Origin PC EON15-S Review: A Svelte, Sensibly-Priced Gaming Laptop

It was not that long ago when the idea of buying a gaming laptop meant spending a heavy premium versus a desktop setup. That was always a tough pill to swallow, because for the most part, there was no way to upgrade critical components like a GPU, down the road a bit. What you got is what you would have to live with for the life of your laptop. That latter restriction remains today but now, more than ever with more powerful mobile platforms, gaming laptops can offer a reasonably good return on investment. That is certainly true of the EON15-S from Origin PC, the 15.6-inch frag-ready notebook we're looking at today.

With a starting price of $999, the EON15-S is not an expensive gaming laptop out of the gate. Granted, it can become pricey if ticking every upgrade box that is available, but even with a few modest performance bumps, the cost does not get out of hand. As configured, the system that Origin PC sent us to review checks in at $1,363, and that includes a $41 upgrade to a wooden crate for added protection while in transit. If you get rid of that shipping amenity (we are not real keen on this upgrade option since the onus ultimately falls on Origin PC to ensure the system arrives safely), you are looking at a sensible expenditure of $1,322.

Part of the reason the EON15-S is comparatively affordable (in the realm of boutique gaming laptops) is because each configuration sports an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti. That is a mid-range GPU from NVIDIA's Pascal architecture. You will not be connecting the EON15-S to an external 4K display and gaming at that resolution, but for pushing pixels around on this laptop's native 1080p panel, the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is a suitable bang-for-buck selection. And while that is the only GPU option in this laptop, for gamers with a little more coin to spend, the EON15-X picks up where the EON15-S leaves off.

The configuration Origin PC sent us also includes an Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor, which is a four-core chip with eight threads and 6MB of cache. It has a 2.8GHz base clockspeed and can ramp up to 3.8GHz as needed. This is flanked by 8GB of DDR4-2400 RAM (2 x 4GB). For storage duties, Origin PC slapped a 250GB Samsung 960 EVO NVMe M.2 SSD in this thing and paired it with a 1TB Seagate FireCuda hard drive. It is a solid combination of hardware that balances price with performance, while being careful not to sway too far in either direction.

We will get to the build quality and how this system actually performs in just a moment, but first, let's have a look some other key specifications.

Origin PC EON15-S Specifications & Features

Beyond the core components, this is a pretty standard configuration with on-board 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, and a decent selection of ports. One thing that stands out, however, is the fingerprint reader. Biometric security is not always found on gaming laptops, especially ones that start at $999.

Not shown here, but worthy of kudos, are the upgrade options available to buyers. It is not uncommon for vendors—and especially boutique builders—to slap a premium on faster or more capacious components. For the most part, Origin PC avoids doing that here. For example, doubling the amount of system memory from 8GB to 16GB costs $60, which is reasonable. And if you want to go from 8GB of "Origin PC Approved" DDR4 memory to 16GB of name brand (G.Skill) RAM, the cost is $61.

Now let's take a look at the build quality...