Eurocom makes the ultimate stealth gaming laptops. This Canadian-based computer maker is known for their high-powered gaming laptops that typically come in cases suitable for an office. The Eurocom Tornado F5 Gaming Laptop is a perfect example.
Recently I had a chance to test out the Tornado F5, Eurocom’s newest gaming machine in their SuperGaming “desktop laptop” line. It combines desktop-class components, all housed within a sleek 39 x 26.6 cm laptop chassis. By looks alone, you’d probably never guess the immense power that’s contained inside. With Eurocom though, I’ve learned to not judge a (note)book by its cover.
Eurocom Tornado F5 Design
The Tornado F5 has an elegant, yet modest design. Its back cover and palm rest are made from a thin aluminum alloy, which is smooth to the touch and feels great. The laptop’s bezel and bottom case have a matte finish and are firm to grip, which makes handling the machine easy.
On the laptop’s case, you won’t find any design accents whatsoever; the lid doesn’t even have Eurocom’s logo. However, there is one stand-out design feature: its impressive backlit keyboard. There’s a huge spectrum of colours to illuminate your keys with, and the colours are clearly visible even in a bright room.
Using the included KLM (Keyboard LED Manager) software, you can also define colours in three sections of the keyboard, as well as turn on effects like pulsing lights or left-to-right colour waves. I spent a lot of time tinkering with the backlights, and especially loved how they looked when gaming.
Eurocom Tornado 5 Specs
If you want desktop-quality specs in a compact gaming laptop case, the Tornado 5 has you covered. Inside you find a high-end suite of components powerful enough to run the latest, and most demanding video games. It includes a 4GHz (overclockable to 4.2GHz) Intel Core i7 quad-core processor, 16GB of RAM, and a NVIDIA GeForce 1070 graphics card with 8GB of dedicated video memory.
Eurocom Tornado F5 Specs
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These specs generally far exceed the “minimum specs” required to play the newest games, and in most cases also exceeds the optimal “recommended specs.” To test the Tornado 5’s performance in live situations, I played a variety of games from different genres. These include Forza Horizon 3, Halo Wars 2, Killer Instinct, Battlefield 1, and Resident Evil 7: biohazard. You’ll find captured video footage of many of these games in my video review embedded near the top of this article.
Eurocom Tornado 5 Performance
For each game, I sampled a variety of video settings to see how they impacted the Tornado 5’s performance. Impressively, performance remained consistently smooth across all games, even at max settings.
For example, in Forza Horizon 3, I used the following settings:
- Resolution: 1920 x 1080
- Frame Rate: 60 FPS
- Motion Blur: On
- Dynamic Optimization: On
- Dynamic Render Quality: Ultra
Even with those high performance demands on the machine, Forza ran buttery smooth the whole time. I was particularly impressed with how fast the laptop was able to render different environments as I whizzed past them at 130MPH. Textures were crisp and clear too, right down to individual leaves on trees, and tire marks left on the asphalt. Forza also features a lot of different effects, like water splashes and tearing up dirt road, and here again the visual results exceeded my expectations.
For Killer Instinct, I also used the highest video settings with excellent results. Combat ran at a fast 60FPS, and the 1080p resolution looked noticeably better than the 900p I was used to on the Xbox One version. Character models were finely detailed and looked incredible, while the battle arenas had a nice vibrancy and depth to them. Most visually stunning though were the particle effects with sparks flying across the stage whenever fighters made contact.
Eurocom Tornado F5 Input/Output Ports
Ports are in good supply on the Tornado F5. The left side contains a Kensington lock hole to secure the laptop, as well as audio ports including line in, line out, microphone, and headphone/SPDIF-out.
The right edge of the chassis has a built-in card reader that can read various types of memory cards, including SD/SDHC/SDXC. There’s also two high-speed USB 3.0 ports, and a third USB 3.0 port that doubles up as a Super Charger USB port for charging Apple devices. For iPhone and iPad users, this is a nice touch.
At the back is where you’ll find the most connector ports. From left-to-right we have: an RJ-45 Ethernet connector, a USB 3.1 Type C port, an HDMI 2.0 connector, a Mini-DisplayPort, and a four-pronged power connector. What’s neat is that using the HDMI port you’re able to output to a 4K display running at 60Hz.
On the front of the laptop, you’ll find five LED status lights: activity indicator, WiFi on/off, battery status, Caps Lock, and Num Lock. Many notebooks these days forego the LED indicators, so seeing them here is a welcome addition.
Eurocom Tornado F5 Keyboard
The Tornado F5 features a full keyboard, including number keys on the far right. It’s an “anti-ghosting” keyboard, meaning it is able to detect when multiple keys are pressed at once, a feature crucial for gaming. I like the spacing of the keys—there’s a couple of millimetres between keys—and there’s a nice spring to them after being pressed. I also like that the keys are chiclet-style with rounded corners and straight sides. This shape provides great tactile feedback, enabling you to find keys easily in the heat of battle.
Eurocom Tornado F5 Battery Life
An 8-cell Smart Li-Ion battery powers the Tornado F5. It’s benchmarked at 130 minutes of use on a single charge, however for my testing this was closer to 150 minutes. During this time I used the backlit keyboard, and the majority of my time was spent gaming. If you turn off the backlit keyboard and perform less demanding tasks, you’ll likely be able to squeeze out even more time. While I’ve seen slightly longer battery life in other gaming laptops, 150 minutes is very respectable and sufficient for most needs.
Eurocom Tornado F5 final thoughts
Overall, the Eurocom Tornado F5 is an outstanding gaming laptop. It had stellar gaming performance for every game I tried, even on the highest video settings. The keyboard build is excellent, and I like how many ports the laptop contained. On the chassis’ all-black finish you won’t find any unique design elements, which is good or bad depending on your preferences. Personally I like its subtle look, as you could easily bring into the office then head to the lounge room on breaks to play Mass Effect: Andromeda.
The Eurocom Tornado F5 is now available online at BestBuy.ca.
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I have one, and I love it! It’s a beast machine, and I expect it to perform well for a long time. The price is good for a laptop that powerful, too. (Mine came with an i7-7700K and a GTX 1070.)
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