Asus ROG Flow X16 laptop review: 2-in-1 gamer with mini-LED

[Redaktion]

1,100 nits of real HDR gaming for the first time thanks to mini-LED in a laptop: Asus' ROG Flow X16 is a 16-inch convertible that remains permanently cool despite its compact design and 140 watts of power, thus performing better than other upper-class notebooks while also remaining quieter.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ROG-Flow-X16-laptop-review-2-in-1-gamer-with-mini-LED.638734.0.html

[NikoB]

I will analyze the device on the bones, then what the author of the review chose not to focus on the public:
What is immediately striking is a completely disgusting tuning memory in BIOS. Memory throughput below the norm for DDR5 4800 for monstrous 25-27%!!! If in the office "miracle" from Dell to this, a little gritting teeth, not pay attention, but in the "gaming laptop" ... hmm.

About the "best gaming screen" - for miniLED, and even in gloss 4500:1, so so, especially with "blooming". Response for "165Hz", frankly big, 11ms on B2W/G2G - this is below 100fps in reality. Well, in general, yes, a suitable screen. If it were not glossy...

Well, I'll go (with pleasure) once again with the crooked resolution of the 2560x. What do we see in review even for old games? For GTA V, system barely draws only 83fps (is it in the ultra quality or not for 2560x?). In new games, even 60fps cannot be pulled out. Well, what does the player need this? And if there were 3840x2400, then a simple holistic resize to 1920x1200, the owner would receive much larger FPS in fresh games. Yes, and video/cinema in FHD (if there was no source in 4K) watch with perfect sharpness much more pleasant then blurring picture in 2560x for fhd (and 4k video too), do not find?

That's why I don't understand why manufacturers with a donkey stubbornness install something except 4K@120Hz from the same AUO, which, as far as I know, have been in such a resolution for a year already. Is it really at a price of 3000 euros, Asus did not extend (greed or inability to order a large batch?) to install the 4K@120Hz panel to series? If they were even sold in retail at Aliexpress at a price of about $130-150 in 2021...

And of course, the lack of RJ45, however, is completely shameful for the "game laptop", where the reaction time is critical, and what stability can you speak on Wi-Fi?

Well, the laptop is noisy for light load. It start fans even with consuming only 29-30W! Asus, how so? Although the weight is funny only 2kg, which means radiators are also toy in mass. Here you have an explanation why the "gaming laptop" cannot fundamentally weigh less than 2.8-3kg for 16"+. You want less noise - you need a larger volume of the case and weight of radiators.

Well, the temperature, despite the wild noise in the games is big - 55C near the electronics of the panel. Well, at least the exhaust does not seem to be on panel, otherwise at 55C+ it would be fatal for it..

Well and natural question for ASUS - where, damn it, USB40 ports, promised to us from AMD in the 6xxx series? Lenovo, at least, in part of the series (Legion) brought it out, and what are you?

[Lorry]

Arguably the best performance laptop of 2022 for both productivity and entertainment. Cudos to ASUS for pairing Ryzen + Nvidia + good screen together when nobody else is doing so.

Also, there is a known bug in gaming laptops with MUX Switch where disabling dGPU (a.k.a iGPU only mode) is less power efficient than using built-in Optimus. This could explain the lower runtimes in your testing.

[anaconda]

The other SSD slot is not 2242, it is full size 2280 if you look where the screw is. So fix the article. both ssds slots supports 2280 full size

[kninez]

Also, there is a known bug in gaming laptops with MUX Switch where disabling dGPU (a.k.a iGPU only mode) is less power efficient than using built-in Optimus. This could explain the lower runtimes in your testing.

This also seems to affect laptops without mux switches as well. I have a GTX 1060 laptop without a mux switch, just optimus, sometimes the Nvidia GPU turns on by itself and drains my battery faster, in order to counter this, I initially started going to device manager to disable the Nvidia GPU from there, I have a battery monitor app, it showed that;

1) Idle with Intel iGPU, power consumption of 7-8W
2) Idle with Nvidia GPU, power consumption of 18-20W.

3) Idle with iGPU, after disabling Nvidia through device manager, power consumption of 12-15W

The only way to get the best battery life without the Nvidia GPU randomly triggering is by disabling it in the BIOS, but this requires a system restart. Tragic but not tragic enough to make me get a macbook though, at least for now.

[JamesV2]

"the peak brightness of ~1,100 nits with HDR enabled (also works in normal desktop mode) is outstanding"
Why does the review measure 500 nits if the max is supposed to be 1100 even in SDR / desktop mode ?

