XPG Xenia 15 KC (2021) review: Huge performance gains and some new features make this high-end laptop a winner
Source: Windows Central
ADATA's venture into the world of Ultrabooks and gaming laptops that began a couple of years agone with the XPG make has delivered us a few excellent devices. I absolutely loved the XPG Xenia 14 as a lightweight productivity option, and the original XPG Xenia xv (2020) gaming laptop was an excellent foundation on which the visitor could build.
I at present have some of the visitor's continued progress in-hand for testing; the XPG Xenia 15 KC for 2022 is back with updated performance hardware, fresh ports, a new display, and more. I've been using it for a couple of weeks to see where it excels and whether or not information technology's worth your money.
Big changes inside
XPG Xenia 15 KC (2021)
Bottom line: XPG'due south Xenia fifteen KC, refreshed for 2022, builds on the potent foundation we first saw in the 2022 Xenia 15. It tin absolutely shred modern games cheers to the provided operation hardware, and everything looks crisp and colorful on the QHD brandish. Extra features, like Thunderbolt 4, IR camera, HDMI 2.ane, PCIe 4.0 SSD, and per-key RGB lighting for the optical mechanical keyboard, are wholly appreciated.
Pros
- Tons of performance
- Speedy RAM and SSD are upgradeable
- QHD display with 165Hz refresh rate
- Included Intel software is a pace up
- IR camera, Thunderbolt four, HDMI 2.i
Cons
- Fans run loud under total load
- Primal actuation is sometimes finicky
- Some throttling due to excess heat
XPG Xenia 15 KC: Price, availability, and specs
Source: Windows Cardinal
XPG supplied Windows Central with a review unit of the Xenia 15 KC gaming laptop refreshed for 2022. This can be considered the second generation of the laptop, and it comes with quite a few upgrades. Our review unit has within an 11th Gen Intel Core i7-11800H processor (CPU), delivering considerably better performance than the 9th Gen Intel Core i7 in the 2022 model.
The 2022 model over again has dual 16GB stick of RAM for a full of 32GB, but information technology's been upgraded to DDR4-3200MHz from DDR4-2666MHz. RAM is upgradeable afterward purchase. Equally for storage, XPG has moved to its own Gammix S70 PCIe 4.0 bulldoze sized at 1TB. There'south an extra M.ii slot available if you'd like to add storage, and the factory-installed drive is accessible for upgrades.
Graphics have been bumped upward to a NVIDIA RTX 3070 Laptop GPU, an upgrade over the RTX 2070 Max-Q menu in the 2022 model. One final major difference is the brandish. You can now enjoy a 1440p pic with a 165Hz refresh charge per unit, upwards from 1080p with a 144Hz refresh charge per unit.
This model costs about $2,400 and is available at Amazon. This is nearly $1,000 more than the previous model, though the upgrades to functioning hardware, display, and features don't come without a cost.
Following are the exact specs as institute in the review unit.
| Category | Spec |
|---|---|
| Os | Windows x Habitation |
| Processor | 11th Gen Intel Core i7-11800H 8 cores, 16 threads |
| RAM | 32GB (2x16GB) XPG DDR4-3200MHz |
| Graphics | NVIDIA RTX 3070 Laptop |
| Storage | 1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 XPG Gammix S70 Extra M.2 slot |
| Brandish | 15.6 inches 2560x1440 (QHD) 165Hz refresh charge per unit IPS, Matte |
| Ports | Thunderbolt 4 Iii USB-A iii.2 (Gen ii) HDMI 2.i Ethernet SD card reader 3.5mm sound |
| Audio | Dual speakers |
| Wireless | Intel AX201 Wi-Fi 6 Bluetooth 5.2 |
| Photographic camera | Forepart-facing 720p IR camera for Windows Hello |
| Keyboard | Optical mechanical Per-key RGB |
| Touchpad | Precision |
| Battery | 94Wh |
| Dimensions | 14 x 9.2 x 0.8 inches (356mm x 234mm ten 21mm) |
| Weight | 4.2 pounds (1.94kg) |
| Color | Black |
| Material | Magnesium alloy |
Like build, new features
XPG Xenia 15 KC: Design and features
Source: Windows Central
The Xenia fifteen KC (2021) is a lot like the previous 2022 model. Information technology's yet using a Tongfang reference design for the chassis, with a matte black finish and magnesium alloy structure. There's non a whole lot of flash, but that'due south OK for a lot of people. An XPG logo on the lid and a customizable RGB light bar forth the front edge are the near you'll get when the laptop is closed. It nevertheless weighs in at around four pounds and has the same dimensions as the older model.
