Asus ROG Flow X13 2023 Review: This is Where Practicality and Gaming Meet

Asus has always been at the forefront when it comes to redefining the gaming industry. We have seen some of the great products from the ROG lineup, including the newly-introduced ROG Ally, and more. However, there is this laptop that brings the best of both worlds: the portability of a thin laptop and the powerhouse of a gaming machine. Yes, we are talking about the Asus ROG Flow X13 (2023). The latest gaming laptop from the brand comes loaded with some expectational features and a premium design. However, is it enough to get the attention of the gaming community? Let’s find out in this review.

Asus ROG Flow X13 2023 Review: Design and Build Quality

• Asus ROG Flow X13 comes with a sleek and premium design.
• The laptop is surely one of the lightest gaming laptops available in the market.

Asus ROG Flow X13 is an outright solid device that comes with a premium and compact design language. The laptop comes with a sturdy magnesium alloy chassis with a touch of matte black all around. Most importantly, the brand has designed it to be a compact machine with 18.75mm thickness and is also one of the lightest gaming laptops we have ever come across with just 1.30kgs.

The lid of the laptop comes with a ribbed texture, which looks and feels absolutely brilliant. The Republic of Gamers badging is placed diagonally and we can also see a triangular ROG badge at the bottom corner, which looks clean.

Once you open the lid, you will find a 2-in-1 touchscreen that has some minimum bezels. The keyboard spans from right to left edges, while the touchpad is placed at the bottom.

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Coming to the I/O ports, you get a 3.5mm audio jack, an HDMI 2.1 port, a microSD card reader, and the proprietary ROG XG Mobile port on the left side. The right side of the device comes with a power on/off button, a Type-A port, and a Type-C USB port for charging and support for DisplayPort. Just above the Type-C port, you will find the vents for heat dissipation. The vents are also present at the bottom for air intake.

Asus ROG Flow X13 2023 Review: Display and Audio

• The laptop features a compact 13.4-inch QHD+ display with a 165Hz refresh rate.
• It features a 360-degree hinge and a touchscreen for smooth usability.

The Asus ROG Flow X13 packs a compact display. You get a 13.4-inch QHD+ display with a screen resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels and a 16:10 aspect ratio. The display also offers 500nits of max brightness, a contrast ratio of 1200:1, and Dolby Vision HDR support. Moreover, you get support for a 100 per cent DCI-P3 colour gamut, 165Hz refresh rate with 3ms response time, Nvidia G-Sync, and more.

The display is stunning and the 2-in-1 capabilities are just a cherry on top. You can fold the display 360 degrees, all thanks to the hinge design. Once you flip the display, you can place it in the tent mode, which makes multimedia consumption much better for those lazy seasons.

Mind you, it is an IPS panel so the colours may not be as great as Asus ROG Nebula HDR mini-LED, but it gets the job done anyway. Whether watching the latest episode of The Witcher or playing any game, the colour reproduction was on point and the blacks were deep enough. The visuals were stunning and looked sharp during the test period. The touch response is also accurate.

The 165Hz refresh rate makes the whole experience of scrolling a pleasant one as well. Users also have options to switch between various colour modes via Armory Crate software, or manually tweak the colour temperature as their liking.

The place where the ROG Flow X13 lacks is the audio department. The device comes with a stereo speaker setup, placed at the bottom of the chassis. The sound is so tiny that you cannot listen properly on the other side of the room. The sound also lacks bass, thus using a headset or low-latency earbuds is a must if you want to play games or even watch some content on the laptop. Asus says that the laptop comes with Dolby Atmos, but we really didn’t find that to be that effective.

Asus ROG Flow X13 2023 Review: Keyboard and Trackpad

• The trackpad on the ROG Flow X13 is now bigger.
• The keyboard still comes with single white LED backlights.

Asus has done some refinements in terms of the keyboard and trackpad. You now get a 56 per cent larger trackpad as compared to the previous model. Moreover, the keyboard is moved a bit closer to the display in order to make room for the larger trackpad. But apart from that, the keyboard seems to be the same as previous generations’ Flow X13 model.

