by Origin EVO16-S specifications
Screen size: 16.1 inches
Solution: 1920×1080
Refresh Rate: 144Hz
PROCESSOR: AMD Ryzen 7 6800H
GPU: Radeon RX6650MXT
Memory: 32GB DDR5
Storage: 1 TB NVMe SSD
IO: 1x 3.5mm audio jack, 1x 3.5 microphone jack, 1x RJ45 LAN port, 1x HDMI 2.1, 2x USB 3.2 Type-A, 2x USB 3.2 Type-C
Battery: 80W
Weight: 5 lbs
Price: $1,799
Origin’s latest sleek EVO16-S gaming laptop squeezes in among other heavy hitters in the same price range. It’s slightly more expensive than laptops like the Acer Predator Helios 300 (opens in new tab) and the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (opens in new tab), and it doesn’t significantly outperform them. But the differences are minimal, and for a 1080p laptop with an AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT, the EVO16-S offers a sweet spot if your gaming habits don’t call for a higher resolution and refresh rate.
While the 6650M XT and the Ryzen 7 6800H keep the EVO16-S fed when it comes to gaming performance, the 1080p 144Hz display doesn’t pack a huge appetite. If this laptop was equipped with a 1440p panel or had a refresh rate of 165 Hz or 240 Hz, the charts below would tell a different story. The EVO16-S isn’t tied down with anything absurd or over the top; it’s a gaming laptop for someone who’s not quite sure what they want.
My EVO16-S review unit costs about $1,920. Instead of the standard 16 GB RAM, mine has 32 GB and it also has a 1 TB SSD. It’s a steep price for an AMD-based laptop that mirrors the other options available with Intel’s Core i7 12700H and Nvidia’s RTX 3060. Cutting the RAM and SSD in half can bring the price down to around $1,500. To me, that’s the only price point that makes this laptop meaningful as an alternative, at least if you’re not desperate for a better screen.
I don’t see the need for more than 1080p and 144Hz on a mid-sized laptop unless you’re specifically playing the kind of games that require it. I play an embarrassing amount of Overwatch 2 (opens in new tab) with a 4K 144Hz monitor on my desktop setup. The return to 1080p at the same refresh rate on the EVO16-S wasn’t as big of a downgrade as I expected. Not only did the game run fine on medium and high settings, but the smaller screen size made the transition easier. I had more trouble adjusting to the laptop’s membrane keyboard than looking at it.
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Turn off a few graphics settings and you can easily play a variety of games on it.
The EVO16-S refuses high specs to get a lot out of its modest setup. The RX 6650M XT reached almost 144 fps in many of the games I tested, such as Hitman 3, F1 2020, Overwatch 2, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (opens in new tab). Turn off a few graphics settings and you should be able to play a variety of such games with ease. AMD’s FreeSync Premium also helps smooth out fps inconsistencies.
The RX 6650M XT can’t quite match the power of a good Nvidia RTX 3060 when it comes to ray tracing. In my Metro Exodus RTX test, it didn’t come close to 60fps, averaging 48fps. It doesn’t look great compared to cheaper laptops with better screens on them, but I also can’t imagine anyone wanting to get impressive ray tracing performance out of a laptop at this price point. EVO16-S owners choose to disable ray tracing and FSR on lifestyle. If you want more, you’ll have to spend more.
The EVO16-S’s Ryzen 7 6800H also stumbles when compared to Intel’s Core i7 12700H. In the Hitman 3 Dartmoor test, the EVO16-S came in with a slightly lower average frame rate. You can also see a similar difference in the Cinebench R20 scores. The Ryzen CPU can’t quite keep up, which is likely to have a noticeable impact on processor-hungry open world and strategy games. However, given the EVO16-S’s strengths in everything else, I don’t think it’s a deal breaker.
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My device’s 32GB of DDR5 memory was also in step with the competition. In the SiSoft Sandra test it came out at 42 GB/s. The EVO16-S is no slouch when it comes to multitasking, but I still think you could drop it down to 16GB to save some cash.
The 1TB Gen4 Samsung NVMe SSD in the EVO16-S is also neck and neck with comparable laptops. Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker benchmark results put it at about 11 seconds. I also didn’t encounter any extremely long load times in my tests. Like the RAM situation, I think you could cut this down to 512 GB and not miss much.
Like most of Origin’s gaming laptops and desktops, the EVO16-S looks sleek. Origin allows you to customize the exterior with different patterns for an additional cost, but I wouldn’t do that. The standard black style is what I would prefer in a laptop. The other, technical and futuristic color schemes are way too much for me. Leave it to the full-size backlit RGB keyboard with RGB strips on the front to accentuate it. My only minor complaint about the keyboard situation is the squashed right Shift key that never quite feels right under my finger, but I’ve seen that disappear the more I use it.
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As an everyday laptop, the EVO16-S is a breeze to use. All my tests did not put the fans into overdrive. In the worst case, the CPU reached 93°C (the GPU stabilized around 80°C). Unlike the last Origin laptop (opens in new tab) I reviewed it, the EVO16-S stayed pretty quiet the entire time. Battery life wasn’t an issue either. It made it to nearly an hour and 30 minutes in the PCMark10 test with its 80W battery. That’s about what you’d expect from something of this power. I could easily squeeze a few matches of Overwatch 2, pause for a break, and play a few more without it screaming at me for juice.
The EVO16-S’s dual USB 3.2 Type-A and USB 3.2 Type-C ports, good speaker quality, and light weight (around 5 lbs) make it a well-featured, versatile gaming laptop. However, the $1,900 build I have is hard to recommend. At that price point, it’s starting to fall short of cheaper, more powerful laptops. But if you can sacrifice storage or RAM and can’t see yourself trying to push high refresh rates on a 1440p screen for a game you’re hoping to turn professional in, then it’s a smart choice.
The EVO16-S is the laptop if you really want to treat it like a laptop and not some sort of desktop replacement. It’s for playing a variety of games at respectable settings and a bit more if you have an outlet nearby. If you can go with the $1,500 setup (opens in new tab), the EVO16-S is an impressive laptop that draws its strengths from maximizing what it’s working with, which is its 1080p display. If you’re not spoiled by 4K or your dreams run in 240Hz, this laptop will serve you well.
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