Asus ROG Flow X13 (2021) Review
Verdict
The Asus ROG Flow X13 (2021) and ROG XG Mobile provide impressive versatility, power and quality for gaming on the get and at home – information technology's the all-time laptop graphics dock package I've seen so far. Merely in that location are several strong rivals when information technology comes to small laptops that offering gaming pace.
Pros
- Superb, versatile pattern of laptop and dock
- RTX 3080 delivers great gaming speed
- GTX 1650 is a solid eSports chip
- High-quality brandish
Cons
- Laptop and dock pattern won't suit everyone
- Laptop is sometimes too hot
- Middling battery life
- Minimal laptop connectivity
Availability
- U.k. RRP: £1498
- USA RRP: $1769
- Europe RRP: €1548
Key Features
- A stunning, innovative pattern The lightweight laptop and small, powerful graphics dock combine to evangelize a versatile pick for gaming and working on the move – and at abode
- Slim, calorie-free and sturdy The ROG Flow X13 laptop is svelte, robust and easy to use in all modes thank you to its crisp keyboard and impressive touchscreen
- True gaming ability The laptop RTX 3080 delivers huge gaming power within a 1kg box that won't weigh you down
Introduction
The Asus ROG Flow X13 is i of the near surprising laptops I've tested recently: it's a slim, low-cal hybrid that's absolutely packed with high-cease components.
For starters, information technology features a proper Nvidia graphics menu alongside an AMD Ryzen 9 processor. That makes this one of the but hybrids on the market that'southward capable of handling games and content-cosmos.
That'due south impressive, and the Period'due south price of £1499 / $1769 / €1549 is surprisingly low considering the hardware on offer. And that isn't the only option: if you pay £2899 / $3340 / €2999, this laptop besides comes with the ROG XG Mobile, which is an external dock with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080.
It'due south also possible to purchase the laptop at the same price with a meliorate RTX 3050 and RTX 3050 Ti graphics cores and weaker Ryzen 9 5900HS processors, only availability is express and it currently isn't bundled with the XG Mobile. Proceed an eye out, though, as the situation volition undoubtedly change.
Design and keyboard
- Superb, sturdy and constructive hybrid laptop with slim, light design
- Crisp, impressive keyboard with satisfying typing motion
- Non many ports until you add the impressively lightweight graphics dock
The RTX 3080 dock and Asus ROG Flow X13 make an impressive pair. The reliance on a laptop RTX 3080 means the dock weighs only 1kg and is 30mm thick, and the notebook is a fifteen.8mm machine that comes in at 1.3kg – then it'due south lighter than rivals such as the Razer Blade Stealth, Razer Blade fourteen and ROG Zephyrus G14.
Asus reckons that this combination is easier to manage than a conventional laptop: the Catamenia is ideal if you lot need a pocket-sized, light motorcar for work and eSports, while the dock is for high-end power at home or on the road.
The dock connects to the laptop using a proprietary port on the laptop's left edge – and it doesn't just provide extra graphical grunt. It has iv USB 3.2 Gen one ports, DisplayPort and HDMI outputs, an SD card slot and a Gigabit Ethernet port alongside its power socket.
Those extra ports are welcome when you consider the laptop. It has two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C connections, with one hidden within the dock's proprietary port – and one powers the laptop if you don't use the dock. Elsewhere, there are single sound, HDMI and full-size USB ports.
The Razer Blade 14 and Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 both offer amend connectivity than the Flow laptop, and even the Blade Stealth xiii has faster USB-C ports thanks to Thunderbolt.
The X13's trunk comprises aluminium, magnesium and plastic – and it looks great: subtle with industrial accents, and with the power button and built-in fingerprint reader hidden forth the correct-hand edge. Build quality is impressive, and the 360-caste hinge motion is smooth, then it's like shooting fish in a barrel to flip this laptop into tablet way.
The compact size does mean that the keyboard lacks a numberpad. Its buttons aren't huge, just they're decent – crisp, quick and consistent, with a solid base. There'due south reasonable travel, so the Flow's keyboard is expert enough for mainstream gaming – and just as expert every bit the hardware on rivals.
Don't look much from the trackpad, though: it's fine, merely anyone who wants to bask gaming properly should attach a USB mouse.
