Introduction and design
Now that Nvidia has updated its mobile graphics chip offerings, the vendors are predictably scrambling to refresh their gaming laptops with the latest and greatest. And Kenilworth, N.J.-based boutique gaming PC builder Maingear isn't about to be left in the dust.
This is the Maingear Pulse 14 for 2014, updated with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 850M and a 1920 x 1080 screen – and that's about it. This is the same laptop introduced in 2013, only with better innards. For some, that might be just fine, but I'm not so sure.
Design
The Pulse 14 uses the same case provided by MSI as it did last year, specifically the MSI GE40 frame. That means a glossy black plastic lid with a shiny, silver plastic logo, all attached to a firm dual hinge on the base. The keyboard deck is comprised of the same shiny plastic, with distinctly metallic palm rests.
The touchpad, beset by chrome accents, sits just above a row of deep blue indicator LEDs. Beneath the hinge is an inconspicuous speaker grill and a power button in the same hue, though it shines a bright orange while charging.
Otherwise, the frame is rather uninspiring, with a plastic underside and empty optical drive bay that just looks like a vestigial limb without what's normally found there. That said, MSI made use of every last inch, jam-packing it with ports from USB 3.0 to Ethernet, HDMI and more.
Not without nonsense
Maingear promises to provide a no-nonsense mobile gaming PC – unlike some global computer corporations, it says – keeping their products free of bloatware and offering customer service that goes far beyond what most companies offer. And that's all true.
But perhaps, with its laptops at least, the company takes that modus operandi a bit too far? There might not be any of the bloatware or unnecessary lighting in the Pulse 14 that you find in competing products, but sometimes those additions are welcome.
For instance, where's the backlit keyboard? Both the Alienware 14 and Gigabyte P34G have one of those. And what about some performance-boosting software? These competitors both offer ways to improve your games' frame rates through apps.
While a noble stance to take on Maingear's part, what does that leave the Pulse 14 to stand out with? Award-winning custom paint jobs (and complimentary laptop stand) are a start, but also expensive. At any rate, it's what's on the inside that counts, right?
Specifications
Where the Pulse 14 falls dimensions-wise makes sense: Maingear is focused on price-per-part value over a cutting-edge design or materials. I'm sure that's at least half the reason why the company uses MSI barebones laptop cases.
As far as 14-inch gaming laptops go, the Pulse 14 isn't the thinnest or lightest around, at 3.8 pounds (1.72kg) and 13.31 x 9.5 x 1 inches, or 338 x 241.3 x 25.4mm (W x D x H). But it's by no means the chunkiest.
That might fall to the Alienware 14, at a hefty 6.16 pounds (2.77kg) and a thick 13.3 x 10.17 x 1.6 inches (335 x 258.35 x 41.7mm). Meanwhile, the Gigabyte P34G measures 13.4 x 9.4 x 0.83 inches (340.36 x 238.76 x 21.08mm) and weighs 3.9 pounds (1.76kg).
Even with going the third-party route for its case, the Maingear Pulse 14 might not offer the best value around. Here is the Maingear Pulse 14 configuration given to TechRadar:
Spec sheet
- CPU: 2.2GHz Intel Core i7-4702MQ (quad-core, 6MB cache, up to 3.2GHz with Turbo Boost)
- Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 850M (2GB GDDR5 VRAM); Intel HD Graphics 4600
- RAM: 8GB DDR3 (1,866MHz, 2 x 4GB)
- Screen: 14-inch, 1920 x 1080 FHD with AHVA
- Storage: 500GB, 5,400 rpm SSHD hybrid with 8GB SSD cache
- Ports: 2 x USB 3.0, USB 2.0, VGA (15-pin, D-Sub), HDMI 1.4, Mic-in, Headphone-out, SD card reader
- Connectivity: Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230 802.11n Wi-Fi (Killer Wireless N - Ultimate Wireless Network Accelerator), Bluetooth
- Camera: 2MP, 720p Webcam
- Weight: 3.8 pounds (on average)
- Size: 13.31 x 9.5 x 1 inches (W x D x H)
The configuration you see above is what Maingear calls the "Better" setup for the Pulse 14, and it calls for $1,399 (about £825, AU$1,497). The company offers a low end version for $1,199 (around £703, AU$1,274). With that, you would lose the solid-state drive cache for a 500GB, 7,200 rpm drive, be bumped down to a dual-core Core i5 chip and suffer a small frequency hit to the RAM (1,600MHz).
