So Samsung Has A Gaming Laptop Now

Not content with making every other technology product under the sun, Samsung now has a gaming laptop in its repertoire. It actually sounds pretty good on paper, too, if you want a powerful 15- or 17-inch machine that’ll run double duty for workday tasks and casual PC gaming.

The Samsung Notebook Odyssey uses Samsung’s own in-house components like the 950 Pro M.2 SSD and RAM and a Samsung-made LCD panel for its laptop display, but actually has decent CPU and GPU specs — the crucial element when it comes to gaming. Using a 7th-gen Core i7 processor and Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1050, the Odyssey should be capable of playing modern games at decent visual quality at playable frame rates on the go.

Available as either a 15-inch or 17-inch variant, both with 1080p matte panels, the Notebook Odyssey has shades of Razer Blade in its design, with a little bit of the flair of Alienware’s gaming machines. The 17-inch model doubles the RAM and SSD capacity, and there’s even an old-school turbo button that pushes the CPU to its maximum frequency.

Nvidia’s new 10-series laptop GPUs are ridiculously efficient for the amount of power they have, and although the 1050 is an entry-level part, it’s still much more powerful than the integrated GPU of even Intel’s top Core i7s. This is a machine that’ll monster through any esports title, and at 1080p it should keep up with Titanfall 2 or Battlefield 1-grade games at medium quality with playable frame rates.

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2.5mm of travel on the Odyssey’s RGB-backlit keyboard (the 15-inch uses regular backlighting) should make for decent tactile response whether it’s typing or gameplay. “Carefully integrated heat management” including dual fans, heatpipes and a ‘hexaflow’ vent on the laptop’s base should keep heat output at an acceptable level. The laptop’s RAM and SSD are upgradeable in the future, too. All that’s left to find out is the price.

Early hands on aren’t exactly glowing, but we’ll let you know what we think when and if we get a chance to try one out on the CES show floor. No word on whether the Notebook Odyssey will make it to Australia just yet, though — we’re tracking that information down for you ASAP. [Samsung]