Gaming laptops are costly. There’s no method round that reality. With absolute beasts just like the Razer Blade 16 ($4,299), MSI Raider GE78 HX ($2,999) and Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 ($3,699) asking for an sum of money that will make any broke gamer sob, it’s arduous not really feel ostracized by these absurd costs. My latest testing of the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 left me particularly discouraged, as I walked away from a gaming laptop computer with a shoddy plastic make and underwhelming show that requested for as a lot as $3,600.
If any producer is anticipating almost 4 grand out of a client’s pocket, the related product ought to feel and appear premium. It made me marvel if the state of Nvidia’s RTX 40-series GPUs have been so dire that something constructed with them must be anyplace between $3,000 and $4,000. In any case, the RTX 4080 desktop GPU begins at $1,199, whereas the earlier era’s RTX 3080 began at $800.
This monumental worth hike means anybody on a finances will wish to steer clear of the RTX 4080-series and above. As a substitute we suggest taking a look at RTX 4050, 4060 and 4070-series GPUs. And beneath this class sits the Origin EON16-S, a gaming laptop computer that boasts efficiency at slightly below $2,000.
The very best sub-$2,000 gaming laptop computer
The Origin EON16-S might be configured on Origin’s web site (opens in new tab) for $1,977 with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU with 8GB of VRAM, an Intel Core i9-13900H processor, 16GB of DDR5 4800MHz RAM and a 500GB Samsung 970 Evo SSD. Whereas these specs are spectacular on their very own (particularly for a sub $2,000 gaming laptop computer), what makes the EON16-S stand out particularly is the show’s 83.5% protection of the DCI-P3 shade gamut and 326 nits of brightness.
The Origin’s show is considerably higher than our earlier sub-$2,000 favourite, the Katana 15 (46.1%, 248 nits). Each laptops characteristic a RTX 4070 GPU, and though the Katana 15 is simply barely cheaper, the additional advantage of 5 hours and 6 minutes of battery life (in contrast with Katana 15’s 2 hours and 48 minutes) continues to make the Origin pull forward in first place.
The Katana 15 is constructed with an Intel Core i7-13620H CPU which achieved a 11,581 rating on the Geekbench 5.5 total efficiency take a look at, however the EON16-S’ Intel Core i7-13620H managed an unimaginable rating of 14,644. This additionally remained the case in our gaming checks, which put the EON16-S simply barely forward in framerate always.
This was the case in Borderlands 3 (102 vs 99 fps), Far Cry 6 (99 vs 94 fps), Grand Theft Auto V (97 vs 96 fps), Purple Lifeless Redemption 2 (75 vs 72 fps), and Shadow of the Tomb Raider (115 vs 113 fps). Murderer’s Creed Valhalla (106 vs 106 fps) was the one exception, as they have been tied on this occasion. Other than Purple Lifeless Redemption 2, which we take a look at at Medium settings, the aforementioned video games have been examined on the highest doable settings.
This doesn’t imply that the Katana 15 has been rendered ineffective. It’s priced at $1,600 for an Intel Core i7-13620H processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. Should you’re okay with worse productiveness efficiency, worse battery life and a considerably inferior show, that $400 is totally value saving. However should you don’t thoughts the additional $400 {dollars} tacked on, the EON16-S is an outstanding selection.
Backside line
The Origin EON16-S boasts nice gaming efficiency, phenomenal productiveness scores, and highly effective audio bolstered by its stable show. This a lot energy for $2,000 is just a little stunning. However it’s not good.
The EON16-S suffers from a plastic base and lid alongside overwhelmingly loud followers. Should you can look previous these points, it’s the most effective sub $2,000 gaming laptop computer we’ve examined.
