Origin EON17-S Gaming
Eons Ahead: Origin EON17-S Gaming Laptop Set to Impress and turn Heads
Trying to strike the right balance between performance and bulk has always been the central issue for manufacturers of gaming laptops, but Origin have pretty much nailed it with the EON 17-S. Tech gaming experts have been putting the machine through its paces and it seems to be largely getting a thumbs up.
First Impressions
With its flared cover in loud colors, the EON17-S has more than a hint of Alienware about it, which is not surprising since many of the Origin team are Alienware defectors. But lifting the lid reveals a more modest interior, jazzed up with graphic equalisers; a rainbow-backlit keyboard, reminiscent of the MSI GS70, and a backlit Origin logo on the trackpad.
Weighing in at 8.2 pounds (minus the power brick), and measuring 16.2 x 10.9 x 1.8 inches, the EON 17-S is a bit of a beast and you might struggle to fit it into your existing laptop case.
The Spec
On to the figures, and the EON17-S can be built to your specification with a handful of different processors, graphics cards, RAM and storage options, with machines costing just over $1 600 for the most basic configuration.
All laptops ship with a 1920×1080 17.3 inch screen and can take a range of dual- and quad-core Intel processors with speeds of between 2.8 and 3.1 GHz (3.6 to 4.0 GHz with Turbo Boost).
Buyers can choose one of three NVidea GeForce GTX cards, from the 4MB 860M to the 8MB 880M and there are a number of options when it comes to RAM (from 2x2GB to 4x8GB), SSD from 2x120GB to 2x1TB) and HDD (320GB to 1TB) drives.
Pros and Cons
When running a quad-core 2.8 GHz processor and an NVidea GeForce GTX 880M, gamers found that the EON17-S could easily handle most of the games they threw at it, even with the settings maxed out. So in terms of its main function, Origin’s machine comes up trumps.
On the downside, the EON17-S has not quite achieved the portability of the GS70 Stealth, particularly since performance becomes heavily compromised when the mains plug is disconnected and the laptop switches to its integrated Intel 4600 graphics card).
Another criticism from gamers focused on a lack of screen colour depth and excessive brightness, effectively hijacking some of the powerful graphics on display.
All-in-all though, Origin should be pleased with their machine.