The Xenia Xe (starts at $1,599; $1,799 as tested) is the second laptop from memory and storage maker ADATA’s gaming brand, XPG. Unlike its first laptop, the Xenia, this is not a true gaming laptop, but a sleeker, more style-focused 15.6-incher that might handle an esports title or two with the help of its Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics. Though this well-made laptop is a welcome break from the mainstream brands (it’s based on an Intel NUC design, more about which in a moment), it doesn’t stand out from those efforts except for its long battery life, and it is pricey for what it offers. Look to the Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 and the Dell XPS 15 for a higher level of style and performance, if not as much battery life, for about the same money.
Who Is This Laptop For? Xe Marks the Spot
XPG’s marketing dubs the Xenia Xe as a “Gaming Lifestyle Laptop,” though the gaming part is true only if your games are the low-impact kind that will run adequately on an Iris Xe integrated GPU. Iris Xe is the new version of Intel’s integrated graphics, hitting the mainstream with the debut of the company’s 11th Generation “Tiger Lake-U” processors. (See much more about how to choose a laptop CPU.) Granted, the Iris Xe is markedly more capable than Intel’s previous integrated GPUs, but it is essentially still limited to running older or less-demanding titles at a 720p resolution and mixed settings. In other words, this is not the right laptop if serious gaming is your goal.
But for general usage and slightly more demanding tasks such as photo editing, the Xenia Xe does well with its Core i7-1165G7 quad-core Tiger Lake processor (2.8GHz base, up to 4.7GHz Turbo Boost), 16GB of memory, and roomy 1TB SSD that supports the recent-to-Intel PCI Express 4.0 protocol. (The drive is a speedy XPG Gammix S50 Lite.) Microsoft Windows 10 Home and a one-year warranty are standard.
XPG also offers a Core i5-1135G7 model of the Xenia Xe for $1,599, though it’s best avoided since it has just 8GB of memory, which is impossible to upgrade on this laptop. The RAM is soldered down in place, so you can’t swap SO-DIMMs or add a second module, and at this price level, you shouldn’t settle for less than 16GB.
A Well-Crafted Aluminum Shell
The Xenia Xe’s aluminum chassis is strong. It’s not a unibody design like the Apple MacBook Pro, but its two chassis pieces fit together tightly. Nary a sharp edge is to be found. The Xenia Xe gets that much right.
Style-wise, however, its ordinary lines are a tough sell in this elite price tier. It lacks a sense of identity versus other brands. In fact, its only branding is XPG’s triangle cutout on the lid, and that is just a sticker. (It’s applied well, but it would have been much more impactful a design element had it been cut into the metal.)
The plain look is likely attributable to the Xenia Xe being based on Intel’s NUC M15 laptop reference design, which the chip maker issued late in 2020. The idea behind the original Next Unit of Computing (NUC) concept was to spur innovations in mini-desktop PCs. (See for example, our most recent review of a NUC, the NUC 11 Enthusiast Kit, or the announcement at Computex this week around the new “Beast Canyon” super-NUC.) Here, the idea behind the first NUC laptop initiative is to enable smaller laptop sellers (like XPG) to roll out a Tiger Lake-optimized laptop without designing from scratch, just adding their own individual flourishes.
On the upside, at 0.59 by 13.97 by 9.05 inches (HWD) and 3.64 pounds, the Xenia Xe compares favorably to the Dell XPS 15 model 9500 we tested (0.7 by 13.6 by 9.1 inches, 4.5 pounds) and the more squarish Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 (0.58 by 13.4 by 9.6 inches, 3.4 pounds). The XPS 15’s weight garners some forgiveness since it uses more powerful hardware, notably a stepped-up H-Series Intel processor and discrete GeForce graphics. Still, the Xenia Xe is about as portable as a 15.6-incher can get, though a U-Series versus an H-Series CPU in a laptop this size is less common.
The Xenia Xe’s 15.6-inch IPS screen provides a bright picture, 10-point touch support, and vibrant color. XPG rates it for 100% coverage of the sRGB gamut. Its 1,920-by-1,080-pixel native resolution is ideal for productivity, though its entertainment value would be improved with a finer UHD/4K (3,840-by-2,160-pixel) resolution. Alas, the screen on my review unit is the only variety available.
Despite its thin display bezels, XPG squeezed an IR 720p webcam atop the display, which supports Windows Hello facial logins. The display hinges are sufficiently stiff for touch-screen use yet allow the lid to be opened one-handed, a small detail that is always easy to appreciate.
It’s also easy to live with the Xenia Xe’s excellent speakers, which are not above the keyboard (the holes up there are for cooling) but face downward on either side of the palm rest.
Their sound travels well, provided the laptop is resting on a solid surface that allows for good reflection of the sound waves. The default EQ settings in the included Intel NUC Audio Studio app sounded great for the various genres of music I tried.
Speaking of sound, the Xenia Xe has two fans with rear-facing exhaust outlets.
The fan noise is audible but low-toned and generally ignorable. For less intense use, the fans shut off for silent operation. The Xenia Xe’s metal chassis remained surprisingly cool even while I was running our benchmark tests.
Alas, Just an Average Keyboard
The island-style keyboard provides a satisfactory, if somewhat shallow, typing experience. Its one brightness level effectively illuminates the keys in darker environments.
The layout would be more productive if it had dedicated Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down keys, which are embedded within the arrow cluster and require pressing the Fn key to activate. Below, the comfortably sized touchpad makes for easy mousing with its smooth surface and communicative clicking action.
For physical connectivity, the Xenia Xe’s left edge holds a Thunderbolt 4 port, a full-size HDMI 2.0b video output (notable for its 4K/60Hz support), and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) Type-A port.