The USB-C port has been upgraded to Thunderbolt four for better functioning, and all iii USB-A ports are now 3.2 (Gen 2). HDMI two.1 is now included for better video output, and you still get Ethernet, 3.5mm audio, and an SD carte reader. The more permanent ports — HDMI, Ethernet, Thunderbolt, and power — even so reside on the back edge of the laptop for easier cablevision management, with USB-A, 3.5mm sound, and SD card reader living on the sides. For added security, there'south a Kensington lock slot.
Source: Windows Central
Opening the laptop reveals an optical mechanical keyboard with per-cardinal RGB lighting that's customizable through onboard Intel NUC Software Studio. Information technology's essentially the same keyboard as on the 2022 model, and I still savour information technology for gaming and productivity piece of work. Full-size arrow keys, an Fn-accessible number pad, and dedicated nav keys are all appreciated. After spending quite a bit of time with the keyboard, I did observe that y'all really need to strike the centre of some of the larger keys (Shift, Tab, Infinite) to get them to actuate. It's not bad, only it takes some getting used to.
Equally for the Precision touchpad, it's a bully alternative to a gaming mouse when you need to get some work washed. Information technology'due south big, the drinking glass surface is smooth, and information technology tracks well. At that place'southward even a double-tap toggle in the corner that allows you to quickly enable and disable the touchpad when gaming.
Source: Windows Central
There'southward nevertheless no camera shutter for extra privacy, but an IR sensor for Windows Hello makes a render. This isn't something you lot see on a lot of gaming laptops, but it is appreciated. The front-facing 720p camera does an OK job for standard video conferencing, simply if you lot're planning on a career streaming video games, something from our best webcam roundup will fare much better.
A single speaker is situated on both sides of the laptop. Instead of beingness strictly downward-firing, the chassis now has extra cutouts on the side to help go audio up and abroad from the laptop. The speakers work fine for casual gaming when not every step needs to be heard clearly, just don't wait to be wowed. Fan noise does interfere with sound when the laptop is nether full load.
Overall, I notwithstanding like the pattern of this laptop. Information technology's understated, information technology'due south fairly light considering what's all contained inside, and the port layout is smart. I thing I don't like is the inclusion of side exhaust vents; they'll blow hot air onto your mouse hand whether yous're a lefty or a righty. I don't think removing them is an option, as the laptop is too thin for just a couple of exhaust vents along the back next to the ports. It's something yous'll have to put up with when cramming as much operation into a thin body.
More pixels
XPG Xenia fifteen KC: Display
Source: Windows Key
The Xenia fifteen KC at present sports more than pixels for its 15.6-inch display with a crash-land upward to 2560x1440 (QHD) from 1920x1080 (FHD). The IPS panel has a matte cease that does an fantabulous job of cutting out glare, and the fairly slim bezel helps give it a modern look. The 16:9 attribute ratio is a scrap stale, merely it'southward withal what most people prefer for gaming.
The Xenia 15's QHD display is a stride up for everyone who wants something more crisp than 1080p.
