In a nutshell: AMD's impressive showing with the Ryzen Mobile 5000 series has previously been on display in high-end laptops like the Asus Zephyrus, Lenovo Legion and the XMG 17. It's now also garnered the attention of Razer, which has launched its first-ever AMD-powered Blade laptop. The new Blade 14 packs the powerful Ryzen 9 5900HX chip and up to an RTX 3080 in a compact chassis. No wonder that Razer calls it the world's most powerful 14-inch gaming laptop.
AMD's resurgence in the desktop space has arguably been more impactful than its mobile offerings, and that's largely because laptop OEMs have been rather slow to adopt the platform. Nevertheless, the new Razer Blade 14 appears to be a solid entry in this area, combining beefy silicon from AMD and Nvidia in a svelte chassis.
Starting at $1,799, the Blade 14 features an 8C/16T Ryzen 9 5900HX across all its three variants that are mainly differentiated by display resolution and GPU configuration. The base model packs a 144Hz 1080p display (100% sRGB) with an RTX 3060 GPU (6GB), while the 8GB RTX 3070- and 3080-equipped versions come with a 165Hz QHD panel (100% DCI-P3). All displays have a conventional 16:9 aspect ratio.
Other common specs across the range include 16GB of soldered RAM, a 1TB m.2 SSD, Razer Chroma support, and a Windows 10 Home license. There's also a Windows Hello-capable 720p webcam on-board, alongside Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.2, and a 3.5mm combo jack. The laptop's aluminum chassis weighs 1.78kg / 3.92 lbs.
Razer says its vapor chamber cooling design takes care of thermals quietly and efficiently while allowing for a 16.8mm thin profile. Battery life, meanwhile, is rated at up to 12 hours for the laptop's 61.6Whr unit.
The flagship Blade 14's combination of CPU/GPU has previously appeared in Asus's ambitious, dual-screen ROG Zephyrus Duo SE, though gamers will likely find Razer's traditional design more comfortable to use, alongside its cheaper price tag. The laptop is now available to buy on Razer's official website.