Gadgetory

what's up guys so last week I was on a plane to Virginia to attend my sister-in-law's wedding and I had brought along my msi gs70 inflate doom to pass the time well much to my dismay the experience was so unpleasant that for the first time in my life I saw the world through the eyes of a console gamer so it got me thinking is it even possible to game comfortably on a plane in the first place assuming of course that you're a pleb like me with standard economy CD immediately I was determined to see how much fun one could have gaming 30,000 feet in the air so in addition to covering Computex in asia which is where i am now i began a side quest to try and create the best airborne pc gaming experience possible during my 13 hour flight from LA to taiwan of course before we can tackle the issue we must first look back at what went so horribly wrong and rude to Virginia to make a long story short it was mostly the laptops fault to its credit the GS 60 makes for a great gaming and editing station but it's 15.6 inch form factor is simply too big and heavy for the dinky fold-out tables you find in coach seating the end result is either major table sag or having the laptop Teeter on the edge of the table like a seesaw when your hands apply too much force since there's also no room for a mouse on the table I put the mouse and mouse pad on one side of the keyboard which actually worked out pretty well if not for its size the GS 60 would still be a poor choice for sky-high gaming in my book due to its shockingly weak battery life the laptop only managed to get around 1 hour and 20 minutes of continuous game time after cutting the court and that was that low to medium screen brightness while many airplanes have AC power for their passengers these days there's still a fair number of smaller aircraft that don't and even the ones that do don't guarantee that their ports will work the AC outlet for my seat to Virginia was completely dead from the moment I boarded so in the end my play time was severely limited by the depressing lifespan of my laptop's battery clearly it was going to take a smaller more power efficient and equally fast device to solve all the issues found with my GS 60 so I procured a razor blade for my second attempt at airborne gaming now while a 15.6 inch screen is too large for plane use no one wants to game on a tiny screen either so I found the blades 14 inch screen to strike a nice balance between screen real estate and portability with a resolution of 3200 by 1800 the IGZO capacitive touch display is crystal clear and pumps outstanding color accuracy in contrast I'm definitely not a fan of the screens reflective tempered glass but fortunately the cabin lights were turned off for most of my flight so I wasn't bombarded with heinous amounts of glare since most of my play time was spent in the dark the chroma RGB backlit keys were a welcome addition with a handful of lighting effects to boot I found key travel to be a tad on the shallow side but the keys are well sized and spaced apart to allow for fluid gaming as with the GS 60 I had to use my mouse directly on the laptop despite its smaller profile in this cramped configuration the blades narrower 10 keyless design brings your hands closer together pointing inward which while tolerable isn't quite as comfortable as having your arms straight out in front of you another thing to consider here is how sharp the laptops industrial design is quite literally after a few hours of gaming I noticed some slight irritation from my wrists constantly rubbing against the super straight edge of the blades housing to avoid any discomfort on your next flight I would suggest grabbing some repositional wrist rests for your laptop I was happy to find working AC ports on the way to Taiwan but the blades battery life certainly offers peace of mind in situations where you're not so lucky at medium screen brightness the laptop managed around five hours of straight doom gameplay a much greater lifespan than the GS 60 which is pretty impressive considering they're both using the same CPU 16 gigs of ram and gtx 970m given the identical specs i benchmarked both laptops to see just how closely their performance lined up in fire strike extreme the blade pushed out a score of 3363 compared to the GS 60 slightly higher 3383 testing doom on high settings at 1080p for more or less the same with no noticeable difference in gameplay experience between the two however while the GS 60 gets pretty toasty under load the razor blade does turn into a slab of molten lava after an hour or so of gaming had I known this going into my flight I would have packed a portable laptop cooler to keep the heat under wraps now apart from the laptop equally important to my air bound gaming experience was my choice of peripherals in the past I've talked extensively about the Logitech g600 2 so I won't dive too deep into what makes it so awesome but the key point here is to use a wireless mouse that prevents cable clutter and interference in an already claustrophobic gaming space just make sure you pack extra batteries or a charging cable and your carry-on also if your pride will allow it the wireless floating nature of gay pads are well-suited for playing use assuming you're not running a game that relies heavily on keyboard and mouse my choice of headphones were the sound Pete's qy7 which is probably underwhelming to some of you hardcore gamers out there but these Bluetooth earbuds were incredibly convenient given the circumstances not only were they much lighter and more portable than a set of cans but not being tethered to the laptop allowed for free movement about the cabin and made getting up out of my seat a whole lot easier one thing that could have made the solution even more enjoyable would have been some noise cancelling action to tune out the planes roaring jet engine and the shrill cries of an infant in distress on a final note there are some things to consider that come with the territory of gaming on a plane regardless of the hardware you choose for starters expect the steely armrests of your seats to take a toll on your elbows after a few straight hours of gaming a working remedy I found was to use some spare shirts in your luggage or request a blanket from the airline for use as a cushion depending on the rigidity of your fold-out table you also might experience some unpleasant table sag from the weight of your arms resting on your laptop again shirts blankets and even pillows can be wedged between your legs on the table to prop it up and improve its overall stability after all was said and done having the right hardware and applying the few pro tips I learned allow me to gain comfortably on the plane for two to three hours at a time while flying coach which i think is pretty good in my book considering that's about how long I game at home before needing a short break moving forward with what I know now it's not unreasonable to think that investing in some wrist pads and finding a practical way to keep the laptop cool could extend my playtime even further certainly a number of sacrifices need to be made when gaming in a seat that rivals the comfort of an electric chair but with the proper devices in preparation it seems you can still find ways to enjoy PC gaming from a sardine can in the sky but what do you guys think let me know in the comments if you've ever made an attempt at in-flight gaming and what the experience was like for you also before you go don't forget to toss me a like on this video if you enjoyed it subscribe to the channel for more tech videos coming really soon and I will see you guys in the next one