The Maypug laptop is a budget notebook we had high hopes for. We’ve reviewed some exciting budget laptops, including those from SGIN, and they all seem like they’re too good to be true. The idea that you can squeeze decent performance to carry you through a few years at a very reasonable price. But often, when paying less, you’re getting less, too.
With the Maypug, unlike popular brands like Acer and Asus, you’re paying less but getting a little more, in terms of performance, design, and battery life. While it doesn’t compete with the Acer Aspire 5 or Asus VivoBook 15 in performance, it nonetheless gets you numerous ports, a thin chassis, and a nearly edge-to-edge widescreen display. Still, its performance on heavy tasks will remind you of the compromises one has to make to save money.
Maypug Laptop Specs
- CPU: Intel Celeron N5095
- GPU: Integrtaed UHD
- RAM: 12GB
- Storage: 512GB SSD
- Display: 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080
- Battery: 7:54
- Size: 13.96 x 0.78 x 11.1 inches
- Weight: 3.63 pounds
Design
For a cheap laptop, the Maypug laptop is quite a looker. The silver colorways with blacks around the screen and keyboard deck give it a modern and clean look. Perhaps more importantly, it doesn’t show greasy fingerprints. The case is plastic but feels surprisingly solid and the lid doesn’t have too much flex in it. It looks and feels like it should cost much more than it does, and you can’t ask for much more at under $500.
A design touch I like is the slim profile and thin bezels around the screen. It looks snazzy and is pleasant to the touch. At 13.96 x 0.78 x 11.1 inches and 3.63 pounds, the Maypug MYLT1504 is relatively light and compact for a full-sized laptop. A
Maypug offers decent I/O ports with HDMI, 2xUSB 3.0, TF, and a USB Type-C. The physical layout of the ports is ideal, with everything divided on both sides of the base, and not clustered together as you’d find on most budget laptops.
Keyboard and Touchpad
The keyboard is surprisingly one of the Maypug laptop’s strengths. First, it’s very solid, and the keys themselves have a nicely weighted 1.4mm travel with a very good end-stop. The white-on-grey color scheme makes it very legible, but it lacks a numeric keyboard like the one found on the 15-inch Asus VivoBook 15.
Perhaps the only slight drawback is the absence of a backlight – not a major surprise at this price point – and the half-height arrow keys, but you get to live with those. The 105 x 75, touchpad isn’t the biggest you’ll ever find on a 15.6-inch laptop, but it responds impeccably, and the click-actions at the corner are perfectly registered.
Display
The Maypug MYLT1504 comes with a 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080 display with very little bezel on either side of the laptop, with a bit more at the top to accommodate the webcam. But beyond the widescreen look, the display’s dim color profile and weird viewing angles make it an underwhelming device for consuming online video.
The viewing angles are a bit odd, too. You have to look at the laptop at an exact angle – about 100 degrees – to see the display without sheen. The issue affects dark colors, specifically black and gray, and if you use dark mode frequently, it’s hard to ignore. It may prove difficult to use the laptop with the Windows 11 night mode because of this sheen issue. It’s also not very bright, with the Maypug maxing out at 205 nits. The Acer Aspire 5 and HP 15 laptops are brighter, measuring 258 nits and 222 nits, respectively, though even those models are below the industry average of 268 nits. Whichever way you shake it, the Maypug isn’t even remotely meant for a cinematic experience.
Performance
The Maypug laptop packs a 2.9GHz Intel Celeron N5095 processor, 512GB SSD storage and 12GB RAM are quite basic but able for simple daily computing tasks. You can sift through a dozen Google Chrome tabs, plus shuffle through movies and other online media without the fans setting in like they’re ready for takeoff. However, it feels like you can’t do any complex task with the Maypug laptop, but most budget laptops feel this way at first.
The Intel Celeron N5095 processor’s benchmarks show how little the laptop has to start with. It’s a quad-core SoC of the Jasper product family designed for use in budget SFF desktops and laptops. Its performance matches the Intel Core i3-10110u and the AMD Ryzen 3 3200u on multi-thread benchmark scores. This CPU features DirectX 12-capable 16 EU UHD graphics, meaning that it isn’t meant for gaming by any stretch.
None of the features on this machine suggest a high level of performance but should prove sufficient for day-to-day use, and the good news is that the Maypug can run everyday productivity and entertainment tasks with ease. Running a couple of Chrome tabs and a video in VLC won’t cause any problems.
Battery Life
Most budget laptops can last well over six hours on a single charge, and the 38000mWh battery on the Maypug MYLT1504 promises up to 8 hours of juice. With that, it can last an entire school or work day and is well beyond the 6:39 budget laptop average.
If you use the laptop with low brightness and the least aggressive setting in Windows 11’s battery-saving mode, you’ll notice slightly better numbers than most budget laptops. For those on the move or college students who need something affordable, portable, and lasting, this might be the right choice.
Maypug Laptop Review | Verdict
If I were in a rush and needed a throwaway laptop to run a few quick tasks, the Maypug Laptop would be likely to carry me through. It has enough power to run most tasks, it has enough battery life to file words on a college assignment or for the next workplace deadline. But as this Maypug laptop review showed, performance on demanding tasks is underwhelming, but fine for most of us looking for an affordable work or college laptop.
At least it looks more beautiful than even the most affordable SGIN laptop, has plenty of ports, and is very portable. And, if it’s the only choice you have in your arsenal, an external monitor, and a mouse can help with some of its quirks. But if you can swing it, at least consider spending a few hundred more on the Core i5 version of the Asus VivoBook 15 or Acer Aspire 5 for a little more power in the processor.
Recommended Configuration
Acer Aspire 5 A515-56-347N Slim Laptop - 15.6" Full HD IPS Display - 11th Gen Intel i3-1115G4 Dual Core Processor - 8GB DDR4 - 128GB NVMe SSD - WiFi 6 - Amazon Alexa - Windows 11 Home in S Mode,Silver
$320.00 in stock
7 used from $270.00
The Review
Maypug Laptop
The Maypug Laptop (MYLT1504) is a beautiful budget laptop that’s capable of common tasks with much to offer including high-end build quality and design, and lots of ports but the display would be better.
PROS
- Strong value
- Good battery life
- Ample port selection
- Impressively light
CONS
- Dull display
- No keyboard lighting
Review Breakdown
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ARS Guide Score
