A review of the Tuxedo Pulse 15 (Gen 1).
In this review I’m mainly comparing it to my previous Tuxedo laptop so here are the specs for that so you can see what I’m comparing it to:
I’m a web developer who occasionally plays games like Pillars of Eternity, Stellaris and X-Com but mostly am using it for watching videos and developing. I have no idea about hardware really and never use things like RAM monitors and such so if you want a review stress testing the Pulse this probably isn’t the review for you! It’s more like a review for a normal user who occasionally plays games.
I also travel a lot so I was looking for a laptop that is light, but powerful and had USB-C charging. The Pulse meets my requirements admirably and also has the specs to play games - though probably not the latest FPS games!
I don’t use external monitors so have no idea how ideal the Pulse is if you want this kind of setup.
One of my requirements was more RAM, I'm starting to some times get low on RAM especially when developing Flutter apps and runnning Android emulators. As I wasn't sure how much RAM the Pulse's iGPU would use, I went with 32GB of RAM. I would have been happy with 24GB but this wasn't an option. A larger SSD was also a requirement as I'm running out of space on my current laptop. I chose a 1TB Evo Pro.
The box it came in is matt black with a recess in the middle that runs all the way around it - a bit like a rectangular Death Star. It looks and feels like a premium product, a great improvement on the box that my InfinityBook came with.
In the box there is also a USB stick for reinstalling the operating system as well as a mouse pad, two pens and various other things.
When I first removed the laptop I was surprised how light it was, I really was expecting it to be heavier, in fact I would guess that it is slightly lighter than my previous laptop (Tuxedo InfinityBook 13 Gen 2 from 2015).
It is a black/dark grey magnesium alloy - everywhere I believe except around the display, and there isn’t much of that. The bezel is really very small, even at the bottom of the display.
There aren’t really any sharp corners, everything is rounded off and feels nice to the touch. The lid logo is dark black and very subdued, there is no Tuxedo logo on the inside of the case which is nice. Fortunately there are no stickers on the keyboard frame, but if you like these things there are Ryzen stickers included in the box.
This is the thing that surprised me the most. Compared to my 13” laptop it really isn’t much bigger.
It powers up quickly and is silent. The screen is very bright and I’m happy to say it has no light bleed. I maxed the brightness but found it too bright so I left that at around 50% (all videos and images of the screen in this review are also at mid brightness level).
This was the one thing I was worried about as I’m mostly using my laptop for programming on.
My InfinityBook has a chiclet keyboard and so does the MacBook that I use for my day job (sorry - they insist, I would have preferred Linux). When looking for a laptop I wasn’t sure if I would like the keyboard on the Pulse as it looked like a keyboard on an early 2000 era laptop.
Luckily I can report that it is really great to type on, and the backlight has only one setting. Unlike my InfinityBook, the Pulse’s light fades up and down when switching on and off more like a MacBook which is nice.
The backlight doesn’t bleed too much, and seems pretty consistent across the whole keyboard with the exception of the hash key which seems to be slightly brighter than the other keys - I guess an LED is right underneath it. The printing on the keys is great and there is no blurry printing on any of them. There is a kind of soft glow around the keys which took a while to get used to, and it made the keyboard look blurry at first but after a few hours I didn't notice this problem any more.
There are no issues with the keys and within an hour I was used to its feel. At first I touched the wrong keys as the layout and spacing are slightly different from what I have been using.
I do miss a function key to turn the backlight on and off but it is something I can live with (someone pointed out that Fn + Space turns the light on and off). The caps lock key has an LED so, unlike my InfinityBook, I can actually see when caps lock is on.
Unlike with the infinity book there is a Function lock (Fn + Esc) which is useful when just watching Netflix or Amazon Prime as you can easily control brightness/volume by pressing just one button instead of having to hold down the Fn key.
I’m afraid I never really use these so can’t say much about it except that there is an LED in the top right corner that comes on when the touchpad is off. You can toggle it on and off by double clicking the LED. There are no buttons so you get a large area to swipe around on.
When not doing much the laptop is cool and quiet. I’m just using the default profile in the ControlCentre that was configured when I received the laptop, I haven’t had any reason to change this yet.
I haven’t felt any real heat from the laptop even when playing games, although admittedly I haven’t tried playing for a long time yet. I also need to develop but I imagine the fan will start then from time-to-time - even my MacBook does this and so did the InfinityBook.
When just watching YouTube or Netflix there is no fan so you can watch films in peace. When there really is no ambient noise I can sometimes hear a slight clicking sound which doesn’t really bother me. I’m not sure what this is or if it can be stopped but the InfinityBook did this occasionally too. I have since discovered the cause of this is the USB ports when on battery.
