ORIGIN PC EVO17-S Laptop Review: Powerful, Thin GeForce RTX-Powered Gaming
Origin PC EVO17-S Review: Battery Life, Acoustics, Thermals And Final Analysis
Battery Life - How We Test:
Our custom HotHardware video loop test takes a 1080p HD video with a 16Kbps bit rate and loops it repeatedly, with 1 minute break intervals in between. A timer log file increments minutes of up-time, every minute -- along with the grand total -- before system shutdown is stored and logged. This is a lighter-duty test that is still a bit more strenuous than many office productivity tasks. During the test, we keep Windows 10 Quiet Hours enabled and the display has been calibrated with a light meter on pure white screens to as close to 115 lux as possible. For the average laptop this is somewhere between a 40 - 60% brightness setting. Because laptop displays significantly affect power consumption and battery life, it's important to ensure a level playing field with respect to brightness of the display for battery testing. And, since many laptop displays vary in brightness at each respective setting in Windows, this calibration with a meter is critical to ensure all displays are set to as near identical brightness output as possible, before running battery tests.
There's a lot of high-end hardware crammed into the Origin EVO17-S and that means it's going to require a lot of power to do it's thing, even in light duty workloads like this. That means the small 62 Wh battery included isn't going to last long when the system is unplugged. For us the machine was able to run for nearly an hour and a half and that's not while gaming. If you're gaming your up-time is going to be even less. Just remember to keep that power cable handy.
Origin PC EVO17-S Acoustics & Thermals
When it came to acoustics the Origin EVO17-S was actually relatively quiet for the most part. Both the CPU and GPU have their own dedicated fans that operates between 2000RPM and 5500RPM. Since each has it's own fan, only the CPU fan needs to be ramped up in certain workloads when you're not gaming. Under these circumstances the system remained relativity quiet. While gaming though, and having both fans running at their top-end threshold, the system could get quite loud. This comes with the territory for this class of gaming notebook though, and it takes a lot of air movement to keep both the CPU and GPU running cool.
This wasn't our first rodeo with the Origin PC EVO laptop series, but seeing as it's been nearly a year since we crossed paths with one, a lot has changed. In that time, NVIDIA and Intel have both launched a new generation of hardware and since this model employs the latest and greatest from both chip heavyweights, we were intrigued to see how much of a performance boost we would get. As it turned out, on some levels the delta was not that much. At least when it came to processing power. Intel's 9th Gen chips are a Coffee Lake refresh and while the architecture is the same, there are small clock speed bumps offering smallish gains. The only real difference between Intel last gen Core i7-8750H processor and the current Core i7-9750H is the latter has a larger cache and a slightly faster clock speed. As for the EVO17-S' graphics performance, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q delivered notable gains and them some. It may be pricey, but it's one hell of a GPU for gaming, especially on an FHD with a 144Hz refresh panel.
The EVO17-S is a stylish laptop that sports thin bezels, a customizable exterior and is actually relatively svelte, considering what's on board. At 16.4-inches and 5.5 lbs it might not be everyone's idea of thin and light, but it does offer a lot of performance in what we'll call a relatively trim package. There are a lot of laptop brands on the market these days, but it's not everyday we receive one that's as customizable as the EVO17-S is. Sure you only get two processor options, but beyond that there are three graphics cards to chose from, sixteen memory configurations and twenty five different solid state drives. With the range of configs available, you might say there are options for any budget, but seeing as the base configuration starts at $1,864 USD, not everyone can afford this boutique menu's price of entry, and that's just the base model. The unit we were sent for testing costs nearly $2,700 USD.
Beyond its premium price point, there were only two real complaints we could levy against the Origin EVO17-S; It has a relatively small battery and the keyboard placement is off center. As a gaming laptop, the internal processing engines consume a lot of power and as a result need a large battery for even basic level up-time. The included 62 Wh battery just isn't enough to keep the machine running for over an hour and a half, so you'll be tethered to the wall more often than not, even for lighter duty Netflix workloads. Origin's keyboard placement with the EVO17-S also takes a bit of getting used to. This machine includes a full numeric keypad on the right side of the keyboard, that shifts the main keys to the left. Its track pad is also shifted to the left for a more natural, ergonomic feel, however. For the most part the design works, but it's different compared to many laptop keyboards, so your muscle memory might struggle for a day or two, while you adjust.
Regardless, in general, the Origin EVO17-S really impressed us. It offers desktop-like performance in a relatively small package and does so in style with solid industrial design, materials and build quality. It's on the expensive end, but any laptop with this much horsepower is going to cost a few extra pesos and within its 6 pound frame there's desktop class performance to be had.
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