- Asus ROG Zephyrus 14 | RTX 4060 |
$1,599.99$1,199.99 - Alienware x14 R2 | RTX 4060 |
$1,899.99$1,399.99 - Razer Blade 14 | RTX 4070 |
$2,699.99$2,399.99 - Razer Blade 14 | RTX 3080 Ti |
$3,499$1,799
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 allowing) as their bigger brethren, and still come with beautiful, high refresh rate and high resolution screens.
The big issue is that they're expensive commodities in a world where the 15-inch form factor is de rigueur and not as many of them get sold. So it's rare that you get good discounts on a decent 14-inch notebook. There have been some great Black Friday gaming laptop deals already this silly sales season, and you will absolutely find cheaper 'normal' machines with similar specs for less than these four 14-inchers. But I don't think I'd ever spend my money on a gaming laptop any larger than this ever again.
The Asus Zephyrus G14, with a sensible RTX 4060 inside it, is cheaper than ever at $1,200 at Best Buy and is our favorite compact gaming laptop at the moment. It's smartly styled, performs well, and is actually pretty affordable in the grand scheme of super-pricey PC parts.
- We're curating all the best Black Friday PC gaming deals right here.
But I've always had a soft spot for Razer's sleek laptops and the Razer Blade 14 is my absolute favorite of all these machines. The black brushed aluminum chassis is sharply gorgeous and the screen is just... damn I wish the chef's kiss emoji worked in our CMS. I love the extra height the 2560 x 1600 display affords, and with a 240Hz refresh it's slick in game and out. But it's pricey. The RTX 4070 version I loved so well recently is still $2,400 at Amazon even with a $300 discount.
There is a faster, slimmer last-gen version with an RTX 3080 Ti inside it for less—$1,800 at Amazon—but that high-end Ampere GPU is going to get toasty inside that thin little chassis. Clock it down, however, and it'll still run rings around the RTX 4070.
And then there's the Alienware X14, the slimmest 14-inch gaming laptop around, and the RTX 4060 version is $1,400 at Dell right now. It really is a lovely device to hold in the hand, but pricey for a low-end RTX 40-series machine.
So yeah, you have got to want the form factor to spend the premium money on it—especially when you can still buy a 16-inch RTX 4080 gaming laptop for just $1,600. But that's still too big for me, and if I'm spending that sort of money on a mobile machine right now, I'm buying me a wee one.
