The gorgeous Asus ROG Flow X13 will cost over $ 1000 less without its eGPU

The Asus ROG Flow X13 was one of the most high-profile announcements at CES 2021, for good reason: How often do you see a 13-inch convertible gaming laptop, especially one that looks so cool? – but there was a catch. On the Asus store, the ROG Flow X13 was only listed in a $ 3,000 plan with an XG Mobile eGPU. (It was also the only pre-order link given to media when the Flow X13 was announced.) It’s a big change, and it’s led most Flow X13 reviewers (myself included) to voice some reservations about the high price.

But further clarification from Asus could be a game-changer. On the last episode of the ROG Pulse PodcastAsus Marketing Manager Sascha Krohn said the company plans to sell the ROG Flow X13 itself in the future.

“There was a misconception that we were only selling it as a bundle, so the XG Mobile with the X13,” Krohn said. “So we sell it as a bundle, but we also sell it separately, and that’s important.”

Ryan Nesbit, Asus marketer, gave an approximate starting price of “$ 1,200”. Nesbit and Krohn haven’t revealed a timeline or release date for this X13 setup. We asked Asus about this and will update this article if we have any news.

That $ 1,200 price tag, if Asus followed it, would be a game-changer for the ROG Flow X13. Many critics have pointed out that the value proposition of the X13 as a $ 3,000 gaming laptop is uncertain outside of a niche audience. Its internal GPU is entry-level compared to chips you’ll find in other gaming subnotebooks, and external GPUs tend to take a performance penalty. (After all, they’re outside the laptop.)

But as a versatile $ 1,200 laptop, I’d be comfortable calling the Flow X13 a steal. Not only is it great in almost every way – there’s a unique and sturdy design, an excellent keyboard, and a great 16:10 touchscreen with stylus support – but it includes an eight-core processor (to start with by AMD’s Ryzen 5900HS). It is without a doubt the most powerful chip that can be found in a 13-inch chassis today. At $ 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: it means that the GeForce RTX 3080 XG Mobile (in the bundle listed on the Asus site and also the one that was sent to reviewers) is quite expensive. Krohn and Nesbit have also indicated that an RTX 3070 edition of the XG Mobile will be available in the future, with an estimated price of “eight to nine centsish”. Basic math suggests that this would make the RTX 3070 XG Mobile up to $ 1,000 cheaper than the RTX 3080 configuration in the currently listed bundle. It’s a pretty big delta, but I guess we’ll see.

It’s not clear from the podcast whether Asus plans to sell the XG Mobile on its own or whether that eGPU will be sold in a cheaper Flow X13 pack. We also asked Asus for clarification.

You can watch the full episode below. The price discussion begins a little over 15 minutes.

Photograph by Monica Chin / The Verge