We reviewed ADATA’s new XPG Xenia 15 gaming notebook. Is it any good? Check out our review below to see if the Xenia 15 is right for you.
ADATA is one of the premiere providers of memory and SSDs. However, they have recently jumped further into the PC hardware market by expanding their product list to include PC cases, power supplies, and gaming laptops/notebooks.
The XPG Xenia 15 is their newest notebook offering. While the laptop has the hardware to provide a high-end gaming experience, it is also extremely light and compact, making it an excellent option for anyone who wants a powerful laptop in a notebook format.
In this review, we’ve taken a look at ADATA’s Xenia 15 to see how the laptop performed in games, as well as how it stacks up against its main competitors (namely, Razer’s Blade 15). So, if you’re in the market for a new gaming laptop, keep reading to see if the Xenia 15 is an option that would work for you.
Table of Contents
1. Tech Specs
ADATA Xenia 15 Tech Specs
Processor | Intel Core i7-11800H |
Graphics | RTX 3070 8GB |
Memory | 32GB 3200MHz DDR4 |
Screen Size | 15.6″ |
Resolution | 2560 x 1440 |
Panel | IPS |
Refresh Rate | 165Hz |
Storage | 1TB NVME SSD |
Connections | USB-C, USB 3.0, HDMI, SD Card Reader |
Operating System | Windows 10 Home |
Dimensions | 9.2″ x 14.0″ x 0.8″ |
Weight | 4.2 LBS |
Overview of the Hardware Configuration
Before we get into the unboxing and review of the ADATA XPG Xenia 15, I wanted to briefly cover the hardware configuration and where it stands among other gaming laptops on the market.
With an Intel Core i7-11800H processor, an RTX 3070 GPU, and 32GB of RAM, the Xenia 15 is offering a CPU-GPU-RAM combination that will be able to handle any game you throw at it.
It also comes with a 1440P 165Hz IPS display. And, while the higher resolution display means that games will be more taxing on the RTX 3070 than if the laptop had a 1080P display, it also means that you get a better visual experience. We’ll check and see how the RTX 3070 handles games on the 1440P display and whether or not it can achieve a high enough average framerate to fully utilize the 165Hz refresh rate. You can check the benchmark results below.
In terms of competitors, the easiest laptop to compare the Xenia 15 to is the Razer Blade 15. In fact, this RTX 3070 Razer Blade 15 configuration is about the closest option you’ll find to the Xenia 15. Both laptops are extremely compact and lightweight and they both offer nearly identical hardware configurations. However, the Razer Blade 15 comes with a much higher pricetag (~$600 difference at the time of posting) and comes with half the memory (16GB versus the 32GB that the Xenia 15 comes with.)
The memory difference probably won’t have an impact on gaming performance in the vast majority of use-cases. However, for $600 less, the Xenia 15 gives you double the memory and the same core components. So, if you were deciding between the two, that has to move a couple of points in favor of the Xenia 15.
(Other similarly-specced lightweight laptop options are ASUS’s Zephyrus S15, Lenovo’s Legion 5, MSI’s GS66 Stealth 10UG, and Alienware’s x15 RTX 3070 P111F.)
The bottom line, though, is that this is an excellent hardware configuration. And, considering the entire package—the lightweight/compact design and the array of hardware it comes with—the Xenia 15 is priced very competitively right now.
Unboxing the ADATA Xenia 15
Some companies spend extra resources to provide an elevated unboxing experience. Some companies don’t. And, some companies do something in the middle. I’d say the middle is about where ADATA’s Xenia 15 unboxing experience stands.
This wasn’t the most extraordinary unboxing experience I’ve ever had opening a product. But, it was solid overall.
The packaging is all red and, in my opinion, it looks nice.
The compact laptop comes in a compact box. The compact box contains an even-more compact box, which contains the compact laptop.
There’s two styryofoam sleeves that keep the internal box well-cushioned and protected from damage.