You get single-zone white LED backlights, which come with different strobing effects and be customised using the Armory Crate software. Although the white backlit LED gets the job done, we really feel that RGB colour options could have been more suitable and added a better touch to the gaming experience.

The typing experience is great on this device, which makes it the best companion for writing or coding. The 1.7mm key travel distance and the soft clicky feedback are quite satisfactory. The trackpad also works flawlessly and we never faced the problem of inaccurate touch response. The trackpad also comes with a glass texture and you can easily glide your finger without much trouble.

Asus ROG Flow X13 2023 Review: Performance

• The laptop is powered by the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS processor and offers up to 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM.
• The added support for ROG XE Mobile surely elevates the gaming performance.

The latest gaming laptop is a powerhouse when it comes to specifications. The laptop’s performance is top-notch when it comes to everyday productivity tasks.

We used the device as a primary laptop for all our day-to-day work needs, which included opening multiple Chrome tabs and switching between them, checking emails, editing photos, and more. And the laptops glide flawlessly throughout the day without much lag or stutter.

The benchmark scores are the witnesses for this beat’s performance. Check out the scores below:

All these tests indicate that the ROG Flow X13 is a capable laptop for handling most of the tasks you throw at it.

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Coming to gaming, this is where things get interesting. The laptop delivers some good results in most of the games we played, although you cannot expect top-of-the-line performance, due to the low-powered Nvidia RTX 4060. Games like Valorant, Apex Legends, and CS: GO, we got stable performance and good experience.

However, during intensive playing sessions, we did notice some lag, especially while playing Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Also, the laptop did get hot during extended gaming sessions and you can also feel the heat on the keyboard, but that was bearable.

Asus was generous enough to send the ROG XE Mobile along with the laptop, which actually changed the whole scenario. It is basically an external GPU unit that offers a good collection of I/O ports, a built-in power supply and a cable to connect to the laptop. Connecting the device is quite simple.

Just plug the connector into the left side of the laptop and you will see the XE Mobile option in the taskbar. From there, you have to activate the XE Mobile and it switches to the latest Nvidia RTX 4090 graphics, which is present in the external GPU unit.

With this, you will notice a considerable jump in the gaming performance of the device. Now, you have a dependable laptop that can run most AAA games with ease. The Assassin’s Creed Odyssey got 90fps count throughout the gameplay, while Forza Horizon 4 had 121fps. The ROG XE Mobile is sold as an accessory and you can get it for Rs 1,82,990, which is a costly affair and almost the same price as the laptop.

Asus ROG Flow X13 2023 Review: Battery Life

The Asus ROG Flow X13 delivers a decent battery life, which is still better than a lot of gaming laptops at this price point. The battery capacity is now 75WHr, which is an upgrade from 62WHr of the previous generation model.

Moreover, you also get a compact 130W charger, which is quite easy to carry around. We easily got 6 to 7 hours of battery life on this machine, which makes it an excellent device to fulfil all productivity needs. Coming to charging, the 130W charger quickly replenishes the battery is a good thing.

Asus ROG Flow X13 2023 Review: Verdict

This brings us to an important question: Whether it is hands down the most practical gaming laptop from the brand or not? The short answer is yes. The Asus ROG Flow X13 2023 model comes with some subtle improvements over its predecessor. The Flow X13 may not be as powerful as a full-fledged gaming laptop, but it strikes the right chord for those who are looking for a hybrid machine that can fulfil their productivity and gaming needs.

The laptop offers a compact yet durable and premium design The AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS is a powerful mobile processor that delivers the right balance of performance and efficiency. The Nvidia RTX 4060 GPU is not that powerful, but it is enough to play most of the games you like. Plus, the support of ROG XE Mobile is definitely a plus point, though it is not that economically sound. That said, for a starting price of Rs 1,74,990 (RTX 4050 model) and Rs 1,84,990 (RTX 4060 model), the Asus ROG Flow X13 is a compact gaming laptop that will strike a perfect cord with those who want a hybrid machine and best 13-inch gaming laptop.