The beautiful Asus ROG Flow X13 will be more than $ 1,000 cheaper without your eGPU

The Asus ROG Flow X13 was one of CES 2021’s hottest ads, for good reason – how often do you see a 13-inch convertible gaming laptop, especially one that looks so cool? – but there was a problem. At the Asus store, the ROG Flow X13 was only listed in a $ 3,000 package with an XG Mobile eGPU. (This was also the only pre-order link provided to the media at the time of the Flow X13 announcement.) This is a major change and has led most Flow X13 reviewers (myself included) to express reservations about the exorbitant price.

But further clarification from Asus may change the game. In the last episode of ROG Pulse Podcast, Asus marketing manager Sascha Krohn indicated that the company plans to sell the ROG Flow X13 on its own in the future.

“There was some misunderstanding about us selling it just as a package, so XG Mobile along with X13,” said Krohn. “So, we sell as a package, but we also sell separately, and that’s important.”

Asus marketing specialist Ryan Nesbit gave an approximate starting price of “$ 1,200”. Nesbit and Krohn did not reveal a timeline or release date for this X13 configuration. We asked Asus about this and will update this article if we receive an answer.

That $ 1,200 price point, if Asus goes ahead with it, would be a game changer for the ROG Flow X13. Many reviews have pointed out that the X13’s value proposition as a $ 3,000 gaming laptop is doubtful outside a fairly niche audience. Its internal GPU is basic compared to the chips you will find in other gaming ultraportables, and external GPUs tend to incur a performance penalty. (After all, they’re off the laptop.)

But as a $ 1,200 general-purpose laptop, I would feel comfortable calling the Flow X13 an absolute steal. Not only is it great in almost every way – there’s a unique, robust design, a great keyboard and an excellent 16:10 touch screen with pen support – but it includes an eight-core processor (starting with AMD’s Ryzen 5900HS). This is arguably the most powerful chip you can currently find in a 13-inch chassis. For $ 1,200, this laptop would be a no-brainer for anyone who needs a 13.4-inch laptop for CPU-intensive work.

The flip side of this: this means that the GeForce RTX 3080 XG Mobile (in the package that is listed on the Asus website and also the one that was sent to reviewers) is very expensive. Krohn and Nesbit also indicated that an RTX 3070 edition of XG Mobile will be available in the future, with an estimated price of “around eight hundred to nine hundred”. Basic math suggests that this would make the RTX 3070 XG Mobile up to $ 1,000 cheaper than the RTX 3080 configuration in the package that is currently listed. It’s a pretty big delta, but I think we’ll see.

It is unclear on the podcast whether Asus plans to sell the XG Mobile on its own or whether this eGPU will be sold in a cheaper Flow X13 package. We asked Asus for clarification here as well.

You can see the full episode below. The price discussion starts just over 15 minutes ago.

Monica Chin / The Verge photo