Looking for the best possible Pulse 14? Then you'll have to pony up a whopping $1,699 (about £996, AU$1,806) for the same CPU as the mid-range model, double the memory and a 256GB SSD (2 x 128GB in SuperRAID), 1TB HDD combo. Oh, and the same video card is offered across all configurations – strange indeed.
Now, when you consider the Alienware 14 comes in at just $40 less – $1,359 (around £797, AU$1,444) – for last year's GTX 750M, this Pulse 14 looks like a decent value. But Alienware also offers a slightly beefier Core i7-4710MQ chip, while essentially matching Maingear part for part elsewhere, in one of the industry's leading builds replete with custom keyboard and frame lighting. Plus, a GPU refresh from Alienware is inevitable.
It's really the Gigabyte P34G that throws Maingear's pricing into question. For $1,549 (about £908, AU$1,646) on Amazon, its only configuration, the recently-revised 14-incher sports a superior GTX 860M GPU, a slightly slower Core i7-4700MQ processor, 8GB of RAM and a massive 128GB SSD, 1TB HDD combo. Plus, the P34G is thinner and lighter than either laptop, and touts a backlit keyboard and easy overclocking software to boot. All that for just another $150? Not too shabby. And you might be able to find last year's model for around the same price as Maingear's.
What Maingear touts as a differentiator in its notebooks is the custom paint jobs the company offers, which look gorgeous – I've seen them on previous models. But are they an extra $99 (around £58, AU$105) gorgeous? I'm not so sure. Sadly, our review unit was without any such glamor.
Even worse is that, for this price, the Pulse 14 has little in the way of extra features. No backlit keyboard here, even. (Though, it does come bloatware-free.) What you're getting for $1,400 isn't all that comparable to the competition. At any rate, let's take a look at how the laptop.
Performance
Value is one (quite important) thing, but there's no doubt that – with gaming machines – it all comes down to the frames per second. Of course, the Pulse 14 being a laptop, chances are you're going to do more on it than just play. Here's how it fared in more more general tasks, too:
Benchmarks
- 3DMark: Ice Storm: 98,051; Cloud Gate: 12,603; Fire Strike: 3,363
- Cinebench CPU: 577 points; Graphics: 87.01 fps
- PCMark 8 Home: 2,957 points
- PCMark 8 Battery Life: 2 hours, 21 minutes
- Bioshock Infinite (1080p, Ultra): 41.58 fps; (1080p, Low): 92.93 fps
- Metro: Last Light (1080p, Ultra): 11.01 fps; (1080p, Low): 64.67 fps
As far as 3DMark and Cinebench's graphics test are concerned, this is about what I would expect from Nvidia's latest low-end mobile GPU. Surprisingly though, the Alienware 14 nearly bested the Pulse 14 on Fire Strike with 3,123 points, whereas the Gigabyte P34G came in much lower at 2,370 overclocked on last year's chip.
As for PCMark 8, it shouldn't be a surprise that this Maingear would gobble up just about any set of programs that you threw at it. My normal workload wasn't enough to make this laptop flinch, not that it should.
Of course, Metro: Last Light at its highest settings made the Pulse 14 chug, but I would expect playable frame rates at high to medium settings and 1080p. As for one of the latest shooters, Titanfall, I recorded a completely playable average frame rate of 43.8 fps through FRAPS after a 10 minute session. That result was recorded at 1080p with every detail setting notched at "high", along with 2x anti-aliasing and 16x anisotropic filtering enabled.
Save for perhaps The Witcher 3, a historically demanding game series, I'm confident that the GTX 850M will be able to handle the rest of 2014's major PC game releases at full resolution and OK settings. It's 2015 and beyond that's worrisome, considering not many folks have $1,400 to replace a gaming laptop every year.
