Origin EON16-S review — Great power for less than $2,000

It’s no secret that gaming laptops are getting more and more expensive, and I was beginning to lose hope after testing the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17, a nearly $4,000 gaming laptop that felt cheaply made for its price point. It seems like the high costs of RTX 40-series GPUs mean that the only quality systems would remain nearly four grand. But the Origin EON16-S has proven to me that consumers can still purchase a powerful gaming laptop without spending a fortune.

This isn’t to say that the EON16-S doesn’t share some of the Scar 17’s flaws, as it still suffers from a plastic chassis alongside underwhelming display brightness. While our model was $2,386, the additional RAM and SSD storage does not take detract from how worthwhile its $1,977 model is thanks to phenomenal Intel 13th Gen i9 processing power, solid Nvidia RTX 4070 graphics and a display that is at the appropriate quality for its price point.

Overall, I came away from the EON16-S relatively impressed regardless of its numerous flaws, although its overwhelmingly loud fans give me the most pause. It’s likely to make it on our list of best gaming laptops as a great sub-$2,000 pick when configured that way, so if you can look past a plastic chassis and very loud fans, I’d absolutely recommend it to those who want great power without spending tons of money.

Origin EON16-S price and configuration 

Our review model of the Origin EON16-S costs $2,386 and comes with an Intel Core i9-13900H processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 graphics card, 32GB of DDR5 4800MHz RAM, a 1TB Samsung 990 Pro SSD for its operating system, 2TB Samsung 990 Pro for additional storage and a 16-inch IPS 2,560 x 1600-pixel display with a 240Hz refresh rate.

The EON16-S begins at $1,770 with the same specs except a Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, 16GB of DDR5 4800MHz RAM, and 512GB Samsung PM9A1 SSD storage. Other configuration options include up to 64GB of RAM and plenty of storage choices from Corsair and Samsung. Up to 8TB of Corsair’s MP600 Pro XT SSD are available for both operating system and additional storage, potentially allowing up to 16TB of SSD storage. Up to 2TB of Samsung’s 970 Evo Plus and 990 Pro SSD cards are available for both options as well.

The EON16-S especially blew me away because it can be built with a RTX 4070 GPU, Intel Core i9-13900H, a 16-inch QHD 240Hz display, 500GB Samsung 970 Evo Plus and 16GB of DDR5 4800MHz RAM for $1,977. While this is just barely below $2,000, you’re getting incredible gaming and productivity performance for a great price.

Origin EON16-S design 

Origin boasts a unique style accent that is one of my favorite company-wide laptop design traits out there. On the lid of many of these glorious laptops sits a lovely splash of diverse colors with the minimalistic Origin logo occasionally placed in a spot where it’d be most appropriate. Origin sent us a lid with a gorgeous amalgamation of dark purples, light pinks, bright oranges and pastel blues coalescing in the way boiling magma would. While getting an HD UV Print on the top of your laptop costs an extra $40, that price difference is massively worth it for how much more appealing it makes the thing look.

And like most Origin laptops, lifting the lid reveals that the exciting characteristics of its design pretty much end as soon as the deck comes into view. There is nothing of note here except for a unique rectangular power button with the LED-display being a solid white line that cuts through 90% of the button.

Beyond aesthetics, the EON16-S is hindered by a flimsy plastic lid and a creaky hinge, alongside a base that screams at me when I lift it up just slightly. This thing feels cheaply made, but considering it starts at less than $2,000, it’s not as offensive as it could be.

The EON16-S weighs 5.5 pounds and measures 14.1 x 10.74 x 0.78 inches. The MSI Katana 15 (8.8 pounds, 14.1 x 10.2 x 0.98 inches) and MSI Raider GE78 HX (6.5 pounds, 15 x 11.7 x 1.1 inches) are quite a bit heavier and larger, but the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE (5.3 pounds, 14.1 x 10.3 x 0.78 inches) manages to just barely slip in as the smallest and lightest. 

