The slim Asus ROG Flow X16 laptop review: A powerful, 16-inch gaming workstation 2-in-1 with a touchscreen display

Last year, the ROG Flow X16 was our first gaming laptop equipped with a mini-LED display. At that point, the laptop was ahead of its time and, for this reason, Asus seems to have had no cause to give this model a complete overhaul. However, the version we are reviewing here comes without a mini-LED display.

Nevertheless, many features remain the same such as the case and ports with Asus only switching CPU/GPU generation. Similarly, Asus is currently also ahead of the game in its realisation of new concepts, as proven by the new Asus ROG Ally as well as the Asus ROG Flow Z13 gaming tablet. The X16 is not exactly your everyday device: What we’ve got here is an ultra-slim gaming laptop that is simultaneously a 2-in-1.

The display can be rotated 360 degrees allowing the laptop to be used as a tablet via the touchscreen. With direct competition hard to come by, this is why we’re comparing it with normal gaming machines. As well as its predecessor, we are also using the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra 16 , the Lenovo Legion Pro 5 , the Lenovo Yoga Pro 7 14 G8 and the MSI Katana 17 B13V for comparison.

Since various features found in last year’s model remain the same, we aren’t paying special attention to the case, accessories, servicing and input devices but prefer to point you in the direction of our review of last year’s Asus ROG Flow X16 GV601RW , for additional information. The logo on the case lid is slightly different but, that aside, everything is largely unchanged. Transfer rates with Intel’s AX211 in a 6 GHz network are very high and stable (approximately 1.

6 MBit/s) and in a 5 GHz network, low transfer rates of only around 1 MBit/s are possible. In this area, Asus has upgraded the 720p camera found in last year’s model to a Full HD one. Images are decent but color deviation is somewhat on the high side.

TPM is available thanks to the Intel chip, however, a fingerprint sensor and even a Kensington lock are missing in action. The camera is compatible with Windows Hello. Unfortunately, the stylus is not included this year and theoretically, you are receiving a laptop without any additional accessories.

However, depending on the package, a ROG branded laptop rucksack, the ROG Fusion II 300 headset as well as the ROG Gladius III mouse are included. The X16 houses the 16-inch Asus TMX1603 or the TL160ADMP03-0 IPS panel with touchscreen functionality but without mini-LED. The same panel, albeit in the non-touch variant, can also be found in the Asus ROG Strix G16 .

It’s a 16:10 format 2560 x 1600 pixel display which supports stylus input. Unfortunately, unlike last year when the stylus was included, this year it has to be bought separately. Also, the same as last year, there is also the option to go for a panel with mini-LED backlighting which has been improved upon once more: The number of dimming zones has been doubled to 1,024, the refresh rate increased from 165 to 240 Hz and the peak brightness increased slightly to 1100 nits (HDR).

Unfortunately, the mini-LED panel ( reviewed here ) is only available from RTX 4070 or higher specced models and is therefore not present in our review model. However, the Asus website gives the impression that all models come with a mini-LED display – even those with an RTX 4050 and RTX 4060. So, pay close attention when buying! But, even without mini-LED, our standard model measured an average brightness of around 469 nits with the illumination coming in at a very good 91 percent.

The black levels are an acceptable 0. 39 resulting in a contrast ratio of 1,246:1. The response times are very fast, there’s no need to worry about PWM and backlight bleeding is only very minimal with it only being visible along the top edge.

Asus advertizes the device with 100 percent DCI P3 and we measured around 97 percent. AdobeRGB is covered to approximately 85 percent and sRGB completely. For better color accuracy, it helps to reduce the X16’s brightness to about 50 percent.

Subsequently, the grayscale DeltaE improves from 3. 36 to only 2. In addition, ColorChecker’s DeltaE drops further.

Fresh calibration using i1Profiler doesn’t really make sense. Outdoors, the very high brightness helps in both direct sunlight and shade. Viewed from wide angles, the glossy touchscreen display hampers the viewing experience.

All configurations have the Core i9-13900H in common. This is optionally combined with an RTX 4050 , RTX 4060 or RTX 4070 . According to the website, the SKUs with the two weaker graphics cards are only equipped with 8 GB of RAM with the RTX 4070 configuration coming with 16 GB.

However, our review unit is equipped with an RTX 4060 and 16 GB of RAM. It looks like Asus may have upgraded our review model here. Apart from that, the device can be fitted with up to 64 GB of RAM.

Asus gaming laptops always have two preinstalled apps from the manufacturer that are almost somewhat reminiscent of bloatware. MyAsus is responsible for support questions while Armory Crate acts for the control center and, as is unfortunately customary these days, data collection. The app is not particularly mature yet, especially when it comes to translation.

