Asus Republic of Gamers has just announced the ROG Flow X16 gaming laptop and here is everything you need to know.
Asus has updated both its Flow and Strix lines, coming out with both the ROG Strix Scar 17 Special Edition and ROG Flow X16 laptops, both of which have been designed with gamers in mind.
The ROG Flow X16 is the third edition to the Flow family, following on from the ROG Flow X13, which launched last year.
Keep reading to find out everything you need to know about the ROG Flow X16 gaming laptop, and be sure to check out our article on the ROG Strix Scar 17 Special Edition laptop, if you want to catch up with everything Asus.
Price and release date
The ROG Flow X16 will launch during the third quarter of this year. At the time of writing, the UK price is £2,799.99. We will be sure to update this article when we know of the American and European pricing, as well as a more specific launch date.
Design
Gamers will be able to convert their traditional clamshell laptop into a tent or tablet since it features a full 360-degree hinge, which Asus claims will maximise airflow when using an external keyboard or a gamepad.
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.
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.
The backlit chiclet keyboard features one-zone RGB lighting that can be configured using Aura Sync, with N-ket support for 1.7mm key travel.
Screen
While we haven’t been able to test out the display on the Flow X16, Asus claims that the machine passes the new ROG Nebula display certification, which requires 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 colour space, at least 500 nits of brightness and a response time of 3ms or less.
In the same vein as the ROG Strix Scar 17 SE, this laptop comes with two display options: a Mini-LED QHD display, with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 and a refresh rate of 165Hz. This variation can reach up to 1,100 nits, according to Asus, as well as a contrast score of 100,000:1.
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
The Flow X16 can be configured up to the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS CPU and up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GPU, which should ensure speedy load up times and support for high-end features, such as ray tracing.
This machine is also capable of operating at a maximum TGP of 125W with Dynamic Boost, coming with up to 64GB DDR5 RAM and up to 2TB PCle storage with Gen 4 SSD. The Flow X16 does come with a second open M.2 slot as well, which should make it easy to drop in more storage.
Trusted Take
The ROG Flow X16 seems to be a great gaming laptop for both competitive and triple-A gamers. We would expect to see both the high-end CPU and GPU offer up great load up times and crisp and clear images. Since this device also has a 360-degree hinge and touchscreen support, it could be a suitable device for content creators too, as the high levels of colour accuracy should enable people to take on more colour sensitive work.
The option to use this laptop so readily with an external keyboard or gamepad should also make this more accessible for gamers, especially people who like to game on the go since the laptop can be flipped into tent mode with ease.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
