13.4-inch WQXGA IPS 180Hz 100% DCI-P3 Screen
Storage	1TB SSD
Ports	1x USB-A, 2x USB-C with DisplayPort, 1x HDMI, 1x 3.5mm Audio Jack, 1x MicroSD Card Reader
Wireless	Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
Camera	13MP camera and 5MP IR camera
Weight	2.65lbs (1.20kg)
Dimensions	11.81 x 8.03 x 0.51-inches (30 x 20.4 x 1.30cm)

Unfortunately you only get a 1TB SSD with no way to expand the storage, so you may have to invest in an external hard drive if you’re planning on installing large games.

There are other iterations of the Asus ROG Flow Z13 from previous years if you’re looking for other specifications.

Asus ROG Flow Z13 review: Design

Very portable
Fantastic design
Good selection of ports

One of my favourite parts of the Asus ROG Flow Z13 is how compact it is, as you’d expect from a gaming tablet.

This is a device you can take pretty much anywhere, chucking it into any bag, even a small handbag thanks to how small it is (measuring 30 x 20.4 x 1.30cm). Compared to many gaming laptops that weigh around 3kg, the Asus ROG Flow Z13 comes in at just 1.2kg, perfect for taking your device on the go.

In terms of style, you get a simple and sleek tablet with a detachable keyboard and trackpad. There’s a small window on the back of the device that allows you to view some of the components inside, which is a really nice touch.

While it doesn’t have an OLED screen - something that did shock me initially - the Asus ROG Flow Z13 still has a pretty nice display. It won’t blow you away by any means, but it has a great color range and an exceptional refresh rate for a tablet at 180Hz.

There are a fair amount of ports on the Asus ROG Flow Z13 , including USB-A, two USB-C ports (either can be used for charging), HDMI, an audio jack, and a microSD card reader. This is great for those who are hoping to use other gaming peripherals with their device as there are plenty of options to plug in.

The included keyboard is extremely slim, and while I usually despise tablet keyboards, this one wasn’t as squidgy as alternative options. It made for a satisfying typing and gaming experience, however for those playing competitive titles, I would recommend opting for an external gaming keyboard for those precise responses.

Design score: 5 / 5

Asus ROG Flow Z13 review: Performance

Gaming performance is impressive
Overall user experience is great
Quiet when in use

Benchmarks

These are the results of our benchmarking tests for the Asus ROG Flow Z13:

3DMark: Night Raid: 36,307; Fire Strike: 11,230; Time Spy: 4,634
GeekBench 6: 2,162 (single-core); 11,575 (multi-core)
CrossMark: Overall: 1,417; Productivity: 1,241; Creativity: 1,760; Responsiveness: 1,100
Total War: Warhammer III (1080p, Ultra): 63; (1080p, Low): 122
Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p, Ultra): 73; (1080p, Low): 93
Dirt 5 (1080p, Ultra): 39; (1080p, Low): 80
PCMark 10 Battery Life: 6 hr 4 min
TechRadar movie test: 5hr 55 min

In terms of performance, the Asus ROG Flow Z13 delivers some pretty good framerates for a gaming tablet, however considering the price point, I was actually expecting more.

While for the most part, you get above 60 fps when playing in 1080p at Ultra graphics presets, equivalently-priced gaming laptops would likely be delivering significantly better performance, as they can make use off more powerful hardware without having to fit it into a tablet-like form factor.

The Asus ROG Flow Z13 stayed very quiet the whole time I was using it. Even when putting it through its paces, like running AAA titles at Ultra, I was barely able to hear the device which makes it perfect for using on the go so you’re not disturbing everyone around you.

As you’d expect, due to how quiet it was, it also stayed very cool which is great for a tablet as it means you can still hold it and use the touchscreen as intended without worrying about burning your hands and fingers.

The speakers are pretty good, however as always I would recommend plugging in and using a headset to ensure the best gaming experience. For watching videos and movies, the speakers are absolutely perfect since you don’t need the directional precision.

Outside of the actual performance I was getting in-game, using the device itself has been a very pleasant experience. I enjoyed typing on it, and I found it easy to switch between tablet and laptop mode by just removing or flipping the keyboard back.

One downside for me was the built in trackpad, I found it a little bit slow in terms of responsiveness, while fine for browsing and general use, I obviously opted for a gaming mouse when playing.

Performance score: 3.5 / 5

Asus ROG Flow Z13 review: Battery life

The battery life of the Asus ROG Flow Z13 is actually surprisingly great, surpassing even some of the highest-performance and more expensive gaming laptops I’ve tried recently.

When benchmarking the battery, I was able to get around sixhours of usage, which is more representative of watching videos on the device rather than gaming. When gaming on the Asus ROG Flow Z13, I found I got closer to four hours of battery, with AAA games draining the device even faster.

For example, when playing Cyberpunk I only got around an hour of half of game time before the device shut off, which certainly limits how portable this device actually is, no matter how thin and light it might be.

Battery life: 3 / 5

Should I buy the Asus ROG Flow Z13?

Attributes	Notes	Rating
Price	This is a very expensive device, but it’s hard to compare to alternatives as it's so unique.	3 / 5
Design	You get a sleek and stunning device which is lightweight and has an excellent range of ports.	5 / 5
Performance	This tablet delivers great performance while staying cool and quiet however laptops at a similar price point would surpass this easily.	4 / 5
Battery life	While delivering a better battery life than some gaming laptops on the market, it's significantly reduced when gaming.	3 / 5
Total Score	This unique gaming tablet can be used as a more traditional laptop, and offers impressive performance and a fantastic and innovative design. Its high price and compromised battery life prevent it from being perfect, however.	3.5 / 5

Buy it if...

You want a portable gaming device
This is super lightweight and compact, making for a great on-the-go gaming device.

You want something cool and quiet
Even when put through its paces, it stays very cool and quiet.

You’re looking for good performance across AAA titles
I got decent frames in all of the titles I tested out, including AAA titles at 'Ultra' graphical settings.

Don't buy it if...

You’re on a budget
You do get a decent battery capacity here, but it won’t last you very long when gaming.

You want a long-lasting battery
You do get a decent battery capacity here, but it won’t last you very long when gaming.

Asus ROG Flow Z13 review: Also consider

	Asus ROG Flow Z13	Razer Blade 14 (2024)	MSI Katana 15
Price	$2,099 / £2,199	From $2,199.99 / £2,149.99 / AU$3,999	$999 (about £785 / AU$1,543)
CPU	AMD Ryzen AI MAX 390 12-Core Processor	AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS	Intel Core i7-13620H
Graphics	Integrated	Nvidia RTX 4060 - RTX 4070	Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 - 4070
RAM	32GB DDR5	16GB DDR5 - 32GB DDR5	16GB DDR5 - 32GB DDR5
Screen	13.4-inch WQXGA IPS 180Hz 100% DCI-P3 Screen	14-inch QHD+ 240Hz, 2560 x 1600p, up to 100% DCI-P3, Factory calibrated, Calman Verified	15.6-inch FHD, IPS-Level 144Hz
Storage	1TB SSD	1TB SSD	1TB SSD
Ports	1x USB-A, 2x USB-C with DisplayPort, 1x HDMI, 1x 3.5mm Audio Jack, 1x MicroSD Card Reader	2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A , 2 x USB4 Type-C Ports with Power Delivery and Display Port 1.4, Charging supported with 20V USB-C chargers with PD 3.0 (100W), 1 x HDMI 2.1, 1 x Power port, 1 x 3.5mm combo jack	1x USB-C 3.2, 2x USB-A 3.2, 1x USB-A 2.0, HDMI 2.1, 3.5mm Combo-Jack
Weight	2.65lbs (1.20kg)	4.05 lbs (1.84kg)	4.96 lbs (2.25 kg)
Dimensions	11.81 x 8.03 x 0.51-inches (30 x 20.4 x 1.30cm)	12.23 x 8.97 x 0.70 inches (310.7 x 228 x 17.99mm)	14.13 x 10.20 x 0.98 inches (359 x 259 x 25mm)

Here are some alternatives if the Asus ROG Flow Z13 doesn't sound right for your needs:

Razer Blade 14
You can grab this powerful gaming laptop which provides you with immaculate performance regardless of if you’re looking for stunning visuals or high frame rates all packed into a compact and stunning chassis, then the Razer Blade 14 is a great option.