This laptop would be perfectly usable in an office environment and wouldn’t bother anyone who was working nearby.
Charging via USB-C works well with my 87W Apple charger but I plan on getting my own USB charger for this. The battery life is amazing and will certainly be useful when travelling.
They seem perfectly fine to me. I don't listen to music, but watch a lot of youtube/netflix and have no complaints about it. Maybe if you listen to music regularly or make music you may find them lacking. I guess if sound is that important to you though you probably already have external speakers.
Unlike my InifnityBook the function keys to control the speakers are on the f1-f3 keys which is nice because they are inline with the function key (next to the tux key). This means I can control the sound with one hand instead of needing two like with my InifnintyBook.
This was also surprising. On my InfinityBook I can only play games at reduced resolution with many graphics options off. With the Pulse I could play Pillars of Eternity 2 Deadfire on full resolution and all graphics options on their default without experiencing any slow down/lag and the fan barely comes on! This is even on large boss fights with many effects happening at once. I shall be trying other games soon like Verdun, X-Com and Pathfinder - Kingmaker and will update this review when I know more.
I tried several games, many were completely playable at full resolution and no changes to the graphics settings:
- Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
- Pillars of Eternity
- Verdun
- Pathfinder - Kingmaker
Some were playable but mentioned that my GPU was not up to spec... I played anyway:
- Tannenberg (Verdun 2)
Still to try:
- X-COM (Should be OK)
- X-COM 2 (If Tannenberg works I expect this to as well)
- Stelaris (Should be OK)
- Masters of Orion (Should be OK)
I haven't had any need of headphones, that is how quiet it is when playing. I could imagine long sessions playing Tannenberg may require them but I haven't had time to invest that kind of time yet. I could play several hours without charging, barely audible fan and no discernable heat. All of the above mentioned games play well without any real lag or fan noise... this really is an amazing iGPU!
What is odd is that the laptop doesn't really get hot or turn on the fans much even when playing games like Tanneberg. Strangely the fan makes more noise installing the games than actually playing them.
The following videos are not great quality and trying to play verdun with 1 hand whilst holding my mobile in the other gives the impression that there is lag when there isn't. It plays really smooth.
Note Videos Removed
Video - Deadfire
Video - XCOM2
Video - Verdun 1
Video - Verdun 2
I order Ubuntu 20.04. Unlike 20.04 that you can download from Ubuntu, the Tuxedo version has the Tuxedo logo. As I ordered Ubuntu and not Tuxedo OS I would rather that the Ubuntu logo appeared rather than Tuxedo's when starting and they also added desktop icons to the desktop which I dislike. Maybe they could leave Ubuntu as close to stock as possible - but this is not so important.
There was no Ubuntu Snap store (but snapd is installed), just Gnome's and a KDE store. I'm not sure if 20.04 comes with the Snap store or not (maybe this only comes in 20.10) but I did expect it to be installed, but this can easily be added via the terminal.
The Gnome Activities hot corner was also turned off, I re-enabled this via Gnome Tweaks. This is so useful and the wave effect looks cool! Why was this switched off?
There was also lots of software installed that I didn't want or expect. A lot of KDE stuff and free games. There was even some duplication like a KDE terminal and KDE System Monitor when Gnome already has these. I would rather that Tuxedo had not installed this stuff, maybe they should provide an unistall script for this stuff.
I repartitioned the drive via a Live USB stick and moved /home to it's own partition. It would be nice if this was an option when ordering. There was also a swap partition which I didn't think Ubuntu needed anymore. I have no idea if this is better than a swap file, but maybe Tuxedo prefer it.
The backlight sometimes fails to come on and a reboot is required.I think maybe I toggled it off with Fn + Space- My new Logitech MX Vertical mouse would stop working periodically when connected via Bluetooth - with USB it is fine. I have no issues with the mouse on my MacBook or InfinityBook so I assume this is a Pulse issue. Maybe this would also be fixed by using Ubuntu 20.10, but I’m not sure. My InfinityBook uses 20.10 and has no issues with Bluetooth.
The biggest problem is that the Webcam seems to be low resolution and unuseable. See: https://www.reddit.com/r/tuxedocomputers/comments/l75bjj/pulse_webcam_laggy/This has been fixed by installing mpv - see the reddit thread.Luckily I don’t actually use webcams much so I hope that this will get fixed with a driver update or BIOS update by Tuxedo.
- Very light-weight
- USB-C charging!
