It's been a few years since Origin PC updated its EVO15-S gaming laptop: a 4K-resolution OLED screen or a 1080p panel with 240Hz refresh rate or 144Hz refresh rate.

All three are options on the EVO15-S, but frankly, the smart choice is one of the latter two (in my opinion.) The problem with 4K gaming on a 15.6-inch display is two-fold: the resolution of the screen is not as good as the resolution of the screen on the EVO15-S, and the resolution of the screen is not as good as the resolution of the screen on the EVO15-S. It takes a good deal of hardware to get a playable frame rate out of that resolution, and outside of gaming, it's annoying to cram so many pixels into a small space. It's the kind of thing you have to squint at; Windows will happily enlarge icons if you want it to, but not all programs really scale well if they're not designed for 4K.

If you are looking for a rebuttal, Digital Brew provides one, pointing out that 4K has its advantages even on smaller screens (e.g. video editing work).

OLEDs generally look better than LCDs, colors tend to be more vibrant, and images tend to be brighter and clearer. At the same time, we don't know how much of a problem burn-in will be with modern OLED laptop panels, but that's something to consider as well. In other words, pros and cons.

The same can be said for 240 Hz on 1080p panels: taking full advantage of the 240 Hz refresh rate will place high demands on the hardware, but at least 1080p is not super demanding per se (compared to 1440p and especially 4K). In this case, the Origin PC combines an 8-core/16-thread Intel 10th generation Core i7 10875H Comet Lake processor with up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super GPU.

A hardware overview follows:

Prices start at $1,949. This includes a 144Hz display option, GeForce RTX 2070 GPU, 8GB of DDR4-2400 RAM, and a 240GB NVMe SSD; a Core i7 10875H processor comes standard, the only CPU option.

Upgrading to a 4K OLED screen adds $181, and upgrading the GPU to a 2080 Super also adds $679. If you want the 240Hz LCD option, you must bundle it with the 2080 Super upgrade, which adds $575 to the price It will add $575 to the price.

One thing I'm glad to see is that Origin PC hasn't fiddled with the RAM price; if you want to double the 8GB of RAM to 16GB (a sensible choice for a gaming PC), it's only $16 more. Likewise, upgrading to 32GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR4-2400 RAM is $72. Not bad.

That said, this is an expensive machine by any measure. This is especially true as laptops built around AMD's Ryzen 4000 series are beginning to hit the market, like the Asus TUF Gaming A15 that Dave recently reviewed.

Those interested in the EVO15-S can order it now. According to the landing customization page, the configuration will ship in 14-16 business days.