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00:00Sometimes, you stumble upon a product that just doesn't make sense, and this is one of them.
00:06This is a gaming laptop that, honestly, like, it almost shouldn't exist, because it's better than a lot of other gaming laptops out there,
00:15yet it wasn't made by, like, a huge brand.
00:18Well, it kind of was. This was developed by Intel in collaboration with a few other laptop brands,
00:24and the purpose of this project was to make a gaming laptop, a thin and light gaming laptop,
00:29that was different from what was out there, to make something that they thought was going to be a better experience for the consumer.
00:35And, I mean, they did it. So this is the world's lightest gaming laptop, yet it has one of the biggest batteries on the market,
00:45and it has amazing thermal performance, possibly the best thermal performance I've ever seen in a thin and light gaming laptop,
00:53and it comes at a reasonable price.
00:54Now, the way they were able to achieve this title of the world's lightest laptop is because of the material they've used.
01:00This is using a magnesium alloy for the entire thing, like the chassis, the top panel, the bottom panel, all magnesium alloy,
01:07and it is very noticeable. It's a lot lighter than you'd expect the moment you pull it out of the box.
01:10Now, in terms of just gaming laptops, it is quite rare. I think this is the only one I've ever seen that had magnesium all over.
01:16We've seen this material used on some of the Surface devices and some of the thin and light Ultrabooks,
01:21but to see magnesium used throughout the entire process of a gaming laptop, this is a first for me.
01:28Now, the design of it is more generic-looking. I wouldn't say that I love the aesthetics of it,
01:32but Intel did work with a few brands, so I guess depending on which company you purchased it from,
01:36you're going to have a different logo up at the front.
01:38This particular one is from Electronics. I've covered a couple of their products on my channel before,
01:43but they also worked with dbrand. I think Intel collaborated with them, so they have their skins available for this laptop.
01:49The build quality seems pretty good. There is a couple things I kind of want to draw attention to.
01:54At the bottom of the device, you'll see the speaker grill, and I mean, the location of this speaker grill isn't great,
02:00but you'll also notice beside the speaker grill, there's like a plastic tab or like cutout,
02:05and maybe in the development process, this area was going to be used as a speaker cutout,
02:09and they just didn't end up going with it, so they just covered it up,
02:11but I think this plastic bit here kind of ruins the design line in this area.
02:15It just makes it look less clean, and I honestly think it has this effect to make this product look cheaper than it actually is,
02:21just because of the plastic bits there.
02:23It's not something that's going to affect anything other than just like a visual aesthetic thing,
02:27but it is something I noticed.
02:29Okay, ports. So there's three USB A's, and then there's a Thunderbolt 3 in the back, as well as your AC adapter,
02:34so you get to keep your power lanes out of your way.
02:37There's also an SD card slot, which is nice to see. A lot of thin and light gaming laptops are leaving that out these days.
02:44Okay, on the inside, we have access to a bunch of stuff.
02:48You have your two RAM slots, you can get up to 64 gigs on this thing,
02:51two NVMe drives, your Wi-Fi card, they include Intel's latest Wi-Fi 6 card,
02:56and a big 93-watt-hour battery.
02:58This is the second biggest battery I've seen in a thin and light gaming laptop,
03:02the Aero 15 that has like a 94 or 95-watt-hour battery.
03:06This is close to the legal limit. I think it's like a 99-watt-hour limit.
03:10If you bring it onto a plane, like, you can't fly with a bigger battery than 99-watt-hours.
03:14This is, like, this is right at the cusp of that.
03:17So, it's really cool that something this light has such a big battery.
03:22And in terms of battery life, got a little bit more than seven hours on my regular tests.
03:26So, internally, this thing's done a great job. It's got easily accessed components, easily upgraded components.
03:31I mean, they did a good job.
03:33Okay, let's get to the rest of this thing.
03:37The screen, they have a 144Hz IPS panel.
03:41It's pretty bright, and they've kept the webcam up top, and the bezel's pretty thin on this thing.
03:45This type of screen is not new.
03:47It's kind of the standard at this point in time for high-quality gaming laptops,
03:50but keep in mind the games look really good at this refresh rate.
03:54Okay, the keyboard.
03:55This is a mechanical keyboard,
03:57but don't let that fool you into thinking that it's somehow, like, the best keyboard in the world or anything.
04:03It's an okay keyboard, but you do have to get used to it.