Origin EON16-S ports 

The EON16-S boasts a decent collection of ports, with more than enough options to make a majority of gamers satisfied. 

On the left side, there’s a USB 3.2 Type A port, a microphone jack and an audio jack. 

There’s a Thunderbolt 4 port and a microSD card slot on the right. 

In the rear, you have an HDMI port, an RJ-45 port, Mini DisplayPort 1.4 and a USB 3.2 Type C port.

Origin EON16-S display 

Boasting a 16-inch IPS 2,560 x 1600-pixel display with a 240Hz refresh rate, the EON16-S’ display is by no means phenomenal. But I was taken aback by its color depth and brightness considering the laptop can be configured with RTX 4070 performance for a little under $2,000. I’m all too accustomed to gaming laptops at this price (and often more expensive ones) cutting costs here, but I was glad to see Origin didn’t this time. 

I watched The Little Mermaid trailer and was glued to the screen as the deep and inky blacks and grays within the dreary bed of clouds appeared during the opening storm scene. The fleet of ships consumed by a fiery blaze that reflected faint light within the raging water looked quite nice. The sudden flashes of lightning caused the screen to overwhelm with color which appeared deep and compelling. However, certain scenes did feel a bit dark, as it seemed as if the slightest filter was preventing a castle shrouded in daylight from being sufficiently bright. 

I launched Elden Ring and as I rode my steed through Liurnia of the Lakes, I was sincerely impressed at how the EON16-S represented the foggy derelict of this enormous, mysterious swamp. The dark green hues of the massive trees alongside the mossy rotting stone structures all pushing upwards from the shallow waters boasted an alluring color depth alongside a gorgeous 2K resolution that made everything look gloriously crisp. 

The EON-16-S did well on our color tests, reproducing 83.5% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. While this is certainly decent for a laptop of its price, the Triton 500 SE (111.6%) and Raider GE78 (115.4%) absolutely blew it away. The Katana 15 (46.1%), however, was far behind the pack, which is especially telling considering these are both sub-$2,000 gaming laptops with RTX 4070s. 

The EON-16S did fine on our brightness tests, managing an average of 326 nits. This is nothing compared to the Triton 500 SE (460 nits) and Raider GE78 (412 nits), but the Katana 15 (248 nits) was once again pushed into last place. This continues to prove that although both the Katana 15 and EON16-S are similar laptops under $2,000 with RTX 4070 performance, the former is completely overshadowed by the latter’s solid display. 

Origin EON16-S audio 

The EON16-S’ speaker system is surprisingly full and punchy, offering crisp and powerful sound that enhances the immersion of my gaming and music listening sessions. This is one of the few cases where purchasing one of the best gaming headsets or best computer speakers isn’t necessary, but it can’t hurt to take a look. 

I listened to “Donkey Show” by Model/Actriz and was gripped throughout its runtime, from the opening atmospheric hums to the explosive percussive bangs and clanging that occupy the latter portions of the track. Each part was loud and packed a punch, with the clearness of each instrument and the vocalist particularly shocking me.

I then listened to “Pork Soda” by Glass Animals and was equally compelled. The opening crowd shouting along the low background vocals sounded great even when making its abrupt shift into the electronic synths. The layering remains consistent with each instrument audible alongside the vocals, but it never feels flat with a solid foundation of bass that gives it a tangible power.

I launched Elden Ring and was actually shocked at how loud the laptop was. For a moment I even considered lowering the volume as the menu music blasted at me, which is always a good thing. The way the laptop’s speakers handle music and atmospheric ambience sounds wonderful and sufficiently clear, but sharp noises like clanging footsteps and sword strikes were a bit too bassy.

Origin EON16-S keyboard and trackpad

Oh goodness, my greatest foe makes its return: The overly small shift key that has the up arrow rudely taking its rightful place. Considering the Origin EON16-S boasts a full keyboard with all of the number pad keys, it was probably inevitable, but I’m not a big fan of this design, as I often use the right shift to input the alternate functions of the number keys. 

