Miniaturing An Ultra-Portable Gaming Beast
The concepts of mobility and gaming realism are at odds with each other. Many enthusiasts think that high-end gaming on a notebook requires at least a 1600x900 or 1920x1080 screen. And most road warriors want to see systems with 12 or 13" displays. Although its internals appear to be fast enough for the high resolutions gamers want, the Eon11-S' 11.6" panel decidedly emphasizes mobility. And we're alright with that because we dig compact machines sporting potent hardware.
Although the system's 1366x768 resolution is commonly used on small Ultrabooks and a number of tablets, it should be even more familiar to anyone with a 720p HDTV (an unnecessary and unfortunate artifact of over-scan adoption). Though we always prefer more desktop space to less, high-resolution panels ask a lot of graphics hardware in order to operate at native settings, and faster GPUs dissipate more heat, necessitating larger enclosures.
A flash media interface slot occupies the left side of the Eon11-S' front lip, though its compatibility is limited to the MMC, SD, and MS formats.
Compact dimensions prevent the Eon11-S from hosting an internal optical drive. In the space where you'd normally find one we instead have a single internal 2.5" hard drive bay. What remains of the notebook's right side exposes a single USB 2.0 port, a power jack, and a Kensington lock connector.
The left side boasts far more connectivity, including gigabit Ethernet, VGA output, HDMI output, audio I/O, and a pair of USB 3.0 ports. A maximum 1920x1080 output resolution over the HDMI connector is valuable for attaching to projectors in a business setting, though we also use it to play games at higher resolutions on an external display.
The Eon11-S' bottom intake vent is perfectly aligned with your left leg if you set this notebook on your lap. That could become a problem if you're gaming on the road, even more so since air blown out of the side vent is also pretty warm. Fortunately, that's an easy issue to solve by simply setting the machine up on a table any time you plan to game.
