These are some great 14 inch gaming laptops, but there are some pretty big
differences between them that you need to know about before buying!
The build quality of both laptops is good, but the Blade is definitely on another level.
The Blade has a CNC aluminum chassis with a black anodized finish, but after just a few
weeks it’s somehow already got a silver scrape on the lid which just sticks out against the black.
Don’t get me wrong, the Blade looks and feels better,
but I’d definitely expect more of these obvious marks to appear over time.
The Blade has a cleaner design with the green Razer logo on the lid that lights up, while my
G14 looks a bit more gamery and has the animated lid, but you can also get it without this.
I liked the feel of opening the Blade more, as the Zephyrus can move around a bit when
you open it. When you open the G14’s lid it raises the back of the machine up. This
helps air get in underneath for cooling, gives you a slight incline for typing,
and means the bottom speakers aren’t pressed up against the desk,
but adjusting the screen also just sort of moves the laptop around a bit.
A downside of this design is the keyboard area has a bit
more flex to it compared to the all metal Blade,
though it still feels fine during normal use when I’m not going out of my way to push on it.
There’s a little more flex to the G14’s lid, again because the Blade just feels like stronger metal,
but neither lid actually wobbles when typing and the hinges on both feel smooth to open.
If I had to summarize the build quality, I’d say the G14 was perfectly adequate,
but the Razer Blade 14 definitely felt more solid and much better. But based on
the fact that I’ve already got a scratch on the lid without doing that much to it,
I’d be pretty paranoid about it only getting worse over time.
The Blade is slightly heavier when comparing the laptops alone,
and the gap between them gets a little bigger when we include the power bricks needed for charging.
The Zephyrus was a little deeper than the Blade,
probably to help fit the taller 16:10 screen. The Blade is a little wider but also thinner,
though I didn’t really notice much difference when holding them.
I’ve got the maxed out versions of both laptops,
so Nvidia’s RTX 3080 Ti graphics in the Blade 14 and AMD’s RX 6800S in the Zephyrus G14.
They’ve both got Ryzen 6000 processors, HX for the Blade and HS for the Zephyrus.
Both CPUs have the same core and thread count, and according to the specs they
have the same turbo boost speed too. The main difference is the HS chip is meant to
be a lower wattage part, but at the end of the day the actual performance will depend
entirely on the power limits set by ASUS and Razer. Both laptops are also available
for less money with lower specs and you can check current prices with the link below.
Both laptops have a MUX switch,
so it’s possible to disable optimus for more FPS in games after a reboot.
Neither laptop has G-Sync, but you can still get smooth tear-free gaming with
FreeSync. The Blade only gets FreeSync from the integrated Radeon graphics when
optimus is enabled. The Zephyrus on the other hand always has FreeSync available,
as both the integrated and discrete graphics are Radeon based.
The screen in the Zephyrus has a faster screen response time, and it does this with an overdrive
mode that’s enabled by default. The Blade doesn’t have a built in way of increasing this.
Even with overdrive off though, the G14 was still around 7.7ms and beating the Blade regardless.
The total system latency is the amount of time between a mouse click and when a gunshot fire
appears on the screen in CS:GO. The faster screen would contribute to the G14 being the faster
option here, though it’s only a 3ms difference, so depends how serious of an eSports player you are.
The G14 has a 2560 by 1600 resolution, a little more pixels vertically compared to
the 2560 by 1440 resolution of the Blade. The color gamuts of both panels were very close,
slightly better on the G14, and the G14’s screen was also brighter too. The Zephyrus was able to
get above 500 nits at full brightness, while the Blade topped out at 357 nits.
Backlight bleed was pretty much non-existent in both laptops,
but this will vary between laptops and screens.
Having both side by side, personally I prefer the screen on the G14.
It’s just brighter, there’s more screen space, and the response time is faster.
Both laptops have a camera above the screen with IR for Windows hello face
unlock. The Zephyrus has a 720p camera while the Blade has 1080p.