Screen
- Huge contrast and accurate colours create a vibrant brandish for games
- The 16:ten aspect ratio and 120Hz refresh rate are good mainstream choices
- The speakers are surprisingly punchy, and solid for games and media
The Asus ROG Catamenia X13'due south 13.4in touchscreen uses a sixteen:10 aspect ratio, then you've got a little actress acme, and it'southward available in two resolutions.
The model reviewed here has a 1920 x 1200 effigy alongside a mid-range 120Hz refresh rate, and the culling spec has a 3840 x 2400 resolution that runs at 60Hz. The former is better for eSports, thank you to its extra speed, and the latter is more than suited to creative workloads.
Quality levels are impressive. The backlight sits at 297 nits and pairs with a superb black point of 0.17 nits, and so there's plenty of punch and depth. The resulting contrast ratio of 1747:i is brilliant, too, delivering enough of dash and vibrancy. The Delta E of 0.82 is a top-notch upshot, and the brandish renders a rock-solid 97.3% of the sRGB colour gamut. Games look not bad on this panel.
Surprisingly, the speakers are practiced too. There'southward impressive bass considering the Catamenia'due south size, and the mid-range and pinnacle-end sounds are accurate. This hardware is hands good enough for games.
Performance
- Laptop GPU is ideal for eSports, and dock's RTX 3080 is a powerhouse
- The AMD processor is great for content-creation, merely rivals are better
- The Asus is sometimes too hot, and its battery life is middling
The Asus ROG Flow X13's Nvidia GTX 1650 Max-Q has a modest 1024 stream processors, 4GB of dedicated memory and a peak ability level of 40W. The dock'southward Nvidia RTX 3080 has a mighty 6144 stream processors, 8GB of memory and a peak power point of 150W – and it can handle ray-tracing and DLSS.
The laptop's Ryzen 9 5980HS processor is a low-power version of AMD's high-terminate laptop chips, and it has viii multi-threaded cores alongside impressive base and boost speeds of 3GHz and 4.8GHz. The rest of the specification is decent: there's 32GB of memory and a 1TB SSD, and connectivity comes from dual-band WiFi vi and Bluetooth 5.1.
The docked RTX 3080 provides lots of gaming power. It ran Horizon Zero Dawn's toughest graphics settings at 94fps, and played Borderlands 3 at 92fps. In the easier Dirt Rally benchmark, it averaged 121fps. That's sufficient ability for any scenario: you lot can play tiptop single-actor games without compromise, and run eSports titles at the speeds required by the 120Hz display.
The situation is understandably dissimilar if you rely on the GTX 1650 Max-Q. It only played Horizon at 32fps, and ran through Borderlands at 40fps. Its best result came in eSports championship Rainbow Six Siege, where it rattled through at 122fps – which is easily adept plenty for play on the 120Hz screen. Indeed, the GTX 1650 is better-suited to eSports: information technology will play the big titles smoothly, but you'll have to compromise settings in plenty of single-player games.
A quick look at 3DMark illustrates the difference between the GPUs. In Fourth dimension Spy the GTX 1650 scored 3306, only the RTX 3080 hitting 11,069. In this exam the RTX 3050 Ti also scores around 5300, so I recommend buying the RTX 3050 or RTX 3050 Ti laptops rather than the GTX 1650 auto if possible, especially if it comes bundled with the dock.
Not surprisingly, the RTX 3080 is faster than the RTX 3060 and RTX 3070 cores included in rivals. It's ameliorate than the 100W RTX 3080 in the Razer Blade xiv, as well.
Conversely, larger and thicker gaming laptops sometimes run the RTX 3080 at a superlative of 165W, so they'll be slighter faster.
The low-power Ryzen 9 5980HS still has plenty of computing ability. In the Geekbench unmarried- and multi-core tests, the Flow returned results of 1357 and 7466. Those scores rose to 1438 and 7932 with the XG Mobile dock connected. There's enough power here to handle all sorts of tasks: this machine doesn't struggle with Role apps or dozens of browser tabs open at once, and it has the grunt for mainstream content-cosmos and streaming.
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Geekbench five single core
Geekbench 5 multi cadre
PCMark 10
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That's cracking, but some rivals go further. The Razer Blade xiv and Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 both rely on total-power Ryzen 9 laptop processors. The Razer is quicker in the single-core benchmark, and the G14 is faster in both tests.
