Origin EON 16SL review: excellent performance with unique customization options

Origin EON 16SL: Two-minute review

It seems like recently, the gaming laptop arms race involves being as bulky and heavy as possible, but the Origin EON 16SL bucks that trend by being one of the few recent gaming laptops that balances both solid gaming performance and a thin chassis to rival some of the best thin and light gaming laptops around. Not only that, but you can even customize the chassis with a wide variety of cool art and colors, which addresses the aesthetic issue I have with most gaming PCs and accessories.

The chassis feels light, but feels like it can take at least one drop without breaking into pieces. However, the 16-inch display is no joke, with the size alone making fitting it into bags difficult even, with the relatively decent weight and thickness. The display itself is a lovely QHD+ IPS (2560 x 1600) screen with a staggeringly high refresh rate of 240Hz, meaning that you should never see a single instance of lag or stuttering.

It also has a great port selection, outfitted with two USB Type-A ports, two USB Type-C ports (one being Thunderbolt 4), one HDMI 2.1 port, one 2-in-1 audio jack, one SD Card Reader, and one Kensington Lock. However, the lack of an Ethernet port is a shame, though thanks to modern Wi-Fi technology, that's not the deal breaker it once was for gaming laptops. I do also appreciate the amount of USB slots, especially on the Type-A side which is something that seems to be lacking more with each passing laptop generation.

The webcam is a standard quality typical of a 1080p camera in a gaming laptop, the type that needs good lighting to project a clear image of you in a conference call, but still has a bit of fuzziness in the image quality. The sound quality is pretty decent as well, though its volume suffers somewhat from having the speakers at the bottom of the laptop. 

For a laptop that’s so thin and lightweight, its performance is quite good. Its RTX 4070 GPU scores textbook benchmark results, putting it right between the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i and the Asus ROG Zephyrus M16, as the former has a 4060 and the latter a 4090. The only odd score was for Night Raid, in which it received a lower score than the Legion Pro 5i. That said, outside of benchmarks, it's able to handle some of the best PC games at the highest settings and still give great performance.

Despite that slight hiccup, its strong performance in other benchmarks translates well to some of the best PC games, including more intensive AAA titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and Dirt 5. Web-swinging in Spider-Man is lag-free with no visible slowdown, a feat owing much to that ridiculously high refresh rate. Ventilation isn’t bad either, but on rare occasions the laptop can go past pretty warm to hot during more intensive gaming sessions. Overall, this is easily one of the best laptops I've reviewed in quite some time.

Origin EON 16SL: Price & availability

• How much does it cost? Starting at $1,949 / £1,763.64 (around AU$3,050) 
• When is it available? Available now
• Where can you get it? Available in the US, UK, and Australia

One of the most refreshing aspects of the Origin EON 16SL is its starting price of $1,949 / £1,763.64 / AU$3,050, which is far lower than most gaming laptops on the market right now. The price for the review unit I received is $2,154 / £1,949.15 (around AU$3,370) though, at the time of this writing, there’s a discount that shaves off a little over $100. And if you max out your RAM to 6GB, storage space to 8TB, and get Windows 11 Pro, you’ll be paying $3,093 / £2799.04 (around AU$4,837). 

These prices assume that you’re going with the base black chassis, but if you want to customize it with preset designs from Origin, that adds on an extra $39.99. And if you’re using a custom design, that costs an extra $100 for the initial laptop and $39.99 for each additional laptop.

The Lenovo Legion Pro 5i is a cheaper laptop but also has worse specs, while many other laptops are like the Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 (2023) and are prohibitively more costly for nearly the same specs (barring the GPU and RAM). Also, Origin throws in a free T-shirt and mousepad with your laptop order, which is pretty sweet.

Currently, the EON 16SL is available for shipping in the US, UK, and Australia as well as many other regions. However, the Origin storefront doesn’t convert pricing from USD to AUD, so you’ll have to let either your merchant of course convert after purchase or convert yourself for the rough estimate. Either way, I converted the rough pricing above for your convenience.

• Price score: 5 / 5

Origin EON 16SL: Specs

The Origin EON 16SL review unit that I received has the following configuration: 16-inch 240Hz QHD+ IPS (2560 x 1600) display, Intel Core i9-13900H CPU, Nvidia GeForce 4070 Laptop GPU, 32GB RAM, and 2TB of storage.

The lowest configuration comes with 32GB RAM and 2TB of storage, with the other specs unchanged. The top configuration features 64GB RAM and 8TB of storage with the other specs unchanged.

Other than the RAM, storage, and whether you have Windows 11 Home or Pro, you can’t change the CPU, GPU, or display in any configuration. However, any configuration can be customized with unique designs.

• Specs score: 4.5 / 5

Origin EON 16SL: Design

• Excellent display and refresh rate
• Amazing customization options
• Thin and light for a 16-inch gaming laptop

What’s striking about the Origin EON 16SL at first glance is just how sleek and thin it is for such a high-powered gaming laptop. Even though it has a 16-inch screen, it’s able to fit quite well into medium-sized bags due to the lower weight and lack of space it takes up, which was rather surprising when I fitted it in my already overflowing laptop backpack. 

