The Asus ROG Flow X13 is the smallest gaming laptop in the company's ROG lineup. Aimed at gamers who want the top-end performance of a gaming laptop and the portability of a thin 13-inch ultrabook, the ROG Flow X13 promises to be a powerhouse performer.
The 2023 edition of the ROG Flow X13 that we have is powered by Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AMD) Ryzen 7000 series processor and Nvidia Corp.'s (NASDAQ:NVDA) RTX 40 series graphics. The ROG Flow X13 comes in a 2-in-1 form factor, so it works great as a media consumption device as well when you are not using it as a dedicated gaming laptop.
So, does it live up to the hype? I've been using the ROG Flow X13 for a few weeks now, and here are my thoughts.
Design
Gaming laptops are easy to figure out even by looking at them from afar – they're bulky and usually have large displays.
But looking at the ROG Flow X13, you would never guess it is a gaming laptop – it's not notably thin by modern ultrabook standards, but it's thin enough to pass off as a regular laptop.
Even if you were not to use the Flow X13 as a gaming laptop, it is portable and light enough to be carried around – at 2.9lbs, it is nearly as lightweight as the 13-inch MacBook Air.
Moving to aesthetics, the Flow X13 has a wave-like pattern on the top that helps in gripping it and also prevents smudges and dust from appearing too quickly.
The laptop’s right side and back have vents to keep the laptop's thermals under control since the dedicated graphics can get hot much faster than integrated graphics.
The rounded edges make the Flow X13 comfortable enough to hold and carry it around.
Display
The ROG Flow X13 sports a 13.4-inch 4K resolution display with 165Hz refresh rate. The display gets bright enough to use even outdoors.
The 13.4-inch panel is perfect for regular tasks like document editing, web browsing, and media consumption. The details are sharp, and the color reproduction is great.
However, it takes some time for gaming to get used to the smaller display size. I usually game on a 27-inch or a 32-inch monitor, so adjusting to the much smaller display on the Flow X13 took me a while.
For on-the-go gaming, though, the display size is not as much of a handicap. What will get you before that, though, is the battery life – gaming laptops are not really known ...