This is how the camera and microphone look and sound on the Zephyrus G14, and then
this is how things look and sound on the Razer Blade 14.
Both keyboards were good, but personally I preferred typing on the Zephyrus.
It’s completely subjective, but it’s just what I’d prefer to use if I had to type for hours.
Its right shift, enter and backspace keys are also slightly longer compared to the Blade’s.
The Zephyrus has one zone of RGB backlighting while the Blade has per-key RGB backlighting,
so more customization and effects are possible with Razer. The key
lighting also looked brighter and more vibrant on the Blade.
The G14’s touchpad was a little bigger, but both were very nice to use.
The Blade’s felt a little softer to press, and didn’t make as much noise to click down.
Both laptops have front facing speakers. The Blade’s are on either side of the keyboard,
while the G14 has them up the back above the keyboard and underneath down the front.
After listening to both side by side, the G14 definitely sounds
better. It’s clearer and has more bass compared to the tinny sounding Blade 14,
but there was more palm rest vibration on the G14 as a result.
The latencymon results weren’t looking amazing on either laptop, but the Blade was a little better.
Both laptops have their power input on the left,
a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, and 3.5mm audio combo jack. The Blade also has a USB
3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port here, while the G14 has an air exhaust vent and its HDMI output.
They both have a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port on the right and a Type-A port,
though the G14 has 2 on this side. The Blade has its HDMI output on this side,
but the G14 has a MicroSD card slot, something the Blade does not have.
Neither laptop has any ports on the back. The G14 has obvious air exhaust vents
which end up exhausting below the screen, while the Blade’s are hidden underneath.
So to summarize the port situation,
both laptops have two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports and Type-C ports, just in different locations.
The G14 has a MicroSD card slot which might be useful for creators,
while the Blade has better HDMI support.
Both HDMI ports connect directly to the Nvidia graphics and offer G-Sync support. However,
the Blade supports a 4K 120Hz 8-Bit screen, while the Zephyrus could only do 4K 60Hz 8-Bit.
Either of the two Type-C ports on the Blade could be used to charge,
while only the one on the left side of the G14 does this.
The Blade was easier to open, just take out 10 TR5 screws and the bottom panel basically comes
off with minimal effort. This is a more uncommon screw type though, but the tools
I use for opening laptops had me covered. I’ll leave a link below the video to them.
The Zephyrus has 11 Phillips head screws, but some are different lengths and three are
covered by rubber pieces for some reason. The one down the front right lifts the bottom panel up,
so it could also be opened with just my hands once the screws were out.
Inside both have their batteries down the front, vapor chamber coolers towards the back with two
fans, a single M.2 slot for the included 1TB SSD, and a removable Wi-Fi 6E card. This is
hiding under the SSD on the G14. The G14 also has a single memory slot for RAM upgrades.
The Blade 14 is only available with 16 gigs of soldered memory, and that can never be changed.
You’re stuck with it forever. There’s not even a 32 gig option if you want to spend more money,
which I think is just a missed opportunity. The Zephyrus G14 on the other hand comes
with either 8 or 16 gigs of memory soldered to the motherboard. But with that single memory
stick you can install either an 8, 16 or even a 32 gig stick to go up to 48 gigs of memory.
So although the G14’s memory upgrades are a bit more limited compared to a larger 15 inch laptop,
it still offers way more options compared to the Blade.
The Zephyrus has a higher upgradeability score, though both are lower compared to other larger
laptops. There’s just less space for upgrades in a smaller 14 inch design. The Blade 14 loses
a point for having all memory soldered, and half a point for the uncommon TR5 screws.
Both have the latest Wi-Fi 6E, however I found the MediaTek card in the G14 was slightly faster
compared to the Qualcomm card in the Blade, but these could be swapped for fairly cheap.
In most tests, the 1TB SSD that came in the Blade was performing much better
compared to the 1TB SSD in the Zephyrus. Both laptops support PCIe Gen 4 drives,
so upgrading the Zephyrus to a faster drive should be possible.
