I have been back and forth what feels like a hundred times over what laptop to get. In the past, it wasn't really an issue. I would just get a light and thin laptop, and then use a relatively powerful PC at home to play games and do my photo-editing on. But I wanted to move away from using two separate machines, and just get ONE unit to suffice for both needs. This was a bit of a challenge.
For laptops I've owned Macbook pro's (both 13" and 15"), Surface pros, the i7 first gen surface book, Asus strix 15" gaming, Dell XPS 15 9550, Sony's (back when they still made laptops), even several MSI models, all with the desire to find something that works for the multitude of functions I use a mobile PC these days.
Build: The first important factor I was looking for was overall build quality. Fit and finish may not be important to you, but for me it was paramount. As a user of Macbook Pro's in the past, I was certainly spoiled by the advantages of a CNC machined aluminum uni-body chassis. The two "close enoughs" I found in other models were the Surface Book (from Microsoft, with a full Magnesium body shell) and the Dell XPS 9550 (With aluminum top and bottoms, but plastic interior. Both of these other products felt "good enough" to get past that hurdle, but there were performance issues with both. The Blade has that full unibody construction, so no compromises there. If i'm going to spend this much on a computer, I don't want plastic.
Performance: The second main area in what I was shopping for was over-all performance, and application specific performance. I wanted something that was zippy for everyday use (Web-browsing, word, excel, etc) but also had the guts to tackle AAA game titles, intense photo editing, video editing, and even DAW (Digital audio workstation, think ProTools) use. That's a rather tall order to overcome. The aforementioned Asus and MSI models all had the raw performance I was looking (in spades no less) but lacked the build quality, and were ginormous machines to boot. The Blade has the chops to handle everything I've thrown at it so far, with little to no hesitation. The GTX 1060 graphics card can work through some of the most challenging titles on the market and lend itself to graphics accelerated photo-editing programs. The quad-core i7 processor leaves very little to be desired when demanding tasks are presented to it. The m.2 SSD hard-drive is stupendously fast. All in all, very impressed with the performance.
Portability: Lets be honest, even with the best build quality and the best perfomance on the market, if I can't fit the darn thing in my laptop bag / backpack, whats the point of it being a "portable"? If the thing only has 3 hours of battery life, whats the point of taking it out of the house if I ALWAYS have to have it connected to the wall? The short answer is that there is no point. I wanted all of the performance and I wanted the ability to ACTUALLY use it on the go for extended periods of time. The Macs, Surfaces, and Dells, all went out of their way in that department. But they almost universally ignored the performance side of things (relative to price point). This is another area where the Blade fails to disappoint. With screen brightness at recommended mobile levels, and while not trying to play games or do other intensive tasks, the Blade delivers 6-7+ hours of usable battery life. Not the "best" but considering the horsepower this thing has under the hood, its like a dodge viper getting 40 miles to the gallon: Somewhat unexpected.
The last of my absolute must-haves for this purchase is the ports. It's shocking to think that this would have actually become an issue, but with the recent MacBook Pro announcement where they removed every port sans the headphone jack (ironic) and 4 usb-c ports, thus necessitating the need to use and carry dongles around for literally everything you need to plug in, the Blades retention of "legacy" (read: necessary) ports, is a welcome pro. The Blade keeps 3 USB 3.1 ports, 1 USB-C, HDMI, Headphone, and the ever-present kensington lock port.
The only, and admittedly subjective, con I can really come up with is that there is no 32GB memory option and there is no way to upgrade the memory yourself, as it is soldered onto the motherboard. I have no "dire" need for more than 16GB right now, but that may change in the near future. That and no SD card reader... c'mon people.
Outside of that, the 2016 Blade 14 is an absolutely stunning piece of hardware, and a rare gem in the really rough sea that is the "performance" mobile computing market. I was so happy to see Best Buy picking this item up for sale.