Origin EON17-SLX review

The Origin EON17-SLX is absurd in the best sense of the word. It's literally a desktop you can fold up and carry around – that is, if you're up for toting around a 10.5-pound system. All the while, it has barely enough battery life to get through a feature film. But, you can almost forgive those limitations when you sit down and get to work (or play).

We liked

Using the Origin EON17-SLX to its fullest potential and barely running into performance hiccups is a liberating experience. Being able to just play games at their maximum settings willy-nilly takes huge a load off your mind and makes every experience easier to enjoy.

Beyond gaming, I used the 17-inch rig as an actual desktop replacement for several weeks and found it to be more powerful in every way, from running Lightroom that much faster to even editing video in a café.

We disliked

Of course, all that power comes at a cost for the Origin EON17-SLX. Carrying around a 10.5-pound system weighs on you heavily, especially when you'd have to constantly run from outlet to outlet just to keep it on while traveling.

Final verdict

While I love this system for all the power and style it has, I also can't get past its limited battery life. This is also a prohibitively expensive system, well out of the budgets of most gamers who, at this point, are likely thinking of getting a gaming desktop.

It makes almost no sense for any average user – or even most PC gamers – to pick up this system, as it will be absolute overkill. (Though, there's something to be said for future-proofing.)

That said, if you're a hardcore gamer who craves an absolutely baller set up, but barely has enough room for a PC case, this could be an ideal solution. I can also see the Origin EON17-SLX in the hands of professionals who need to create media on the road and might partake in the occasional fragging session.

If anything, the EON17-SLX shows that yes, you can stuff a fully-powered desktop system into a laptop chassis – and surprisingly, it's cheaper than one loaded with the best mobile parts.