Judge me by size, do you? I say 14-inchers make the best Black Friday gaming laptop purchase
24.11.2023 - 00:49
/ pcgamer.com
/ Best
Asus ROG Zephyrus 14 | Nvidia RTX 4060 | AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS | 14-inch | 1080p | 165Hz | 16GB RAM | 512GB SSD | $1,599.99$1,199.99 at Best Buy (save $300)
If you don't want a hulking gaming laptop, let me introduce the Zephyrus 14 (see our review): a 14-incher that can game without busting your bank balance or your shoulder when lugging it around—no-nonsense specs in a delightful package. This is the latest version with the RTX 40-series GPUs; this is a very smart package, though not the most affordable RTX 4060 machine by any stretch, it is still a good deal for this delightful little laptop.
Price check: Newegg $1,764.99
Alienware x14 R2 | 14-inch | QHD+ 165Hz | RTX 4060 |Core i7 13620H | 16GB DDR5 | 1TB | $1,899.99$1,399.99 at Dell (save $500)
The world's thinnest 14-inch gaming laptop they say. It's certainly far cheaper than Razer's 14-inch Blade, with comes in $600 higher with the same GPU. A very slick little machine for portable gaming action.
Razer Blade 14 | Nvidia RTX 4070 | AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS | 14-inch | 1600p | 240Hz | 16GB DDR5-5600 | 1TB NVMe SSD | $2,699.99$2,399.99 at Amazon (save $300)
This is the model we tested in our 2023 Razer Blade review and boy does it slap. It's a great form factor in that 14-inch chassis, not like the bulky portable gaming machines of yesteryear. And while you don't get the best performance per buck, it's still one of our favorite machines of the year with its gorgeous good looks and 780M iGPU. It even allows for upgradable RAM, though you can easily get away with 16GB for most gaming habits.
Razer Blade 14 | Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti | AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX | 14-inch | 1440p | 165Hz | 16GB DDR5-5600 | 1TB NVMe SSD | $3,499$1,799 at Amazon (save $1,700)
This is last year's model with the bigger chin and RTX 30-series graphics. But the latest Razer 14 with an RTX 4060, which is comfortably slower than the RTX 3080 Ti in this model, goes for $1,999. So, if you're feeling Razer's smallest gaming laptop, this deal is definitely worth considering.
Price check: Razer $1,999
Size isn't everything. In fact, the bigger you get in the gaming laptop world, the more I'm going to look down on you. Not that 17- or 18-inch machines don't have their place, it's just that's a desktop replacement / workstation setup for me, not a proper gaming laptop.
What I want is a wee machine I can take out and about with me. A small gaming system that I can pull out of my bag on a plane or train and not feel like a jerk because I've got some hoofing great monster notebook weighing down the tray in front of me.
If it's even able to fit.
That's why I love the tranche of 14-inch laptops that have arrived in recent times. They're able to deliver practically the same level of gaming performance (cooling