Read our full Razer Blade 14 review

MSI Katana 15
For those not looking to spend too much, then the MSI Katana 15 is a great budget option for those who are looking for a powerful gaming laptop. You can pick it up at less than $1,000 and still get decent AAA performance in 1080p.

Read our full MSI Katana 15 review

How I tested the Asus ROG Flow Z13

Tested for two weeks
Used for work and for gaming
Ran benchmarks

I spent two weeks using the Asus ROG Flow Z13 as my everyday laptop for work and leisure. I was sure to use the device all day for my typical workday, and then also used it for gaming in the evening.

I took it on the go with me to different locations where I needed to work to see how it would feel outside of my workstation. As well as using it every day, I also benchmarked the laptop using a range of different benchmarking software and in-game benchmarking tools for a range of titles.

First reviewed: July 2025
Read more about how we test

Acer Nitro 14 review: overpriced for the performance on offer

12:48 pm | June 3, 2025

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Gaming Computers Gaming Laptops | Tags: Battery Life, CPU, GPU, Razer Blade | Comments: Off

Acer Nitro 14: Two-minute review

The Acer Nitro 14 is the latest compact gaming laptop from the Taiwanese hardware company looking to bring a (largely) affordable solution to an otherwise premium form factor, with a couple of considerations made towards its design and hardware.

While the Acer Nitro 14 doesn't stand among the best thin and light gaming laptops or the best gaming laptops in general, it does offer solid performance, decent enough value for money, and a respectable battery life that makes it worth considering if you can find the machine discounted in 2025.

The main trade-off with a smaller machine as opposed to a more traditional 15-inch and 16-inch model is the choice of graphics cards inside this 14.5-inch gaming laptop. Armed with either an RTX 4050 or RTX 4060 (even during the arrival of the newer RTX 50 series laptops), it's something of a harder sell in 2025 considering it's also more expensive than many different alternatives.

Turning to the performance, the Acer Nitro 14 largely achieves 60fps in 1080p gaming when using its RTX 4060 configuration (the model we received for review). Demanding games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Red Dead Redemption 2 are solid, but factoring in the age of these games, it's not the most telling sign for the things to come in the future. The 8GB GDDR6 VRAM and 128-bit memory bus are (just barely) enough for now, but what does that mean for PC gaming in the next few years?

The Acer Nitro 14 compact gaming laptop photographed on a coral background. — (Image credit: Future)

Design-wise, the Acer Nitro 14 is solid but far from exciting. On the positive side of things, it has a sleek enough, primarily plastic frame and a bright RGB keyboard. However, getting your hands involved is where the cracks begin to show. The membrane keyboard is on the mushier side of things, and the trackpad is frankly poor. You'll be better off getting a wireless gaming keyboard and a proper mouse for navigation, and be sure to prop the rig up to aid airflow (it gets hot - more on that later).

The deck is somewhat stacked against the Acer Nitro 14. It's not a terrible gaming laptop by any means. However, it also doesn't excel in any particular way, meaning it's worth investing in another similarly priced (or cheaper) alternative instead.

Acer Nitro 14: Price & Availability

How much is it? Starting from $1,099 / £1,199
When is it available? It's available now
Where can you get it? You can get it in the US and the UK

One of the biggest deciding factors for considering the Acer Nitro 14 is its price point. The RTX 4050 variant (the weakest of the lot) is available for $1,099 / £1,199 in the US and the UK, respectively. Our review unit is the RTX 4060 model, which carries an MSRP of $1,249 and an RRP of £1,299. However, it's worth pointing out that this machine has enjoyed regular discounts in the two territories since its launch near the end of 2024, so you may get a better deal by shopping around.

Straight off the bat, we recommend going for the RTX 4060 version as opposed to the RTX 4050 variant, as the former will be much more capable of gaming in 1080p. With that said, $1,249 / £1,299 for an RTX 4060 laptop is on the pricier end of things, especially in 2025 when the RTX 50 series launch is imminent, with budget Blackwell devices on the horizon.

We then need to look at how the Acer Nitro 14 compares to other small-factor gaming laptops. It's worth noting that 14-inch models are (generally) pricier than their more standard 15-inch equivalents. The similarly priced competition includes the Asus TUF Gaming A14, Gigabyte 14 Aero OLED, and the HP Omen 14 Transcend, all of which can be picked up for around the same price with an RTX 4050 or 4060 configuration in 2025.

The Acer Nitro 14 is definitely on the budget end for a smaller laptop, and leagues cheaper than leading models like the Razer Blade 14. However, its otherwise-aggressive pricing is sure to weaken over time, because it's about to be replaced by more capable hardware, making purchasing it right now less than ideal unless you've found an aggressive discount.

Value: 3 / 5

Acer Nitro 14: Specs

Acer Nitro 14 Specs
	Acer Nitro 14 Base Config	Acer Nitro 14 Review Config
Price	$1,099 / £1,199	$1,249 / £1,299
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 8645HS	AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS
GPU	Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 6GB	Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 8GB
RAM	16GB LPDDR5	16GB LPDDR5
Storage	512GB Gen 4.0 NVMe SSD	1TB Gen 4.0 NVMe SSD
Display	14.5-inch IPS 1920 x 1200 (WUXGA) 120Hz @ 300 nits	14.5-inch IPS 1920 x 1200 (WUXGA) 120Hz @ 300 nits
Ports and Connectivity	USB Type-C x 1; USB 4 x 1; USB 3.2 x 2; HDMI 2.1 x 1; 3.5 mm jack x 1; Wi-Fi 6E; Bluetooth 5.3	USB Type-C x 1; USB 4 x 1; USB 3.2 x 2; HDMI 2.1 x 1; 3.5 mm jack x 1; Wi-Fi 6E; Bluetooth 5.3
Battery	76Wh 4-cell (Claims up to 9 hours of playback)	76Wh 4-cell (Claims up to 9 hours of playback)
Dimensions	22.84 x 324.12 x 255.9 mm	22.84 x 324.12 x 255.9 mm
Weight	2kg / 4.4lbs	2kg / 4.4lbs

Two configurations of the Acer Nitro 14 are available in the US and UK; one features an RTX 4050 and the other has an RTX 4060 inside. The key difference between the two variants is the available VRAM of the mobile graphics processor, with the former having 6GB GDDR6 memory on a 96-bit bus and the latter having 8GB GDDR6 memory on a larger 128-bit bus. Depending on region, you'll have the choice of either the AMD Ryzen 5 8645HS or the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS processor.

Outside of the GPUs on offer, the hardware inside of the Acer Nitro 14 is solid. Both Ryzen 8000 series processors are fast and responsive for gaming, productivity, and AI workloads, however, you are paying a premium on the smaller 14-inch form factor considering the lower-end graphics solution here.

It's very common to find much more capable RTX 4070 gaming laptops for around the same price (or cheaper), such as the Asus TUF Gaming A16, Acer Predator Helios Neo 16, Lenovo LOQ 15, and MSI Katana A15 AI in 2025. You'll note that these machines are all a touch larger, at either 15-inch or 16-inch, so be wary of the premium attached to going more compact.

Specs: 3 / 5

Acer Nitro 14: Design

Average build quality
Primarily plastic construction
Lacking trackpad and keyboard

The most immediate thing about the Acer Nitro 14's design is the size of the display itself. As its name denotes, it's a 14.5-inch gaming laptop, which is fairly lean in terms of weight; it's less than one inch thick and is 2kg / 4.4lbs in heft. It's far more the sleekest or slimmest gaming laptop in the form factor, for that kind of thing, you're better off looking at the Razer Blade 14 (0.7-inch thick at 1.84kg / 4.05lbs), but then you're going to pay double for a device of a similar spec.

Then we get to the style of the Acer Nitro 14, which is so-so. The manufacturer has prioritized function over form here with its primarily plastic construction and (fairly) dull IPS LCD display. While the 1200p resolution and 16:10 aspect ratio are nice additions, filling up the bezel, it's let down by a peak brightness of only 300 nits with no HDR to speak of. It's not entirely unexpected in a laptop of this range, but it is disappointing considering that games and media won't pop much on this panel. The 120Hz refresh rate is nice, and about what you'll top out of in certain lesser-demanding games; any higher would have been wasted on this lower-end rig.

While the keyboard looks particularly fetching with its multi-zone RGB lighting, actually using it is another story. It's spongey with a lacking tactile feel and one of the cheapest-feeling and acting trackpads that I've used in some time. While fit for purpose, they detract from the user experience. Instead, I would recommend pairing the PC with one of the best gaming keyboards and the best gaming mouse at the very least, but you'll likely also have a Bluetooth (or USB) gamepad, too.