There are continually missing or cut-off parts. In addition, the app sometimes updates itself voluntarily when booting meaning the user has to wait a long time before having access to things such as the performance modes – annoying! There are a total of four performance modes (Windows, Quiet, Performance, Turbo, Manual). In order to achieve the best benchmark results, we opted for turbo.

However, we still present all the results obtained by using the other modes. You can also find the MUX switch, in other words, the switching between the iGPU and dGPU here. Despite the slim case, the X16 houses an Intel Core i9-13900H , a high-end Raptor Lake CPU with 6 P and 8 E-cores which can run from 1.

9 GHz (E-core base clock speed) up to 5. 4 GHz (single-core turbo). Since the newer H-series possesses hardly any changes compared to the Alder Lake series, it’s unsurprising that the X16 is unable to pull away from last year’s competition.

The Lenovo Legion Pro 7 , with its HX-CPU, is in a different league here. However, it is impressive that the score is a whole 10 percent above our database’s i9-13900H average, despite the slim form factor. After the first two to three runs, the value dropped somewhat.

Below, you can find the CPU’s TDP depending on the selected performance mode, although these values are more theoretical (HWinfo). As a result, the CPU hardly draws more than 100 watts, even when using turbo mode in CinebenchR15 and during a run in quiet mode the TDP dropped to below 60 watts. In battery mode, the quiet mode is automatically selected.

Turbo is blocked but you can theoretically still turn on the power. In the PCMark10 tests, the X16 performed as, if not a little better than expected. There were no outliers or dips in any of our subtests.

When opening multiple browser tabs, the software displayed LatencyMon latencies. However, our 4K/60fps YouTube video ran smoothly and without any dropped frames. Nevertheless, the scores could be a little lower, especially for the targeted content creator group.

Asus has fitted a 1TB PCIe-4. 0-x4-NVMe SSD from Western Digital. Once more, the storage drive finds itself near the bottom of the back in our SSD best-of list .

The previous model’s Micron SSD was significantly faster by around 42 percent on average! Of course, for home-based use, the SSD is speedy enough but for professional users – the category to whom the X16 is aimed – this backwards step in performance is somewhat regrettable. Our review model is home to an Nvidia Geforce RTX 4060 . An RTX 4050 or an RTX 4070 are also available.

The card can draw a maximum of 120 watts including a dynamic boost of 20 watts. In 3DMark benchmarks, it performed roughly 10 percent better (turbo) than the average RTX 4060 laptop in our database. When we compare the results between the turbo and performance modes, it’s especially apparent that the graphics performance increases, but the CPU and physics performance tend to drop (see Cloud Gate or Fire Strike).

Away from the wall, the graphics performance drops. In performance mode, the Fire Strike graphics score dropped by around 17 percent and in quiet mode by a whole 42 percent. In Full HD, almost every game we tested ran smoothly at maximum details.

There are even sufficient resources at hand for QHD with only very demanding titles such as The Last of Us running out of steam. In our comparison, the Flow X16 is on the same level as the Katana 17 whose RTX 4060 only has a TGP maximum of 105 watts. On the other hand, only 5 percent separates it from the Legion 5 whose RTX 4060 has a TGP of 140 watts.

This again shows that the GPU hardly manages to benefit from higher TGPs, as highlighted by our colleague in his analysis of the new Nvidia Geforce RTX 4000 cards . The predecessor, with its RTX 3070 Ti , beats it by a whole 21 percent. The Witcher 3 framerate displays the usual day/ night curve but is otherwise very stable.

According to the GPU-Z log, the core clock speed sits at an almost constant 2,460 MHz and the memory clock speed is also stable (2 GHz). The GPU temperature fluctuated somewhat at an average of around 75 °C but increased continuously toward the end of the hour meaning the clock speed could be throttled during longer periods of operation. The card drew only 92.

5 watts on average and we saw extremely short peaks of 110 watts but the possible 120 watts were never reached. With its RTX 4070 , the Galaxy Book3 has no chance against our X16 which, from a technical standpoint, even manages to get close to the Legion 5 . Running idle, the fans mostly remained still.

Under load, the noise clearly depends on the selected performance mode. For example, when gaming in turbo mode, the fans revved up to over 50 dB, while in performance mode they ran at a much more tolerable 44 dB. This relatively large difference alone should make the small performance drop in performance mode more bearable.

