ROG is not the pioneer of 2-in-1 laptops, but it is likely to disrupt this niche category.After experiencing the ROG Flow X 2-in-1 laptop, I couldn’t help but exclaim.If a tablet is a product between a laptop and a phone, then a 2-in-1 laptop is a further subdivision between tablets and laptops, positioned as a lightweight office product that is “as portable as a tablet and as productive as a laptop”.For portability, manufacturers often compromise on the performance of 2-in-1 laptops, and over time, people have developed a preconceived notion of “mediocre performance” for these products.Can a 2-in-1 laptop really not meet the three demands of performance, portability, and aesthetics at the same time?Equipped with Intel’s latest Core i9-12900H standard pressure processor, NVIDIA RTX 3050Ti graphics card, and weighing only 1.2Kg, the ROG Flow X may give you the answer.Designed for hardcore gamersSet it down, unfold the stand, and flip open the keyboard covering the screen; doesn’t this action seem familiar?In terms of design, the ROG Flow X looks strikingly similar to its predecessor, the Surface.Tablet stand, touch screen, magnetic external keyboard; the “rules” set by the Surface for 2-in-1 laptops can almost all be found on the ROG Flow X.But from a different angle, looking at the back, you wouldn’t associate the ROG Flow X with the stable Surface.The mecha-style matte metal shell, eye-catching hollow design, and iconic RGB lighting effects make the design orientation of the ROG Flow X very clear—it is designed to please hardcore users.First, let’s look at the shell; the ROG Flow X uses a finely textured high-density aluminum alloy material, which has been treated to resist fingerprints, making it difficult to leave stains on the metal surface after long-term use.ROG also put effort into the shell’s openings; the dense strip openings on the left side form an eye-catching “OG” pattern, serving as the air intake for the machine, but where did the “R” go?When I first handled it, I pondered for a while, until I closed the laptop once and realized that the “R” is at the bottom of the keyboard, creating a text wrapping effect with the “OG” on the back; it’s quite a novel design idea.There are many similar interesting small designs, such as the many mecha lines outlined on the body, visually giving you a hint of “not to be messed with” high performance.A small tag is added to the lower right corner of the stand, making it easier for you to unclip the tight hinge when unfolding the stand.If I had to nitpick about the appearance, I could only complain that the iconic “Republic of Gamers” logo is a bit too small; if it could cover the entire stand, the overall design would look even more flamboyant.The hollow part on the back of the machine is the finishing touch of the ROG Flow X.You can see the internal motherboard components through the glass, just like a powerful supercar showcasing its muscles through a transparent hood, combined with a set of RGB lighting effects, it can be said to be the most “showy” tablet currently available.Equally stunning is the seemingly ordinary keyboard.The black keyboard back is made of soft suede material, while the front that fits the palm is made of leather-like material, giving it a good texture.Similar to the Surface, the ROG Flow X also connects the keyboard via a magnetic interface.It supports two-level height adjustment, and the magnetic connection is also very firm and reliable.The difference is that the ROG Flow X’s keyboard surprisingly supports RGB backlighting, which is not common in 2-in-1 laptops.The keyboard backlight has three adjustable levels, and like the RGB light group on the back panel, all lighting effects support ROG’s Aura Sync adjustment; if you have other ROG peripherals, you can link the lighting effects, and in the Aura Creator application, you can customize your favorite lighting effects.However, compared to the cool appearance, what impressed me more was the typing feel of this keyboard.Although it is an external keyboard, the key travel reaches 1.7mm, which is longer than many ultrabooks, providing clear rebound feedback for the fingers, making it less likely to feel fatigued after long periods of typing or gaming.Light up the screen, this 13.4-inch touchscreen with a resolution of 1920*1200 (16:10) and a 120Hz refresh rate is hard to find fault with.The screen surface of the ROG Flow X is covered with Corning Gorilla Glass for durability, and the 500 nits brightness ensures clear visibility even in bright outdoor sunlight.It is quite heavy