Design: 2.5 / 5

Acer Nitro 14: Performance

Achieves 60fps in 1080p
CPU is held back by the GPU
Gets loud and hot under load

The Acer Nitro 14 is a decent performer in 1080p for gaming and general computing applications. However, it's unlikely to blow you away with its just-respectable performance prowess. Starting with gaming, the laptop did fine in demanding games such as Cyberpunk 2077, Total War: Warhammer 3, and Red Dead Redemption 2, with average framerates in ultra/high settings above the 60fps mark. This is due to the RTX 4060 and its 8GB GDDR6 VRAM; if you are thinking of going for the cheaper RTX 4050 variant (with 6GB GDDR6 memory), then you're unlikely to achieve 1080p and 60fps with the sliders maxed out.

The 120Hz display is more likely to be useful when dropping down the settings or playing less demanding PC games, though. That's because I observed 132fps in Total War: Warhammer 3 on Low (showing the process of CPU-bound games backed by the Ryzen 7 chip), and it was a similar story in Cyberpunk 2077 on Low (83fps). Despite still being visual showcases for hardware, the titles are older now, with the games being released a handful of years ago. You may struggle to achieve 60fps in 1080p in today's games in 2025.

Acer Nitro 14 Benchmarks

Here's how the Acer Nitro 14 held up in our industry-standard tests conducted over the last few weeks.

Geekbench 6.2:
Single - 2,392
Multi - 11,736
Cinebench R24:
Single - 1,719Multi - 16,106
3DMark:
Fire Strike - 22,862
Time Spy - 9,557
Port Royal - 5,357
Speed Way - 2,347
PCMark10:
7,490
CrossMark:
Overall - 1,613
Productivity - 1,583
Creativity - 1,669
Responsiveness - 1,542
Red Dead Redemption 2:
1080p Low - 83fps
1080p Ultra - 64fps
Cyberpunk 2077:
1080p Low - 108fps
1080p Ultra - 64fps
1080p Psycho RT - 44fps
Total War: Warhammer 3:
1080p Low - 132fps
1080p Ultra - 71fps
Battery test: 1 hour 59 minutes

Synthetic benchmarks tell the story of the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS's prowess inside of the Acer Nitro 14. The processor has eight cores (16 threads) and a maximum boost clock of 5.1 GHz, which is how we can see the strong performance in the likes of Cinebench R24 and Geekbench 6. It's a Ryzen AI chip with its own NPU rated at 16 TOPS, so Microsoft Copilot comes pre-installed (even with a dedicated key on the board). Gamers are unlikely to get much use out of this, but the NPU should be respectable enough for AI workloads.

To get the most out of the RTX 4060 mobile graphics processor, I recommend using Nvidia DLSS's upscaling and Frame Generation technology where supported. It'll downscale the picture to 720p and then blow the image back up to 1080p, but it's likely going to be a difference between a playable framerate and a less-than-ideal one. This is evidenced by Cyberpunk 2077 struggling to hit 60fps with "Psycho" RT functionality enabled.

While the Acer Nitro 14 is far from the noisest or hottest gaming laptop I've tested, it certainly lets its presence be known. Acer has confidently backed its "Liquid Metal Thermal Grease" for the heatsink on the CPU to the motherboard, and while the core temperatures are about average, you'll still see upwards of 70° and 80° when moderately gaming (or doing other hardware-intensive tasks).

It's not a problem that's unique to the laptop, but it's more common in 14-inch models, given their more compact design. I recommend using a laptop riser or a dedicated cooling pad to ensure top performance, and never to use it in bed (or on any plush surface) that covers the rear fans.

Performance: 3 / 5

Acer Nitro 14: Battery Life

Acer claims up to nine hours
Windows estimated up to three hours
Around two hours of media playback and less for gaming

The battery life of the Acer Nitro 14 is nothing special, but it's far from the worst I've seen from a budget gaming laptop. The company claims around nine hours of general use, but you certainly won't see a lifeline like that either gaming or consuming media.

Windows estimated just under three hours when on battery power with the machine idle or lightly in use, with activities such as web browsing. Dimming the screen and enabling battery saving mode might get you to the claimed rates, but it seems situational. When on battery power, the laptop lasted just under two hours in our battery test with media playback and just under this when gaming.

It's disappointing, considering the compact size of the Acer Nitro 14 means you would probably want it in your bag to kill time when not working or at school. However, carrying around the bulky charger kind of kills that idea. Again, this isn't an issue unique to the laptop, as many gaming laptops struggle with their battery, but it also doesn't buck the trend either.

Battery Life: 3 / 5

Should you buy the Acer Nitro 14?

Acer Nitro 14 Scorecard
Attributes	Notes	Rating
Value	The Acer Nitro 14 is on the pricier side, considering its hardware, but that's the premium for a more compact laptop.	3 / 5
Design	It's a laptop that puts function over form, with a chunky, plastic chassis. However, it's small enough for your bag.	2.5 / 5
Performance	Gaming in 1080p at 60fps is no problem in demanding games, but it will likely struggle to maintain this in the near future.	3 / 5
Battery Life	Middling battery life with around two hours of media playback and slightly less when gaming. You're going to need to keep its charger nearby (or rely on mains power) for extended use sessions.	3 / 5
Total	The Acer Nitro 14 is a solid gaming laptop that largely achieves what it sets out to do, but there are cheaper and better options out there that you should consider instead.	3 / 5

Buy it if...

A small gaming laptop is a must

If you're opposed to a 15-inch or 16-inch gaming laptop then the Acer Nitro 14 will get the job done. It just don't won't be very exciting.

You can find it discounted

At MSRP, the Acer Nitro 14 is a hard sell. However, with the right discount, it could be a great investment, especially with the arrival of the new RTX 50 series laptops.

Don't buy it if...

You can find an RTX 4070 laptop for less

The RTX 4060 inside of the Acer Nitro 14 is just about enough for today's games, but already shows signs of struggling. You could try and find a higher-end GPU in a laptop if you want more peace of mind, as many can be found for the same price during sale periods.

You need a laptop for work or school

The Acer Nitro 14's lacking battery life, mushy keyboard, poor trackpad, and dull screen make it a poor fit for productivity use, which is a shame given its otherwise excellent CPU.

Acer Nitro 14: Also Consider

Razer Blade 14 (2024)

The Razer Blade 14 (2024) doesn't come cheap. However, it's our number one pick for the best gaming laptop that money can buy. If you want leading performance in a sleek aluminum chassis, then it may be worth considering instead.

Read our full Razer Blade 14 review.

HP Omen Transcend 14

It's a touch pricier at MSRP but is frequently discounted in the US and the UK to near that of the Acer Nitro 14. HP's small gaming laptop features a vastly superior OLED display in a smaller and lighter package.

Read our full HP Omen Transcend 14 review.

How I tested the Acer Nitro 14

Tested for over a week
Industry-standard benchmarking
Used in real-world applications

I tested the Acer Nitro 14 over a week, benchmarking the machine with our suite of industry-standard synthetic benchmarks and gaming performance to see what it was capable of before deciding on my verdict.

I've been a hardware editor for over five years and a PC gamer for much longer. In my career, I've reviewed dozens of laptops over the years and have experience with all kinds of machines, of which I've weighed the Acer Nitro 14.

First reviewed April 2025

I’ve reviewed dozens of gaming laptops, and the new Razer Blade 16 with Nvidia’s RTX 5090 is one of the best I’ve ever seen

4:00 pm | March 28, 2025

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Gaming Computers Gaming Laptops | Tags: Battery Life, Razer Blade, RTX | Comments: Off

Razer Blade 16 (2025): Two minute review

Weeks of stock shortages and scalping later, I can finally breathe: RTX 5000 laptops are here, offering a fresh path into Nvidia's glorious ray-traced future that doesn't involve selling your soul on Ebay - though you might need to sell a kidney to afford the new Razer Blade 16, especially if you're eyeing the top-of-the-line RTX 5090 configuration graciously provided to me for this review.

Yes, Razer is not beating the 'pricey hardware' allegations any time soon; the new Blade 16 starts at a wallet-battering $2,999.99 / £2,699.99 / AU$4,899.95, and the higher-spec configurations rocket beyond the four-thousand mark in the US, UK, and Europe.

