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.

8.0

Maingear EX-L 15

The Good

The <b>Maingear EX-L 15</b> is a hugely powerful, and hugely customizable, 15-inch laptop with the latest Intel and Nvidia parts.

The Bad

The painfully generic off-the-shelf body will irritate anyone spending $2,000 or more on what should look like a premium product.

The Bottom Line

With desktop-replacement power in a midsize package, the 15-inch Maingear EX-L 15 is a niche product, but one that largely delivers.

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.