Outside of its practical feel, the EON16-S’ keyboard has a strange appearance that is comparable to when you edit an image in Photoshop and stretch it vertically without keeping the ratio intact, making the text appear overly tall in an unnatural manner. While this is really just a stylistic font choice, it’s not a good one. I’m also unimpressed that the LED backlight only offers 15 colors without per-key config (and it doesn’t get very bright).

I took the 10fastfingers typing test and achieved a score of 99 words per minute with an accuracy of 93%. This is pretty far below what I can normally do, which is likely due to how small every key is here. While I do like small keyboards, the EON16-S’ might be a little too tiny due to how many keys they crammed into this deck.

The 5.9 x 3.6-inch touchpad is sufficiently sized but the traction isn’t smooth enough. Pressing down and dragging always causes my fingers to come to a periodic halt. This isn’t a big deal for a gaming laptop, as most users will stick to a gamepad or mouse, so we recommend investing in the best gaming mouse if you’d like to play without issue. 

Origin EON16-S gaming and graphics 

The EON16-S is packed with a Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 graphics card with 8GB of VRAM, making it sufficient when handling moderately demanding games. This level of performance is a perfect balance between budget and power, allowing the user to play AAA games with solid graphics without spending a fortune. 

I launched Elden Ring and as I walked throughout Liurnia of the Lakes I remained at a consistent 60 fps at 2K resolution with maximum graphic settings even while strutting through one of the most demanding parts of the game. Relaunching the game after putting the ray tracing up to Maximum lowered that to 40 fps as I walked throughout this area, which is still pretty good considering how demanding Elden Ring ray tracing can be. 

The Borderlands 3 test had the Origin hit 102 fps on Badass, 1080p settings, and although the Triton 500 SE (77 fps, Nvidia RTX GeForce 3080 Ti) and Katana 15 (99 fps, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070) were a step behind, the Raider GE78 (153 fps, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 GPU) pulled ahead. 

On our Assassin's Creed Valhalla test (Ultra, 1080p), the EON 16-S managed 106 fps. The Triton 500 SE (79 fps) performed worse, but the Katana 15 (106 fps) had an identical framerate (which isn’t surprising considering the Origin and Katanahave the same GPU). 

While the Origin did pretty well on our Far Cry 6 test at Ultra, 1080p for 99 fps, the laptop was unsurprisingly a step behind the Raider GE78 (121 fps). However, the Katana 15 (94 fps) couldn’t quite match up to it. 

The EON16-S’ consistent performance remained, with 97 fps on our Grand Theft Auto V test (Ultra, 1080p). The Triton 500 SE (114 fps) was a step ahead, while the Katana 15 (96 fps) was pretty much on par. 

The EON16-S offered solid graphics performance on Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition on High (99 fps), Ultra (78 fps) and Extreme (49 fps). The Katana 15 (91 fps, 74 fps, 48 fps) performed just a bit worse, although still quite good overall. 

Red Dead Redemption 2 on Medium at 1080p had the Origin land at 75 fps, causing it to pull ahead of the Triton 500 SE (71 fps) and Katana 15 (72 fps). To no one’s surprise, however, the Raider GE78 (115 fps) was far ahead of the pack. 

While the EON16-S did pretty well in our Shadow of the Tomb Raider at Highest, 1080p with 115 fps, the Raider GE78 (177 fps) completely demolished it. The Katana 15 (113 fps) didn’t stand much of a chance, either. 

Origin EON16-S performance 

Our EON16-S is built with an Intel Core i9-13900H processor, 32GB of RAM, 1TB SSD and 2TB SSD of additional storage. With this configuration you’re looking at an ultra powerful laptop that can handle demanding tasks with ease. Even if you were to drop this thing down to 16GB of RAM with 512GB of storage, the base model still comes with that phenomenal processor.