In terms of the contents provided, there’s nothing too crazy: a standard white paper manual with black text, a charger, and the laptop. ADATA did throw in some decals, though.
Opening the smaller box, you are greeted by an animated character that I do not recognize, with a tab labeled “Pull.” I’m not sure exactly what pulling on it was supposed to achieve, but it sort of lifted the laptop upwards so that I could grab it easier. I’m assuming that was the idea… and it worked.
The laptop itself comes in a lightweight sleeve to give it extra protection. And, there is a plastic protective covering on the back of the laptop, a foam covering on the keyboard, a protective covering on the chassis around the keyboard, and a protective covering on the touchpad and webcam.
Overall, the Xenia 15’s product packaging looked good and provided enough packaging to keep the laptop safe.
The Xenia 15’s Design & Keyboard
I love the Xenia 15’s design. Unlike a lot of other gaming laptops, the Xenia 15 opts for a minimalistic design. There’s no fancy over-the-top trim, or pronounced colors, or gaudy logos on the laptop.
With an almost all-black matte design, this thing is really sleek-looking. You wouldn’t know it by looking at it that it comes with a serious hardware configuration geared towards gaming. The only real pronounced aesthetic feature on the laptop is the XPG logo, which sits on a glossy black triangle on the left side of the back of the laptop’s display. And, while the logo stands out in the provided picture, that’s only because it has studio lights shining directly on it. In a normal setting, the glossy logo blends in well with the matte finish of the laptop chassis.
One down-side to the laptop’s chassis, though, is that fingerprints really stand out on it. In the right light (or, in this case, the wrong light), the back of the display shows fingerprints clearly. I’ve been cleaning it religiously, but it definitely hurts the look of the laptop.
However, from reading reviews on the Razer Blade 15, it seems that it has this issue as well. So, if you do pickup this laptop, it might not be a bad idea grabbing a microfiber cloth if you don’t already have one.
A more positive aspect of the Xenia 15’s design… this laptop/notebook is light. 4.2-pounds. That’s lighter than Razer’s popular Blade 15 series laptops (which weighs ~4.4-pounds). And, it’s nearly as light as their smaller Blade 14 series laptops (about ~3.9-pounds).
Considering that the Blade 15 gets rave reviews for how light it is, ADATA’s Xenia 15 is really flying under the radar. Of course, the fact that it is lighter won’t matter much if it doesn’t handle gaming performance and cooling performance as well, but we’ll get to that in a moment.
ADATA was able to achieve the extremely light design by opting for a magnesium alloy base. As a comparison, Razer uses an aluminum-based chassis. Magnesium is lighter than aluminum and so you can see that, in opting for magnesium over aluminum, ADATA was able to deliver one of the lightest 15-inch gaming notebooks on the market.
In terms of dimensions, the Xenia 15 is about the same size as the Blade 15, with the only exception being that it is slightly smaller from a width and height standpoint, but it is also slightly thicker. Still, at quite a bit under an inch thick, this is one of the thinnest gaming laptop options on the market as well.
Ultimately, in my opinion, the design is fantastic. If you’re looking for a lightweight and compact gaming laptop that has a minimalistic design, the Xenia 15 should be at the top of your list for options to consider.
The Keyboard
The keyboard is another excellent feature on the Xenia 15. ADATA calls it a “Silent Optical Mechanical” keyboard. It comes with anti-ghosting and a 2mm actuator travel distance.
It definitely feels clickier than a standard laptop keyboard, but it isn’t as loud of a click as you’d expect to get from something like Cherry MX Blue mechanical switches. Overall, I’d say the keyboard feels great—far superior than the keyboards found on budget gaming laptops; but, perhaps, inline with the keyboards found on other premium RTX 3070 laptops.
The keyboard also features per-key RGB lighting, which you can customize through the pre-installed Intel NUC software. With per-key RGB lighting, you can choose the color for each individual key to display. There is also 12-different preset RGB lighting effects you can choose between.
