Asus ROG Flow X13 + XG Mobile Review – Cool, but why?

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Asus’ new Flow X13 and XG Mobile are pretty much the epitome of this ultra-portable laptop plus external GPU form factor. The flow X13 is a 2 in 1 touchscreen laptop with an 8 core Ryzen CPU and GTX 1650 Max-Q graphics for gaming on the go, and with a single plug you can add an RTX 3080 (Laptop) to it too. This is pretty much the perfect version of this concept – or is it?

The Flow X13 is a pretty unique design, offering a 13.4” 16:10 display meaning it’s a little more square than usual. It’s a 1200p panel, meaning 1920×1200 in resolution, although despite being an unusual form factor, and “IPS Level”, it still offers both 120Hz AND 100% sRGB coverage. Impressive. It’s also a touchscreen, and can fold over to be used in tablet mode, disabling the keyboard and trackpad so you don’t accidentally press something while watching videos or scrolling through twitter. The downside is the panel isn’t very bright, you can see that here with my bright studio lights it’s not overly visible, so using this out and about isn’t perfect.

When it comes to power though, that’s pretty impressive. It’s rocking a Ryzen 9 5980HS, a slightly lower power version of the killer 8 core Ryzen chip we’ve been seeing in more and more machines. It only runs at a peak of 65W in Turbo mode, meaning it doesn’t quite keep up with even the “lower” end 5800H you’ll find in Asus’ STRIX G15, at least in multithreaded tasks. Here’s a look at the CPU benchmarks.

When it comes to graphics power, built in you’ve got a GTX 1650 Max-Q chip. It’s hardly the most powerful offering, only running at a maximum of 40W with Dynamic boost, and only 4GB of GDDR6 makes for a ‘low settings only’ gaming experience. With that said, if you are playing less demanding titles like Fortnite – or other esports type games, think Rainbow 6 Siege, Rocket League, League of Legends, DOTA – you are still able to have a good time. Fortnite on Low (with 100% render scale) was running at 168FPS average, and 100FPS in the 1% Lows.

In more demanding titles you are going to struggle, Watchdogs Legion pegged it at just 47FPS average on low, and Cyberpunk, also on low, ran at just 33FPS average. Not great – and it’s 1% lows were even worse at just 24FPS. How cinematic. I would normally benchmark COD Modern Warfare here too, but it refused to run on the machine, citing a graphics error. I tried reinstalling, validating files, latest drivers, the works, but nothing.

If you are a little underwhelmed at that performance, well I’ve got something to fix that. This is the XG Mobile, an RTX 3080 Laptop GPU in a box that isn’t too much bigger than a gaming laptop power brick. It even has a kickstand built in, and 4 USB 3 ports, one HDMI and one Displayport and ethernet built in, alongside the AC power in. It’s main output is this proprietary connector, which consists of a USB type C port, and a connector that runs PCIe gen 3 x8. It clicks into the “XGm” connector on the left side of the laptop, and can be locked in place with the slider on top. It’s a pretty large block that’s only plastic, hanging off the side of the laptop, so I would be worried about snapping it or fatiguing it to the point of failure over time, but that obviously something I can’t test in a few weeks with it.

To use the XG Mobile, once plugged in both to the wall, and to the laptop, you have to run the utility to enable it. It takes a little while, and once it’s “armed” you have to disable it in their tool before you can take it out. It’s not like Thunderbolt where you can plug and unplug without consequence. Once it’s in and working though, man it’s much better.

Playing games on this, even with the XG Mobile attached, still isn’t the best experience. The display, while good for resolution and refresh rate, is so small I found myself moving my face closer and closer to try and see what’s going on in game, leading to a rather uncomfortable posture. It’s 16:10 aspect ratio also made things difficult, as many games don’t support it very well including many with stretched UI’s or black bars. Even watching youtube videos isn’t great as you’ll have black bars thanks to the almost 4:3 aspect ratio. It feels like a step backwards for me.

What also feels like a step backwards is the I/O. ONE USB A port. Technically it has 2 USB Type C ports, but one is part of the XGm connector which has a little dust cover that isn’t actually attached so you WILL lose this the first time you take it off, so not ideal. You have to use one of those type C ports for charging, unless you are using the XG Mobile which will charge it for you, but either way you are using one of them. You do get more available if you do use the XG Mobile, but only when it’s connected to the wall meaning you’ll need another dongle. #ThatDongleLife.

Then there is the concept as a whole. Eons ago I checked out a prototype version of a laptop MSI called the GS30, a thin for the time machine that came with an external GPU dock – that even had storage built in. You docked the laptop on the top, rebooted it, then you could play games with whatever GPU was inside. At the time I thought that was the coolest thing ever, especially since the gap between laptop and desktop GPUs was.. Well. A chasm. So the ability to use desktop GPUs with a laptop seemed like an amazing idea.

This setup from Asus seems like the ultimate version of that concept, a reasonably powerful GPU – although being a 3080 laptop it’s about as fast as a 3060Ti desktop card – and an ultra portable laptop for work or school. Perfect, right? Not really. Why would you buy this when Asus will sell you a STRIX G15 that has a 3070 Laptop GPU, a slightly faster version of the same CPU, and it’s all in one package that’d let you play games even on high settings wherever you are – and from a single plug. It’s pretty much the same weight too, so the only benefit would be as you could leave the XG Mobile at home and just take the X13 to work or school, but for the same money as just the XG Mobile you could buy a killer ultrabook instead.

On top of that, the XG Mobile isn’t upgradable. In theory Asus could offer new versions of it that you could upgrade to, but in reality by the time you’d want to upgrade the GPU, the laptop itself will be long past due for an upgrade, or broken, so it all becomes e-waste. And it’s not like you can use the XG Mobile with anything else either, it’s this Flow X13 or nothing, so again once it’s usefulness is over, it’s e-waste.

At least with the more cumbersome Razer solution, sure it’s not portable, but at least you can use it with any thunderbolt laptop, and any GPU you like and keep upgrading the laptop and GPU independently of the enclosure. For me, this setup is trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. Why buy this complicated, costly, and quickly obsolete solution when you can buy a standard gaming laptop instead? Hell, a standard gaming laptop, AND an ultrabook for work.

If you just look at the laptop on it’s own, forget the XG Mobile which at the time of filming you can’t buy anyway, it starts making a lot more sense. This is a pretty impressive ultrabook type machine. A powerful 8 core CPU, an NVIDIA GPU for acceleration, and a 2 in 1 touchscreen design. It also costs less than the Lenovo Yoga 9i I reviewed recently and with much, much more power, meaning it’s actually a pretty good deal. While I don’t think I could see myself using this personally, I’d rather have a normal gaming laptop for full gaming and productivity power on the go, the Flow X13 itself isn’t a bad shout. But if you are thinking of getting both, just get a normal laptop, or hell, buy the X13 and build a desktop for gaming at home for less than the XG Mobile will cost.