NVIDIA's G-Sync technology would be a large addition, but, unfortunately, it's nonetheless omitted. You can connect the laptop to a Thousand-Sync external display for all the benefits, so bank check out our collection of the best gaming monitors if yous're looking for something to pair with the Xenia fifteen. The refresh rate is ready at 165Hz, achievable in many games at 1440p with the RTX 3070 Laptop GPU. Games look great on the display, and in that location are a number of color presets available in Intel'due south NUC software for further customization.
Furthermore, Intel'south Graphics Command Center allows for per-color tweaks for effulgence, equally well as saturation, hue, and contrast sliders to help y'all become the exact movie you want. The display looked OK out of the box, merely later a couple minutes of tweaking I had information technology looking a lot better.
Measuring brightness, I got back 338 nits at peak and just 8 nits at the lowest point. This helps with gaming after hours when you don't want to burn your retinas. As for color accurateness, measuring with a SpyderX Pro colorimeter revealed 100% sRGB, 78% AdobeRGB, and 81% DCI-P3. These are excellent numbers that result in a great picture no matter the game you lot're playing.
As for response time, it sits somewhere around the 6ms to 7ms marker. That might non work for competitive gaming where reaction time is crucial, only otherwise it should be fine for most gamers.
Hot and loud
XPG Xenia 15 KC: Gaming
Source: Windows Central
Intel's NUC software on the Xenia 15 KC is a big pace up from the proprietary Prime number software that was on the 2022 Xenia 15 model. Information technology offers more than control over the system with more than stability and a more intuitive UI. Within you can arrange battery accuse limits, display presets (with color, contrast, and brightness sliders), and keyboard and light bar RGB colors and presets. There's too quite a bit of performance tuning available, though don't expect easy overclocking without getting into the BIOS.
The Xenia xv KC has a smart switch next to the ability button that lets you toggle ability profiles on the fly without having to use an app. Information technology's a handy addition, just I was curious to see if XPG had implemented any sort of deeper ability management to aid deal with thermal throttling, something the 2022 model suffered from. The Lenovo Legion 5 Pro, for example, intelligently balances ability to the CPU and GPU to prevent thermal throttling. Yous nevertheless become reduced arrangement functioning, but at least the PC knows what'south going on and can ameliorate bargain with it to maximize performance.
The Xenia 15 KC'due south Counterbalanced power mode offers a ton of performance with no thermal throttling.
With the laptop on Ac power and set to Performance style (though with fans ready to Standard fashion to reduce noise), I ran a 15-minute stress exam with AIDA64 using both the CPU and GPU. The CPU averaged 87 degrees Celsius, pulling in about 45W at a clock speed of effectually three.2GHz. The GPU averaged 87 degrees Celsius and pulled in nearly 92W at a clock speed of almost 1.58GHz.
With fans running on Standard mode, I measured about 54 decibels of sound. On Performance fan mode, that climbs to virtually 64 decibels. Not exactly quiet. In this test, AIDA64 measured abiding throttling between 5% and 30% due to heat. There wasn't a huge alter between Balanced and Performance fan modes in terms of thermal throttling.
XPG'south Counterbalanced power mode cuts downward on oestrus, but it also saps some of the laptop's ability. After letting the laptop cool downwards, I ran the same stress test with fans set to Standard and ability gear up to Balanced. The CPU averaged 78 degrees Celsius and ran at 36W with a clock of about three.1GHz. The GPU averaged 80 degrees Celsius while pulling in 70W with a 1.21GHz clock speed. Every bit for fan noise, it hit about 47 decibels. There was absolutely no thermal throttling in this examination; Counterbalanced really ways balanced.
Despite the throttling in Functioning mode — which enough of modern gaming laptops suffer from — the Xenia fifteen KC is a truthful performer in benchmarks and real-world gameplay. Notice how it compares to the Razer Bract fifteen, Blade fourteen, and Lenovo Legion 5 Pro. I ran these benchmarks using Performance mode with fans set to Balanced to reduce racket.
