The Medion Erazer Beast X1 certainly lives up to its name. Packed with an RTX 5080, 32GB RAM and a 2TB SSD, there is no way it could be called anything other than a beast. The laptop itself is reasonably heavy and wouldn’t be the best laptop to carry around if you wanted something portable. Not only is it quite sizable due to it being an 18″ laptop, meaning it wouldn’t fit in most laptop bags, but the specifications of the laptop make it quite heavy as well.
Turning the laptop on, I was immediately greeted by the lightshow on the keyboard. The colors were vibrant and very showy, perfect for those who are obsessed with RGB lighting. I was glad to see the option to dim the keyboard if necessary, as it was a little bit too much when using it in the late hours of the night.
Considering how well kitted out this laptop is, I was pleasantly surprised by the cost. While it is still pricey, it is one of the cheaper options available on the market right now, sitting at £2,999.97. While the graphics were stunning, the RGB was flashy and the SSD was plenty spacious for all of those big games, there were a couple of issues I did have with the Medion Erazer Beast X1.
So Heavy It Isn’t Portable
Because of how hefty this machine is in both weight and overall design, it unfortunately loses some of the portability that comes with a laptop. Comparing it to my current laptop, my laptop weighs next to nothing in comparison. Putting the actual weight of it aside, it the bezel is quite thick, and the base of the laptop is chunky. However, it comes with some pretty cool RGB flair along the sides. This is the kind of laptop that is very traditionally made for the gamer, with the amount of shininess and flashy colours. Even the front of the laptop lights up in the Erazer logo itself. The bottom half of the laptop is also quite wide and long, with there being a considerable amount of space between the wrist rest part of the laptop and the keyboard. If you are someone who rests their arms on the laptop, you may find that you’ll have to reach a little bit farther to get to the keyboard than on another laptop.
If you’re someone who is happy to leave your laptop in place on the desk long-term, than this option will be absolutely fine. However, if you’re looking for something to slip into your backpack and take on the go, it may not be the best option. It does fit into bags, but it is heavy and may put extra strain on your body. As someone who is disabled, I struggled to lift this normally, and cannot imagine putting this in a bag for that reason.
In a similar vein, the power cable I received with the laptop was far too short for it to be moved any sort of distance. Even with my plug socket being directly below my desk, the cable wasn’t long enough for the laptop to be put on the desk, which limited where I could use it by a significant margin.
Like An Airplane
It’s known that gaming laptops are typically noisy, and I expect it. However, I wasn’t quite expecting how noisy it was from day one. By the sound of the laptop, you’d think that the CPU or GPU was overheating, and had engaged its fans at a higher speed to try and cool itself down. However, that was not the case. Installing games made the laptop fans rev up, and when I did finally test it out and push it to the limit a bit by playing modded Baldur’s Gate 3, it was extremely loud. So much so, it alerted my family!
If subtlety is what you want from a gaming laptop, you won’t get it from the Medion Erazer Beast. However, if you’re happy to have a laptop that packs a punch and runs games with zero issues, the Medion Erazer Beast is the perfect machine for that. While I’m okay with having a noisy laptop, this one was just a bit louder than I wanted it to be.
Sleek Finish
If you like your laptops to be sleek and streamlined, the Medion Erazer Beast X1 does a fantastic job of that. Finished with brushed metal and a glowing insignia in the middle, it’s very subtle on the outside. However, once you open it up, you are greeted with a very flashy RGB keyboard. Of course, this can be turned off and edited to your liking, so you don’t have to have a full rainbow flashing at you all of the time if that’s not what you like. Although the design is relatively subtle, it still has that gamer feel to it, which is great if you want to show off your flair a little bit.
The laptop is visually pleasing and the screen is stunning. Once you boot up your favorite game, you’ll easily be blown away by the sheer level of detail this laptop can provide at a 2500 x 1600 resolution. However, if you are looking for a 4K laptop, you won’t find it in this one. Despite that, you still have access to a glorious 240Hz, which is perfect if you like to play competitive titles. I tried out Overwatch 2 and League of Legends, and it was silky smooth and made planning my attacks that much easier.
Although the laptop is fitted with the best of the best, I did find the speakers to be rather disappointing. It made sense to me though, as all of the cost is in the graphics card and the CPU. However, I wished that the speakers had a bit of a better sound to them. Instead, using headphones was the option for me.
Overall, I was very impressed with what the Medion Erazer Beast X1 18″ had to offer. If you’re someone who cares about the graphics and the flashiness of your PC, then this laptop is the way to go. However, if you want something streamlined and portable, you may find yourself struggling with this one. While it will fit in a backpack with no issues, it is quite heavy, and may cause some back pain if you have to carry it around for a long duration.
