Through the ROG Mothership which appeared in 2019, ASUS managed to prove that PCs for gaming could come with a 2-in-1 concept. The success of the ROG Mothership did not stop ASUS from making innovations. Once again ASUS is breaking into the gaming laptop segment by launching the ROG Flow X13. Curious about the performance of the world’s first convertible gaming laptop? Check out the reviews as follows.
ASUS ROG Flow X13 design
This gaming laptop managed to amaze us with its very compact design. The screen panel he carries measures 13.4 inches. It’s quite rare that we find a gaming laptop this compact. The reason is, most gaming laptops today carry a 15-inch screen panel.
The weight is also light for a gaming laptop. The thickness of the body is about 15.7 mm and weighs only about 1.3 Kg. With these dimensions the ASUS ROG Flow X13 saves space in a bag and is ideal for mobility.
The all-black body looks premium with a texture of lines all over the body. The design is very minimalist without accentuating the gaming aura that is too flashy. This makes it also very suitable for professionals to work with.
Its slim body doesn’t carry many connectivity ports. On the left side of the body there is a ROG XG Mobile interface port consisting of a PCIe 3.0 x8 port and a USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 2 port, HDMI 2.0b and a 3.5mm audio jack. On the right side of the body, parallel to the power button, there is a USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 2 port and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port. The good news is, the two USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports that it carries support Power Delivery for recharging the battery and the Display Port function.
ASUS ROG Flow X13 screen
ASUS ROG Flow X13 carries a 13.4-inch IPS touch screen with 4K resolution. The response of the screen with a finger touch is very good. The screen also supports stylus pen input. With a 16:10 aspect ratio the screen looks wider when compared to other 13-inch laptops. The screen hinge that can be rotated 360 degrees is also sturdy. Folding the screen to tablet mode can also be done very easily. Another addition to the screen has been reinforced with a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass.
Another advantage of the screen panel is also very accurate. Its color accuracy supports 116% sRGB color coverage and 85% DCI-P3 color coverage. Its color accuracy has also managed to pocket the Pantone Validated standard. So, it is ideal for supporting content creation activities such as photo and video editing. One thing that is lacking from the screen panel is the refresh rate. For this 4K model, the refresh rate supported is only 60 Hz. For those who are eyeing a higher refresh rate, ASUS provides an option with a 120 Hz panel. However, the screen resolution is lower at 1920 x 1200 pixels.
ASUS ROG Flow X13 keyboard
Shifting to the ROG Flow X13 keyboard area brings a chiclet-style keyboard. The keyboard is equipped with a white backlit light to support use in dim conditions. There are three levels of backlit brightness that can be selected according to your needs.
The keyboard he carries is quite comfortable to use for typing or playing games even though the distance between the keys is relatively close together. At the top ASUS also adds four additional shortcut keys for volume settings, microphone and ROG Armory Crate. For the touchpad area, the touchpad size it carries is relatively large. The touchpad is also very responsive to finger swipes.
ASUS ROG Flow X13 audio
ASUS ROG Flow X13 brings speakers with a 2 x 1W configuration with support for Smart Amp technology. The audio sector is also still supported by the 5.1.2 virtual surround feature with Dolby Atmos. The sound output is quite good and feels quite powerful. More than enough to accommodate gaming activities and enjoy multimedia content.
ASUS ROG Flow X13 features
For the ASUS ROG Flow X13 feature on this gaming laptop, you can find the One Touch Fingerprint feature, which is a fingerprint sensor on the power button as a safety feature. Another interesting feature is Armory Crate.
Armory Crate is special software designed to make it easier for users to set up this laptop. In Armory Crate, besides being able to see the performance of each component, there are also performance setting options that can be selected according to various usage scenarios. ASUS also provides visual settings options to adjust visual output according to the game genre being played.