In quiet mode, the decibel level dropped to around only 37 dB. In turbo mode, the fans ran for quite a while after running demanding tasks such as gaming, if not at full speed. However, even running idle, the X16 remained loud for quite a few minutes, if a gaming session had just previously taken place.

For content creators, we would therefore recommend using the performance mode (or even quiet) since they are much quieter with a tolerable dip in available power. When running idle, Windows or also Asus background processes keep disturbing the quiet fans. Those fans kick in, especially in turbo mode.

During gaming, there are hot spots of around 50 °C which can be found on the middle, top part of the device and toward the back with the palm rest and WASD keys remaining comparatively cool. On the bottom of the laptop, it doesn’t get overly warm. However, even in idle use, the power adapter can get very hot.

Only a few background processes are required while running idle to heat the slim PSU to a temperature of 45 °C! At the start, the cores boosted to almost 4 GHz with the CPU drawing 85 watts. However, after around one minute, the core temperatures reached 96 °C and performance is significantly throttled. The core clock speeds dropped to 2.

4 GHz for a few minutes and the TDP was only 35 watts. This resulted in a further drop in temperature. After a few minutes, the speed increased and fluctuated quite considerably, settling at an average of around 2.

6 GHz. The reduction of the TDP to 35 watts for minutes at a time, was a regularly occurring phenomenon, after which it periodically fluctuated once more. With the temperature dropping similarly fast, this was not the sole reason for this behavior.

To a lesser extent, the GPU was similar. The relatively stable phases were considerably shorter, with the overall values fluctuating more. The clock rate repeatedly oscillated from 2.

4 GHz to 2,4 GHz to only 500 MHz and lower with the memory clock speed displaying similarly extreme fluctuations. The average temperature was 65 °C and rose to a maximum of 82 °C. The power consumption sat at an average of 46 watts but jumped repeatedly to 90 watts or over 100 watts.

The speakers offer balanced mids and highs and the bass is, of course, lower, albeit less than in some other models. However, the speakers could sound a little louder, all in all. The 3.

5 mm headset jack is provided to enable the connection of analogue end devices. When running idle, our X16 is not as economical as the Galaxy Book3, due also to the bright touchscreen display. Despite this, during idle use, the device is worlds apart when compared to the Legion 5.

But, glancing at the 17-inch Katana, it’s clear that the Flow X16 could be a little more energy efficient when idle. When gaming, consumption is comparable to the Katana 17 with slightly better performance. At the same time, the Legion 5 draws significantly more power from the wall.

The latter also applies to its predecesso r, with the new Asus having become noticeably more efficient. Our review model has retained the same battery size (90 Wh) as its predecessor . In doing so, the slim X16’s battery is larger than the type found in normal-sized, mid-tier gaming machines such as the Legion 5 .

Therefore, long battery life can be expected. This made our Wi-Fi test all the more surprising. Competitors with smaller batteries such as the Galaxy Book3 (76 Wh) or also the Yoga Pro 7 (73 Wh) possess just as good stamina.

This is one area where the X16 could improve its idle power consumption. Nevertheless, battery life is good, but, considering the large-sized battery, better run times could have been expected – at least when it comes to undemanding tasks such as browsing the internet. In addition, when surfing the web in battery mode, make sure silent mode is selected and not performance.

Above all else, the Asus ROG Flow X16 is one thing – versatile! It is a thin, mobile work device, it’s a 2-in-1, tablet, a powerful workstation and even a gaming PC. But something even more surprising: It does all of these things really well without making any big blunders. It’s anything but a lazy compromise.

Because, despite its compact dimensions and 2-in-1 functionality, the hardware isn’t throttled and boasts, at least in turbo mode, above-average performance. Although this is where it gets a little loud, it’s not any louder than the purely gaming-focused competition. However, even after ending a period of heavy load, the fans continue to run for quite some time.

We’re changing the product category to “Gaming” since the score here is roughly 2. 4 percentage points higher than the category “Convertible”. The Asus ROG Flow X16 is an extremely versatile and powerful gaming workstation 2-in-1 with a good touchscreen display.

So far, alternatives of this kind are few and far between. Currently, Asus themselves seem to be very keen to experiment. Potential buyers could take a look at a device we mentioned at the beginning of the article, the Asus ROG Flow Z13 gaming tablet.

The Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra 16 (89%) is similarly good, but somewhat sluggish despite the more powerful GPU. The weaker specced Lenovo Yoga Pro 7 14 G8 (90%) is also worth considering. Currently, our configuration of the Flow X16 with an RTX 4060 is unavailable on Amazon or BestBuy.

However, on the latter store, the RTX 4070 model can be had for $2699. 99 . .