Razer Blade 14 vs. Asus ROG Zephyrus G14

Most gaming laptops are based on screens that are 15 inches or larger, in part to accommodate high-end components with plenty of room to move air to keep things cool. But these are also usually larger machines (natch), which are not as easy to transport. That’s where the 14-inch gaming laptop comes in, although it remains a rarer breed.

Two of the best are the Razer Blade 14 and the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14. They both offer a smaller chassis with some serious play chops inside. Which of these two relatively small gaming laptops is right for you? Keep reading to find out.

Specification

Design

The Razer Blade 14 benefits from the same beautiful all-black aluminum chassis, with only the green Razer logo on the lid to break up the color scheme. You won’t find the aggressive lines of the typical gaming laptop or the massive vents that evoke images of jet fighters – the Blade 14 is as comfortable to use in a conference room as a LAN party. The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 looks more like a gaming laptop, with the company’s optional AniMe Matrix Display LED lighting on the cover – white dots adorn the cover when the Matrix is ​​not installed – and vents much more numerous and ostentatious than those of the Razer. The Zephyrus G14’s color scheme is also a bit mixed, with a white cover, gray keyboard and chassis, and black display bezels. The look matches the aesthetic of the player, but it’s not as attractive as the Blade 14.

As mentioned, the Blade 14 is an all-aluminum laptop, and it’s rock solid. You won’t find any bending, bending or twisting anywhere in the machine. The Zephyrus G14 is constructed from a magnesium alloy, which tends to be a little less strong than aluminum. We won’t fault the Asus for its build quality, but the Razer is hard to match.

The Blade 14 is 12.59 inches wide by 8.66 inches deep by 0.66 inches thick and weighs 3.92 pounds. The Zephyrus G14 measures 12.76 inches wide by 8.66 inches deep by 0.70 inches thick, and it weighs 3.53 pounds. The two laptops are almost identical in size, with the Blade 14 being slightly thinner. At the same time, the Zephyrus G14 is almost half a pound lighter. It’s hard to beat either of the laptops here – they’re both very small machines for their power (which we’ll talk about below).

While the overall design of the Razer Blade 14 looks less like a typical gaming laptop, it packs a more gamer-oriented keyboard. It offers highly customizable per-key RGB backlighting, as well as 15 brightness levels (never before seen on Windows 10 laptops). The Zephyrus G14, on the other hand, eschews the usual gaming options here and only has a single-zone backlight which isn’t customizable, and the lighting is inconsistent between the keys. Not only does the Blade 14 offer a more dynamic keyboard, but it also has a much better feel compared to the Zephyrus G14, which we found mushy. However, both laptops offer excellent touchpads with a large size and support for Microsoft’s Precision Touchpad drivers.

Finally, connectivity is almost identical between the two laptops. Both have two USB-A 3.2 ports, although both Blade 14s are Gen 2, and both have two USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports. The Blade 14’s full-size HDMI port is version 2.0 compared to the HDMI port. 2.0b of the Zephyrus G14. And both have 3.5mm audio jacks. Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 provide wireless connectivity features on both.

Performance

The Zephyrus G14 and Blade 14 are both based on AMD Ryzen processors, the Ryzen 9 5900HX in the Razer and the Ryzen 7 4800HS or Ryzen 9 4900HS in the Asus (which was in our test unit). CPU performance was similar, with the Zephyrus G14 being a bit faster in the Geekbench 5 multi-core score and the Blade 14 being faster in single-core mode. Unfortunately, we didn’t test both laptops in the same version of Handbrake, and we didn’t test the Zephyrus G14 in Cinebench R23, limiting our ability to compare their processor performance. It is likely, however, that the Blade 14 would have been much faster thanks to its Ryzen 5000 series processor, not to mention the Zephyrus G14 using the slower “HS” model of the Ryzen 4000 series which is supposed to run cooler in a chassis. slim – making the Blade 14 the best machine for demanding tasks like video editing.

