Origin EVO15-S Complete Walkthrough: The Underdog Gaming Laptop

Founded by former executives that left Alienware when it was acquired by Dell in 2009, Origin (named as such because the founders wanted to get back to their origins of creating gaming computers) has slowly become a bit of the underdog in the gaming PC world.

They were kind enough to send me one of their latest thin gaming laptops called the Origin Evo15-S so I figured I’d try and do a complete walkthrough on it for you guys. If you aren’t familiar, a complete walkthrough on my channel is where I try and go through every feature possible on a device, so you guys are better informed should you be in the market to buy one.

Hardware

With that said, there’s a lot to go through, as usual, so let’s start with the hardware.

Screen & Design

The chassis is thin enough at the 0.7″ mark and weighs about 4.3 lbs, so it’s also portable enough. One thing that is a bit unique to Origin (and is a big part of their philosophy apparently) is that ability to customize the laptop case when you order it.

From HD UV prints that have a bit of a 3D effect, to metallic colors, complete themes, you can even do custom laser etching or paint if you want for an additional $50. So you’ve got plenty of options.

The 15.6″ screen is available in 3 options: a 1080P matte IPS display, a 1080P 144hz matte display, and a 4K IPS matte display.

Above the display, we have a 2MP 1080P front-facing camera.

Below it, our integrated SoundBlaster X Pro-Gaming speakers and beneath that, our three-zone customizable RGB keyboard, and precision trackpad with a built-in fingerprint scanner for Windows Hello.

Inside the computer, we have an Intel i7-8750H 6-core processor and an NVIDIA GTX 1070 MaxQ GPU.

For RAM, we have the choice of 2400mhz RAM in 8, 16 or 32GBs or 2666mhz RAM in either 16 or 32GBs.

For storage, we have a lot of choices (see: their philosophy on customization I mentioned).

You have an M.2 SSD choice in 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, or 2TB in PCIe or SATA.

And you get the choice of an additional hard drive in 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, or 4TB in an SSD; 2TB in a mechanical HDD; or 500GB, 1TB, or 2TB in a flash-accelerated hybrid drive.

For connectivity, we have Intel dual band wifi and Bluetooth 5.0.

For the battery, Origin doesn’t list a specific watt-hour size, but they claim it’ll do about 5 hours of video playback.

Software

For software, it can come with either Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro, either way, you’re probably familiar with Windows so we’ll skip going through that and let’s talk about the software that Origin has included that stands out.

First, I just have to say that this has the least amount of bloatware I’ve ever seen on a Windows laptop. There’s the least amount of programs pre-installed, which I appreciate.

Then we have their own software that is used for monitoring the CPU, GPU, etc. as well as control the RGB keyboard colors from a variety of different options.

Performance

Now, I use gaming laptops to edit my videos on since the same components that make these guys good at gaming is the same that makes them good at running Premiere Pro, my video editing software.

So let’s render a video out and see how long that takes.

Now, let’s check how it does in 3DMark’s FireStrike Test so you guys can use that number to compare it to other similar laptops as well.

Conclusion

So for the cons of this laptop for me, the keyboard has a number pad which most don’t, and so you have to get used to typing pretty slanted to the left which I’ve found difficult for me to get used to so far. The bezels feel a bit outdated as does the chassis itself (when compared to all these new higher end material laptops coming out. And battery life wasn’t the best of the bunch of laptops I tested recently.

On the plus side, it is less expensive than any of the other ones out there, since it isn’t the most premium materials. It seems lighter than the others though, it’s infinitely customizable not just in styling (I love this grey lid that matches my logo, by the way) but in nearly every way imaginable and they’re bound to be a configuration that will do what you need it to do.

The performance is on par with the other laptops that are a bit more expensive even if the battery life is a bit shorter and honestly, there’s a part of me that just loves the fact that this company feels like a startup. They feel like the scrappy smaller company that sends the t-shirt, poster, giant wooden crate, and just goes out of their way to try and make each customer feel special. And I don’t know about you guys, but that definitely adds to the appeal of owning one of these for me.

Here’s the best price I could find on the EVO15-S and if you want to check it out further! Let me know what you guys think in the comments below!