Don't get me wrong, though: the sky-high pricing is just about the only criticism I have here. Razer's iconic 16-inch laptop has undergone a subtle redesign - and I mean subtle, bordering on indistinguishable - that provides a range of small but worthy improvements, and at the heart of it all, Nvidia's Blackwell GPU lineup delivers boosted performance and a new wealth of features ready to do battle with the best gaming laptops.

The Razer Blade 16 photographed for TechRadar on a white surface with plants in the background. — (Image credit: Future)

I'll get into the real meat of these graphics upgrades later on, but here's the short version: this thing goes hard. Between DLSS 4, Multi Frame Generation, Reflex 2, and the general generational improvements from RTX 4000, even the most demanding titles deliver crisp, speedy frame rates on the QHD+ OLED screen - and the 240Hz refresh rate means you won't find your game performance capped by the display.

The Razer Blade 16 isn't all steak and no sizzle, either. This is one classy-looking gaming laptop, as I've come to expect from Razer, with an anodized aluminum chassis, per-key RGB lighting, and the same overall top-notch build quality any previous Razer owner will be well accustomed to. Again, scroll on down to that Design section for all the juicy deets, but I will take a quick moment here to remark on the new-and-improved keyboard, which now features greater key travel and smoother actuation than previous models to provide a more pleasant typing experience as well as responsive inputs when gaming.

With how difficult it's proving to get your hands on a desktop RTX 5000 GPU, many will be looking towards the incoming slate of Blackwell-equipped laptops to scratch that hardware upgrade itch. If that's you - and you can stomach the price tag - then the Razer Blade 16 is the laptop to pick.

Razer Blade 16 (2025): Price and availability

How much is it? Starting at $2,999.99 / £2,699.99 / AU$4,899.95
When is it available? Available now
Where can you get it? Available in the US, UK, and Australia

There's no getting around it: this is one expensive laptop, even pricier than the previous RTX 4000 Razer Blade 16 we reviewed back in late 2023. Granted, you're getting a hell of a lot of gaming power for your money, but it's still pricey.

The Razer Blade 16 (2025) will cost you $2,999.99 / £2,699.99 / AU$4,899.95 for the base configuration: that gets you an RTX 5070 Ti, 10-core AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 365 processor, 32GB of ultra-speedy LPDDR5X 8,000MHz memory, and a 1TB SSD. That's right - the long-standing industry baseline of 16GB of RAM is out, 32GB is the new standard for Razer.

There are a few different configurations, with more RAM or storage and an upgrade to either an RTX 5080 or 5090. The top-spec model costs a piggy-bank-busting $4,899.99 / £4,299.99 / AU$7,999.95, packing the RTX 5090 along with a 12-core Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 CPU, 64GB of RAM, and a huge 4TB of storage (in the form of two 2TB SSDs). Every version has the same 16-inch 240Hz QHD+ OLED display; sadly, there's no 4K model on offer, which does feel like a somewhat odd omission considering that the RTX 5090 is absolutely capable of 4K gaming.

I really can't stress enough that this is a comically enormous amount of money for the average PC gamer. As a fun little exercise, I went looking online for used cars that cost less than the Blade 16 review unit I'm typing this review on. 47,764 results. Oof.

Still, when scalpers are selling RTX 5090 cards on Ebay for upwards of four thousand bucks, it's not an entirely unattractive proposition. I mean, you're getting the whole system here, while the additional cost of a full desktop PC build capable of supporting Nvidia's latest flagship GPU without bottlenecking isn't exactly cheap. I have no doubt there will be laptops from other manufacturers that offer the same (or at least similar) specs at a lower price, but there will be sacrifices made - whether that's chassis materials, display quality, or memory speed.

Value: 2.5 / 5

Razer Blade 16 (2025): Specs

Razer Blade 16 (2025): Design

Same classic Blade finish with premium-feel anodized metal casing
New keyboard design is a real improvement
Chassis is lighter and more compact than previous models

Razer has long held a reputation as a company known for using premium materials for its hardware, and the new Blade 16 certainly doesn't buck this trend: every Blade begins life as a singular slab of tempered aluminum, which is then precision-milled into shape and electrochemically anodized to create a wear-resistant color finish designed to last.

Although the overall aesthetic of Razer's modern Blade lineup has changed very little over the years - compare this laptop side-by-side with the Razer Blade we reviewed back in 2018, and you'll see what I mean - there have been some small adjustments this time around, and all of them are good changes.

For starters, the laptop has been retooled to reduce the overall weight and size; there's a limit to this, especially with a 16-inch display, but Razer has managed to cut down the total package volume by almost 30%. It's almost half a centimetre thinner than the previous-gen Blade 16 (4.59mm, to be precise), and it adds that half-centimete to the length of the laptop instead - in practice, this doesn't make the Blade 16's footprint any appreciably larger, but does make it look and feel a lot thinner. It's also 310 grams lighter than the previous model.

Razer has also seen fit to improve the keyboard this time around, and it makes for a more satisfying typing experience than previous Blades. The key travel has been increased by 50%, and the actuation force sits at a finely-tuned 63G, providing a good amount of physical feedback that helped me avoid misinputs while both gaming and typing. The keys are quite widely spaced, which makes it comfortable to use even for long periods.

Naturally, this Blade now comes with a dedicated button for Copilot, Microsoft's AI assistant for Windows, though I doubt most buyers will have much cause to use that. More interesting is the new row of five programmable macro keys, giving you instant access to the functions you use most often.

Additionally, this ain't your daddy's backlit RGB keyboard: not only does the full layout have per-key RGB lighting, but multiple keys actually feature two LEDs beneath the keycap, enabling a nifty feature where holding down Fn or Shift switches the illumination to instantly highlight the relevant keys. You can see what I mean in the GIF below - it's a small bonus, but I rather like it.

A GIF showing the swap-lighting effect on the Razer Blade 16's RGB keyboard when the Shift and Function keys are pressed. — (Image credit: Future)

The touchpad is nothing to write home about (let's be honest, you'll be using a mouse anyway), but it is nice and large with a firm click to it. There's also a pretty straightforward 1080p webcam and microphone array, both of which work fine.

More impressive are the speakers: a six-speaker array with THX Spatial Audio support makes for one of the best audio experiences I've seen on a laptop. It's no secret that laptop makers often skimp on speaker quality because so many people will simply connect a headset anyway, but that's certainly not the case here. The bass is rich and punchy, and the midrange is crystal clear; high pitches are a little bit thin, but it's still a strong showing overall.

I'm not going to dedicate a huge amount of time here to the pre-loaded Razer Synapse software package, but I will say that there are some welcome improvements over the old (and rather wonky) version. Tweaking your system performance and lighting effects is nice and straightforward, as well as syncing and modifying any Razer peripherals you want to use.

I can't not talk about the screen, of course. Razer's hardware lineup has always offered high-end display configurations, often employing OLED panels, which remains the case here - though as I mentioned further up in this review, there's strangely no 4K configuration available this time around. Instead, every 2025 Blade 16 model comes with the exact same 16-inch 240Hz OLED display, with a resolution of 2560x1600. That's a 16:10 aspect ratio, which I'm personally a big fan of on laptops.

Still, it's an undeniably gorgeous screen: colors are bright and vibrant, contrast is sharp, and blacks are deep. It looks fantastic in motion while playing games like Cyberpunk 2077; the rainy, neon-splattered streets of Night City after dark are vividly colorful and realistic on this display.

One feature that I'm always happy to see is upgradability. Unfortunately, the RAM in the Razer Blade 16 is soldered, but the SSD is user-upgradable. In fact, anything less than the 4TB configuration (which uses two 2TB SSDs) comes with an empty NVMe slot for you to easily plug in a second drive if you want to expand the storage yourself.

Lastly, we've got a nice broad port selection here, with two USB-C ports, three USB-As, an HDMI port for connecting a second display, the omnipresent 3.5mm headphone jack, and finally a full-size SD card reader for creative users - a wise inclusion considering that this laptop can comfortably pull double duty as a work system (more on that later).

Design: 5 / 5

Razer Blade 16 (2025): Performance

Best-in-class performance
RTX 5090 and Ryzen 9 AI HX 370 are a deadly combo
New Nvidia features offer a huge performance boost

Enough about aesthetics: this is a gaming laptop, so how well does it run games? The answer is: extremely well, especially once you factor in Nvidia's DLSS and frame-gen tech.

