The 2016 Razer Blade ($1,999.99 as tested) is a 14-inch ultraportable gaming laptop with strong performance, a QHD+ touch display, and a best-in-class compact design. This year's iteration is an all-around upgrade from the 2015 Razer Blade , and though the performance improvements are slight, the price has been dropped by $400. Razer doesn't cut any features to achieve the lower cost, either, and instead adds USB-C with Thunderbolt 3 and the individually backlit keyboard we first saw on the Razer Blade Stealth. Its gaming prowess doesn't match that of large laptops or gaming desktops, but with a new Skylake processor, double the graphics card VRAM of the 2015 Blade, and its trademark super-portable design, the new Razer Blade is an easy pick as our Editors' Choice for ultraportable gaming laptops.

Design and Features

With its Blade line, Razer has consistently offered premium build quality, and the 2016 version is no exception. The entire chassis is black machined aluminum, which looks attractive and feels luxurious. There are two muscle lines on the lid, with the lime green Razer logo centered in between. The laptop measures 0.7 by 13.6 by 9.3 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.26 pounds, which is quite impressive for a laptop that can play serious games. These dimensions are identical to last year's Blade, but that version was slightly heavier at 4.47 pounds.

Compared with the larger 15.6- or 17-inch screens in most gaming laptops, the 14-inch display is a compromise that comes with the compact, light design. While most gaming laptops aren't designed to travel, the Blade is easy to grab and throw in a bag. If portability appeals to you, even with a smaller screen, this design can't be beat.

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To drive the difference home, the 17-inch MSI GT72 Dominator Pro G-1438 measures 1.89 by 17 by 11.75 inches and weighs about 8.5 pounds—larger and roughly double the weight. The Asus ROG (G752VT-DH72), also 17 inches, weighs even more at 8.8 pounds. The 15-inch Acer Aspire V 15 Nitro  comes closest to the compact form of the Blade, at 0.94 by 15.3 by 10.1 inches and 5.3 pounds.

At 14 inches, the display is probably as small as I'd go for gaming, but the quality is outstanding with QHD+ 3,200-by-1,800 resolution and touch capability. The 2015 Blade also included a touch display, while most other gaming laptops don't support touch input. The screen looks sharp, gets plenty bright, and boasts vibrant colors thanks to Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide (IGZO) technology. The QHD+ resolution is higher than many gaming laptops: the Alienware 15, the MSI Dominator Pro, and the Asus ROG (G752VT-DH72) all feature Full HD 1,920-by-1,080-resolution displays, as do more expensive systems like the Origin EON17-X. The previous Razer Blade is one of few to match the resolution, while the Acer Nitro trumps all with a 4K screen.

It's worth noting that higher screen resolutions are strenuous on a system, making it more difficult to run 3D games at full resolution at or near max settings. Even high-end modern laptops—which are much more powerful than years past—don't typically have the specs to pull off more than Full HD on the highest settings and maintain a smooth frame rate, which is why most opt for a 1080p resolution. QHD+ and 4K look nicer, but ultimately will negatively impact performance, to the point where your games will drop below a smooth frame rate, forcing you to choose between lowering the resolution or downgrading some visual effects. That said, having a QHD+ ceiling allows you to go that high if you prefer, or when you are running a less strenuous program, and still lets you drop down to 1080p when required. The Performance section below details how the Blade was able to handle this resolution while gaming, but these guidelines generally hold true for all systems.

The keyboard is a real standout, borrowing features from the Blade Stealth that add some functionality unique to this line. Through the included Razer software, you can customize the lighting and functionality of each individual key. Some gaming laptops integrate lighting you can change across all keys at once, or discrete sections of keys that can change together, but the Stealth was the first to feature per-key backlighting, and now the full-size Blade has followed suit. You can set effects, such as a constant color cycle or color ripple for each key strike, as well as several other patterns. The keys feel good, support full anti-ghosting to prevent input jamming, and are programmable with the included software.

The touchpad is also solidly built and tracks input well. The pad itself doesn't click in to act as mouse buttons, with Razer instead opting for dedicated left and right mouse buttons below the pad, which put out very audible but satisfying clicking noises. On either side of the keyboard are speaker strips, which provide a nice rich sound and get quite loud, especially for a system this size.