The G14 has a 76Wh battery, while the Blade 14 has a smaller 61.6Wh battery.
The ASUS laptop is also smarter at saving battery. By default it will lower the screen’s refresh
rate down to 60Hz and turn off the overdrive mode when you unplug the charger. You can do
this on the Blade too, but you have to manually press the function + R shortcut to trigger it.
I’ve compared the run time on battery power with the screen’s limited to the same 200
nit brightness at 60Hz, and the G14 was lasting for 25% longer. Its battery is also around 23%
larger, so that’s to be expected. Ultimately both are Ryzen based laptops,
so they’re lasting longer compared to most of the Intel options.
Let’s check out thermals next.
Both laptops have software that lets you adjust performance modes between different levels,
however the ASUS Armory Crate software allows us to change power levels and
fan speed in the highest manual mode, while the Blade 14 has less control.
The fans on the Blade can only be adjusted in balanced mode for some reason, rather
than custom mode which would make more sense as this gives you more control over power levels.
Both the CPU and GPU were running warmer on the G14
in the highest available performance modes. If you want to see how both laptops run
in all available performance modes then refer to the full reviews linked below the video later.
Despite the G14 running with higher temperatures, the Blade was actually
pumping out higher power levels, and generally more power equals more heat to dissipate.
Despite the HX chip in the Blade being a higher tier more powerful option on paper, the HS chip
in the Zephyrus was performing better both in terms of single and multi core performance,
granted it is only a small difference. Both are quite a bit behind other Intel
12th gen laptops which have more cores and threads, though most of those are also in
larger machines which can allow higher power limits as they have more room for
cooling. The even smaller Flow Z13 from ASUS was right in between the Blade 14
and Zephyrus G14 in multi core, while its single core score was 20% higher than Ryzen.
Things change when we unplug the charger and run purely on battery power. The G14
was still the winner, but the Blade lowered back significantly now. The G14’s single core
score is almost the same as when it was still plugged in, while its multicore score lowered
by around 1000 points. The Blade 14’s score on the other hand basically dropped in half,
so you’re losing more performance running on battery power with the Blade.
The Blade also has this option in software to boost CPU performance on battery power
as long as the GPU isn’t active, and I used this for the test.
With it off the score lowered by another thousand points or so.
The Blade was a little warmer in the center when both were just sitting there idle, but as it’s
aluminum it just feels warmer to the touch. The G14 was also cooler with the stress tests
running in their highest performance modes, but the G14 was also louder too, let’s have a listen.
The G14 was silent at idle while the Blade’s fans were still audible. It’s possible to get
different noise levels from both laptops with the different performance modes available,
but ultimately the G14 can get louder under load.
Now let’s find out how both laptops actually compare in games. You know,
the main task these things were designed to handle.
Although the G14 has a slightly bigger screen resolution,
we’ve tested both laptops at 1080p and 1440p resolutions just to keep things fair.
Cyberpunk 2077 was tested in the same part of the game on all laptops, and I’ve got the Blade
and Zephyrus highlighted in red. The Blade was reaching a 27% higher average frame rate in this
game compared to the G14. The gap increases a little at the higher 1440p resolution,
with the Blade now 28% ahead of the Zephyrus. The G14 has a nice boost compared to last year’s G14,
while this year’s Blade 14 wasn’t much ahead of last year’s version.
Red Dead Redemption 2 seems to do better with AMD’s Radeon graphics,
as the G14 was now a little ahead of the Blade 14, at least at the lower
1080p resolution. At 1440p the Blade was now a little ahead, but it’s like a 1 FPS difference,
so they’re about the same as this change is within the margin of error. Generally speaking,
I find Nvidia graphics to do better than AMD at 1440p and above, and this is seen here too.
Control on the other hand does better with Nvidia’s GeForce graphics, which is why the
Blade 14 was reaching a 44% higher average frame rate here. Even last year’s G14 with RTX 3060
graphics wasn’t far behind it, it actually had a much better 1% low than the newer one.