Our standard testing process involves running games without using any form of upscaling or frame-gen tech, and you can see the results below. It's worth noting that the 2024 Razer Blade 16 with RTX 4090 I've used for comparative purposes has an Intel Core i9-14900HX processor, which quite literally has double the core count of the Ryzen 9 AI HX 370 chip in this laptop, so without implementing Nvidia's latest goodies, the differences are relatively minor in many games.

Performance is still strong, make no mistake - but if you're aiming to play the latest games at maximum graphical settings on this laptop's native 1600p resolution, you're going to want to use DLSS.

Kick DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Generation (MFG) into gear, and it's a totally different story. I tested a few different supported titles at their respective maximum presets with ray tracing enabled, and both enjoyed a serious performance bump with Nvidia's fancy AI-powered software enabled.

There's been quite some debate about tools such as resolution upscaling and frame generation, not least due to the use of AI for both, and I admit I've been skeptical in the past. Here, it's a revelation. Earlier iterations of DLSS - and the frame-gen model seen in the previous RTX 4000 generation - were imperfect, prone to impact lag and visual glitching, especially on hardware that would struggle to hit 60fps without any AI-assisted add-ons. But DLSS 4 and MFG work phenomenally well on a laptop packing an RTX 5090; in Alan Wake 2, a thoroughly beautiful (and therefore demanding) game, I was lucky to reach above the 60fps mark without any upscaling or frame-gen enabled. With those settings turned on? 200fps, easy.

Meanwhile, Cyberpunk 2077 and Returnal saw similarly massive framerate bumps. In Cyberpunk, the maxed-out ray-tracing preset struggled a bit at native resolution, scoring a meager average of 43 fps. With DLSS 4 and MFG, it averaged 217fps while still looking absolutely stunning. In Returnal, 113fps went to 240fps (which was the active cap) at 1440p - it doesn't have the option to run at the Blade 16's 1600p 16:10 resolution, but still, you get the idea.

It looks so good now, too; gone are the tearing and blurring I noted in my early experiments with DLSS, without any appreciable amount of input latency either. I imagine it's still there, perhaps noticeable to a pro esports gamer playing a twitchy shooter like Counter-Strike 2 or Valorant, but I certainly wasn't able to detect it.

Of course, DLSS 4 and MFG aren't available universally. Developers have to add support for the functionality, although there's also a new DLSS Override option for 'force-enabling' it in unsupported games, which I deployed for Returnal - as far as I could tell, it worked without issues, though of course that's just for one modern game.

Performance in synthetic tests was also strong, with good - though not world-beating - performance across both gaming and creative workloads. If you're hoping to use this laptop for professional creative work, it won't let you down. In fact, the performance it offers compared to the weight of the laptop is among the best I've ever seen, making it ideal for working on the go.

It's worth noting here that the 2024 Blade 16 actually outperforms the new model across several of our tests, but again, we can put that down to the significantly more powerful CPU found in the 2024 model. The power efficiency of the Ryzen chip is not to be understated, though - take a look at the battery life section, and you'll see what I mean.

Performance: 5 / 5

Razer Blade 16 (2025): Battery life

Surprisingly good battery life
Almost a full day's regular use, about two and a half hours of gaming
Charges fast but uses a proprietary charger

Battery life is rarely a selling point of gaming laptops, but I was pleasantly surprised with the battery life on the Razer Blade 16. In the PCMark 10 Gaming battery test, it lasted for almost two and a half hours; in real-world tests, I found this figure highly accurate, assuming you're playing with the battery efficiency preset on in Windows and brightness at 50% or lower.

Outside of gaming and running similarly demanding software, the Blade 16 offers some impressive longevity for a gaming laptop. The 90Whr battery lasted for almost seven and a half hours in our Battery Informant Web Surfing test, and it also holds charge remarkably well when not in use. This is likely due to the improved Nvidia Optimus tech, which offloads graphical processing to the Ryzen CPU's integrated graphics when you're not playing games or running GPU-intensive apps. Razer claims that the new Blade 16 offers 'up to 11 hours' of use, which is probably true if you really try to squeeze the battery with minimum brightness and power-saving mode turned on.

Although it needs a fairly chunky power adapter with a proprietary Razer connector, the Blade 16 also charges very quickly, charging up to 50% in about 30 minutes and 100% in just over an hour.

Battery Life: 4.5 / 5

Should you buy the Razer Blade 16 (2025)?

Buy the Razer Blade 16 (2025) if...

You want the best gaming performance there is
The RTX 5090 laptop GPU inside this laptop is a monster, delivering top-notch frame rates in games and offering the full suite of performance-boosting Nvidia software.

You want a gaming laptop you can use for work
Thanks to its surprisingly strong battery life and great capabilities when it comes to handling creative and AI workloads, the Razer Blade 16 can comfortably pull double duty as a work laptop when you're not using it for gaming.

Don't buy it if...

You're on a budget
Starting at over two grand, this is not a cheap gaming laptop by any means.

You want something compact
Although Razer has worked miracles reducing the weight and thickness of the new Blade 16, no 16-inch laptop can reasonably be called 'small'.

Also consider

If my Razer Blade 16 (2025) review has you considering other options, here is another laptop to consider:

Razer Blade 14 (2024)
If you're in the market for something a bit more svelte, consider the Blade 16's little sibling, the Blade 14. These aren't available with RTX 5000 GPUs, however - at least, not yet. But you still get the same excellent design and build quality, and a lower price tag too.

Read our full Razer Blade 14 (2024) review

MSI Titan 18 HX
Another absolute beast of a gaming laptop, the Titan 18 HX from MSI is a strong pick if you're looking for a gaming laptop that can also function as a premium workstation PC. With an Intel Core i9-14900HX CPU and up to 128GB(!!!) of RAM, this is one of the finest desktop-replacement systems on the market.

Read our full MSI Titan 18 HX review

How I tested the Razer Blade 16 (2025)

I spent just over a week with the Razer Blade 16 (2025), using it almost every day for both work and gaming. I don't always love working, but damn, if this didn't make it more pleasant.

Naturally, we ran plenty of performance tests on the Blade 16, taking additional time to test out the new DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Generation features on a handful of supported titles. What I played the most was Warframe, which isn't in our testing suite but look, I'm an addict.

In terms of work, I used the Blade 16 for everything from word processing to web browsing to image editing, and even took it out into my garden to work in the sun and put the battery life and display to the test in a real-world setting - both held up great.

First reviewed March 2025

Razer Blade 14 (2024) review: premium performance on the go

8:14 pm | April 29, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Gaming Computers Gaming Laptops | Tags: Battery Life, Razer Blade, RTX | Comments: Off

Razer Blade 14 (2024): Two minute review

The Razer Blade 14 (2024) continues to impress as a gaming powerhouse in a remarkably compact form.

It remains largely unchanged in design from its predecessor, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, considering it has long been my top pick for the best gaming laptop going, and this latest refresh makes a compelling case for keeping that title.

Starting with its design, the familiar all-black CNC-milled aluminum chassis is both eye-catching and sturdy, with a weight that reinforces its premium build without sacrificing portability.

Performance-wise, the Blade 14 is more formidable than ever, thanks to its updated AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS processor and the choice between Nvidia RTX 4070 and 4060 GPUs. This setup handles everything from intense gaming sessions to demanding creative workloads with ease, supported by a cooling system that, while noisy, effectively manages heat even during extended use.

The display is another highlight, boasting a 2560x1600 resolution with a 240Hz refresh rate. It delivers vibrant colors and smooth visuals, making it a delight for both gaming and multimedia consumption. However, it does fall short of some competitors when it comes to brightness and HDR support.

Keyboard and trackpad functionality are excellent, providing comfortable typing and precise control. Razer Synapse software remains a useful tool for tweaking performance settings and personalizing the RGB lighting to enhance both aesthetics and functionality.

Battery life is decent for a gaming laptop, offering about 10 hours of light use and significantly less during gaming or high-performance tasks. Port selection is adequate, though the lack of an Ethernet port might irk some users.

Overall, the Razer Blade 14 (2024) is an excellent, if expensive, choice for those who need a powerful, portable laptop that can handle almost anything thrown its way.

Razer Blade 14 (2024): Price and availability

A Razer Blade 14 (2024) on a desk — (Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

How much is it? Starting at $2,199.99 / £2,149.99 / AU$3,999
When is it available? It is available now.
Where can you get it? You can get it in the US, UK, and Australia

The Razer Blade 14 (2024) is available now globally, starting at $2,199.99 / £2,149.99 / AU$3,999 for the base model with an RTX 4060 GPU and 16GB RAM. You can opt for my review configuration, which gets you an RTX 4070 and 32GB of RAM for $2,699.99 / £2,699.99 / AU$5,199, and honestly, this is the configuration to get. You're already spending north of two grand, so there's no reason to settle for an RTX 4060.