On the Geekbench 5.5 overall performance test, the EON16-S’ multi-core score of 14,644 was mind blowing and demolishes the category average of 9,441. The Katana 15 (11,581, Intel Core i7-13620H) and Triton 500 SE (14,155, Intel Core i9-12900H) were left in the dust, but the Raider GE78 (21,063, Intel Core i9-13950HX) was unstoppable with its productivity performance. 

The EON16-S converted a 4K video to 1080p resolution using the HandBrake app in 3 minutes and 46 seconds, putting it ahead of the category average (4:39), Katana 15 (5:04), Triton 500 SE (4:32) and Raider GE78 (4:08). 

It was no surprise that the EON16-S absolutely demolished our file transfer test, duplicating 25GB of multimedia files in 15 seconds for a 1,819 megabytes per second transfer rate. This was expected considering it is built with the Samsung 990 Pro, which is not only one of the best SSD brands out there, but this model is particularly fast. It obviously outdid the Katana 15 (784MBps, 1TB SSD), Triton 500 SE (1,280MBps, 1TB SSD) and Raider GE78 (1,488MBps, 2TB SSD) without a sweat. 

Origin EON16-S battery life 

The EON16-S boasts battery life that could be better, but it’s relatively decent, lasting a total of 5 hours and 6 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test, which involves continuous web browsing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits. 

This is a little less than the category average (5:38), but it’s better than the Katana 15 (2:48) and Raider GE78 (2:33). However, the Triton 500 SE (8:19) came out of the woodworks with surprisingly long-lasting battery life. 

Origin EON16-S heat 

The EON16-S was a little warmer than expected during our non-gaming heat tests, with its hottest point being 100 degrees Fahrenheit at the vents on the underside. Otherwise, the touchpad (79 degrees) G/H keys (93 degrees) remained relatively cool. This wasn’t quite as well in our gaming tests, with the hottest point on the 8 key hitting 117 degrees. The underside (107 degrees) and G/H key (110 degrees) were uncomfortably warm as well, but the trackpad (76 degrees) remained cool. 

Beyond just physical discomfort, The EON16-S sounds like a jet engine. It didn’t even require me playing a game for its fans to go into overdrive, as having Elden Ring downloading made it go absolutely berserk. And when I did launch Elden Ring, that issue persisted with the sound of the fan nearly overpowering its loud speaker system. 

Origin EON16-S webcam 

The EON16-S boasts a 1080p camera that actually isn’t bad. While it does look a little grainy, the colors appear moderately appealing with the pink of my wall and white of my ceiling coming through without being over or under exposed. Additionally, my red shirt appeared the correct hue and the little details of my room didn't vanish.

Regardless, if you want a particularly high quality webcam, we recommend checking out our best webcams page.   

Origin EON16-S software and warranty 

The EON16-S has Windows 11 installed alongside typical Microsoft software, some apps from Intel and a very basic control center from Origin.

That control center lets you choose between 15 keyboard backlight colors, see statistics of your computer, modify keyboard macros and change the battery charge options. There’s really not much to see here, but there is the addition of Intel Graphics Command which offers options for display and color, video, system, support and preferences.

The EON16-S comes with a one-year limited warranty.

Bottom line 

It’s unfortunate that a laptop costing nearly $2,000 is what's required for great performance, but the EON16-S' handles it well. With superb 13th Generation Intel Core i9 processing power and solid RTX 4070 graphics bolstered by a quality display and speaker system, it’s shocking that Origin has gotten this laptop under $2,000.

While our model was pushed over that price threshold due to additional SSD storage, that component is unnecessary for it to be as impressive as it is at this price. Even when factoring in the underwhelming plastic lid and base, uninspiring deck design, overwhelmingly loud fans and lacking display brightness, the EON16-S has a lot going for it. If you’re willing to spend quite a bit extra for a superbly powerful gaming laptop, we recommend the MSI Raider GE78 HX. Otherwise, the EON16-S is a great budget pick.