Surprisingly long lasting
Sure, the PCMark 8 battery test produced no surprises, but synthetic tests are always only half the story. In an age wherein I expect every gaming laptop to last about as long as it takes to type this very sentence, the Pulse 14 caught me off guard.
In my own testing, the notebook lasted a much more impressive 4 hours and 2 minutes. That was with the power setting locked at "Balanced", the screen brightness at 50%, with about 10 Google Chrome tabs open, TweetDeck and HipChat running, and the occasional HD YouTube video playing.
Considering the P34G lasted for just 2 hours and 33 minutes, I'll gladly take nearly half a work day with this machine. Of course, don't expect times anywhere near this long while gaming on the battery – you'll be lucky to eke out a full hour.
A sharp screen, but nothing special
For the price here, I would expect nothing less than a full HD screen with great viewing angles, and that's just what the Pulse 14 offers. Thanks to an Advanced Hyper Viewing Angle (AHVA), matte panel, you and two friends could huddle together to watch the latest Game of Thrones episode that you definitely did not pirate.
But beyond that, there's not much else to write home about here. Colors err on the blue end of the spectrum, which won't matter much when you're sprinting toward a giant weaponized robot, guns blazing. But it might when you're watching a movie or browsing the web.
Inputs: too far back to basics?
First things first: this is not an original frame design, so there wasn't much for Maingear to do about the keyboard and mouse to make them stand out. And, as far as inputs go, there isn't anything wrong with them. There's just nothing stand-out or marquee about them either.
The membrane keyboard offers deep travel and roomy spacing, but the keys' kickback could be a bit punchier for my liking. And the corners of each key are too sharp – a rounded edge would have been nice. Though to MSI's credit, there isn't much flex at all here. However, the fact that you're getting no backlighting here for the price is a major bummer.
The spun metal surface of the touchpad makes for a fun, accurate tracking experience, surrounded by classy, chamfered chrome edges. However, the tracking surface is on the small side, and the chrome clicker has a sizable dead space in its center. These are not the inputs you should expect for what amounts to a paycheck or more.
Bundled software
The only apps that Maingear offers are THX's TruStudio Pro, which enhances audio at the software level, and Killer Network Manager. This allows you to prioritize certain apps and games for bandwidth usage and monitor your adapter's performance. As for the former, I noticed some differences as I tweaked a few virtual dials, but nothing that improved upon already terribly tinny speakers.
Verdict
The Maingear Pulse 14 has all the trappings of a budget-friendly gaming laptop – just not the wallet-conscious price. Sure, this 14-inch gaming notebook offers fantastic 3D performance and lasting power. But for $40 less or $150 more, you can score machines touting far better builds or superior components, respectively.
We liked
The endurance I recorded on the Pulse 14 is a rarity in the gaming laptop world, and Maingear should be commended for tuning it as such. This laptop stepped up to the plate on several occasions when my 2011, MacBook Pro 15-inch just wouldn't hang.
As you would expect from the latest Nvidia and Intel mobile chips, this laptop chewed up just about any task or game I threw at it. (Save for Metro, that sadist of a benchmark.) The GTX 850M should get you through 2015's PC releases at medium settings and full resolution, based on how well it played Titanfall at high settings.
We disliked
While a third-party case, the build quality here is just not on par with the competition in this price range. While the Gigabyte P34G isn't all the much of a looker, at least it's super thin and light by gaming laptop standards. It also offers a backlit keyboard – something missing from this rig. And while the Alienware 14 is chunky, it's one of the best gaming laptop builds around, without question.
Generally speaking, there isn't anything premium about the Pulse 14, given its price tag. It's as if you're paying just for the components inside, only to prop it on a stand, hook up a (backlit) mechanical keyboard and mouse, and go to town. While absolutely functional, this machine is simply not the complete package you expect at this price.
Final verdict
For a considerable chunk of most folks' salary, they expect a premium device and experience. And while Maingear offers excellent paint jobs and incredibly dedicated customer service, the Pulse 14 simply doesn't stack up against competitors in its price range.
Pick up this laptop and it will play almost any game you throw at it with gusto. That much is for certain. But the Pulse 14 doesn't exist in a vacuum, and for the same cash or a little bit more, you'll find superior offerings with ease.
James Potter