Well, one interesting feature of this laptop is the optional XG Mobile support. ASUS ROG Flow X13 is the world’s first gaming laptop to support the ROG XG Mobile eGPU. ASUS’s latest external GPU is powered by a graphics chip up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080. That way, when ROG Flow X13 is connected to ROG XG Mobile, this laptop will become a laptop with very powerful graphics performance. Unfortunately, we can’t go into detail about its overall performance with the ROG XG Mobile eGPU. This is because the review unit we received was not in a bundle with the eGPU.
ASUS ROG Flow X13 performance
The performance of the ASUS ROG Flow X13 that we review below is entrusted with the AMD Ryzen 9 5980 HS processor, 32GB RAM and M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0 SSD with a capacity of 1TB. The RAM it carries is onboard and there are no options for upgrades. Fair enough for a laptop with a sleek design. Meanwhile, the graphics performance is entrusted to the discrete Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q graphics card. The benchmark results are as follows.
Powered by AMD Ryzen 9 5980 HS, the performance of the ASUS ROG Flow X13 does feel very fast. Various computing needs from running office applications to productivity, browsing to running photo and video editing applications can run smoothly without problems. Multitasking by running applications simultaneously also feels smooth without lag. Supported by the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q GPU, the gaming performance is quite satisfying. From light games like Valorant to AAA games like Shadow of Tomb Raider and Metro Exodus, it can run smoothly on medium graphics settings. This laptop has also been supported by the Nvidia Advanced Optimus feature, which means that it can be disabled when not used to save power.
The cooling system performance is also quite okay for a gaming laptop with a thin body design. The cooling system comes with Liquid Metal which is supported by the latest Arc Flow fan. In the Turbo performance setting mode, the cooling fan performance is able to keep the laptop’s performance stable while gaming, even though the cooling fan sounds a bit noisy. The surface of the keyboard area only feels a little warm in the middle area and the hottest in the area above the keyboard. The WSAD area most often used for gaming and palm rest is still relatively safe.
ASUS ROG Flow X13 battery
AMD Ryzen 9 5980 HS which carries the Zen 3 architecture is indeed claimed to be very powerful and power efficient. For testing the ASUS ROG Flow X13 battery we used silent mode and activated the battery saver option in Windows Power Settings. With usage scenarios for daily productivity such as typing, browsing, connecting to WiFi, without a backlit keyboard and the Nvidia GPU option off, the battery can accompany us to work for up to around 7 hours. Quite satisfying for a gaming laptop.
Conclusion ASUS ROG Flow X13
ASUS ROG Flow X13 is almost perfect for an ideal gaming laptop. With a very compact convertible design and powerful AMD Ryzen 9 performance, ROG Flow X13 is the most capable convertible laptop for gaming. Bringing a 4K screen panel that is very accurate for content creators can also glance at it to support content creation such as video and photo editing.
It is quite unfortunate that the system is not supported by the Nvidia RTX-Series discrete gpu. But, the optional ROG XG Mobile eGPU support that brings the gpu up to the RTX 3080 option remains one plus. So, users can still improve their gaming performance with the eGPU. For gamers or content creators who need a convertible laptop with powerful performance and an accurate screen, ROG Flow X13 is definitely the right choice.
ASUS ROG Flow X13 is suitable for:
Gamers with high mobility : With very compact dimensions this laptop will be very easy to carry around.
Content creator : The accurate, touch-enabled and convertible display panel makes it ideal for content creation.
Workers / professionals who still like to play games : The minimalist design can be relied on as a friend to work and play games.
The advantages of ASUS ROG Flow X13:
+ Convertible design
+ 4K screen panel with accurate colors
+ Touch screen supports stylus pen input + Powerful
performance
+ Supported eGPU ROG XG Mobile
+ Keyboard is comfortable to use
+ Armory Crate offers complete setup options
Weaknesses of ASUS ROG Flow X13
– Cooling fan is a bit noisy in Turbo mode
– Not equipped with a SD
memory card reader slot – onboard RAM cannot be upgraded
