Sorry, Super-Earth Fans, There Are Only Three Classes Of Planet
"Earth-sized is the right size for potential long-term life. Much smaller, and it's hard to hold onto a rich, life-supporting atmosphere; much larger, and it's too easy to hold onto a life-crushing hydrogen/helium envelope. Most of what we've been calling potentially habitable worlds out there are simply too large in radius, and hence, with a crushing atmosphere full of volatiles, to be a candidate for life-as-we-know-it in any way at all."
Very interesting article, basically the upper range before you start getting into crushing atmospheres is around two or three Earth masses. Plug in the numbers, assuming similar densities, and the maximum gravity is about 45% more than Earth's.
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