The Razer Blade 14 (8/10, WIRED recommended) blew me away when I tested it when star field he left. Razer is known for its high-end gaming laptops, and this laptop’s slim aluminum chassis has the same luxurious build quality we’ve liked in the past. But what caught my attention was the 2,560 x 1,600 IPS display with G-Sync support. Even at 30 to 40 percent brightness, it felt bright and vivid, with blacks so dark it’s as if the screen disappears in dark rooms. It’s not exactly what you’d see on an OLED screen, but it was close enough to fool me for hours as I flew through space. Best of all, the 240Hz panel enables ultra-high frame rates for smoother gaming.
Inside, the Blade 14 comes equipped with the powerful AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS. There is a slightly newer version with the Ryzen 9 8945HS, but you probably won’t see much difference in performance. You also get 16GB of DDR5 RAM, a 1 terabyte NVMe SSD, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 laptop GPU (upgradable to an RTX 4070). The RTX 4060 is quite powerful, but the RTX 4070 is a respectably powerful GPU that can help power even demanding games like star field. It also has a USB-C and USB-A port on the left side. and to the right of the laptop, making it easy to connect peripherals. It also comes with a full-size HDMI port. It includes a large charging brick, which you’ll need to charge while playing power-hungry games, but you can charge it via USB-C if you need to recharge it while you work. It’s expensive, but the Blade 14 typically drops to $2,000, which is a great value.
Specs to look for: AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060/4070 Laptop GPU, 16GB DDR5, 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD, 14-inch 2560 x 1600 IPS display with 240Hz refresh rate.