Still, this pricing does put it on the higher end of the 14-inch gaming laptop market, particularly when compared to alternatives like the Asus ROG Zephyrus 14 or HP Omen Transcend 14, both of which start at a lower price point. There is also the Razer Blade 14 (2023), which is still available for a lower starting price on Razer's website right now.

Given where 14-inch laptops are right now, this is easily one of the most, if not the most, expensive 14-inch laptop that isn't called the MacBook Pro. So, if you're really concerned about your budget, then the 2023 Blade 14 is likely a better bet since other than the processor and the extra RAM, there isn't much difference between the two Blade 14 models.

Value: 3.5 / 5

Razer Blade 14 (2024): Specs

Razer Blade 14 (2024): Design

Gorgeous finish and solid build
Mercury silver colorway is stunning
Mercury silver colorway costs substantially more

Razer's commitment to premium materials and build quality continues with the Blade 14.

Its chassis, crafted from a single block of aluminum, offers a sleek, durable feel with a weight that is reassuring yet portable. The design mimics the minimalist, professional aesthetic of modern ultrabooks, which might deceive some into underestimating its gaming capabilities.

The display, a speedy 240Hz QHD+ IPS panel, sports up to 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut with Calman verification for vivid, fluid-looking visuals, while the 3ms response time will make sure that the display is about as responsive as you'll find without going for mini LED or OLED panels.

The body of the Blade 14 is very reminiscent of the MacBook Pro 14-inch, though turning the laptop over, you'll find two intake fans to help keep the components cool. Of course, fans produce noise, and under load, this laptop can get rather loud. You do have some control over this though through Razer's Synapse software.

Razer's THX audio is another standout feature of the laptop, thanks to its top firing speakers, but this does cut back on what keyboard space is available for everything else, and on a 14-inch laptop, typing space is at a premium.

Typing on the Blade 14 is still a pleasure, and the keys are adequately spaced and have a great feel to them, even after typing for several hours.

Finally, there are a good number of ports, including two USB-A and two USB-C ports, the latter of which allow for power delivery and features DisplayPort output for a second screen.

Design: 5 / 5

Razer Blade 14 (2024): Performance

Best-in-class performance for a 14-inch laptop
RTX 4070 GPU is powerful enough to handle just about any game
For the price, there are more powerful gaming laptops out there

While the aesthetic appeal of the Razer Blade 14 is undeniable, at the end of the day, this is a gaming laptop, and so you're going to want it to perform at the highest level possible, especially considering the investment you're making in this device.

Fortunately, the Blade 14 delivers outstanding performance thanks to its Ryzen 9 8945HS processor and RTX 4070 GPU, leveraging both to get the most frames per second of any 14-inch laptop we've tested this year so far.

Despite its size, the laptop's cooling system manages heat relatively well, although it can get quite loud under load. The high-performance components do not throttle significantly, which is impressive given the limited space for air circulation and the fact that the GPU can be pushed to 140W, making this the most powerful RTX 4070 laptop you're going to find right now (something backed up by my testing data).

In the end, you're going to want this laptop to game at its best and possibly transition into a mobile workstation for high-end design work or content creation on a regular basis. It will certainly be able to swing that with ease, especially if you opt for the Mercury colorway, which gives the Blade 14 something of a distinguished look about it that won't be out of place in meetings.

Performance: 5 / 5

Razer Blade 14 (2024): Battery life

Decent enough battery life with light-use
The 140W GPU drains the battery quick
Relatively fast charging

Battery performance is solid, with Razer promising up to 10 hours of power life — under the right settings, of course. However, like most gaming laptops, intense gaming sessions will drain the battery very quickly, though the laptop does supports fast charging that'll get you up to 80% in an hour.

Unfortunately, it does seem to get less battery life than its predecessor, and it's battery performance is the only metric where this average falls below the 14-inch class average in our tests.

That said, the power brick is portable enough, and the Blade 14 itself is more than capable of hopping from power outlet to power outlet if needed thanks to its slender build and lightweight construction.

Finally, this is a gaming laptop, after all, so if you're hoping for all-day battery life, there isn't a gaming laptop out there that will give it to you, so it's hard to knock off too many points here.

Battery Life: 3.5 / 5

Should you buy the Razer Blade 14 (2024)?

Buy the Razer Blade 14 (2024) if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

If my Razer Blade 14 (2024) review has you considering other options, here is another laptop to consider:

How I tested the Razer Blade 14 (2024)

I spent the better part of three weeks with the Razer Blade 14 (2024), using it as my everyday laptop for work, content creation, and gaming in the evenings.

In addition to its real world use, I also ran our standard battery of benchmarks on the device, including synthetic, creative, gaming, and battery benchmarks.

I've been reviewing gaming laptops for nearly half a decade, and have a Master's Degree in Computer Science. I am also a lifelong gamer, so I'm better positioned to judge the merits and value of this laptop than many in the industry.

First reviewed April 2024

Razer Blade 16 (2023) review: perfect for the people who can afford one

4:32 pm | August 16, 2023

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets | Tags: Far Cry, Razer Blade, Total War | Comments: Off

Razer Blade 16 (2023): Two-minute review

The Razer Blade 16 is not for the faint of heart (or more accurately, wallet). You don’t get the hard plastic chassis or aggressive “gamer” design of budget or mid-tier gaming laptops. Instead, you end up with something elegant, while still retaining its gamer roots, and powerful.

It’s pretty limited on any flaws even in its base configuration, which is what we’ve tested here. The only thing that might hinder it from being considered among the best gaming laptops out right now is its exorbitant price tag. That’s just for the base configuration too, as any upgrades are pretty pricey including one of the more interesting features – a dual-mode display that can switch between a 3840 x 2400p resolution @ 120Hz refresh rate and a 1920 x 1200p resolution at 240Hz refresh rate so you can optimize on whether you want to do video editing or gaming with an eye towards quality or esports-level performance.

So, if you can afford it, I think it is indeed among the best laptops for gaming. But, if you’re like most of us, that might require selling an organ or two.

Razer Blade 16 (2023): Price & availability

How much does it cost? Starting at $2,699.99 (about £2,120 / AU$4,100)
When is it available? Available now
Where can you get it? Only available in the US at the time of writing

Considering that the base configuration of the Razer Blade 16 starts at $2,699.99 (about £2119 / AU$4111), you better have been saving your pennies for a long time. The most unattractive thing about this laptop is its price. As we’ll discuss it’s fairly compact for a laptop with a 16-inch display and sports some powerful specs including an Intel Core i9-13950HX, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060, 16 GB RAM, and 1 TB SSD, not to mention that a QHD+ (2560 x 1600p) resolution at 240 Hz for that screen. Again, that’s the base configuration.

Just about any upgrade is going to cost you quite a bit. Just going from 16GB of RAM to 32GB adds $600 (about £471/ AU$914). And, going from the QHD+ display mentioned before to the dual-mode display that lets you switch between two different resolutions and refresh rates will also add $600 (about £471/ AU$914). Upgrading from just the black colorway to Mercury is $1,100 (about £863 / AU$1675). And so on.

For a fully upgraded model, you’ll have to spend a whopping $4,299.99 (about £3,373/ AU$6,545). The crazy thing with all this is it seems that other premium gaming laptops sporting Nvidia 4000 series GPUs also get pretty pricey. The MSI GT77 Titan (2023) starts at $4,299.99 (about £3,570 / AU$6,240), which gets you an Intel Core i9-13980HX, Nvidia RTX 4080 GPU, 64GB DDR5 RAM, and a 2TB NVMe SSD.

If you want a great gaming laptop that’s a bit more affordable, then consider something like the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15. You’ll have to compromise a tiny bit as it comes with AMD Ryzen CPUs and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3000 series GPUs. But, the price for one starts at a much cheaper $1,499 / £1,599 / AU$2,599.

Lastly, beyond its champagne price tag, the Razer Blade 16 is only currently available in the US.

Price score: 3 / 5

Razer Blade 16 (2023): Specs

The Razer Blade 16 comes in several configurations, with our review model also being the base one.