Actual gaming performance is only as impressive. With fairly robust ray tracing abilities thanks to the NVIDIA RTX GPU and DLSS compatibility with plenty of games, you're going to become a satisfying gaming experience. The QHD display looks quite well-baked, and you can always calibration down in resolution if you'd like a better framerate. I tested a number of demanding modern games to come across how the Xenia 15 KC fares in real-world scenarios.
Note that in all tests I maxed the in-game settings and played at the native QHD resolution. DLSS is specified per game. I ran the offset gear up of tests with the laptop on Performance mode (for both hardware and fans).
- Far Cry 5: 93 FPS average (108 max, 81 min)
- Red Dead Redemption 2: 66.six FPS average (85 max, 34 min, DLSS Car)
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider: 95 FPS average (DLSS, DX12)
I tested once more with the laptop set to Balanced and fans set to Standard to see the departure in real-world gameplay performance.
- Far Cry 5: 84 FPS (98 max, 77 min)
- Red Dead Redemption 2: 59.5 FPS average (96 max, 28 min, DLSS Auto)
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider: 87 FPS average (DLSS, DX12)
As you can see from the above results, there'due south not a huge dip in performance if yous choose to run the laptop on Balanced style with quieter fans. If you're wearing a headset and don't intendance about noise yous tin can e'er eke every final frame out of the hardware, but a much quieter (and cooler) experience isn't going to ruin your fun at all.
Huge 94Wh battery
XPG Xenia 15 KC: Performance and battery
Source: Windows Central
Battery life in the Xenia 15 (2020) wasn't spectacular, and you shouldn't expect whatever miracles here either with the 2022 version. The large 94Wh battery lasted 6 hours and 21 minutes in PCMark ten's Modern Office rundown test, with the screen set to fifty% brightness and the power profile set to Balanced (aka Windows 10 Better Functioning). No complaints with this consequence, but information technology's non out of the ordinary.
Upgradeable SODIMM RAM and two M.2 SSD slots will help go on this laptop relevant longer into the future.
Y'all could driblet downward to Battery Saver way if you're only going about productivity work, which would no doubtfulness boost bombardment life past some other hour or ii. Killing the RGB lighting and enabling Intel's enhanced power savings option in the Control Center app would also benefit here.
I also tested gaming battery life with PCMark'due south Gaming rundown test. With 50% screen brightness and the Intel power profile prepare to Balanced, the battery managed 1 hr and 53 minutes. This is pretty standard for a gaming laptop; if yous're planning on having some fun while mobile, be sure to bring the AC adapter.
The bottom console of the laptop is piece of cake to remove with a Philips screwdriver; once gone it reveals the dual-fan setup, sizable heat pipes, and upgradeable hardware. There are two Yard.2 slots available, one filled from the manufacturing plant and the other ready for an upgrade. The ii SODIMM RAM slots are front and eye every bit well for piece of cake upgrades, every bit is the single Yard.2 slot used for the Wi-Fi 6 network carte.
I ran some general benchmarks to see how the Xenia 15 KC fares for productivity piece of work. Notice how fast the PCIe iv.0 SSD is compared to other laptops we've tested with PCIe 3.0 drives.
Heated battle
XPG Xenia 15 KC: Competition
Source: Daniel Rubino / Windows Primal
The Xenia 15 KC reminds me a lot of the Razer Blade 15. The RGB mechanical-optical keyboard, the fairly thin matte black chassis, and the super operation are all comparable. You don't get the same high-level custom blueprint (XPG is using a reference chassis after all), but information technology'due south the performance and price that a lot of people will look at. In that regard, the Xenia 15 KC certainly competes, every bit you tin can see in the functioning graphs in the previous department. A Blade 15 with similar specs — though with 16GB of RAM and a PCIe iii.0 SSD — costs virtually $200 more than the Xenia xv KC.
The Razer Blade 14 is a slightly smaller option with AMD hardware. A model with powerful Ryzen nine 5900HX CPU, NVIDIA RTX 3070 Laptop GPU, 16GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, and 14-inch QHD display with 165Hz refresh charge per unit costs most $ii,200. Chalk that up to the lower cost for AMD systems.