[Marvin Gollor]

"the peak brightness of ~1,100 nits with HDR enabled (also works in normal desktop mode) is outstanding"
Why does the review measure 500 nits if the max is supposed to be 1100 even in SDR / desktop mode ?

I can activate HDR-mode and I have ~900 Nits consistent brightness while browsing the web or viewing picture on the desktop for example. The 500 Nits are with deactivated HDR.

[The Blitz]

I love your new power mode charts, please use it for every single laptop from now on

[Tams]

Great review!

But... ummm... someone has to say it... what on earth is with where you chose to do a photoshoot for this?!

[Marvin Gollor]

Great review!

But... ummm... someone has to say it... what on earth is with where you chose to do a photoshoot for this?!

Thanks! I live in a northern country. With alot of lakes. Nature just looks like this here :) I find it to be a nice contrast to consumer electronics, what do you think? The picture of the power supply is my favorite in this regard. It was a hidden peninsula at a lake and while taking these shots an old steamship was passing by tooting its horn. I thought of including a picture of it here, too but eventually decided against it ^^ I have access to alot of such places by walk tbh. Kind of idyllic here.

I love your new power mode charts, please use it for every single laptop from now on

I love them, too - what's why I decided to create them. But since it's kind a bit of work I think most authors just do it with flagship laptops. I try to include them more often but for now I have to rely on sufficient supply from a senior author who does the loudness measurements at least.

[Hazel]

Yet another great machine ruined by the garbage keyboard layout with the tiny arrow keys for no good reason.

[RobertJasiek]

@Hazel, precisely.

[Marvin Gollor]

Yeah, the Keyboard is the reason why I won't buy it aswell. A shame.. Since the rest is reasonable good to superb! I could eventually live with the smaller arrow keys an the split enter key (for german layout) but not with the mushy feedback.

[LL]

No RJ45 not acceptable.

[Marky Mark]

Vy zabyli tolʹko dobavitʹ, chto tsena etogo chuda malo kogo ustroit, yesli yemu ne nuzhen prochnyy noutbuk dlya chastoy perenoski. A inache zachem za eto vse pereplachivatʹ v razy? Deshevyye igrovyye noutbuki (na fone diko dorogikh prof.seriy) - otlichnaya alʹternativa dlya doma kak universalʹnyy noutbuk. Sudya po vsemu proizvoditeli namerenno portyat raskladku klaviatury, delayut debilʹnyye porty (raspolozheniye, ikh kolichestvo i kachestvo), chtoby eti ustroystva ne pokupali kak deshevuyu zamenu "rabochikh stantsiy". Naprimer vzyatʹ tot zhe Legion 5 Pro kak samyy blizkiy k etomu variant. Ili Omen 2018. No vse opyatʹ isportili. Namerenno. Ili porty ili klaviatura ili shum ili vse vmeste. Merzkiye marketologi tolʹko i dumayut kak vparivatʹ dorogiye serii, vmesto proizvodstva normalʹnykh universalʹnykh rabochikh noutbukov v razy deshevle. Mirom pravit alchnaya pribylʹ, no ne zhelaniye razvivatʹ tsivilizatsiyu. Na kakomu-to etape kapitalizm (kotoroye v chistom vide realʹno nikogda i ne bylo, potomu chto vezde tsarit sotsializm, oligopolʹnyye sgovory i "administrativnyy resurs") perestal bytʹ dvigatelem tsivilizatsii i stal tormozom progressa, prevrativshisʹ v banalʹnyy imperializm, kak i predskazyvalosʹ. A alʹternativy nikto ne pridumal. Tochneye alʹternativa podrazumevayet optimalʹnoye proizvodstvo (minimalʹnaya natsenka s zavoda (osobenno tsepochke posrednikov), kachestvo tovara, dolgaya zhiznʹ dlya veshchey) i effektivnoye globalʹnoye sotrudnichestvo s yedinymi pravilam dlya vsekh - no komu eto vse nado v mire alchnosti, parazitizma, potreblyadstva i naplevatelʹstva na planetu, yeye ekologiyu? Predstavʹte, chtoby bylo, yesli vse 8 mlrd potreblyali resursy planety takzhe kak te zhe amerikantsy...

Although I didn't understood a bit of it, this seems to me a good Russian transliteration :)

On the other hand, the vituperation about greedy capitalism and Americans makes me think that what you smoke gets stronger and stronger ...