In the past, portable gaming meant either lugging around a laptop that was far too large to ever be used on a lap, or ditching the PC entirely for a small handheld device. With the current crop of ultraportable gaming laptops, however, your gaming can really go on the road. Case in point: the Maingear Pulse 14 ($1,699 as tested), a slim, 14-inch system that boasts some impressive hardware in a chassis that's less than an inch thick. You'll give up some of the higher-powered performance seen in monster gaming rigs, but in exchange, you'll get longer battery life and true portability. For gamers on the go, that's an easy trade to make.

Design
While big, chunky designs are the norm among gaming laptops, the Pulse 14 is built for portability. This slim laptop measures just 1 by 13.31 by 9.5 inches (HWD), making it small enough to tote, whether slipped into a laptop bag or tucked under your arm. It's not quite as slim as the ultrabook-like Razer Blade (2013), which measures just 0.66-inch thick, but at 4 pounds, it weighs about the same as the 4.1-pound Razer Blade.

View All 5 Photos in Gallery

That slim design also raises concerns about heat, and the Pulse 14 did run hot during testing. The plastic construction is quite rugged, though there is some flexing when lifting the laptop by one corner or typing with much force. The lid and deck of our review unit came in a glossy-black finish, with black brushed aluminum across the palm rest, but Maingear offers a whole rainbow of color choices for an additional $149.

The 14-inch display has a resolution of
1,920 by 1,080, which is a step up from the 1,600-by-900 resolution seen on the MSI GE40 2OC-009US and the Razer Blade. The screen looks especially good, thanks to an Advanced Hyper-Viewing Angle (AHVA) display, which is on par with an In-Plane Switching (IPS) panel. Though it comes with Windows 8.1, the Pulse 14 lacks a touch screen, which isn't necessarily a liability on a gaming machine, but may prevent you from fully enjoying the more intuitive aspects of the latest version of Windows.

Audio performance leaves something to be desired. Whether it was listening to our usual test tracks or to the sounds in games, the output was flat and lifeless, and the bass almost non-existent. You'll do well to use this laptop with a good gaming headset rather than the lackluster built-in speakers.

The chiclet-style keyboard feels good, but there's no backlight. While that particular feature was likely sacrificed for the interest of battery life, it's a bit irksome that a $1,700 system will still leave you in the dark when the lights go out. The accompanying trackpad is also fairly small, with a chrome-finished button bar that will quickly look grungy from fingerprints and may throw you off your game with the occasional click error. Most gamers will use a separate mouse anyway, but it's still a disappointment.

Features
The Pulse 14 is flush with connectors. On the left side are two USB 3.0 ports, HDMI and VGA outputs, Gigabit Ethernet, and a power connector. On the right are a USB 2.0 port, an SD card reader, and separate headphone and microphone jacks. Inside, the Pulse 14 boasts a Killer e2200 Ethernet card for Gigabit Ethernet, and a second adapter for 802.11n Wi-Fi.