I find it exciting when a new laptop brand enters the gaming market. The space is a bit crowded at the moment, to be sure, but it can be refreshing to review something new. In my experience, there is usually some feature or some combination of hardware that I haven’t seen before, or the thermals are as nice as my grandmother’s minestrone soup – not too hot, but perfect. Adata’s XPG Xenia gaming notebook, the first gaming notebook the company has ever made, checks many of the right cases. It was originally released in April 2020, some time ago, but I’m happy to finally be able to dedicate some time to it. It’s an almost perfect gaming laptop that I wouldn’t mind having, but I hope it can maintain the same quality consistency with regard to thermals if Adata chooses to release an updated version with a newer processor in the future (which I hope you do!).
It is a solid machine with everything I expected from a company that manufactures SSDs, DRAM modules, CPU coolers, peripherals and more. Adata knows the game space. It is well versed with the familiar balance of packing equipment to the right specifications at a reasonable price while keeping the PC fresh – and XPG Xenia shows Adata’s experience in these areas beautifully. Even if some components are state of the art or will soon be state of the art, thanks to all the laptop ads that ‘is about to overcome the CES course, XPG Xenia is still worth a solid appearance.
This gaming notebook is equipped with an Intel Core i7-9750H, Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti GPU, 32 GB DDR4 2666 MHz DRAM and a 1 TB M.2 PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD. The IPS FHD screen is 15.6 inches with a refresh rate of 144 Hz and an NTSC color range of 72%. This color range is, for the most part, average for gaming laptops under $ 2,000, but the 85% screen / body ratio makes this laptop fit perfectly with all the other sleek-looking notebooks that are machines of stealth games.
The battery life is above average for a gaming notebook, almost six hours. It is not quite the battery life of more than 10 hours that Adata announces, but the battery life will always vary based on the programs you are running, the brightness of the screen and the amount of RGB you have enabled. The XPG Xenia’s battery life is actually longer than some of the more expensive gaming laptops we’ve tested before, like the Acer Predator Triton 500 (3 hours and 20 minutes), Razer Blade Pro 17 (3 hours 36 minutes), and the Asus Strix Scar G15 (4 hours and 45 minutes). He arrives a few minutes after the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 and the Acer Nitro 5.
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The overall design is subtle and professional, which is definitely good for players who want to use their laptops to work and play. Before the pandemic, I always felt awkward when I took my laptop for three-year games to a coffee shop to work because the crisp lines etched into the lid stood out completely – not to mention that the screen sockets were thick and weird-looking. It looked aggressive, so it’s nice to see companies making laptops for more moderate and mature-looking games today.
While the plastic keys look a little narrow, the low-profile mechanical keyboard is wonderful for typing. My fingers seemed to adapt naturally to the layout, and the click of the keys was pleasantly quiet. There is also a small bump at the trigger point, so those of you who prefer quiet, tactile keys can enjoy this one as much as I do. XPG Xenia nailed it. RGB lighting is per key as well, so if you want to highlight WASD or other commonly used keys while playing, you can do that.
This gaming notebook is also an amazing power, thanks to these 32 GB of DRAM and how Xenia keeps all its legal components, which I will cover in a moment. In our gaming benchmarks, it definitely stood up to many of the other high-spec laptops we tested – laptops with an Intel i9-10885H and an RTX 2070 Max-Q or an AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS and an RTX 2060 Max -Q , for example, average: 87 frames per second in ultra-high 1080p Far Cry 5; 63 fps on Total War: Warhammer II; 79 fps on Shadow of the Tomb Raider; and 42 fps at Metro Exodus.
Even compared to the Acer Nitro 5, which has the same CPU, but an RTX 2060 and 16 GB of memory, the XPG Xenia produced the same number of frames in all the same games. It was even faster than Nitro 5 rendering a 3D image in Blender, about 11 minutes and 30 seconds compared to about 13 minutes, and faster transcoding from a 4K video to 1080p on Handbrake, about 11 minutes to 12 minutes and 30 seconds.
But here comes the warning, and it’s not Adata’s fault: Intel has decided to discontinue its 300 series chipset, which includes the QMS380 laptop chipset. The Intel Core i7-9750H in XPG Xenia uses this chipset. From now on, you can still get devices with a compatible motherboard, but July this year is the last chance for anyone to order anything that needs a 300 series chipset. Adata could potentially place your final orders then will have stock of this model by the end of 2021, but after that it will have to use 10th (or 11th generation) Intel CPUs, which worries me because of the thermal demands.
Almost all of the 10th generation Intel laptops I tested last year were hotter than anyone concerned about the longevity of their machines should feel comfortable, the i7s and i9s in particular. Maximum CPU temperatures reached over 90 degrees Celsius (more than 194 degrees Fahrenheit), often reaching a few degrees from Intel’s maximum temperature rating of 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit.) Skin temperature can easily reach 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) or greater in certain areas around or above the keyboard.
But 9th generation chips are much cooler, and Adata’s cooling solution for the XPG Xenia is one of the best I’ve seen on a gaming laptop – even with the naturally cooler 9th generation chip. The maximum temperatures for Xenia reached just 80 degrees (Celsius) compared to the low 90 degrees for Nitro 5. Average temperatures remained in the mid-60s, which is the perfect place for a CPU under load.
Skin temperatures remained between 30 and 40 degrees, except for a spot located above the keyboard that reached 48 degrees Celsius. I could feel the air from the fans spinning from the keyboard, which kept my hands (well, left fingers) cool and cool while playing. There are also more air vents on the sides, the bottom and the back of the laptop, so this thing is well ventilated.
Sure, the fans were noisy, as the laptop was in Turbo mode while I was doing these tests, but I was so happy to see much lower temperatures that I didn’t care so much. In balanced mode, there was not much difference in temperatures, and there was a small drop in the frame rate, about 2-3 frames. The fans were a little quieter too, but not much.
All this to say that Adata may have a good chance of controlling the thermals of Intel’s 10th generation chip, but if you’re looking for a good 1080p gaming laptop now and have just over a thousand dollars to burn, the XPG Xenia is one who should be serious to consider. Yes, new laptops are coming and there are laptops with newer parts. Yes, the 300 series chipset is coming out. But for $ 1,250 at the current price on the Adata website? Yes, it’s a good price for a professional-looking, well-specified gaming laptop.
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- Good performance, works surprisingly cool
- Noisy fans
- Ok battery life
- The normal price is high compared to laptops for similar games, but it is on sale in the publication of this review for a more reasonable price.
- Many ports, weighs just over two kilos