EON11-S
Latest
Origin and CUPP wed x86 and ARM in 11-inch gaming laptop, we go hands-on (video)
Well, Origin and CUPP dropped a bit of a surprise at CES this year -- a supercharged 11.6-inch gaming laptop that runs Android 2.3.4 and Windows 7 simultaneously. On the Windows side, the machine is powered by a 2.7GHz Core i7 CPU with 4GB of RAM, a beefy GeForce GT 650M GPU with 2GB of dedicated RAM and a 128GB SSD. On the Android end you'll find a single core 1GHz Texas Instruments OMAP 3730 processor with 512MB RAM, an integrated WiFi radio, and an unspecified amount of shared storage -- nothing too exciting in this day and age, but perfectly adequate for Gingerbread. We got an exclusive first look at the machine. It's a bit bulky and heavy considering the tiny screen size, something to be expected considering the sheer amount of hardware crammed inside. There's no shortage of ports however, with the left side playing host to an Ethernet connector, VGA and HDMI outputs, headphone and mic jacks, as well as a pair of USB 3.0 ports. On the right edge is the power input, a pedestrian USB 2.0 port and a Kensington lock. We like the styling, with its lightly textured platform and soft touch lid. Even the slightly recessed hinge lends the laptop an air of aggression that we kinda dig in a gaming rig. Having full ARM and x86 systems in the same machine opens up a whole bunch of new possibilities. You can do some CPU-intensive image editing in Photoshop, put Windows to sleep, press [Fn] + [Shift] to switch over to Android (and back), then upload that edited picture to Flickr using Chrome while sipping only a trickle of power. Or you can render a video in Windows in the background while checking on your social networks on Android. It's a pretty ideal setup for editors like us. Both systems share the same 11.6-inch 1366x768 display, keyboard and trackpad. If this all seems awfully familiar that's because it is. The x86 laptop is based on Origin's EON11-S and the ARM module is CUPP's PunkThis board, which the company's already demoed for us on a Macbook Pro, a netbook and an x86 tablet. Until now all these devices have been one-off prototypes, but CUPP's partnering with Origin to make the PunkThis board available as an option on the EON11-S. The machine we played with was a pre-production unit using CUPP's single core ARM module running Gingerbread, but the company is working on a multi-core version with Jelly Bean. Origin, on its end, plans to add a touchscreen to the laptop for a better user experience in both Android and Windows 8. Want to know more? Check out the gallery below and hit the break for our hands-on video and the full PR after the break.
Origin PC wants to put you 'in the fast lane' with back-to-school promo, hands you a free SSD
You know how some philosophical folks say that great things always come in pairs? Well, as it turns out, sometimes that is indeed the case. Not content with handing its fans a free trip towards the promised Ivy Bridge land, Origin PC's kicking off its 2012 back-to-school promotion with a couple of solid-state goodies to help you save some time during your every-day computer activities. The deal is quite simple: shell out some cash on one of the outfit's qualifying machines and you've got yourself a gratis 128GB or 256GB SSD -- this, naturally, includes the EON11-S, EON15-S, EON17-S and that beastly GENESIS, just to mention a few. As Origin PC points out, the worldwide deal's limited to one per customer, can't be combined with any other offer and it'll run until there's no more supplies to give. If all that sounds good, then head over to the company's site to get in on it, as well as check out the full list of units involved in the BTS promo.
Origin PC joins the 11-inch, rebadged gaming laptop party, outs the EON 11-S
Last week may have drawn to a close, but the march of Clevo news continues. On the heels of Maingear announcing an 11-inch gaming notebook, Origin PC is throwing its own ultraportable into the ring: the EON 11-S. Though this is a new model for the company (the smallest laptop it's ever sold, in fact), it's not quite fresh to us: this is the same exact Clevo-made notebook Maingear unveiled two days ago, only re-badged under Origin PC's brand and available in a wider range of colors. As far as performance goes, then, that means you can expect Ivy Bridge processors, a 2GB NVIDIA GT 650M GPU, Optimus graphics-switching technology and a battery rated for 6.5 hours of runtime. In Origin PC's case, the laptop starts at $999 (compared with $1,099 for Maingear), though you'll have to head over to Origin's site for a breakdown of what specs you'll be getting at that lower price. (Spoiler alert: adding an Ivy Bridge CPU instantly bumps the price to $1,294.)