The Flow clearly pushes the limits when it comes to thermal performance, too. There'due south some noticeable fan noise during gameplay and tougher work tasks – a headset will be a adept option to drown it out. The dock produces similar racket, too. There's noticeable oestrus output: the laptop's underside becomes hot during intensive apply, and the area in a higher place the keyboard becomes also hot to touch.
None of this is a surprise, and the Asus isn't alone here. The G14 is a little cooler and quieter, but it'south hardly subtle. The Blade 14 exhibits similar heat issues aslope slightly less sound.
Battery life
- Lasts for 1 hours and eighteen mins when gaming
- Lasts for 5 hours and thirty mins for productivity work
- Dock needs to be plugged into mains to function
The Asus ROG Flow X13 delivers middling battery life. It lasted for 1hr 18mins while gaming, which is a mediocre result.
The ROG Flow X13 as well lasted for 5hrs 30mins when working and just over 6 hours when playing video. The Razer Blade and Asus G14 were both better here.
The dock will of form need to exist plugged into the mains to function, so you lot're non going to be able to benefit from the power of the RTX 3080 while on the move.
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
You want a lightweight, everyday laptop alongside high-end gaming power The Menstruum X13 is an excellent, lightweight gaming laptop, with the XG Mobile dock adding power and versatility – information technology's a great package.
You only want the loftier-end gaming power, or you need a bigger screen If you lot simply want pure gaming speed then you'd exist ameliorate off with a conventional gaming laptop that has the RTX 3080 born.
Final thoughts
The Asus ROG Flow X13 (2021) and ROG XG Mobile are a superb combination if you lot're after a lightweight eSports and work machine for some days and a gaming fauna on others. But exist aware that enough of other minor gaming notebooks are available – and that this split form factor doesn't suit all situations.
How we test
Every gaming laptop we review goes through a serial of uniform checks designed to gauge key things including build quality, performance, screen quality and battery life.
These include formal synthetic benchmarks and scripted tests, plus a series of real globe checks, such as how well information technology runs when running a AAA game.
Nosotros used as our main laptop for at least a week.
Tested the performance via both criterion tests and real-world use.
Nosotros tested the screen with a colorimeter and existent-world use.
We tested the battery with a criterion test and real-world use.
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FAQs
What'southward in the box?
The Asus includes a stylus and a sleeve for the laptop, and some models also include a ROG Chakram Core P511 gaming mouse.
Will this laptop exist upgraded to Windows 11?
Yes, Asus will provide the free upgrade on these machines.
What about the warranty?
The Asus and its graphics dock are protected by a one-year warranty.
Trusted Reviews exam data
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PCMark 10
Geekbench v unmarried core
Geekbench 5 multi cadre
3DMark Fourth dimension Spy
CrystalDiskMark Read speed
CrystalMarkDisk Write Speed
Effulgence
Black level
Contrast
White Visual Colour Temperature
sRGB
Adobe RGB
DCI-P3
PCMark Battery (office)
PCMark Battery (gaming)
Battery Life
Borderlands iii frame charge per unit (Full HD)
Horizon Zero Dawn frame charge per unit (Full Hard disk)
Dirt Rally (Full Hard disk drive)
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Full specs
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UK RRP
Usa RRP
EU RRP
CPU
Manufacturer
Screen Size
Storage Capacity
Forepart Camera
Battery
Bombardment Hours
Size (Dimensions)
Weight
ASIN
Release Engagement
Kickoff Reviewed Date
Model Number
Resolution
Refresh Rate
Ports
Sound (Ability output)
GPU
Connectivity
Colours
Display Engineering science
Screen Engineering
Touch Screen
Convertible?
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Jargon buster
GPU
The graphics processing unit is designed to render graphics, which is particularly important for gaming, creating 3D models and editing video.
Ray Tracing
Advanced low-cal-rendering engineering that allows for more realistic lighting and shadow effects within in-game worlds.
DLSS
Deep learning super sampling is Nvidia's image upscaling technology which can amend a game's framerate without reducing the quality of the visuals.
Refresh Charge per unit
The number of times the screen refreshes itself per second.
Source: https://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/asus-rog-flow-x13-2021
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