Razer’s Blade 15 Base is $ 500 off today, but this Asus Zephyrus G14 deal is the one I’d pick

Pop Quiz: What’s the Better Deal, $ 500 Off a Razer Blade Laptop or $ 150 Off an Asus Zephyrus G14? It may depend on whether you need a webcam, because in pretty much every other way, the Asus is the laptop I would buy today.

That’s not to say there’s anything particularly wrong with the Razer Blade 15 Base at its current outrageous price of $ 1,099 at Amazon (regularly $ 1,599): aside from the meager 256GB of solid-state storage, you’re looking at a fast 6 core Core i7 -10750H processor, GeForce GTX 1660 Ti graphics that should expertly handle the biggest titles of yore, a 144Hz 1080p display, plus plenty of ports packed into an attractive black CNC aluminum chassis with single-zone RGB lighting . The deal at midnight PT Sunday.

But for just $ 100 more, you can currently get the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 at Best Buy for $ 1,199, which just happens to be our pick for the best ultraportable gaming laptop you can buy. While the Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q graphics card can actually be a bit slower than the 1660 Ti (depending on the game) and there are no Thunderbolt ports, you’re probably looking at nearly double the battery life of its 8 core AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS chip – plus a 1TB SSD that should actually hold a decent selection of games. It weighs a lot less at just over 3.5 pounds; compare to 4.7 pounds for the Razer.

That’s just based on the spec sheet: you can read our entire review for more, or our Razer Blade Stealth 13 review, where the Asus still managed to blow a newer and lighter Razer laptop out of the water.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14

Prices taken at time of publication.

ROG Zephyrus G14 is an amazingly powerful gaming laptop. The AMD Ryzen 9 processor and RTX 2060 Max-Q can boost powerful, smooth graphics in games with its 120Hz refresh rate, while also being surprisingly efficient for other tasks.

That said, I could still easily tell you were choosing the Razer for its slightly more powerful graphics, $ 100 cheaper price, sleek profile, darkened design, or that all-important webcam.

And don’t forget, none of these machines have the latest and greatest graphics card: Nvidia’s RTX 30 series laptop GPUs are only just starting to roll out. If you don’t need a new machine anytime soon, it might be worth waiting a while to see what an RTX 3060 laptop could do for you, like the upgraded Zephyrus G14, on backorder for $ 1499.