Origin EON17-SLX

It is that time of year, when new kakalabas parts are taken by boutique gaming PC manufacturers and squeezed to extract every drop of enhanced performance and speed out of the hardware in the name of competitive play. At first glance, the Origin EON17-SLX (2014) looks ($ 3,676.34 direct) gaming laptop actually like Origin EON17-SLX last year with a slight spec bump. However, upon closer inspection, it is clear that the never-ending quest for more power pushed the EON17-SLX (2014) in front of the pack, making it our new Editors Choice 'for high-end gaming laptop .

Design
Like most gaming laptop, the EON17-SLX is big and bulky, with a basic black exterior and soft-touch matte finish across the lid. You will not find flashy racing-style paint job Maingear Nomad 17 Ultimate here, though you'll see one cosmetic feature familiar muscle car tail lights. Two back corners are a couple of red lights that glow menacingly ever EON17-SLX is powered on. Sadly, no turn signals.

The keyboard features a backlight with seven colors to choose from and three distinct lighting zones. The touchpad glows and changes color to match the keyboard, but it is a bit different than the others we've seen. Not only the pad has a separate button bar for right and left clicks, most systems these days clickpads Moving to combine buttons with clickable link surface-but it takes EON17-SLX a step further. The button bar is separated from the touchpad by a full half inch, which takes a lot of rudimentary trained. To the right of the touchpad is a built-in fingerprint reader for secure logins.

The EON17-SLX is heavy, weighing 9.3 pounds alone (12.3 pounds with the power adapter bricks) and large, measuring 15.2 by 16.5 by 11.3 inches (HWD). While that is not too large compared to the same size as gaming rigs, like Alienware or Maingear Nomad 17 17 Ultimate, it is still too great for bringing more than other parts of the house.

The EON17-SLX (2014) features a 17.3-inch display with 1,920-by-1, 080 resolution, and while there is a bit of a glossy finish, it does not seem to suffer from the mirror-like reflectiveness I saw the previous iteration. Display along with built-in Onkyo speakers, complete with an integrated subwoofer. The combination sounds great, and further helped with some repairs to the Sound Blaster X-Fi MB control panel.