Sorry! I no longer show mercy for gaming laptops with poor battery life. As a reviewer, laptop companies want me to show them grace because gaming rigs sport high-powered, power-inefficient components. But ever since the 2020 ROG Zephyrus G14 shocked us with nearly 12 hours of battery, my leniency has gone out the window.
We were so blown away (and skeptical), we re-tested the laptop several times, but again and again, its runtime had our jaws on the floor.
If Asus was successful in rolling out a laptop that lasts 11 hours and 32 minutes, why should I accept gaming laptops that barely last 2 hours on the Laptop Mag battery test? We deserve better.
Unfortunately, since the ROG Zephyrus G14, we haven't seen a laptop surpass 11 hours of battery life, but we've seen machines come close to it. The first company that bucked the low-battery-life trend this year is Razer, a company known for delivering sleek, minimalist gaming laptops with top-of-the-line performance.
This gaming laptop has the best battery life of 2023
As mentioned, I get that gaming laptops are packed with energy-consuming components, particularly power-inefficient CPUs and GPUs, but the ROG Zephyrus G14 defies the odds. As a result, I can't help but ask other gaming laptop companies, "If Asus can do it, what's your excuse?"
To give you some context of what's on the market regarding battery life, I have some figures for you. The average gaming laptop has a battery runtime of 4 hours and 46 minutes.
I also want to show you the runtimes of some gaming laptops we reviewed this year (see the chart below).
As you can see, you'll be hard pressed to find anything that lasts longer than four hours and some change. The ROG Flow Z13 ACRNM (a bizarre gaming laptop that you can wear), the Origin EVO16-S, and the Lenovo Legion 5i Pro are the only laptops that break above the four-hour average.
Although the Legion 5i Pro impressed with an incredible runtime (compared to its other 2023 rivals) of 7 hours and 30 minutes, the Razer Blade 14 said, "Hold my beer!"
The Razer Blade 14 topped all of its rivals, lasting a whopping 8 hours and 35 minutes on a charge.
For your information, these runtimes are based on us testing the battery endurance at 150 nits of brightness while surfing the web over WiFi.
Where to buy? You can get the Razer Blade 14 for $2,699 at Amazon
3 reasons why the Razer Blade 14 is awesome
Sometimes, laptops excel at one particular aspect, but in all other categories, they fail miserably. One example of this is the HP Dragonfly Pro Chromebook. It has the brightest display we've ever tested and and one of the best webcams, but don't ask me about its battery life runtime nor its performance scores.
The Razer Blade 14, on the other hand, knocks it out of the park in a good number of categories. It is a dream laptop for many of us at Laptop Mag, including myself.
Excluding its long runtime, let me give you three reasons why the Razer Blade 14 is the king of gaming laptops in 2023.
1. That signature black-and-green design hits different
If someone were to ask me, "Which gaming laptop has the best looking design?", my answer would be Razer laptops. There's something about that green-and-black design, along with that striking, three-headed snake logo with an electric emerald hue, that has me lookin' like the heart-eyes emoji.
It is so damn pretty.
On top of that, it has a sturdy, thick build. No matter how much pressure you put on it, it will not budge. And it better not, considering the cheapest model costs $2,400. It comes with an AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS processor, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, 16GB of RAM, 1TB of M.2 PCIe SSD storage, and a 14-inch QHD+, 240Hz, 2560 x 1600-pixel display.
The model we tested has the same specs save for the GPU; it has an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU with 8GB of vRAM instead.
Razer also makes a Blade 14 variant with a Mercury White coat, but like, why would you want that one? *Shudder*
2. Razer didn't cheap out on the display
In our experience, even if a laptop is priced over $2,000, some OEMs underinvest in the display when it comes to brightness or color accuracy. Trust me, nothing is worse than stepping into a dark scene in your favorite game, and when you try to increase the brightness, it's already maxed out. Ugh!
The Razer Blade 14 packs a 14-inch, 2560 x 1600-pixel matte display with a 240Hz refresh rate. What makes this laptop stand out is that it has rival-beating luminosity with an average brightness of 465 nits, beating out competitors such as the Origin EON16-S (326 nits) and the MSI Raider GE78 HX (412 nits).
It also has a beautiful, colorful display, ensuring that your favorite games really pop on the screen. According to our colorimeter, the Razer Blade 14 covered 114% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, beating the Origin EON16-S (83.5%), but getting slightly edged out by the MSI Raider GE78 HX (115%).
We ran Elden Ring on the Razer Blade 14, and we were blown away by its vibrancy. We got lost in the deep black and golden glows of magic spells being tossed around on the display.
3. It has excellent speakers
If you're not one for wearing one of the best gaming headsets, sweet-sounding speakers may be important for you. Aside from displays, the sound system is another aspect OEMs often neglect in gaming laptops. However, we can tell that Razer put a lot of thought into the Blade 14's up-firing speakers.
The speakers are darn-near camouflaged with the deck, and despite its subtle, barely there presence, its sound is impactful. While playing Elden Ring, it picked up on subtle splashes of water as enemies trudged through a swamp as well as the ambient strings playing in the background.
We were also impressed with its amplification level; these are not quiet speakers. When we played music, it maintained a perfect balance between instrumentals and vocals with smooth-sounding emanations.
Bottom line
As for gaming performance, the Razer Blade 14 is great, but it doesn't beat out some rivals. For example, we ran a maxed-out Borderlands 3 (1080p) test on the Blade 14 and it hit an average of 98 frames per second (fps). This is OK, but the Origin EON16-S, which has the same 4070 GPU, delivered 106 fps on the same test.
If you're stick of your gaming laptop draining out after just an hour or two, it's time to consider replacing it. And if I were you, I'd get the Razer Blade 14. No, it doesn't deliver envelope-pushing performance numbers, but it has sufficient muscle to handle most triple-A gaming experiences.
