Gaming goes portable with the Origin PC Eon13-S

Can this boutique PC maker stuff enough gaming muscle into a 13-inch laptop?

Origin PC is one of the few boutique PC makers we've come to count on for solid, if expensive, gaming systems over the past few years. But those 15-inch and 17-inch models have been huge, even for midsize and desktop replacement systems, with big, bulky bodies that required at a padded backpack to carry around even semi-comfortably. Now the company has announced a rare 13-inch gaming laptop, called the Eon13-S, which promises great gaming in a much more portable package.

Previous portable gaming laptops, including the 14-inch Razer Blade and the 11-inch Alienware M11X, have all required serious compromises despite their high prices, from low-resolution screens to under-powered components. The just-announced 13-inch Eon13-S, at least on paper, sounds like it will be able to go toe-to-toe with traditional big-bodied gaming laptops, as it features an 1,920x1,080 IPS display, CPUs from Intel's new fourth-generation Core i-series (also know by the codename Haswell), up to an Nvidia GeForce GTX 765M graphics card, and room for three internal hard drives, which can combine both platter and SSD drives.

(Credit: Origin PC)

Not having seen one in person yet, it's hard to get an exact feel for just how bulky the Eon13-S will be. In photos, it look like a thick 13-inch, about what a mainstream 13-inch laptop looked like a few years ago before the ultrabook era. At 4.4 pounds, it's just about the same weight as a 13-inch MacBook Pro (the thicker classic model, not the thinner Retina version).

Having had some excellent gaming PC experiences recently with systems such as the Dell XPS 27, Falcon Northwest Fragbox, and even the Razer Blade, we're eager to test the Eon13-S as a more-portable alternative.

The Origin PC Eon13-S can be ordered starting today, and we'll update this story with price and configuration options when available.