Maximum PC - UK (2020-03)

WITH SO MANY BRANDS, such as Asus

and MSI, dominating the gaming

laptop landscape, it’s exciting when an

unfamiliar name comes along. Granted,

Maingear isn’t a no-name company—

the boutique system builder has been

around since 2002—but it’s entering the

notebook arena for the first time with its

Element and Vector laptops.

The model tested here is the retail

version of the Element, which is slim,

sleek, and weighs barely over four

pounds, with a bezel of just 0.25 inches.

The tenkeyless keyboard also helps

give the Element its slim dimensions.

The keys themselves are very square

and packed tight, leaving more room

at the bottom for a larger than average

touchpad—but they also respond quickly,

thanks to the lightweight, optical silent

switches. For “silent” switches, though,

they are surprisingly loud and clicky.

Also, it took this reviewer a while

to adapt to the compressed keyboard

layout, being used to the spaced-out keys

of something like the Lenovo Legion Y740.

Several hours of typing on the Element

were required to get accustomed to the

keyboard, and it might be a little too

compact for anyone with large hands.

Specs-wise, the Element comes with a

ninth-gen Intel Core i7-9750H processor,

an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q

graphics card, 32GB of DDR4-2666 RAM,

A new gaming laptop enters the

ring, and it can box all 10 rounds

Maingear Element

8

VERDICT Maingear Element

ELEMENTAL Sleek design;

competitively priced; runs

decently cool.

MENTAL Max-Q graphics card; loud fans;

no 1440p or 4K option.

$2,300, http://www.maingear.com

SPECIFICATIONS

Processor Intel Core i7-9750H

Graphics Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q

RAM 32GB DDR4-2666

Screen 15.6-inch 1080p IPS 144Hz

Storage Intel 2TB NVMe SSD

Ports

2x USB 3.1 (Gen 1) Type A,

1x USB 3.1 (Gen 2) Type A,

1x USB 3.1 (Gen 2) Type C/

Thunderbolt 3, HDMI 2.0,

mic-in, headphone-out

Connectivity Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX 200, Bluetooth

5.0, Gigabit Ethernet

Weight 4.1lb

Size 0.8 x 9.2 x 14.0 inches

and, while many other high-end gaming

laptops opt for less than 1TB of primary

SSD storage (usually with a secondary

HDD), the Element has a 2TB NVMe

SSD. This model also features Wi-Fi 6,

one Thunderbolt 3/USB Type C port,

three USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports, an HDMI 2.0

port, a current-standard Ethernet port,

separate mic and audio jacks, and an SD

drive—plus a glass touchpad. It checks

all the boxes and then some.

Given the total list of specifications, it’s

not surprising that the Element is priced

at $2,300, which is in line with competing

notebooks. It would be more competitive

if it ditched the Max-Q graphics card,

but that would come at the expense of

the notebook’s slim, compact design.

Switching over from balanced to redline

gaming mode only gave each game a

5fps boost—and spun the fans so fast the

Element could have been the first laptop

to achieve flight. That small boost isn’t

worth potentially wearing out the fans

faster or overheating the system, but

even while pushing each game to its max,

the laptop stayed reasonably cool.

On ultra graphics, Division 2 cranked

out 65fps, Metro Exodus hit 46fps (ray

tracing off), and Tot al War: War hammer II

managed between 67fps and 75fps.

Comparing other benchmarks to another

of our reviews, MSI’s GS75 Stealth, the

synthetic benchmarks are not terribly

different. The GS75 scored 15,873 in

3DMark Fire Strike, while Maingear’s

Element scored 15,344—completely

in line with what you’d expect when

comparing the RTX 2070 Max-Q to the

RTX 2080 Max-Q. While this notebook is

capable of handling demanding games, it

comes at a slight cost to the frame rate.

Dropping the graphics quality to high or

medium pushes Metro Exodus into the

60fps range, for instance.

As for the battery life, the Element has

many other laptops beat when it comes to

normal productivity and streaming video.

At just over eight hours of life, you won’t

need to plug this laptop in until the end of

the workday. When it comes to gaming,

though, the Element lasted just over

two hours—enough time for a few quick

matches in Overwatch.

Put the Element next to the usual

names from the best gaming laptop lists,

and you’ve got something just as well

designed, reliable, and competitively

priced. It checks all the boxes one would

expect from a gaming laptop of this

caliber. We’ve been impressed by the

quality of Maingear’s desktops in the past,

and can now say the same thing about one

of its laptops. If you prefer your laptops

small, light, and thin, give this one more

than a passing glance. –JOANNA NELIUS

Our gaming laptop zero-point is the Acer Predator Triton 500, with an Intel Core i7-8750H, Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060

Max-Q, and 16GB of DDR4-2666. All games tested at 1080p at the highest graphical profile.

BENCHMARKS

ZERO-

POINT

Cinebench R15 Multi (Index) 1,030 1,172 (14%)

CrystalDisk QD32

Sequential Read (MB/s) 3,374 1,676 (-50%)

CrystalDisk QD32

Sequential Write (MB/s) 2,530 1,926 (-24%)

3DMark: Fire Strike (Index) 13,610 15,515 (14%)

Rise of the Tomb Raider (fps) 92 96 (4%)

Total War: Warhammer II (fps) 62 72 (16%)

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon:

Wildlands (fps)^49 50 (2%)

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

in the lab

76 MAXIMUMPC MAR 2020 maximumpc.com