04:06Now, I'm going to spend a little bit more time talking about this keyboard than most of my regular videos
04:10because this type of laptop isn't going to be readily available at, like, your Best Buy or something to test out.
04:16So I'm going to try to convey what this keyboard experience is like through this video.
04:20The keyboard layout is fine.
04:22I don't think there's anything weird about it.
04:24I think that most people will enjoy the layout.
04:26It's the mechanism for each key that makes this experience a little bit harder to get used to.
04:32When you're typing on the keys, there's a little bit of play on each key cap,
04:36and it's not abnormal.
04:37Basically, every laptop keyboard in the world has a little bit of wobble on your key caps,
04:41but because of how this keyboard is designed,
04:44you feel the adjacent keys a little bit more than you would on a traditional laptop keyboard,
04:48and I think it's because it's not a chiclet-style keyboard.
04:51Like, when you're typing, you can't depend on any framing to guide your fingers.
04:55You have to hit each key accurately, and you'll eventually just touch the other keys around you,
04:59so it just feels a little bit different.
05:01I've used keys like this before, but this one was definitely harder to get used to.
05:05Now, that being said, I don't think this is a bad keyboard.
05:07I think most people will get used to it over time,
05:10but it's definitely something you have to spend time with to get comfortable with,
05:13and I think the reason why this whole problem exists is because of the magnesium alloy chassis.
05:19Like, in order for them to have a regular chiclet keyboard,
05:21you need to cut out individual holes for each key,
05:24and maybe on an aluminum chassis, that's a little bit cheaper and easier,
05:27but for the magnesium alloys, maybe it's just too expensive or too time-consuming,
05:32so in this case, Intel just cut out one big rectangle to house the keyboard,
05:36but in doing so, the typing experience is a little bit different.
05:39I don't think it's a bad keyboard, you just need time to get used to it.
05:42Okay, the trackpad, great trackpad, glass surface, it's got good tracking and a nice click mechanism.
05:48Alright, let's talk about performance.
05:50This unit is running an RTX 2070 Max-Q with the 9750H.
05:54It's a very powerful combination, excellent frame rates in games,
05:57and I believe there's a cheaper version that's running a 1660 Ti,
06:01but the thing that's most special about this laptop is the thermal performance.
06:05So, this thing has very low temperatures, and Intel has configured this unit with a negative 50 undervolt.
06:12I don't know if this is, like, a final unit, or if that's the number that they're going to stick with for retail units,
06:17but I've tested this thing out a little bit, you can push it to, like, 120, 130, pretty comfortably.
06:23I think this possibly has the best temperatures of all the thin and light gaming laptops on the market,
06:29and you can even bump up the wattage of the CPU in their software, comfortably.
06:33So, I mean, they did a really, really good job.
06:36Obviously, Intel knows how to design a CPU, and obviously they know what they're doing when it comes to thermal performance,
06:41but I just didn't think that it would come in this form.
06:45Like, you would expect Intel to work with, like, Razer or Alienware or some other huge brand to make something like this,
06:51but they've done it with smaller laptop brands, and I think this product is going to put pressure on the bigger companies
06:57to make something that can compete with this, because this is, like, really, really solid.
07:02Now, this is an abnormally good product, but just because it's so unique, it doesn't make it perfect.
07:09Like, I don't want to oversell this thing by saying, like, you know, everyone should go out and buy this thing.
07:13There are issues, particularly with the keyboard.
07:15Like, I don't... I don't know how much this is going to affect the average user.
07:20I mean, for me, it's not a big issue, but for some people that are more particular or picky about these keyboards,
07:25I could see this being a bit of a deterrent, but I think most people will get used to this pretty readily.
07:29Overall, though, I think Intel did an amazing job on this device.
07:33Like, they just... they nailed it. All the important stuff, they got it done right.
07:36Now, the speakers, I didn't mention them, but real quick, they're located on the bottom.
07:40They don't sound particularly good. If you're expecting amazing speakers, this ain't it.
07:44But otherwise, if you're looking for the other stuff that I mentioned,
07:47and you don't mind a keyboard that you do have to kind of work at to be comfortable on,
07:51definitely check this thing out. So this one is the Mag-15 by Electronic.
07:55It's going to be available from other companies as well, under different names and stuff,
07:58but this one's going to be available on Amazon, and there you have it.
08:02Okay, hope you guys enjoyed this video. Thumbs if you liked it, subs if you loved it.
08:05See you guys next time.