Generally speaking, gaming laptops are not small devices. Yes, they’re portable, but these gadgets are often bulky, bulky, and rather extravagant in appearance compared to laptops. The current trend is to see gaming laptops adopt a more conservative look, and thanks to advancements in technology, they’re getting smaller and lighter. ASUS has gone one step further with the latest iteration of the ROG Flow X13 laptop, a device that’s small and lightweight but packs the latest tech with access to new rendering technologies like DLSS 3. But with such broad appeal, is this the answer to the problem gaming laptops face? Simply put…no. But let me explain why.
The ROG Flow X13 is an excellent notebook. It’s compact at just 1.30kg, has a vibrant 13.4-inch QHD+ (2560 x 1600 ppi) ROG Nebula display that runs at up to 165Hz, has a large trackpad and a responsive keyboard, and brings plenty of ports , making it more useful when away from the desktop. It also features the same collection of high-quality materials that make up Asus’ ROG line of devices, so you can trust it to have an eye-catching yet subtle look and great feel. The Flow X13 is great for a carry-on and travel device, and more importantly because its display also doubles as a touchscreen, and the device folds up on itself, becoming more of a tablet than a laptop.
If being a laptop was all that was expected from the Flow X13, it would be a good choice for users, but since it has an AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS processor, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU and at least 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM, it’s clear that this system Also needs to be able to game. This is where the Flow X13 starts to show its cracks, because while all of this tech is good enough to play the latest games, the level of performance you get from a laptop isn’t that impressive. Between the fan noise it produces to variable frame rates and the fact that the 75Whr battery isn’t ideal for portable gaming, the Flow X13 Can games, but if you want your laptop to play the latest titles at demanding graphics quality, there are better options on the market today.
To prove my point, here are just some FPS stats taken from six different PC games, each showing FPS at the lowest and highest available graphics settings.
atomic heart
Low: 160 frames per second
Ultra: 97 fps
F1 23
Low: 90 frames per second
Ultra: 35 frames per second
roller coaster planet
Low: 130 frames per second
Ultra: 48 frames per second
return
Low: 98 frames per second
Ultra: 73 frames per second
spider man
Low: 68 frames per second
Ultra: 60 frames per second
Sniper Elite 5
Low: 144 fps
Ultra: 58 frames per second
Aside from Spider-Man posting very similar FPS values across every graphics setting — the game even ran at 55 FPS with ray tracing enabled — it’s clear that the Flow X13 isn’t the best for Ultra/60 FPS gaming. good choice. Of course, DLSS 3 does help with increasing frame rates without skimping on graphics, and for Atomic Heart this allowed the Ultra FPS value to jump from an already impressive 97 to 155. But at the same time, I’ve found that using DLSS 3 on certain games (such as F1 23) is fraught with issues, including not being able to activate the technology, which means you can’t rely on it to boost the Flow X13’s performance. It’s also worth noting that even at the lowest graphics settings, the Flow X13 never managed to exceed its display’s maximum refresh rate (165Hz), further showing that it wasn’t designed for gaming first.
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Still, the Dolby Atmos powered speaker system delivers crisp and excellent audio, and the display has very thin bezels, allowing it to fill as much of the device as possible while still having room for a webcam , can use facial recognition to log in, and despite its limitations and ambient noise when gaming, the Flow X13 doesn’t really peep when used for less demanding tasks. In these areas, it excels.
It would be nice to have a couple of extra USB ports built into the case, and maybe even an Ethernet port. But considering the Flow X13 comes with an HDMI port, an audio jack, an SD card slot, a single USB-A and USB-C, and access to use Asus’ external ROG XG Mobile device, connectivity isn’t something this notebook computer weakness.
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I had a great time with the Flow X13 and I really like this laptop for many reasons. It’s one of the better laptops I’ve used, but there’s no denying that £2,000 is a steep price for a laptop, even one as good as the Flow X13. Gaming-wise, however, the Flow X13 isn’t that impressive. It can’t keep up with the demands of modern video games, even with DLSS 3 and other modern rendering technologies. The laptop-gaming laptop 2-in-1 design doesn’t really work in practice, even though this laptop still does everything you want from a regular laptop very, very well. If you have disposable income and want to spend money on something stylish, albeit a bit exotic, or even a very expensive laptop, the Flow X13 is a great system. However, anyone looking for a powerful gaming laptop should focus on Asus’ Zephyrus and Strix series, as these will give you a lot more for your money.
