The Medion Erazer Beast 16 X1 Ultimate (2026) is positioned as a high-end gaming laptop, featuring AMD’s Ryzen 9 9955HX processor and Nvidia’s RTX 5090 laptop GPU. Priced at £3,799.99, this flagship model competes with devices such as the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 X3D and Acer Predator Helios 18 AI.
The chassis is described as premium and understated, finished in a metal that avoids aggressively styled gaming aesthetics. Weighing 2.67kg and 30mm thick, it maintains a reasonable degree of portability for its class.
Design highlights include an extensive port selection: a 2.5-Gig Ethernet port, multiple USB-A/USB-C ports, HDMI 2.1, mini DisplayPort 2.1a, and a full-size SD card reader on three edges. While the keyboard uses solid membrane keys rather than the Cherry MX Ultra Low Profile switches of some predecessors, it includes a number pad layout and fully addressable RGB backlighting.
The 16-inch display features Mini LED backlighting, offering a 2560×1600 resolution at a 300Hz refresh rate. Although its peak SDR brightness reached 523.5 nits (with HDR1000 support up to 1000 nits), the review noted that the screen quality was inconsistent, exhibiting a contrast ratio of only 1110:1.
Performance benchmarks reveal immense capability. The 16-core AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX processor showed performance trading blows with Intel’s Core Ultra 9 275HX in single-core tests, yet excelled in multi-threaded workloads. Gaming results were outstanding; at 1080p, Cyberpunk 2077 reached 144.33fps and Rainbow Six Extraction averaged 262fps.
With DLSS4 and Nvidia’s multi-frame-generation technology activated, performance was enhanced significantly, allowing Cyberpunk 2077 with ray-tracing at a 2560×1600 resolution to achieve 223.63fps.
The laptop includes 32GB of DDR5 RAM and a 1TB SSD, though the SSD was noted as being slower (PCIe 4.0) and half the capacity compared to last year’s model due to current memory crises. The software experience is reported as clean, running Windows 11 with minimal bloatware and providing system control via the Medion Control Center app.
However, the device faces several limitations. Battery life was a weak point, lasting only 5 hours and 37 minutes in the PCMark 10 test—an hour and a half reduction from its predecessor. Furthermore, despite having a Copilot key, the laptop lacks the necessary AI horsepower to be classified as a Copilot+ PC.
In conclusion, while the Erazer Beast provides class-leading gaming power and excellent connectivity, reviewers point out notable disappointments including its high cost, weak battery performance, inconsistent screen quality, and reduced SSD capacity.
Source: Trusted Reviews