when held with one hand.It is worth mentioning that when holding the tablet, I noticed that the screen automatically lowers the refresh rate to improve battery life.Later, while debugging the system, I found that in the system’s built-in performance debugging software ARMOURY CREATE, I could turn off the automatic adjustment and adjust it according to personal habits; I turned it off for better visibility.Playing Horizon 5If after seeing the appearance, your impression of the ROG Flow X still lingers on “a modified Surface”, then its performance will give you a whole new perspective on 2-in-1 laptops.Mini in size, but not in performanceBefore the performance test begins, let me list the hardware configuration of the ROG Flow X:Intel’s latest 12th generation Core i9-12900H processor (6 performance cores, 8 efficiency cores, a total of 14 cores and 20 threads)NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050Ti16GB DDR5 memory (8GB*2 onboard)1TB SSD hard driveWhen I first got the ROG Flow X, I didn’t have high expectations for its performance.Because many ultrabooks with larger sizes and volumes only use lower-performance low-voltage processors, can such a small tablet body handle the flagship i9 standard pressure processor?It turns out my concerns were unnecessary.First, let’s look at a set of data; compared to the previous generation flagship mobile processor i9-11980HK (test model Alienware X17), single-core performance has increased by 13.6%, and multi-core performance has increased by 29.8%, which is a considerable improvement.And when not connected to external power, relying solely on battery, the ROG Flow X’s i9-12900H can still maintain good performance; it seems Intel has really squeezed a lot of “toothpaste” out of the 12th generation processors this time.Can the ROG Flow X tablet handle the rapidly advancing performance of the CPU?In a CPU full-load test at room temperature of 20 degrees Celsius (about 50W), the maximum CPU temperature measured was 80 degrees Celsius, but the body temperature was only slightly warm.When the internal fan operates at full speed, the noise is only equivalent to that of a small handheld fan at medium speed, far quieter than the “helicopter takeoff” noise of large gaming laptops.The cooling fans are laid out on the top sides of the ROG Flow X, and in most cases, I can hardly notice the sound of the fan operating; only in high-power scenarios like running AAA games can I hear slight fan noise, so I am quite satisfied with its cooling performance.As a 2-in-1 laptop designed for gamers, how does the ROG Flow X perform in gaming?In CPU-intensive CS:GO, with the graphics settings set to full high effects and a resolution of 1920*1200, the ROG Flow X’s FPS Benchmark test averaged a frame rate of 340FPS, maintaining an average of 300FPS in-game, fully utilizing the high refresh rate advantage of this 120Hz screen.If you feel that playing on a small screen is not satisfying enough, you can expand to a 2K large screen for a better shooting experience; under the same test with graphics settings set to full high effects and a resolution of 2560*1440, the ROG Flow X also achieves an average frame rate of 170 FPS.Besides mainstream online games, can popular AAA titles be played?I chose the exotic Horizon 5 for testing; under the settings of 1920*1200 resolution, full high effects, and medium ray tracing, the average frame rate measured by Horizon 5’s built-in performance test was 71FPS, enough to smoothly cruise around the vast Mexican map.The read and write speed performance of the 1TB M.2 2230 SSD is average; if you want a larger or faster hard drive, you can upgrade it yourself through the quick-release port under the stand.The ROG Flow X is available in three graphics card configuration versions: integrated graphics, NVIDIA RTX 3050, and the RTX 3050Ti I tested.In-game footage of The Witcher 3From the graphics card benchmark tests, the RTX 3050Ti’s graphics performance is comparable to that of the desktop GTX 1650; the former adds support for ray tracing, and under 1080P resolution conditions, if you appropriately lower the effects, it can ensure smooth operation of most AAA games.It is worth noting that before this, playing AAA games on a thin tablet was almost unimaginable; this is why I believe the ROG Flow X will subvert people’s preconceived notions of weak performance in 2-in-1 laptops.However, it should be noted that the ROG Flow X, compared to professional gaming PCs equipped with RTX 3060 and above graphics cards, has just crossed the threshold of “playable”.In-game footage of DeathloopAside from being limited by graphics performance, it cannot play smoothly at 4K high resolutions; due to the ROG Flow X’s graphics memory being only 4GB, it may encounter “out of memory” situations when running some large AAA games.For example, when testing the FPS game “Deathloop”, I encountered a crash due to insufficient graphics memory.If you are a hardcore player who is unwilling to compromise on game graphics, ROG has also thoughtfully prepared an option that can significantly improve performance—the XG external graphics dock.On the left side of the ROG Flow X, there is a dedicated ROG XG graphics expansion port, which allows for lossless graphic transmission to enhance graphics performance with a more powerful graphics card; we have already seen a similar “money power” solution on last year’s Flow 13.ROG offers a performance-oriented RTX 3080 external graphics dock, which can enhance graphics performance by nearly 5 times, sufficient to ensure smooth operation of most AAA games at 4K resolution with ray tracing effects enabled.In terms of content creation, according to benchmark tests from PugetBench For Adobe Premiere Pro, the external RTX 3080 graphics dock can also bring exponential efficiency gains.Therefore, rather than saying that the ROG Flow X is a 2-in-1 laptop or a gaming tablet, it is more of an “all-in-one solution”: all work and entertainment materials are stored within it; take it to the office or on business trips for efficient work; return home to connect to the graphics dock and enter the magical world of “Elden Ring” for exciting adventures.The ROG Flow X is a machine that “satisfies all wishes at once”; of course, all of this comes with a big prerequisite—you need to spend an additional 10,000 yuan to acquire this dedicated graphics dock.The “Porsche” of laptopsROG Flow X right side portsIn terms of ports, the ROG Flow X has two USB Type-C, one USB 2.0 Type-A, one XG dedicated graphics expansion dock port, one 3.5mm headphone jack, and a MicroSD card slot hidden inside the stand.ROG Flow X left side portsAmong these, the two USB Type-C ports are not in the same position and protocol; the Type-C port in the middle of the left side supports Thunderbolt 4 protocol.The other Type-C port is hidden in the lower left dust cover with the XG port and supports USB 3.2 Gen2, DP 1.4 protocol, and 100W PD charging.In daily use, if you want to connect multiple peripherals like a screen and mouse at the same time, it is still inevitable to add a USB Type-C expansion dock.From the hardware specifications, the “capable of both literature and martial arts” ROG Flow X has almost no shortcomings, but after I actually experienced it for a while, I found that despite solving the performance and cooling issues, it still has its “throat choking” areas—battery life.In power-saving mode, with the screen brightness at 40% (1080P), I found that when using it for Chrome web browsing, the actual test showed that the ROG Flow X could only last for 3 hours and 20 minutes before the battery was nearly depleted. If you want to play games offline, the battery life will take an even bigger hit.Clearly, compared to notebooks like Evo and MacBook that emphasize energy efficiency, the ROG Flow X is not an ideal portable office computer.The ROG Flow X comes with a 100W PD charger, which can quickly charge 50% of the battery in 40 minutes; fast charging can somewhat compensate for the battery life shortcomings.However, this charger is not small; if you have to carry it around every time, it contradicts the portability that 2-in-1 laptops emphasize.Therefore, I recommend equipping it with a much lighter 65W PD charger, using a low-wattage charger for light office work in the office or library, and then using the original charger at home to achieve 100% performance.In summary, the ROG Flow X is like a Porsche—powerful performance, capable of meeting various needs including productivity and gaming entertainment; its design is on point, standing out among the business-style ultrabooks or 2-in-1 laptops.On this basis, you can “opt for” a powerful external graphics card to gain the top gaming visual experience on a mobile platform; “opt for” a 4096-level pressure-sensitive stylus to unleash your creativity anytime, anywhere.The ROG Flow X is both a combination of performance and design and the cornerstone of an all-in-one solution; from this perspective, the ROG Flow X is even closer to Microsoft’s vision of the “most versatile computer”—capable of doing anything and doing it perfectly.
