The Asus ROG Flow X13 is the most exciting thing I have seen so far at CES 2021. First, as its name suggests, this is a small 13-inch gaming laptop, and we've already proven with the Razer Blade 13 and others that such a device can work brilliantly as a gaming machine. And there would be no shame in bringing this to a work meeting (who remembers meeting others in person? Nope...)

And that's not all. It is one of those versatile machines that can be used in different modes by flipping the screen. It also has a touch screen, so it can be used as a supercharged tablet. It can also be propped up in tent mode to watch movies or play games.

Asus used the excellent Zephyrus G14 as a starting point for the ROG Flow X13 and built from there. In the process, they obviously shaved an inch off the diagonal dimensions. As noted, this is an ultra-thin machine, measuring just 15.8 mm thin. The casing is a magnesium alloy, sandblasted to prevent it from slipping out of the hand.

Inside this attractive chassis is a next-generation AMD Ryzen 5000 series mobile processor and an Nvidia GTX 1650, providing plenty of gaming performance on the go (more on that later). It can also be equipped with incredibly fast memory, including up to 32GB of 4,266MHz LPDDR4X RAM.The Flow X13 can also be equipped with a 512GB or 1TB M.2 SSD.

Asus has changed the screen aspect ratio to 16:10, giving it a little more vertical room. You can also choose between a 120Hz FullHD or 60Hz 4k screen, both of which are touchscreens. Both are touch panels and are Pantone certified, so color accuracy is guaranteed no matter which you choose.

But there is one more thing up Flow X13's sleeve that is of particular interest to us gamers. This is something that has been promised for some time, but has been slow to materialize. However, Asus believes it has a solution to the technical limitations that have plagued previous solutions and has developed a proprietary interface that is faster than Thunderbolt 3. This allows the Flow X13 to connect to next-generation cards like the RTX 3080 and deliver desktop-level performance.

So you can carry a 1.3 kg laptop during the day and connect it to an eGPU box at night for serious gaming or work if you must. eGPU is a 280 W power design and weighs 1 kg, so carrying this around is no problem if needed, but carrying the RTX Carrying the 3080 around is probably the most paranoia-inducing thing you can currently do with your PC hardware.

The ROG Zephyrus Flow X13 seems to challenge the best gaming laptops and could be the final popularization of eGPUs. The fact that it is such a small and powerful machine certainly maximizes its chances of success. And even without the eGPU aspect (you don't have to buy that either), this looks like a great gaming machine. Frankly, we can't wait to get this machine fully operational in our lab.

Asus has announced many more machines, including updates to existing lines, new models in the TUF and Strix series, and new machines with higher refresh panels and overclocked AMD processors.