Razer Blade 16 (2023) on a desk — (Image credit: Future / James Holland)

Razer Blade 16 (2023): Design

Elegant gamer look that collects fingerprints like clues
Compact for such a robust laptop
All the ports a gamer-on-the-go could need

When it comes to aesthetics, there’s a certain subsection of gaming PCs and laptops that I would consider to have an elegant gamer look and the Razer Blade 16 fits the description. It’s not going to pass as an Ultrabook with its matte black aluminum chassis adorned with hints of green. But, it doesn’t have that in-your-face-gaming aesthetic either. So, while clearly a gaming laptop, it’s still attractive. It’s only really fault here is that the finish does tend to pick up fingerprints relatively easy.

Its form factor is a bit more interesting as Razer has managed to fit a fantastic looking 16-inch display in a chassis that’s closer to the size of a 15-inch laptop. Yet, there’s still plenty of screen real estate thanks to its 16:10 aspect ratio. Plus, even with just its base configuration, it comes with a sharp 2560 x 1600p resolution running at a 240 Hz refresh rate. There’s no way around it, this is a good looking screen.

Internally, it is just as impressive with its 13th-gen Intel Core i9, 16GB of RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060, and 1TB SSD. Considering what’s all inside component-wise, this is a pretty thin laptop measuring at just 0.87-inches thick when closed though its 5.4 lb weight is certainly not that light.

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As far as ports go, there’s just about everything you could want from a laptop. There’s a Thunderbolt 4 and USB-C 3.2 port, both of which support power delivery. There’s a HDMI 2.1 output and three USB ports, not to mention a headphone jack. Creatives will be happy to know that there’s also a UHS-II SD card reader if you have any intention of also using this laptop for photo or video editing.

Design score: 5 / 5

Razer Blade 16 (2023): Performance

Performance is just about perfect
Keyboard and trackpad are a pleasure to use
Sound quality is surprisingly decent

Razer Blade 16: Laptop benchmarks

Here's how the Razer Blade 16 performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

3DMark: Night Raid: 58,900; Fire Strike: 20,425; Time Spy: 10,547
GeekBench 6: 2492 (single-core); 12125 (multi-core)
25GB File Copy: 13.8
Handbrake 1.6: 4:37
CrossMark: Overall: 1835 Productivity: 1815 Creativity: 1861 Responsiveness: 1816
Total War: Warhammer III: 1080p (Low) 212.4 fps, 1080p (Ultra) 81.5 fps
Cyberpunk 2077: 1080p (Low) 121.45 fps, 1080p (Ultra) 76.84 fps\Web Surfing (Battery Informant): 3:13:12
PCMark 10 Battery Life (Gaming): 1:38

The performance on the Razer Blade 16 is impressive, almost awe-inspiring. Everything works as intended, with smooth performance from just about every game that I played. I could do max settings with ray tracing on a number of games including Control, Far Cry 6 (though that has no ray tracing), and Gotham Knights. The only performance issues I noticed at all were when running Hogwarts Legacy. With settings turned up all the way but ray tracing, performance was rock solid. Once I started using ray tracing, the POV was a little less smooth with very slight stuttering becoming apparent with ray tracing on medium. With ray tracing on the highest setting, it worked well enough but had enough stuttering that it broke the immersion, even if it didn’t affect gameplay.

The keyboard and trackpad were a pleasure to use for just about every task, though I would still suggest using a mouse when gaming. The trackpad is especially big, but it’s still not a substitute when playing most titles.

If you plan on streaming while gaming, the webcam offers a crisp 1080p at 30fps. It’s not the smoothest looking as you’re limited to 30 fps no matter the resolution, but it’s a detailed image.

When it comes to sound quality, I’m actually impressed with what Razer has managed to do. It’s not going to match external speakers or a pair of good headphones. But, it doesn’t sound hollow the way that most laptops do. Instead, you have decent sound quality that’s slightly boxy as the low and high ends are slightly cut off. However, it’s more than adequate. More importantly, the soundstage and sound imaging are good enough to know where everything is in a game. You could play a competitive game using the internal speakers and be ok.

Lastly, controlling the internal settings here is straightforward. Instead of multiple apps, Razer has consolidated everything into its Synapse app with the laptop appearing the same way a peripheral would. You just click on it and have easy access to a few crucial settings like turning off certain keys during gameplay automatically.

Performance score: 5 / 5

Razer Blade 16 (2023): Battery life

A little over 5 hours of use per charge
Multiple ways to charge

The Razer Blade 16’s 5 hours of use is not going to blow any minds, but, for a powerful gaming laptop such as this, it’s not bad. Sure, you can get over 10 hours with most Ultrabooks and Chromebooks these days. However, they don’t have to supply power to an Nvidia GeForce 4000 series GPU.

The slightly more impressive bit is that you can actually use either the Thunderbolt or USB-C port to charge along with the actual power supply the Razer Blade 16 comes with. As fantastic as this laptop is, Razer hasn’t yet cracked the divide in battery life between gaming laptops and everything else.

Battery score: 4 / 5

Should you buy the Razer Blade 16 (2023)?

Buy it if...

You want excellent gaming performance no matter the cost
If you can afford it, the Razer Blade 16 will give you excellent performance no matter how hard you push it.

You want a fast display
If you’re a competitive gamer, you’ll be pleased to know that you’ll get a 240Hz refresh rate no matter what configuration you get, making those fast-paced games look buttery smooth.

Don't buy it if...

You’re on a budget
There’s no way around it. This thing is expensive. You can get 80% of the way there with gaming laptops that are half the price.

Razer Blade 16 (2023): Also consider

If our Razer Blade 16 review has you considering other options, here are two laptops to consider...

If the Razer Blade 16 (2023) has you considering other options, here are two more laptops to consider...

How I tested the Razer Blade 16 (2023)

Tested for a week
Pushed it as hard as possible gaming-wise
Played with various settings

I used the Razer Blade 16 for about a week, playing a number of demanding games like Hogwards Legacy, Control, Gotham Knights and Far Cry 6. While doing so, I ran the games at various settings, particularly at the highest ones with ray tracing on where possible, and took note of the results.

Having used this laptop for a week was enough to determine not only how good of a gaming laptop it is, but the fact that it could meet the needs of just about every type of gamer that can afford it.

I’ve spent the last few years reviewing tech gear for gaming and otherwise, where I’ve gotten a feel for what to look for and how to put a piece of kit through its paces to see whether it’s worth the recommendation.

Razer Blade 14 (2023): Two-minute review

This year’s Razer Blade 14 refresh has been outfitted with the latest specs, including the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS CPU, which sports a 5.2 GHz max clock speed and eight cores/16 threads, and up to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU. Despite containing such powerful and normally heavy components, it still manages to remain lightweight and thin, a contrast to the much larger laptop models like the 16-inch and 18-inch ones. And not only are the specs themselves impressive, but the overall performance is too. The laptop can get hot during more intensive gaming sessions but it never once stuttered, slowed down, or froze.

Its chassis is simply all black with the logo in green, the distinctive style of Razer products. There’s also a white version called Mercury, but unfortunately no Quartz from the 2022 model. It’s a little over four pounds with a thickness of less than one inch which, combined with the 14-inch display, makes it easy to carry around in most medium size bags. It’s ideal for those who need what might be one of the best gaming laptops to also be one of the best thin and light laptops for traveling.

The display is gorgeous, featuring a QHD+ resolution and a mind-blowingly high refresh rate of 240Hz, an impressive response time of less than 3ms, and a 100% DCI-P3 color gamut. Both its keyboard and touchpad are responsive and have a satisfying snap. The keyboard also has customizable RGB lighting It also sports a solid port selection including two USB Type-A ports, two USB Type-C ports, an HDMI port, a power port, a Kensington lock, and an audio jack, though unfortunately there’s no SD card slot or ethernet port. Even better is that it has a physical webcam privacy shutter with a mechanical switch, an incredibly rare feature that’s more than welcome on the Blade 14.

Out of all the laptops that Razer released this generation, this is the most impressive one to me. Being able to produce a high-performance laptop with solid benchmark scores while not compromising on the build quality is no mean feat. The only spec that was a bit disappointing is the battery life. Razer claimed it could last up to 10-12 hours, and if going by pure productivity work then it gets close to that with eight hours of life. However, if you stream movies or play games, that gets cut down to a paltry four hours. It does charge quickly at least.

Its benchmark results are quite excellent, comparable to plenty of other similar spec laptops on the market like the Lenovo Legion 7i Pro or the Asus ROG Zephyrus M16. It’s able to keep pace with machines with better specs in benchmark tests. And for general performance, its framerate either keeps up with or passes other laptops with better specs. Ventilation isn’t too shabby either, as even when it does heat up, the performance never suffers.

