ROG Flow X13 Review – A Pint-Sized Powerhouse

The ROG Flow X13 is one of the smaller laptops we’ve looked at but despite its side, it can certainly pack a punch.

With its sleek and lightweight design and touchscreen controls, it makes for an easy-to-use computer for everyday use while also making for a high-quality gaming laptop. It continues the trend of gaming devices being made more portable and I’m definitely for it.

Design

Compared to previous iterations, the ROG Flow X13 design remains low-profile, with an all-black printed color and striped design as well as a frosted material on the cover that gives the laptop a nice anti-fingerprint effect. It’s a cool design that feels unique while also keeping the laptop feeling minimalist.

The ROG Flow X13 weighs about 1.3kg and is 18.7mm thick, making it pretty small and light for a gaming laptop. The quality is still very good though, because it is made of aluminum, while the keyboard surface is made of a magnetic alloy which feels sturdy and good under your fingers.

Despite the thinness of the laptop, it still provides enough IO ports, compared to the previous version, there is a new microSD slot, as well as upgraded USB Type-C 4.0 and HDMI 2.1 ports. These ports definitely make it easier and faster for content creators to transfer/ read data from different devices. Here’s every port you’ll find on the machine:

Left Side:

• XG Mobile Connector PCIe 3.0
• 1 x USB3.2 Gen2 Type-C with Display Port 1.4 (dGPU), 130W PD Charge
• 1 x HDMI 2.1 (dGPU)
• 1 x Audio combo jack
• 1 x microSD (UHS-II) slot

Right side:

• 1 x USB4.0 (40Gbps) with Display Port 1.4 (iGPU), 130W PD Charge
• 1 x USB3.2 Gen2 Type-A

Also, the power button on the ROG Flow X13 is located on the right side of the laptop, unlike normal laptops. I think it is designed in such a way as to avoid accidental touches when it is turned into a tablet.

Screen

ROG Flow X13 comes with a 165Hz 13-inch QHD touchscreen. This screen is capable of outputting a 16:10 ratio with a 2560×1600 resolution, allowing users to see every detail on the screen. In addition, the screen also has a 3ms response time meaning much smoother mechanics and animations while gaming. This screen supports 100% DCI-P3 and 500 nits brightness and is PANTONE, G-Sync, and Dolby Vision certified.

Of course, the best part about this laptop is that it has both a touch screen and the ability to flip 360 degrees, turning the keyboard to the back and becoming a tablet. Players can use it depending on the situation, in tablet mode, it gives you the ability to write or draw directly. You can also flip the keyboard to the back, which frees up space at the front for an external keyboard or other device. So whether you’re using it for work or watching a movie, it’s a flexible screen that is definitely going to help.

Other features included on the laptop include an ASUS Pen 2.0. The Stylus is rechargeable with a type C port and connects to the laptop through Bluetooth. It’s very accurate to write with much like a real pencil, making the laptop pretty handy for those that like drawing. 

Keyboard and Touchpad

The overall size of the keyboard is only 13 inches and it has no number keys. The keys are quite a standard size, with sufficient spacing. If you have larger hands it might be a little on the small side however for most people they’ll probably be quite comfortable. For personal preference, I like that the keyboard only has white backlighting, and doesn’t have RGB since it makes it clear to see each letter or symbol.  

The touchpad on the device is quite large which makes it easier to operate for things like scrolling and zooming in which is good considering how petite the machine is. That being said, because it’s so small, there’s little space for you to place your hand will which may cause you to accidentally click on the touchpad when you don’t mean to.

Battery

ROG Flow X13 comes with a 75Whrs battery which is an upgraded version. I tested it for daily work with 80% brightness, and it can be used for about 5 hours. If used to play games, after an hour the battery fell below 30%, which isn’t too abnormal for gaming on a laptop but if you’re just using it for work, the battery is more than enough.

The charger itself is also heavy and portable thanks to how light it is and the laptop can even use a mobile phone charger with 130W above. From 30% to 100%, it only takes about 1 hour to fully charge making it very practical and portable. 

Cooling System

ROG Flow X13 is quite passable when it comes to cooling systems, thanks to the ROG Intelligent Cooling Ecosystem, which not only redesigns the cooling module but also uses liquid metal to cool the processor. The heat from the laptop comes from both left and right, and when used for long periods at high performance, it will feel slightly warm but nowhere near enough to burn your hands.

If you turn on the machine’s Turbo mode, the notebook will remain at room temperature but there will be a little noise, but it shouldn’t be too distracting. The overall performance of the cooling system is excellent for such a thin laptop.

Benchmark

ROG Flow X13 comes with a powerful AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS mobile processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 graphic card, and 16GB of RAM. In order to allow gamers to experience a variety of AAA titles, the graphics card has been directly upgraded to the 40 series this time compared to the previous version which only had a GTX 1650.

• 3DMark – 7,610 points.
• PCMark 10 – 7,590, which is definitely a huge improvement over its predecessor!
• Cinebench – 1,811 on single-core and 14,299 on multi-core

Game Testing

I chose 4 games to test, including Apex Legends, Atelier Ryza 3, Hogwarts Legacy, and Horizon Zero Dawn. The game graphics were tested at 2560×1440 resolution while Turbo mode was turned on.

Apex Legends

High Setting:

• Average framerate: 73.3 FPS
• Minimum framerate: 57.3 FPS
• Maximum framerate: 107.8 FPS
• 1% low framerate: 46.4 FPS

Low Setting:

• Average framerate: 91.0 FPS
• Minimum framerate: 51.6 FPS
• Maximum framerate: 130.3 FPS
• 1% low framerate: 46.0 FPS

Atelier Ryza 3

High Setting:

• Average framerate: 49.1 FPS
• Minimum framerate: 44.2 FPS
• Maximum framerate: 58.6 FPS
• 1% low framerate: 43.1 FPS

Low Setting:

• Average framerate: 77.8 FPS
• Minimum framerate: 67.3 FPS
• Maximum framerate: 93.4 FPS
• 1% low framerate: 65.9 FPS

Hogwarts Legacy

High Setting:

• Average framerate: 30.9 FPS
• Minimum framerate: 23.3 FPS
• Maximum framerate: 39.4 FPS
• 1% low framerate: 17.2 FPS

Low Setting:

• Average framerate: 39.3 FPS
• Minimum framerate: 35.6 FPS
• Maximum framerate: 48.2 FPS
• 1% low framerate: 20.6 FPS

Horizon Zero Dawn

High Setting:

• Average framerate: 55.5 FPS
• Minimum framerate: 43.8 FPS
• Maximum framerate: 61.7 FPS
• 1% low framerate: 39.9 FPS

Low Setting:

• Average framerate: 59.8 FPS
• Minimum framerate: 52.3 FPS
• Maximum framerate: 62.7 FPS
• 1% low framerate: 39.1 FPS

As you can see, the FPS doesn’t reach the heights of its more powerful contemporaries or the next-gen consoles but more such a light and portable machine this is still a solid output that should allow most games to be played swimmingly on the device.

Closing Thoughts

For such a small foldable laptop, the ROG Flow X13’s overall performance is very impressive. With its high-specification hardware, thin and light pen drive, and low-profile design, it’s a great fit whether you want to play games at home or take it out to work.

It can play most AAA games with solid and stable framerates and we should also mention that if you do want more power, the XG Mobile external graphics card is available for the device to double the performance, at an extra fee of course but that’s still far from necessary. On its own, the ROG Flow X13 is a pint-sized powerhouse that can offer a world of modern-gen gaming in a light and easy-to-carry shell. 

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