At 1440p the Blade 14 had a 38% lead in average FPS, and let’s not forget that to play on the G14
you’d use its native 2560 by 1600 resolution which would be even more demanding than this.
The Blade could also use DLSS in all three of those games to further increase performance,
while the Zephyrus could only use FSR in one of them. DLSS has just been around longer, so it’s
more widespread compared to FSR, and don’t forget that you can still run FSR on Nvidia laptops.
The Blade 14 was ahead in the graphical components of the 3DMark benchmarks,
especially port royal at the top which tests ray tracing.
It's common knowledge that Nvidia does better than Radeon in raytracing.
The G14 was able to do better in CPU and physics scores though, which lines up with the higher
CPU performance we saw earlier in tests like Cinebench. Now for some content creator tests.
SPECviewperf tests out various professional 3D
workloads. The Blade in purple was ahead in most of these workloads,
but that wasn’t always the case as some workloads seem to prefer Radeon graphics.
Adobe Premiere was tested with the Puget Systems benchmark,
and just from my own testing Nvidia generally outperforms AMD graphics here,
which would be one reason why the Blade was scoring 15% higher than the Zephyrus.
Adobe Photoshop on the other hand was scoring 23% higher on the G14. This test depends more on CPU
performance, so again with what we saw earlier in Cinebench, this result wasn’t too surprising.
DaVinci Resolve generally prefers GPU power,
and the Blade wasn’t that much ahead of the G14 in this one.
Both laptops only had fairly basic options through the BIOS, and purely in terms of looks,
the Zephyrus looks much more modern compared to the outdated looking one on the Blade.
Linux support was tested with an Ubuntu Live CD. By default the keyboard, touchpad,
speakers and camera worked, but Wi-Fi didn’t work on either, they probably need additional drivers.
Let’s discuss pricing and availability next. This will change over time
so refer to those links below the video for current sales and deals.
At the time of recording, the Zephyrus G14 with the same specs that I’ve tested goes for $1900
USD, but for $400 less you can go one step down to the version with RX 6700S graphics instead.
Razer’s entry level Blade 14 with RTX 3060 graphics on the other hand starts higher
than the top specced G14 at $2000 USD, while the maxed out configuration I’ve tested here is $3500,
or 84% more money - a massive difference.
So is the Blade 14 worth spending
more money on? Let’s summarize the important differences and decide.
Generally the Blade does perform better in games, but it also depends on the game. As we saw,
the Radeon graphics could do well in games that work better with AMD. Nvidia graphics objectively
give you more options though, because you can use both DLSS and FSR while the Radeon option
only lets you use FSR. And Nvidia also generally performs better when it comes to ray tracing.
The Blade has a better camera, a faster SSD,
and I thought it felt much nicer and well built. Of course apart from the fact that
small bumps seem to be able to damage it which easily show up on the black finish.
Those were the main benefits for the Blade. Pretty
much everything else was better on the G14 despite it being cheaper.
The G14 has a better screen and I liked typing on its keyboard more. It weighs less despite
both of them being about the same size, the G14 more port options, better battery life,
faster Wi-Fi performance, faster CPU performance both on power and on battery and the G14 feels
cooler to the touch when under load, though it could get a little louder compared to the Blade.
The G14 also has more upgrade options as you’re stuck with
the 16 gigs of RAM in the Blade. Kind of crazy for a $3500 laptop.
All things considered, especially the big price difference, I just think that the G14 offers
more for most people. You should only consider the Blade if money isn’t an
issue and you really want something specific that only this one offers.
Otherwise the cheaper G14 wins in more areas than it loses despite costing far less money.
If you still need more information on either of these two laptops, then refer to my full review
videos over here next. Although this was a very comprehensive comparison I wasn’t able to fit
absolutely everything. And if you’re new to the channel, thanks for watching,
and make sure you get subscribed for future laptop comparisons like this one!