When it comes to other performance metrics, like framerate, it also delivers great results. For instance, playing Cyberpunk 2077 on maxed-out settings gets you close to 60 fps, and I netted similar results for Dirt 5. Total War: Warhammer III naturally performed far above that amount in its highest settings. Titles like Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered and Final Fantasy VII Remake also able performed well, consistently able to reach 70 fps or higher on the highest settings and with both ray-tracing and DLSS 3 enabled.

Razer Blade 14 (2023): Price & availability

rgb lit keyboard — (Image credit: Future)

Starting at $2,399 / £2,499 / AU$4,499
Available now
Available in the US, UK, and Australia

Razer laptops tend to be quite expensive and the Razer Blade 14 (2023) is no exception. Despite it being a 14-inch laptop, it commands a starting price point of $2,399 / £2,499.99 / 4,499 which only increases as the GPU improves. With all specs completely maxed out including an RTX 4070 GPU, 32GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, and the Mercury color which costs an extra $400 and defaults to 32GB RAM and RTX 4070, you’ll be paying $2,799.99 / £2,899.99 / AU$5,299.

Compared to other laptops with similar builds but larger display sizes like the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra, you’re paying far more money. And other gaming laptops with somewhat similar specs but much larger sizes, like the Lenovo start around the same price range. Thankfully this laptop is available in the UK and Australia, which means no import fees or much higher shipping costs.

Price score: 4 / 5

Razer Blade 14 (2023): Specs

closeup of stickers — (Image credit: Future)

The Razer Blade 14 (2023) comes in two configurations, the base version is equipped with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, 16GB of RAM, and comes in black. The second one has an RTX 4070 GPU, 32GB of RAM, and comes in the color Mercury.

Only color, RAM, and GPU can be configured before purchase, and it's based on said color choice you make, with the Mercury version solely having access to the higher specs. Otherwise, it can’t be configured by the user after purchase.

Specs score: 4.5 / 5

black gaming laptop — (Image credit: Future)

Razer Blade 14 (2023): Design

Thin and light
Great audio system
Limited color choices

Razer is known for having some of the best thin and light laptops on the market. And while previously released 2023 models have bucked that trend by embracing the desktop replacement format, the Razer Blade 14 (2023) is a return to form. Despite being equipped with an RTX 4070 GPU at best, it’s a mere four pounds and is less than one inch thick. And thanks to the 14-inch display, it fits into most medium and up-size bags, making it easy to transport while barely feeling the weight.

It comes in two colors, black and Mercury, though the Quartz color from the 2022 version is not available. Disappointing as it set the laptop apart from the generic gamer aesthetic, which the other two colors unfortunately follow. Hopefully, Razer will release a refresh of the Quartz version later this year.

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black gaming laptop ports — (Image credit: Future)

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closeup of webcam switch — (Image credit: Future)

The display itself is beautiful with excellent performance thanks to the QHD+ resolution, a refresh rate of 240Hz, a response time of less than 3ms, and a 100% DCI-P3 color gamut. The port selection is also solid as it includes two USB Type-A ports, two USB Type-C ports, an HDMI port, a power port, a Kensington lock, and an audio jack. On the downside, there’s no SD card slot or ethernet port, limiting your options to connect this laptop to another screen or a stable wired internet connection. It does come with a feature that many laptops lack, however, which is a physical webcam privacy shutter with a mechanical switch.

Both the keyboard and the touchpad have a satisfying snap when pressing down. The former’s keys are large enough to cater to most finger sizes and the latter is responsive with that clicky feedback I enjoy in a touchpad.

Razer’s decision to have dual speakers on either side of the keyboard was a good one, as the sound quality is clear. Though the volume isn’t as loud as I would like it, the clarity in each musical instrument and audio cue while playing games or streaming is top-notch and more than worth the tradeoff. I wish the same could be said for the webcam’s visual quality, which isn’t bad but has the mediocre framerate and poor quality in low light that most gaming laptops suffer from.

Design score: 4.5 / 5

black gaming laptop with rgb lit keyboard — (Image credit: Future)

Razer Blade 14 (2023): Performance

Excellent gaming performance
Performs well in creative and editing projects
Can run hot at times

Razer Blade 14 (2023): Benchmarks

Here's how the Razer Blade 14 (2023) performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

3DMark: Night Raid: 51,538; Fire Strike: 26,443; Time Spy: 11,021; Port Royal: 7,001
GeekBench 5: 2,006 (single-core); 11,121 (multi-core)
Cinebench: 15,058 (multi-core)
Total War: Warhammer III (1080p, Ultra): 101 fps; (1080p, Low): 239 fps
Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p, Ultra): 59 fps; (1080p, Low): 122 fps
Dirt 5 (1080p, Ultra): 77 fps; (1080p, Low): 101 fps
25GB File Copy: 21.8
Handbrake 1.6: 4:45
CrossMark: Overall: 1,812 Productivity: 1,774 Creativity: 1,923 Responsiveness: 1,610
Web Surfing (Battery Informant): 8:34:52
PCMark 10 Battery Life: 3 hours and 54 minutes

Despite the usual thin and light chassis of a Razor laptop, the Razor Blade 14 (2023) boasts excellent gaming performance that compares to other similar gaming laptops. Benchmark results are quite excellent, comparable to plenty of other similar spec laptops on the market like the Legion 7i Pro or the ROG Zephyrus M16. This is especially impressive considering that the test units of the other two laptops are more powerful than the Razer Blade 14, and yet the latter can nearly match scores.

In terms of gaming performance, despite the difference in specs, it seems that the Blade 14’s CPU and GPU work much better in tandem, as frame rates usually match and in the case of Cyberpunk 2077, actually surpass the other laptops in high settings. In Marvel’s Spider-Man, the framerate doesn’t dip below 75 fps even under the highest possible settings. And thanks to the Blade 14 display’s high refresh rate, the gameplay looks and feels buttery smooth, a boon for hardcore and professional gamers.

Ventilation isn’t bad for such a relatively thin laptop; even though it does heat up when during an intense gaming session, I’ve never experienced any stuttering, freezing, or slowing down while playing.

It also performs well for those needing a creative or editing machine, as it netted pretty solid 25GB File Copy, Handbrake, and CrossMark scores, not to mention the 100% DCI-P3 color gamut. It’s a well-balanced laptop that, while specializing in gaming, can also dabble in pretty much any other need you have and handle it well.

Performance score: 5 / 5

Razer Blade 14 (2023): Battery

closeup of battery life — (Image credit: Future)

Poor battery life
Charges quickly

According to Razer, the Razer Blade 14 (2023) is supposed to have up to 10 hours of battery life. And it does come close to that, eight hours just about, but only when used for productivity work. When used for streaming or gaming, that battery life is cut in half to four hours at most, which means you’ll be keeping it plugged in for any intensive usage.

It does have the benefit of charging quickly, with it taking only an hour to fully charge the battery. So if you need a productivity laptop that will last for about a full workday then it’ll last and charge right back up in no time.

Battery score: 3.5 / 5

Should you buy the Razer Blade 14 (2023)?

Buy it if...

You want a thin and light gaming laptop
Just as Razer is known for, this laptop weighs surprisingly little for its specs and can fit into most bags and be carried around with ease.

Don't buy it if...

You’re on a budget
Razer laptops are not meant for those without excess cash flow and this model is no exception.

Razer Blade 14 (2023): Also consider

If the Razer Blade 14 (2023) has you considering other options, here are two more laptops to consider...

How I tested the Razer Blade 14 (2023)

I tested this laptop for about two weeks
I tested the gaming performance as well as productivity work
I used a variety of benchmark tests as well as high-end PC games to test this laptop.

To test out the Razer Blade 14 (2023) I used a full suite of benchmarks to rank both CPU and GPU performance, with more emphasis on the latter. I also tested out frame rate performance on max settings with a range of high-end PC games like Cyberpunk 2077, Dirt 5, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, and more.

This laptop would primarily be used for gaming, specifically hardcore gaming. Due to its GPU and high color gamut, it can also be used for creative and editing projects, and its CPU means that productivity work is a breeze as well.

I’ve tested out many laptops, especially gaming ones, which gives me plenty of experience with properly benchmarking them. I also have extensive knowledge of testing out general performance such as framerate and graphics.