- Bright screen
- Nice keyboard that isn’t too noisy
- Very quiet and cool
- Games are actually playable at full graphics settings without getting hot or loud (at least the games that I play)
- Could be used in an airport/aeroplane/train or office without bothering anyone. On a plane or train even with the fans on, nobody would hear it.
Webcam appears not to work correctly. This is my biggest issue right now.This has been fixed by installing mpv - see the reddit thread.- No function key to switch off the display
- There is a slight very quiet ticking/pulsing noise but this can only be heard in complete silence
- Would have like more USB-C ports instead of the older rectangular USB ports
- Bluetooth issues
I read in other reviews of the pulse that the keys are buckled or not printed well and someone even had a bent case. I can report that I have none of these issues. I would recommend this laptop to anyone, even people who play games - but if you are a real hard-core gamer who needs to play the latest games at maximum graphics settings you would probably be better off with the Tuxedo Polaris or similar.
The Pulse has exceeded my expectations - it is beautiful, looks and feels like a very premium laptop and it is amazingly powerful. I would certainly buy future generations of this laptop. I would suggest for future generations that Tuxedo should:
- Only have USB-C ports
- Remove the SD card reader - does anyone still use these?
- Consider using a chiclet keyboard
- Provide the option of buying a USB-C charger, either instead of or in addition to a normal charger
- Provide an uninstall script for the additional software that you install
- Add an LED for FNLOCK
NB: I plan on updating this review when I have used the Pulse for longer - especially when I have played games for longer. If you have any questions post them as issues in this repo or on the reddit thread.
A small update after nearly 2 and a half years.
I hadn't used the laptop for a month when I was on holiday and came back to find the laptop would not boot. Secure boot was enabled for some reason (Tuxedo disables this but by default the BIOS sets this to on) which prevented boot.
After a few months this happened whenever the laptop was off for more than about 20 minutes.
I contacted Tuxedo and they asked me to switch the webcam off in the BIOS and see if it became enabled. This wasn't an issue as I almost never use it any way.
Sure enough it did, this is also the default BIOS config. Tuxedo kindly sent me 2 new CMOS batteries and after installing everything worked well.
There are 2 rubber strips that run the width of the laptop, one at the front and one at the back of the rear of the laptop. The back strip was starting to peel off, I guess due to heat as the front strip is fine.
I contacted Tuxedo asking about what kind of tape to use to stick it down and they said they could send me a new backplate. I was happy as part of the dark finish had come off at the corners, but I think my 2 year guarantee was over so was surprised to get a new cover for nothing!
The new plate even came with serial number stickers that the old one had so I didn't need to transfer them. I was very impressed with the customer service here.
Although at the beginning I mentioned that I don't use external monitors, I now have one - mainly due to Corona and working from home.
I bought a Dell Ultrasharp 27" display and it works well with the pulse.
The only issue I sometimes have is that there is random white dots/speckling that sometimes appears on the display. I have a 50cm HDMI cable that the Pulse 15 page mention you need but this still occurs.
I'm pretty sure this is some how related to the pulse, but as I don't know much about hardware I can't say what the issue is. I have a Macbook from my employer for my day job and it does not have this issue when using the display with the same HDMI cable.
The keyboard has been great, I still would prefer a chiclet keyboard like my old InfinityBook had but it is good to type on and the larger keys are nice.
So far, none of the printing has worn off, but due to the wide gaps around the keys dust does accumulate which doesn't look so nice.
Also recently the space, a, and p keys seem to stop working, I have to blow dust out and then then they seem to work. But it keeps happening so I shall watch this issue in case the keyboard is failing.
Tuxedo seem to have made changes to the Control Centre and since then the keyboard backlight has issues including now only have 2 levels (on and off) and not remembering the state after suspend/sleep.
Issues with backlights are something others reported too.
The only issue I have here is that the light is sometimes not on, even when the touchpad is off. Again this is something that appears to randomly occur.
A problem I have often had is that charging stops whilst charging and it is then not possible to charge any more, neither with the barrel charger nor with a USB-C charger.
When this happens I have to keep the laptop on until it powers itself off. I then connect my phone via the USB-C port to charge so that the remaining charge drains from the battery.
About 10-20 minutes after this happens I can turn on and recharge the Pulse. This is frustrating but I haven't found any other solution and Tuxedo do not know the cause as it is too intermittent. I did see one other post from someone else with a pulse on Reddit who had the same issue.
I'm very pleased with the performance, and it is an amazing laptop. I'm also impressed by Tuxedo's customer service.
Gaming is great on the laptop and I like not needing headphones for this. There are only 1-2 games I would like to play but can't but in a few years I shall be looking for a new laptop and can wait.
I would certainly be interested in future generations of the pulse.