Maingear 13.3" Clutch 13 Ultraportable Notebook
Battery Performance
We mentioned earlier that we were quite impressed with how sleek, slender and light the Clutch 13 is. Here's why. Rather than using a 6-cell or 9-cell battery like many 13.3" ultraportables, Maingear includes room for only a 4-cell battery. There's no extended battery option either; if you need more than 2-3 hours on a charge, you'll need to carry around a spare 4-cell battery. Even with screen brightness set to 50%, Wi-Fi / Bluetooth turned off and a power-saving SSD under the hood, we only managed 2.5 hours of life on a full charge. BatteryEater Pro is our go-to testing program, which continually loops a graphic and taxes the CPU the battery runs dry.
There's no other way to say it: Ouch! Most notebooks and ultraportables that cost $1100 or less last longer than the Clutch 13, and part of the reason for buying such a compact machine is because of its presumed mobility. While the design is highly mobile, having to find a power outlet after only 2-3 hours of use isn't ideal. It's hard to say if we would have rather had a thicker, heavier machine with a 6-cell battery, but there's no doubt that we're displeased with only 2-3 hours, regardless.
There's no other way to say it: Ouch! Most notebooks and ultraportables that cost $1100 or less last longer than the Clutch 13, and part of the reason for buying such a compact machine is because of its presumed mobility. While the design is highly mobile, having to find a power outlet after only 2-3 hours of use isn't ideal. It's hard to say if we would have rather had a thicker, heavier machine with a 6-cell battery, but there's no doubt that we're displeased with only 2-3 hours, regardless.
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