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The second key ingredient in the Flow X16’s cooling solution is the new Pulsar Heatsink. Comprised of ultra-thin copper cooling fins as slim as 0.1mm, this double-sized heatsink has total surface area of 110,902mm², making it extra dense without limiting airflow. Combined with the Frost Force cooling system and Thermal Grizzly’s liquid metal thermal compound on the CPU, the Flow X16 is redefining what thin and light gaming looks like. Bring in the XG Mobile's big guns Move it all the way around and it’s a large tablet for touchscreen gaming, or use it in portrait mode and it’s great for reading or web browsing – as long as you can cope with the increased size when compared to the average iPad. With that out of the way, as mentioned earlier, the Flow X16 is a convertible. I expect it to spend most of its time in laptop mode, but it can be switched into a tablet or tent mode when needed.
Update: In the meantime, our full-review of the Asus ROG Flow X16 series is available here, and our review of the RTX 3070Ti model with the miniLED display is available here. Rivals are slightly better, with increased depth in darker areas, but that won’t hinder gaming in any serious way.The Flow produced all of the sRGB and DCI-P3 gamuts with a solid Delta E of 3.06, so you’ve got enough accuracy and breadth for any game. But while games and films look great on this screen, you’ll still get improved accuracy from Razer’s panels – they’re better for colour-sensitive workloads. Asus claims that the third fan keeps the GPU temperatures up to seven degrees cooler than traditional solutions, which should help the laptop maintain a high overall performance. ROG engineers had to bend a few conventions to accommodate all of the power inside it’s the Flow X16’s svelte frame. The X16 builds upon years of Intelligent Cooling experience and improvements to push the boundaries of the kind of power possible in a thin and light laptop. Our new Frost Force Technology directs air through precisely calculated and machined cutouts in the chassis, sending air directly towards internal components to keep them cool even during extended gaming sessions and video renders. In addition, the X16 has a unique tri-fan design. This extra auxiliary fan directly helps exhaust heat from the GPU to the heatsinks, while also keeping fan noise lower than a traditional dual fan design. On the side, the Flow X16 is also going to be available with the IPS 500-nits panel that we’ve reviewed in the 2022 Zephyrus M16, which is an excellent screen as well.
Its main selling points are the format, the screen options, the powerful specs for the class, and the unique thermal module that should allow for solid performance with lower fan noise levels than other designs. However, the overall performance/thermals/noise-levels trifecta is going to play a crucial role in determining the overall worth of this series in comparison to the clamshell Zephyrus models, alongside pricing and availability.
The portable and lightweight Flow family has a new member. ROG is proud to introduce the Flow X16, a convertible thin and light laptop with gaming horsepower that belies its size. Paired with the stunning Nebula HDR Display and fully compatible with the XG Mobile ecosystem, the Flow X16 is ready to redefine how you look at ultraportable gaming laptops. Gaming horsepower you can take anywhere Laptops with the i7-12700H don’t cost any more than the Asus, either – you’ll find that chip inside every Alienware and Razer rig. Many laptops in this price range are also available with the faster Core i9-12900H. I’m looking forward to spending more time with this for the review, and sharing my findings with you.
According to Asus, all these combined allow the hardware inside the Flow X16 to run at quieter noise levels than if they had gone with a standard dual-fan triple-radiator cooling. I’m still filling up the blanks on these exact noise levels, though, as well as on the power settings that Asus will allow on this laptop. I’ll update. The other display is slightly less high-end, coming with the same resolution but instead using IPS QHD display technology, with a lowered refresh rate of 165Hz and up to 500 nits of brightness. Both of the display options are 16-inches, come with a response time of 3ms, have touchscreen capabilities with Adaptive Sync and come with Dolby Vision, as well as being Palatone Validated. Specifications Add in the 2-in-1 tablet functionality and this is a multi-talented laptop that does so many things well. OK, it’s too big to use comfortably as a tablet. And port location on the sides of the chassis can be annoying and untidy in terms of cable management. And, of course, this class of laptop is never going to be cheap. But if you’re in the market for a really powerful desktop replacement with a great screen that’s up to the job of everything from gaming to heavy duty video encoding, put the Asus ROG Flow X16 near the top of your shortlist. It’s fantastic. There’s a reason why every rival uses Intel silicon. The Core i7-12700H scored 1,686 and 12,040 in the same benchmarks in the Alienware x17. In PC Mark 10 the Asus scored a respectable 7529, but the i7-12700H hit nearly 8000 points in the same test.The Flow X16 utilises Themeral Grizzly’s liquid metal on the CPU and brand-new Frost Force Technology, which features two fans that direct airflow through precisely calculated cutouts and towards crucial internal components to avoid overheating. There is a third auxiliary fan which also assists with moving heat from the GPU directly into the new Pulsar Heatsink that covers the rear of the machine. Rounding out the detailed spec is Dolby Atmos Sound, WiFi6E, a 3D mic array and a 720p webcam with Windows Hello support. Meanwhile, connectivity includes a pair of 20Gbps USB-C ports with Displayport alt mode and a microSD card reader, which is good, but only HDMI 2.0 rather than 2.1, which is a little disappointing. Oh and there’s a pretty beefy battery on board measuring 90Wh. Asus ROG Flow X16 review: design ROG GameVisual software offers six expertly tuned graphic modes designed to optimise your visual experience for specific game genres. First Person Shooter (FPS) mode, for example, enhances visibility in dark environments, allowing you to get the drop on any enemies lurking in the shadows. Use GameVisual to get the best experience for every game in your library. In fact, the audio system on this laptop should come close to what Asus offer on the Zephyrus G15/M16 models, and that’s excellent news. However, there are only 2x tweeters and 2x main speakers on the bottom with this series, though, and not 4x tweeters + 2x main speakers as on the Zephyrus models. Asus went with a tri-fan cooling module here, with an extra fan in the middle of the chassis meant to pull in fresh air over the components.
Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3070 Ti arrives inside the Asus ROG Flow X16 with its usual 8GB of memory and 5888 stream processors, and the GPU runs at its peak power output of 125W. AMD’s Ryzen 9 6900HS CPU has eight multi-threaded cores and a top speed of 4.9GHz, As far as the hardware goes, the Flow X16 is an AMD + RTX implementation, which is pretty much the recommendation for a portable all-purpose laptop at this point, a solution capable of solid performance in demanding loads, and efficient runtimes with daily use on battery. That said, you can get more GPU power if you spend extra on a laptop with an RTX 3080 Ti – that core averaged 120fps in Horizon at 1080p, while the Flow managed 87fps. These would allow combined performance and gaming numbers similar to those recorded in our Zephyrus M16 review, but accounting for the slightly lower capabilities of the AMD platform compared to the 12th gen Core i9 in the M16. We have reviewed the Ryzen 9 6000 processor in the ROG Zephyrus G14 and the full-size ROG Strix G15, though, if curious how it fares against that i9. One thing I’m a little concerned about is the digitizer layer that we’ll be getting here, since pen support is mentioned. From past experience, digitizers can cause a graininess effect over white content, visible when editing texts and browsing, and I’m hoping this will not be a concern here. We’ll know more once we get to review this.I’ll update once we know more. In the meantime, follow this link for the latest updates in your region. Early Conclusions on the Asus ROG Flow X16 As far as I can tell at this time, the Flow X16 is a potentially popular addition to the ROG lineup. In a tougher work test the Flow delivered 4hrs 35mins of usage, which is on par with the Razer Blade 15 and a bit better than the Alienware – and longer than both 17.3-inch rivals. That will only get you through until lunchtime, but it still allows you more versatility than many gaming notebooks.
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