Other than the Alienware M11xr3 ($1,099 direct, 4 stars), 11-inch gaming laptops have been hard to come by. That is, until now. Eurocom, known for its customized gaming and workstation laptops and desktops, offers the Eurocom Monster 1.0 ($1,605 direct), an 11.6-inch powerhouse that weighs a little under four pounds and delivers formidable frame rates and Core i7 processing power. It doesn't look like a gaming laptop, however, and it doesn't offer the kind of battery life that you'd expect from a laptop of this size, but the Monster 1.0 is packed with the latest technology and is our Editors' Choice for ultraportable gaming laptops.

Design and Features
The Monster 1.0 is based on Clevo's W110ER chassis and measures 11.5 by 8.3 by 1.5 inches (HWD). It weighs just 3.96 pounds, making it one of the lightest gaming-class laptops to hit our labs (the Alienware M11xr3  weighed in at 4.5 pounds). Design-wise, the Monster 1.0 looks more like a business laptop than a gaming rig. The smudge-resistant lid sports a rubbery, matte, black finish with a tight, textured pattern and a shiny silver Eurocom logo in the center. While not unattractive, it lacks the edgy look of the M11x.

View All 8 Photos in Gallery

The 11.6-inch display has a resolution of 1366 by 768 and a glossy coating that helps give colors some pop but is very reflective (Eurocom also offers a matte screen with this model). Viewing from side angles was decent with only a touch of color shifting beginning at 40 degrees from dead center, but if you tilt the panel forward, the picture washes out and colors lose their pop.

The chiclet-style keyboard is firm and surprisingly easy to type on given its size. You won't find any cool lighting effects here like those found on the Alienware M11x, however, nor will you find any special gaming keys. The touchpad and wrist rest share the same rubbery finish as the lid, which means you don't have to worry about wiping away those pesky fingerprint smudges. The touchpad provides smooth cursor control and the mouse buttons are responsive and relatively quiet.

The left side of the ultraportable holds VGA and HDMI video outputs, two USB 3.0 ports, two audio jacks (headphone and microphone), and an Ethernet port. On the right side is a single USB 2.0 port and the power jack, and there's a 9-in-1 card reader embedded in the front edge of the chassis. A set of small speakers are sufficiently loud but muffled as they are located on the underside of the chassis. However, you can utilize the included Creative THX TruStudio Pro software to tweak the audio settings to your liking. The Monster 1.0 also includes a webcam (embedded in the upper screen bezel), integrated Bluetooth and wireless n connectivity, a 120GB solid-state drive, and graphics with Nvidia's Optimus technology. Eurocom covers the Monster 1.0 with a one-year parts and labor warranty and offers two-year ($165) and three-year ($295) extension plans.

Performance
It may be small in stature but performance-wise the Monster 1.0 lives up to its name. Powered by Intel's 2.7GHz Core i7-3720QM (Ivy Bridge) processor and 8GB of DDR3 system memory its PCMark 7 score of 4,273 destroyed the Intel Core i7-based Lenovo IdeaPad Y480 ($1,000 street, 4 stars) (2,610) and even edged past the MSI GT783-625US ($2,599.99 direct, 4 stars) (4,099), a significantly more expensive 17-inch class gaming laptop. The Monster 1.0 also made short work of our Handbrake test, encoding our test file in a speedy 1:14, which is a few seconds faster than the Y480  (1:17) and around twice as fast as the Alienware M11x r3 (3:33). On our Photoshop CS5 test, the Monster 1.0 scored 4:05, finishing ahead of the Alienware M11x r3 (5:23) but the Lenovo Y480 came out on top (3:20).

The Monster 1.0 uses Nvidia's Optimus auto-switching technology to toggle between the integrated Intel HD 4000 GPU and the more powerful Nvidia GeForce GT 650M discrete graphics controller. With the Nvidia GT 650M, the Monster 1.0 delivered impressive frame rates on our gaming tests. Its 3DMark 11 Extreme score of 726 couldn't match the MSI GT783 (1,056), which uses a more powerful GTX 580M GPU, but its Crysis DX10 scores were only off by a few frames per second. The Monster 1.0 managed 85.7 frames per second (fps) on the medium quality (1024 x 768) test and a very playable 39.3 fps on the high quality (native) test. The GT783 scored 97.3 and 41.3, respectively. The Monster 1.0 beat the Alienware M11x r3's Crysis score medium quality by 30 fps and the Lenovo Y480's score by 17.3 fps.

On our Lost Planet 2  DX9 gaming test the Monster 1.0 gave us frame rates of 64.1fps (at medium quality) and 33.7 fps (at high quality), beating the Alienware M11x r3 (which scored 39.9 fps and 20.6 fps, respectively) and the Lenovo Y480 (49.9 fps and 24.1fps) handily. Not surprisingly, the MSI GT783 took top honors with scores of 132.8 fps (medium) and 44.1 fps (high).

The Monster 1.0's 6-cell 62Wh battery gave us just 3 hours 30 minutes of juice on the MobileMark 2007 battery test, which is relatively short for an 11-inch laptop. In fact, that's almost identical to the MSI GT783, which has a 17.3 inch, 1,920-by-1,080 screen. The Lenovo Y480 (4:48) lasted an hour and 18 minutes longer than the Monster 1.0, but none of them could touch the Alienware M11x r3's time of 8:03.

Conclusion
If you're tired of lugging your 12-pound desktop replacement gaming laptop to and from LAN parties or just want a highly portable laptop that offers game-worthy performance, the Eurocom Monster 1.0 has you covered. It may not be the coolest looking laptop out there, and you won't get as much time between battery charges as you will with other 11-inch laptops, but when it comes to performance, it truly is a Monster and is our new Editors' Choice for ultraportable gaming laptops.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:
Check out the test scores for the Eurocom Monster 1.0

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Eurocom Monster 1.0 with several other laptops side by side.

More laptop reviews:
•   Lenovo ThinkPad X280
•   Acer Spin 3 (SP314-51-38XK)
•   Dell Latitude 3490
•   Huawei MateBook X Pro
•   HP Spectre x360 15 (2018)
•  more