Gaming is naturally faster on the Blade 14, which uses Nvidia GeForce RTX 3000 GPUs (we tested with the RTX 3070). The Zephyrus G14 obtained 5,861 points in the 3DMark Time Spy test with its Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060, against 8,605 for the Blade 14. The Asus manages 91 frames per second (fps) in Civilization VI at 1080p and ultra graphics, where the Blade 14 hits 111 fps. In Battlefield V, the Zephyrus G14 hit 70 fps at 1080p and ultra graphics, while the Blade 14 hit 96 fps. Finally, just for fun, the Zephyrus G14 hit 91 fps in Fortnite at 1080p and epic graphics, where the Blade 14 handled 96 fps – not much faster.

The Blade 14 and Zephyrus G14 perform well for 14-inch laptops, capable of playing at 1440p (with the right screen) at high frame rates, even with graphics enabled. That’s quite a feat for small laptops, but the Blade 14 is better equipped and is the fastest gaming machine.

Display

The Blade 14 offers a choice of a Full HD (1920 x 1800) display running at 144 Hz or a QHD (2560 x 1440) display running at 165 Hz. It compares to the Zephyrus G14 with 120 Hz Full options. HD and 60 Hz QHD. Obviously, you get a more gaming-oriented display with the Blade 14, regardless of which option you choose.

We tested the Blade 14’s QHD display and found it to offer surprisingly good color support at 90% AdobeRGB and 100% sRGB with color accuracy of DeltaE 1.54 (1, 0 or less is great), which is very good for a gaming screen. The contrast was just okay at 830: 1 (we prefer 1000: 1 or better), and the brightness just broke our threshold of 300 nits at 315 nits. Our Zephyrus G14 review unit came with a Full HD display and could not match the colors of the Blade 14 at 75% AdobeRGB and 98% sRGB with excellent color accuracy of 1.1. The contrast was similar at 880: 1, and the brightness also at 332 nits.

Both displays deliver quality images that would work well for high-end, productivity-focused laptops (even creators would love the colors on the Blade 14’s display). As gaming laptops, the Blade 14 wins for its higher refresh rate, especially if you choose the Zephyrus G14’s QHD display which peaks at 60Hz.

Portability

The Blade 14 is slightly thinner and the Zephyrus G14 is a bit lighter, but the two 14-inch laptops are small for gaming machines. Neither will weigh you down like a gaming laptop. typical, slipping into your backpack and barely letting you know it’s there.

The Zephyrus G14 had a bigger battery at 76 watt-hours, compared to the 61.6 watt-hours of the Blade 14. Note that the Razer we reviewed had a higher resolution screen, which would skew the results. battery results. Even so, the Blade 14 lasted 8.25 hours, which is almost 1.5 hours longer than the Zephyrus G14 in our web browsing test and about an hour longer in our 11 o’clock video loop test. Neither laptop should get you through a full day’s work and, of course, you’ll want to keep your charger handy when you’re gaming – we’re probably talking a few hours when the CPU and GPU are on. Operating. tax.

Razer Blade 14 dominates, and not just against the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 starts at $ 1,300 for a Ryzen 7 4800HS, 16GB of RAM, 512GB SSD, 14-inch Full HD display, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q. It tops out at around $ 2,100 for a Ryzen 9 4900HS, 16GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, QHD display, and RTX 2060 GPU. It’s expensive, but as we’ll see, it’s significantly cheaper. than its competitor here.

The Razer Blade 14 starts at $ 1,800 for a Ryzen 9 5900HX, 16GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, Full HD display, and RTX 3060 GPU. It tops out at $ 2,800 with the QHD display at the RTX 3080. It’s an expensive laptop.

Whatever the cost, the Razer Blade 14 is a better-built, better-looking, and faster gaming laptop. It not only beats the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, which is a great laptop in its own right, but the Blade 14 is officially our favorite gaming laptop, period.