Review: Razer Blade 14-Inch

Why, why, why must gaming laptops be behemoths that can't even fit in a typical messenger bag, let alone under an airplane seat? All those fans, you say? Dual video cards? Triple hard drives? Ground effects? OK, fine, I get it. Gaming notebooks are typically enormous because they're really desktops writ small.

Balderdash! Razer's had enough of the excuses. Following on the qualified success of the 17.3-inch Razer Blade R2 comes this pint-sized powerhouse – a near-ultrabook version of the same concept, a true gaming PC in a case that measures just 20mm thick.

Naturally, some accommodations have had to be made to squeeze 6.7 pounds of computer into the 4.2-pound Razer Blade 14-inch package. The screen is not just smaller but lower in resolution (1600 x 900 pixels), and the old hybrid hard drive has been jettisoned for a straight (and faster) 256GB SSD. The most visible change is driven by necessity: The programmable keypad and secondary Switchblade LCD/touchpad/thingy are of course gone, too.

On the other hand, other components have been upgraded. The third-generation Core i7 is now a fourth-generation "Haswell" version, running at 2.2GHz. And the graphics card has been upgraded one generation, too, to an Nvidia GeForce GTX 765M model. 8GB of RAM is still standard, and ports are kept to the basics: three USB 3.0 ports and an HDMI connector.

So, what's not to like? I mean that literally. The machine is faster all around – about 30 percent faster than the R2 on most benchmarks and close to double the framerate on some graphics tests and gaming runs. The screen is fantastically bright – one of the brightest in its class and far better-looking than the R2's. Even the battery life is fantastic. For any ultrabook to top five hours of running time on full-tilt video playback is impressive. For a gaming version of same to do so is almost unthinkable. On the whole, it's difficult to find much in the way of fault here unless you want to lay into the nitpicks (the screen resolution could be better, after all).

I don't need to heap on the praise for this machine. It does everything it's designed to do and more. No hiccups or driver issues (a popular complaint with past Razer machines), no weird fit and finish problems. Yeah, it's a $1,999 laptop, but that's a dollar cheaper than Toshiba's far less interesting KIRABook, which didn't even have fancy green keyboard backlights. Come on!

WIRED Record-setting performance on all fronts – including battery life. Impressive portability, particularly for a gaming rig. Looks good, especially if you like snake symbology.

TIRED A bit slow to boot. Pricey. No touchscreen. Still no SD card reader.