Lenovo's Legion 5 Pro is a larger choice with a sixteen-inch display with sixteen:10 aspect ratio. A model with AMD Ryzen 7 5800H CPU, NVIDIA RTX 3070 Laptop GPU, QHD+ display with 165Hz refresh charge per unit, 2TB SSD, and 16GB of RAM currently costs well-nigh $ii,080 at Lenovo. That'south a bully deal, merely Lenovo's prices fluctuate often.
Finally, the HP Omen 15 is a fantastic choice if you're looking to keep prices downward. A model with AMD Ryzen 7 5800H CPU, NVIDIA RTX 3060 Laptop GPU, xv-inch QHD brandish with 165Hz refresh rate, 512GB SSD, and 16GB of RAM costs about $ane,700. You won't get quite as much ability out of the RTX 3060, but saving $700 might but exist worth it.
Be sure to take a await at our collection of the best gaming laptops if none of these are quite what you're looking for.
Building on a stiff foundation
Should you buy the XPG Xenia 15 KC?
Source: Windows Fundamental
Who it's for
- Those who want a ton of high-end functioning with NVIDIA DLSS and ray tracing.
- Those who prefer the crisp look of a 1440p (QHD) display.
- Those who similar the feel of a mechanical optical keyboard (and the look of per-key RGB lighting).
- Those who can spend more than $2,000 on a new laptop.
Who it isn't for
- Those who don't heed a 1080p (FHD) display for better framerates and lower toll.
- Those who need a productivity laptop with lengthy battery life.
- Those who are looking to stick to a tight budget.
The Xenia xv KC for 2022 builds profoundly on the original model nosotros offset saw final twelvemonth. The 11th Gen Intel Core i7-11800H and NVIDIA RTX 3070 Laptop GPU shred, and though at that place's some thermal throttling in the uncapped Performance mode, the Balanced power setting does a great chore of keeping things cool without harming perfomance in any considerable way.
A PCIe four.0 SSD isn't something you find in a lot of laptops, and the incredible speed is appreciated. Load times and transfers are not an issue. You can upgrade the SSD (or add a 2d drive to an additional M.2 slot) and you lot can upgrade the dual-channel SODIMM RAM with relative ease after removing the bottom panel. The chassis itself doesn't actually stand out in whatsoever meaningful way, which a lot of people tin can appreciate. It's fairly lightweight, information technology'southward sparse, and it has ports along the back for easier cable management. Thunderbolt iv is a great addition, as is HDMI 2.1.
The optical mechanical keyboard has a satisfying feel and sound, plus the per-key RGB lighting gives the laptop some flair. There is some discrepancy in actuation, but I was able to get used to the force per unit area required subsequently a few days. Non many gaming laptops bother with security measures, but the Xenia xv brings an IR camera for Windows Hello and a Kensington lock slot.
Gaming on the QHD display is smoothen thanks to the 165Hz refresh charge per unit. Color accurate in the sRGB range, and at that place are plenty of tweaks available via the onboard software. The response fourth dimension might not be low enough for some competitive gamers, simply otherwise you should enjoy looking at information technology each time you open the lid.
The Xenia 15 KC's price is competitive with other loftier-cease options out there, and its performance, as is axiomatic in our testing, tin certainly go along up (or even surpass) more expensive laptops. If you're planning on spending more $2,000 on a new gaming laptop, definitely give this one some serious idea.
Big changes inside
XPG Xenia 15 KC
Bottom line: The Xenia fifteen KC competes with high-end gaming laptops in terms of toll and performance. Its characteristic fix is quite generous, and while it does run across some throttling when left wide open up, the Balanced ability style keeps things in check without sacrificing much performance. If you're looking for a loftier-terminate gaming laptop, this i is definitely worth considering.
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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/xpg-xenia-15-kc-2021-review
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