Origin's EVO17-S is very much a laptop. It has the performance to be the best laptop you can get right now, and of course it's affordable and performs superbly; it's the gaming laptop to get if building your own PC or buying a pre-built one is not possible at this time (opens in a new tab). Now that graphics card prices have finally returned to levels like MSRP and availability is starting to become normal again, gaming laptops are not a cheat for powerful PC gaming. Gaming laptops are an option for maintaining mobility and versatility.

The Origin EVO17-S competes in benchmarks with the Razer Blade 17, another gaming laptop from 2022. In my testing, the Origin EVO17-S's gaming performance was nearly identical, with slightly lower ray tracing performance and TK. Neither is a deal-breaker, but at a $3,000+ outlay, these differences seem more important.

My review unit came with the best options listed on Origin's website: an Intel Core i9 12900H, Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti (175W), 16GB of RAM, 1TB NVMe SSD, and a stunning 17.3 screen, all in a surprisingly sleek and lightweight chassis. From the outside, it doesn't look like it has the best hardware, and it's understated with an Origin decal on the lid. If you bring it into a coffee shop, it won't be too obvious that you're tearing apart your ship with the Hardspace Shipbreaker.

The Origin EVO17-S may be perfect for those who aren't interested in a big desktop PC but still want enough power to play the latest games; all of our benchmark tests at 1080p and in Turbo mode showed good results. The Origin EVO17-S actually has a 1440p screen running at 240Hz, but we tested it at 1080p for an accurate comparison with other laptops.

Outside of testing, we played several games without any problems, including "Honkai: Star Rail" beta, "Overwatch," and "Elden Ring"; the added detail on the 1440p screen is great as a middle ground between 1080p and 4k. Unless you play ultra-competitive shooters, I don't see any real reason to need such a high refresh rate other than to make the game smoother. It's certainly a plus, but it's not a feature that makes or breaks this laptop.

The keyboard on the Origin EVO17-S has plenty of space for typing, and the numeric keypad is adequate. The touchpad is large and responds only when needed. I intentionally tried to catch it in my palm when typing, but it refused to do so, so there is no need to worry about losing your aim while using it in a shooting game. While the typing experience is what one would expect from a laptop, it also has the advantage of not getting unbearably hot to use; Origin's EVO17-S can be used comfortably for hours on end, with the fan keeping it stable.

The fan is not a jet engine, but like most high-powered laptops, it is not subtle. At full power, it is loud enough to drown out the laptop's speakers, and trying to use it for heavy gaming without headphones is a pain. Even with headphones, the roar of the fans is not a problem that can be solved by turning up the volume. But it won't help the other staff at the coffee shop you've been out of.

However, the fan noise is very much worth putting up with; the Origin EVO17-S handled gaming comfortably and won our test against the Razer Blade 17. The only caveat is that even in repeated tests, especially the Metro Exodus ray tracing test, it averaged below 60 fps, as it performed fine in the 3D Mark Portal Royal ray tracing test and while playing other RTX games, This could be an odd quirk of performance.

At this price, it's a bit disappointing. More and more games are including ray tracing by default or in post-release patches. If you are going to spend this much on a notebook computer, you want it to at least match its rivals in this type of performance. Nevertheless, this difference is not large enough to overshadow other strong benchmarks for notebooks.

The ultimate factor in any gaming laptop is battery life, and the Origin EVO17-S's battery is no joke. In our PCMark 10 battery life test, which simulates nonstop gaming, the laptop lasted just over two hours. Most other laptops we tested begin to fade after an hour. While that may not seem like a long gaming time, two hours is quite surprising for such a thin and sturdy laptop. If you mix in less demanding tasks like web browsing and YouTube, this laptop will stay alive long enough to keep you away from the charger.

The tragedy of the Origin EVO17-S is its price. A little less storage and a 144Hz screen would bring it down to nearly $3,000. That would be better. Other than that, I don't think you need a laptop in this class if you can play 1080p games on a cheaper rig; the Origin EVO17-S is a great laptop in terms of raw performance and battery life, but it's also overkill for most people . But if you're not most people, the extended battery life is significant. If you're someone who prefers a small gaming PC that can almost replace a desktop PC, the Origin EVO17-S should be near the top of your list to check out.