Meanwhile, you’ll find a headset jack, another USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, and another Thunderbolt 4 port on the right edge. Either Thunderbolt 4 port can be used to charge the notebook with the included 65-watt adapter. There’s also a Kensington-style cable-lockdown notch over here.
Inside, the Xenia Xe relies on the familiar Intel AX201 wireless card for Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 signals.
Testing the XPG Xenia Xe: A Respectable Tiger Lake Performer
I saw the $1,799 Xenia Xe that I’m testing on sale for $1,699 on Newegg as I wrote this, though that is still pricey for its raw hardware. A comparable Dell XPS 15 (9500) was $1,764 on Dell.com with a six-core Core i7-10750H chip (to re-emphasize: a power-user H-Series processor) and 4GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Ti graphics, albeit half the storage (512GB). The Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 (15-inch) was also $1,499 as we tested it with a powerful eight-core AMD Ryzen 7 4980U. The Xenia Xe’s quad-core Core i7 chip is a little underwhelming by comparison, and unlike the Dell, it doesn’t offer dedicated graphics.
Let’s start testing. The basic specifications of the notebooks I used for comparison are listed below. Besides the XPS 15 and the Surface Laptop 4, the other two are the $699 Acer Aspire 5, a budget AMD laptop to set the floor, and Dell’s $1,567 Inspiron 15 7000 2-in-1 Black Edition, a convertible notebook with a UHD screen and a dedicated Intel Iris Xe Max graphics chip, seen in only a few laptops so far. (Hit the preceding link for more about our initial tests with Iris Xe Max, which isn’t really geared as a gaming solution.)
The two Dells are the only ones with dedicated graphics, though the Surface Laptop 4’s integrated AMD Radeon graphics will make a good match-up against the Xenia Xe’s integrated Intel chip. (See more about how we test laptops.)
Storage, Media, and CPU Tests
The scores were closely grouped in our first test, UL’s PCMark 10, a general performance suite that we use to assess overall system performance for office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheeting, web browsing, and videoconferencing. The Xenia Xe scored comfortably over the rough 4,000-point mark we use to designate high-performance PCs. It also scored competitively in PCMark 8’s Storage subtest. (The latter does not take explicit advantage of the Xenia Xe’s PCI Express 4.0 storage drive, for the kinds of everyday storage work it simulates.)
Next up is a pair of CPU-crunching tests. Cinebench R15 stresses all available processor cores and threads while rendering a complex image, while in our Handbrake test, we transcode a 12-minute 4K video down to 1080p.
The Xenia Xe and the Inspiron 15 were a country mile away from the next-slowest machine, the Aspire 5, which costs less than half as much as either. Having only four cores hurts those two more than anything.
Nonetheless, most users will not subject their PCs to maximum continuous CPU usage like those two tests do often, if ever. The Xenia Xe’s Core i7 chip is better suited for tasks that stress the CPU in bursts, like our Photoshop test, which it finished in the least time of this lot…
We use an early 2018 release of Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud to apply 10 complex filters and effects to a standard JPEG image, timing each operation and adding up the totals. This test is not as CPU-focused as Cinebench or Handbrake, bringing the performance of the storage subsystem, memory, and GPU into play.
Graphics Tests
Our first two benchmarks in this section measure the gaming performance potential of a PC. In UL’s 3DMark, we run the Sky Diver (lightweight, capable of running on integrated graphics) and Fire Strike (more demanding, for high-end gaming PCs) tests, both DirectX 11-based. Unigine Corp.’s Superposition is the other; it uses a different rendering engine to produce a complex 3D scene.
The Xenia Xe produced fine numbers in both tests for a laptop with an integrated GPU, doing much better than the Surface Laptop 4 did with its AMD Radeon Graphics integrated GPU. However, it’s a far cry from the XPS 15’s entry-level Nvidia GPU in 3DMark Fire Strike, illustrating that it’s not much of a gaming notebook. (The XPS 15 didn’t complete our Superposition test due to a software conflict.)
But again: XPG adds that “Gaming Lifestyle” tag to this machine, so why not take up XPG on it? I also ran the built-in benchmark test in the demanding AAA game Rise of the Tomb Raider, for a dose of real-world gaming. At a 1080p resolution with the Medium settings preset, the Xenia Xe averaged 37fps, which is just above the 30fps mark for minimal playability, but not by much. Again, it’s commendable performance for an integrated GPU, but well shy of what you would want in a dedicated gaming notebook.
Battery Rundown Test
For our last benchmark, we measure a laptop’s unplugged runtime while playing a locally stored video with screen brightness at 50% and audio volume at 100%. We use the notebook’s energy-saving rather than balanced or other power profile, turn off Wi-Fi, and even disable keyboard backlighting to squeeze as much life as possible out of the system.
The Xenia Xe simply ran away from the pack with its excellent 18-hour runtime. Battery life is one of its best assets.
Plenty of Appeal…But That Price
The Xenia Xe has lots going for it—a well-built metal chassis, long battery life, and even good speakers—but it needs more style and a beefier processor (ideally, an H-Series chip like in the similarly sized Dell XPS 15) to stand out against its like-priced competition, such as the XPS 15 and the Microsoft Surface Laptop 4. It should also offer a UHD screen at its price, even in the base $1,599 model.
That said, Dell and Microsoft are old hands at this business, and XPG is a newcomer. For XPG’s second venture in the laptop world, the Xenia Xe qualifies as hitting the ground running. Keep it somewhere on the list for a sleek 15.6-incher. Price adjustments downward, in time, might well make it a worthy four-star contender.
