Maingear Pulse 11

The Maingear Pulse 11 ( $ 1,349 direct ) is a 11.6 - inch ultraportable gaming with the power to operate the strenuous 3D games with its diminutive screen . We are prepared to not like the gaming rig because of its size , but as we ran it through our tests , the merits of small gaming system became clear . Being able to run the game with all kinds of the compact screen of the system is much better than trying to play the same game on a more modest mainstream laptop . The Pulse also surprised us with connectivity , component quality and superb audio performance . This is our new Editors Choice ' for ultraportable gaming laptops.

Design and Features
Like previous Editors ' Choice -winning Eurocom Monster 1.0 , the Maingear Pulse 11 was developed W110ER Clevo chassis , so it also looks unassuming . Except Maingear Pulse 11 etched logo , looks like a utilitarian laptop business . Measuring about 8.5 by 11.5 by 1.5 inches ( HWD ) , it's a little thick compared to other ultraportable systems . Maingear uses that space by installing a third generation Intel Core i7 - 3612QM processor and NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M graphics . It does not have an optical drive ( which is less relevant now that many games distributed online than on the disc ) . Allows you thick chassis for the cooling fan for the CPU and GPU .

Fans of the system will be a little loud while playing 3D games or have many Flash sites open . The best thing to do in this case is to plug in some headphones . Most high - performance ultraportables run hot and loud as 3D games stress the internal components . The Pulse 11 weighs 3.7 pounds alone , and 4.79 pounds travel weight with AC adapter it . It is a good for a gaming laptop , although the assumption of system heavy for its size . Chalk it up to the Maglite factor : A little extra heft gives it a feeling of having quality and makes you believe that there is a lot of extra powerful hardware in the system .

The glossy screen system with 1366 -by - 768 resolution . This is a two - fold effect : It makes onscreen elements like text larger than they would be if the screen is 1600 by 900 or 1920 by 1080. It also limits the resolution in the game , so you're not tempted to play taxing games on the larger screen resolution to be dog slow . Believe it or not , this is actually a benefit to the types of people in the market for a gaming system . While beautiful to look at from the screen head - on , the visual start to wash out from a more oblique angle to look on the side , top , and bottom . This is not a deal breaker , because you will not share their gaming experience with your closest friends on a 11 - inch laptop . You really need a larger system such as Alienware M14x R2 if you want to share the screen with others .

The thick chassis an additional benefit : The audio from the Maingear Pulse is really attractive fascinating . Rather than the tinny sound that you would expect out of such a small ultraportable , music and game sounds fill a small - size of room as an office or den . We listened to the sounds and game trailers from Wreck It Ralph movie website , as well as the songs as diverse as The Knife Silent Shout cover of creeps Carrie Manolakos ' by Radiohead . Bass was predictably minimal ( though still present ) , but in all cases , the sound is fuller than some all -in -one desktop PCs . There was some distortion and sibilance at 100 % volume level during loud passages , but 75-90 % volume the sound is clear , satisfactory, and wide .

The system has a decent amount of connectivity , especially compared to other small laptop . The Pulse 11 has two USB 3.0 ports , HDMI , Ethernet , and audio jacks on the right side of the laptop . The SD card slot on the front , and the Kensington lock port , AC adapter port , and USB 2.0 port is on the right . This trumps the number of ports on the Apple MacBook Air 11 - inch (Mid 2012) , which has two USB 3.0 ports , headphone jack , and a Thunderbolt port only . The system has a dual - band ( 2.4GHz and 5GHz ) Wi - Fi , so you are guaranteed the ability to connect to the router of your friends , even 2.4GHz 802.11g turned him off in favor of 5GHz 802.11n .

The Pulse 11 May plusses and negatives own keyboard and touchpad . On the bright side , the multi - touch touchpad is fast , responsive , and quite useful for playing games ( or navigating tricky documents ) . However , smaller screen of the system means that the system has a smaller chiclet style keyboard . The keys themselves are responsive , but it can take a little bit of life with the Pulse before you feel comfortable typing it for extended periods of time . This of course will affect writers and students over harcore players .

The system has 8GB of system memory and a 120GB SSD for storage . Both are very good value , especially the 8GB of system memory . Having more than 2 to 4GB helps when you're done playing a large , roaming games like Batman : Arkham City , or when you have 50 tabs open in your browser and 35 of them use Adobe Flash . Having 8GB also helped scores benchmark system (more on that below ) . That SSD is free from the bloatware , the only icon on the desktop recycle bin and a couple of shortcuts to get the installer for Anti - Virus ( Microsoft Security Essentials ) or a free Office suite ( OpenOffice ) . The system has a one- year warranty .