Eurocom launches the X8100 Leopard

Comes with dual HD5870’s or single GTX 480M

IF YOU’RE THE kind of person that doesn’t mind lugging around a 5.6kg/12.32lb 18.4-inch notebook – not taking the 220W power brick into account – just to have the bragging rights of owning what is potentially the most powerful notebook in the world, then The Eurocom X8100 Leopard is for you.

Eurocom is known for its feature laden notebooks and early announcements when it comes to the latest pieces of kit, some of which aren’t even available for purchase. In this case Eurocom’s press release talks about mobile Fermi; better known as the GeForce GTX 480M which Eurocom is expecting to have in stock by next month. Good luck with that one.

This monster notebook will also be offered with a pair of ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 MXM modules in CrossFireX mode, or a selection of current Nvidia solutions in SLI. At least the X8100 uses a standard mobile CPU and this time around Eurocom has jumped the gun on the Core i7-740QM, 840QM and 940XM, all of which have, as yet, to launch.

Other features include up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, up to four hard drives, although the fourth drive would replace the optical drive – or alternatively up to 512GB SSDs – all of which can be configured in various RAID modes up to RAID 5. Display options include 1680×945 or 1920×1080 resolution, both options with a glossy coating.

One can’t but help to laugh at the standard battery – which co-incidentally is the only option – for this beast of a machine, as Eurocom only supplies a 4-cell battery with the X8100. It’s rated at 4650mAh or 68.82Wh, which we’d guess would last just about long enough for you to boot up the machine before it runs out of power. Ok, that might be a little bit harsh, but it’s not too far from the truth.

The X8100 does have a pretty comprehensive array of ports though, including four USB 2.0 ports, of which one is a combo eSATA/USB port, a FireWire port, a full-size DVI port, HDMI out and supposedly even HDMI input, a Gigabit Ethernet jack, four audio jacks for 7.1-channel support, optical S/PDIF (via one of the 3.5mm jacks), a memory card reader and an ExpressCard 54 slot.

Oddly enough, Wi-Fi isn’t part of the standard spec; instead it appears to be a cost option. A range of 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi options are available and so is a very costly Bluetooth 2.0+EDR option at $72. A finger print scanner for biometric security and eight “G” keys, or programmable keys next to the keyboard are included as standard though.

Above the keyboard is a touch sensitive area which gives you quick access to functions like volume control and wireless antennas. The keyboard itself is of the chicklet type, although considering the size of the X8100, we can’t say that we’re amazed by the keyboard layout. The trackpad also looks quite small, although the blue light around does looks rather good, at least on the picture.

The distinct wedge shape of the chassis doesn’t really appeal to us either and at 439x299x44mm or 17.56×11.96×1.76 inches if you prefer, this is by no means in the portable territory, even if you didn’t mind the weight alone. The starting price for the X8100 is a “mere” $2090 – excluding OS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth of course – add a few features here and there and you soon reach $10,000 without even trying very hard, especially with a larger sized battery. We like customizable notebooks, but we wouldn’t consider the X8100 even if we had the money, as a notebook should be usable without having to stay plugged into a wall socket, right?S|A

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