Though it initially comes in plain black, you can customize the top plate with some really cool pre-set designs on the Origin storefront or you can even submit your own unique design to use. The pre-set designs are pretty affordable too, only costing about $40, while the unique one is $100. It’s such an excellent way to give your laptop a distinctive look without Origin having to invest in manufacturing different colors ahead of time, a win-win for both buyer and company.

The keyboard and touchpad are solid, with the former having nice-sized and snappy keys and the latter being quite responsive. You can also customize the touchpad to either use each half like a left and right mouse button or simply use the entire pad like any normal touchpad.

Image 1 of 5

Port selection is overall pretty great with two USB Type-A ports, two USB Type-C ports (one being Thunderbolt 4), one HDMI 2.1 port, one 2-in-1 audio jack, one SD Card Reader, and one Kensington Lock. Unfortunately, like many other gaming laptops, this one is missing an Ethernet port, which means there are no wired options for those who need a stable internet connection.

The webcam isn’t amazing, falling squarely in the same-y type of laptop cameras that need great lighting to make images look halfway decent. It’s fine for work-related or casual tasks but for those who want to stream and need something better, just buy a good-quality 1080p webcam instead.

Thankfully the sound quality is much better, which is surprising considering that the speakers are located on the bottom of the laptop. Whether you’re listening to classical violins, a soulful voice, or the music and sound effects from a AAA game, everything sounds crystal clear with very little muddled song at high volumes.

• Design score: 5 / 5

Origin EON 16SL: Performance

• Great performance all around
• Handles AAA titles on maxed settings well
• Ventilation isn't bad

For a light and thin laptop like this one, the Origin EON 16SL’s performance is excellent. It compares well with other gaming laptops, falling neatly in between ones equipped with an RTX 4060 and an RTX 4090 in terms of benchmark scores. Its scores in benchmarks like 3DMark, PCMark10, Cinebench, Geekbench, and more are competitive against gaming machines that cost far more money. 

It also performed competitively in editing benchmarks like the 25GB File Copy, Handbrake, and Crossmark, meaning that it’s also a great fit for those who do creative and video editing work.

Its performance transfers well outside of benchmark testing, even in max settings using ray tracing. For instance, in the newest highest settings ‘Ray Tracing Overdrive’ mode in Cyberpunk 2077, which was added to the latest update, on average the title ran at 67fps. For a demanding and poorly optimized game like that one, anything above 60fps on maxed-out settings is phenomenal. 

Dirt 5, another demanding and poorly optimized game, managed 39fps on average with max-out settings and ray tracing turned on. Other games like Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered saw fps over 100 in any gameplay section at the highest settings and also including ray tracing.

Ventilation is pretty solid for a thin and light gaming laptop, with most gaming sessions staying between warm and very warm. If you do play particularly long and intense gaming sessions, however, be aware that temperatures can reach hot levels on the underside of the machine.

• Performance score: 5 / 5

Origin EON 16SL: Battery

• Solid battery life for a gaming laptop
• Charge time is pretty good

For a gaming laptop in general, the Origin EON 16SL’s battery is pretty good. On average it can net you around six hours of run time, which is much higher than most other gaming laptops, including the more expensive options like the Razer Blade 14 (2023). Both the TechRadar movie battery test and the Web Surfing battery informant test lasted over and almost six hours, respectively. 

When testing out how long it lasts under normal conditions myself, I also found the battery life to last around the six-hour mark. It also has a pretty fast charge time of roughly an hour.

• Battery score: 4.5 / 5

Should you buy the Origin EON 16SL?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Origin EON 16SL: Also consider

If the Origin EON 16SL has you considering other options, here are two more laptops to consider...

Lenovo Legion Pro 5i
A great value in both specs and price, this practical gaming laptop offers an RTX 4060 GPU, a 13-Gen Intel i7 CPU, and solid RAM and storage. It also has a great port selection and lovely display, though the audio is low volume and it suffers from overheating issues.

Read the full Lenovo Legion Pro 5i review

Asus ROG Zephyrus M16
Comparable in both specs and price, this laptop is a lot sleeker and lighter. Its gaming performance is excellent but suffers from a stuttering issue when doing any non-gaming tasks. It also comes with a fun AniMe Matrix mode gimmick.

Read the full Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 review

How I tested the Origin EON 16SL

• I tested this laptop for about two weeks
• I tested the gaming performance as well as productivity work
• I used a variety of benchmark tests as well as high-end PC games to test this laptop.

To test out the Origin EON 16SL I used a full suite of benchmarks to rank both CPU and GPU performance, with more emphasis on the latter. I also tested out frame rate performance on max settings with a range of high-end PC games like Cyberpunk 2077, Dirt 5,  Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, and more.

This laptop would primarily be used for gaming, specifically hardcore gaming. Due to its GPU and high color gamut, it can also be used for creative and editing projects, and its CPU means that productivity work is a breeze as well.

I’ve tested out many laptops, especially gaming ones, which gives me plenty of experience with properly benchmarking them. I also have extensive knowledge of testing out general performance such as framerate and graphics.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed October 2023