Maingear EX-L 15 review: Maingear EX-L 15

If you’re interested in one of Intel’s new Ivy Bridge CPUs, for now the options are limited to a handful of relatively high-end gaming and multimedia machines. That’s because only the quad-core Core i7 versions of the new processors are available now, although that should change by early June, when mainstream dual-core parts will flood the market and quickly become the new standard.

The Maingear EX-L15 differs from most of the Ivy Bridge systems we’ve seen to date in that it’s a midsize 15-inch laptop, rather than a 17-inch desktop replacement. But, unlike the 14-inch Lenovo IdeaPad Y480, this system has nearly all the features you’d expect from a high-end desktop replacement — a very high-end GPU, and a full 1080p display — just in a slightly smaller and lighter package.

At $2,349 for our review configuration (versus $1,079 for the Lenovo), this is just as expensive as an Alienware or Origin laptop, but at least has comparable components. I’m less excited about the generic laptop body — it’s a shell from a company named Clevo, used as a base model by several PC brands (and the same brand Origin uses). For these prices, it’s not the most high-end look around.

That said, Maingear has a well-deserved reputation for building high-end, highly customized gaming machines, and this model delivers impressive performance in a portable package.

Price as reviewed / Starting price	$2,349 / $1,499
Processor	2.7GHz Intel Core i7-3820QM
Memory	8GB, 1,333MHz DDR3
Hard drive	750GB 7,200rpm / 32GB SSD
Chipset	Intel HM77
Graphics	Nvidia GeForce GTX 675M / Intel HD 4000
Operating system	Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Dimensions (WD)	14.8×10.1 inches
Height	1.4 inches – 1.7 inches
Screen size (diagonal)	15.6 inches
System weight / Weight with AC adapter	7.2 pounds / 9.4 pounds
Category	Midsize

Like Origin and other boutique PC makers, Maingear uses slightly customized off-the-shelf laptop bodies, while giving its desktop systems a more distinctive look. The Clevo body here is matte black slab, with a slightly tapered lid. The back panel on the lid is custom, with a subtle Maingear logo etched into it, and there’s a second logo printed over the speaker grille, which sits just above the keyboard.

It’s not an unattractive body, but it’s as generic as possible, and it’s a look that’s several years out of date. With the current trend toward thinner designs made from premium materials, this certainly doesn’t look like a $2,000-plus laptop. It does, however, aesthetically beat the also-outdated current Alienware look of a big plastic box with light-up grilles and dorm-room-chic sensibility.

The keyboard features closely packed flat-topped keys, a look rarely seen anymore — most new laptops have widely spaced island-style keys. The keyboard is shifted to the left to make room for a number pad. It’s a layout found on most 15-inch laptops, but in this particular case, I found it a little too far off-center, and it made for error-prone typing.

Another complaint: the front lip of the chassis has a very sharp edge, which can be uncomfortable if you rest your palms against it. On the plus side, the keyboard is backlit, which is very helpful for late-night gaming sessions.

The touch pad is built right into the wrist rest. It’s slightly depressed, but lacks any special coating or surface, and it’s small for a 15-inch premium laptop. You could argue that this isn’t a problem because any serious gaming laptop would require the use of a separate mouse, but still, it’s yet another non-premium feature. Maingear is at the mercy of Clevo (or wherever else the company could source laptop bodies from) in this area.

The 15.6-inch display is a system highlight, with a native resolution of 1,920×1,080 pixels. That’s what high-end gamers want, and it’s also perfect for Blu-ray or other HD video sources. The display is clear and bright, even with its (very welcome) matte coating. A higher-quality 95 percent NTSC color gamut option is also available for $99, similar to the IPS displays found on some high-end laptops meant for photo and video work.

The branded Onkyo speakers, which include a subwoofer, were louder and deeper than you find on most 15-inch laptops to be sure, but you’ll never get really thumping sound without bigger speakers to push more air.

Video	DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort	VGA plus HDMI or DisplayPort
Audio	Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone/S/PDIF/line-in jacks	Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks
Data	2 USB 3.0, 1 USB 3.0/eSATA, 1 UDB 2.0, SD card reader, mini-FireWire	2 USB 2.0, 2 USB 3.0, SD card reader, eSATA
Networking	Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth	Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, optional mobile broadband
Optical drive	Blu-ray player/DVD burner	DVD burner

Kudos to Maingear for making sure this system is packed with ports and connections. There are three video outputs, DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort (oddly no VGA), and four optical in/out jacks in total. Even more specialized connections such as Mini FireWire and eSATA are included. A very impressive package overall in this area.

This configuration clocks in at $2,349, and includes GPU and CPU upgrades from the $1,499 base model. The base gets you a second-gen Core i5-2520M CPU and an Nvidia GeForce GT 670M GPU. Neither is shabby, but it would make sense to go with a third-gen Intel Core i-series CPU at least. Hard-drive options are numerous, and include standard platter drives, solid-state drives (SSDs), and hybrid drives that combine both (our review model had a 750GB hard drive with a hybrid 32GB SSD cache). The most expensive storage option — a whopping 600GB SSD — adds $1,288 to the base price.

With the high-end hardware in this review unit, it made quick work of our benchmarks, swapping the lead position with another high-end Ivy Bridge laptop, the Origin EON17-S. This is pretty much as fast and powerful as laptops get right now. As the next set of third-gen Intel CPUs that get released will be the slower, mainstream dual-core versions, you shouldn’t look for these numbers to be trumped anytime soon.

The Nvidia GeForce GT 675M is one of Nvidia’s new flagship Mobile GPUs. In our Street Fighter IV test, at full 1,920×1,080-pixel resolution, the game ran at an impressive 162.4 frames per second, beating the new Asus G75VW, but falling well behind the Origin EON17-S (which overclocks its parts). In the very tough Metro 2033 test, at the same resolution, the Maingear ran at 19.3fps. In the brand-new Diablo III, at full 1080p with most graphics setting set to high, the game’s onscreen framerate count usually hovered around 100fps.

My only complaint was that this kind of gaming power seems wasted on a smaller 15-inch display. To fully enjoy Diablo III, I connected the HDMI output to a 24-inch monitor, and added a keyboard and mouse.