July 17, 2024, Update: I was stunned when I logged on early this morning to see a similarly spec'd and competitively priced Razer Blade 14 laptop on sale. This was not expected, but Best Buy has discounted the Blade 14 with RTX 4070 by another $200, for a dizzying total discount of $1,000.

If you can stomach such a discount, then you understand what a premium Razer gaming laptops are selling for.

Still, it is currently about the same as other premium RTX 4070 gaming laptops and strangely cheaper than some Blade 14 machines with the lower-performing RTX 4060. The bargain has suddenly become a bargain.

July 16, 2024, Original Deal: Razer's little obsession with gaming laptops is well known, and the 14-inch Blade is a particular favorite. It's just that it's very expensive. In fact, the lowest price I could find on Amazon was nearly $2,000 for the Blade 14 RTX 4060 variant. Ouch.

Until now, that is: Best Buy is participating in a Prime Day promotion and selling the Blade 14 for $1,899. Not bad. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that it comes with RTX 4070 instead of RTX 4060. That's right, more GPUs for less money.

There must be something behind it: downgraded CPU? Less memory? smaller SSD? crappier screen? No, no, no, no, no.

Same AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS CPU, same 1600p 240Hz display, same 16GB memory, same 1TB SSD. Same, same, same, same, except Nvidia has a better GPU and a lower price. Boom.

Another sameness, of course, is the Razer's signature smooth blacks, luxurious build quality, premium ambience over Apple, and old-school charm. Of course, this still does not make it a bargain compared to other laptops.

In other words, there are cheaper gaming laptops with RTX 4070s; there are even cheaper 14-inch gaming laptops with RTX 4070s. As Dave highlighted earlier, you can get an Acer Predator 14 with 4070 for only $1,149.99.

In other words, even with significant discounts, Blade gaming comes at a hefty premium. Thanks to Best Buy, however, this premium is a little more bearable.