Overall, the keyboard is excellent and is at least as good—if not better—than the keyboards offered on similarly-priced gaming laptops.
ADATA Xenia 15 Gaming Performance
My biggest concern with the Xenia 15 was how the RTX 3070 laptop GPU was going to be able to handle games on a 1440P display. I wasn’t concerned with whether or not it would be able to max games out at that resolution, but whether or not it would be able to run demanding titles at a high enough average framerate to utilize the 165Hz refresh rate in conjunction with the higher resolution screen.
I’ll let the benchmarks give you the rundown on how the laptop performed, but I will say that the RTX 3070 isn’t quite powerful enough to fully utilize the Xenia 15’s 1440P 165Hz display. However, the laptop handled anything I threw at it without too much trouble. And, aside from Cyberpunk 2077, the Xenia 15 was able to handle some of the more demanding titles I played with an average of at least ~70 FPS or more on max settings.
For Cyberpunk 2077, with Ultra settings and raytracing turned on, the laptop was only able to average ~43 FPS. After dropping the settings to medium, the game ran at ~62 FPS. From a performance standpoint, though, Cyberpunk 2077 didn’t feel that different when running it at ~43 FPS from when it was running at ~62 FPS. So, while the RTX 3070 wasn’t powerful enough to deliver higher than 60 frames per second at 1440P, it didn’t kill the experience.
Other more demanding titles, like New World, Halo Infinite, and The Witcher 3 ran very well on ultra settings.
New World, which had been known to brick higher-end RTX 3000 desktop graphics cards during its beta (but that was more New World’s fault than NVIDIA’s), ran at ~72 FPS on maxed out settings. The average framerate jumped up to ~92 FPS when turning the settings down to medium.
Halo Infinite was fairly similar, with an average framerate of ~73 on max settings, ~81 FPS on higher settings, and ~91 FPS on medium settings.
The Witcher 3 benefited the most by turning down the settings, with an average framerate of ~118 FPS on medium settings, all the way up from an average of ~71 FPS on ultra settings.
I tested the laptop on Fortnite, Rocket League, and Age of Empires IV as well.
Empires was probably a waste to test it on, but it was in my library and I felt like playing it. Surprisingly, the RTX 3070 was only able to deliver ~95 FPS on average on maxed out settings in the game. However, as an RTS game, AoE doesn’t really rely on excellent graphics and, as a result, the gameplay doesn’t improve very much with large jumps in FPS.
For Fortnite, the laptop did very well. And, really, I think the Xenia 15 is perfect for gamers who play games like Fortnite. At 1440P, the Xenia 15 was able to deliver ~118 FPS on average on Epic settings. Dropping the game down to mediumish settings, the game ran at ~138 frames per second.
Ultimately, if you’re a serious Fortnite player, you don’t run the game on Epic settings. So, by turning down the settings to maximize your in-game performance, the game plays at a high enough framerate to utilize the 165Hz refresh rate on the display. In fact, I felt like I performed better in Fortnite playing on this laptop than I do on a standard 60Hz display. The higher refresh rate really helps locating and targeting enemies.
And, while I didn’t test games like Apex Legends, Overwatch, or Call of Duty, I expect that the results would be similar there.
I also tested the game in Rocket League, and, as you’d expect, the RTX 3070 handled it with ease. At 1440P and max settings, the game ran at an average of ~215 FPS.
The bottom line is that, while the RTX 3070 probably isn’t the most perfect GPU to pair with the 1440P 165Hz display, it is still plenty strong enough to where you will be able to enjoy a premium gaming experience. And, if you’re looking to play competitive esports titles like Fortnite, Apex Legends, Overwatch, COD, Rocket League, League of Legends, etc., this laptop is going to give you ideal in-game performance.
If ADATA comes out with an RTX 3080 version, though, and you don’t mind paying extra to get it, that would give a decent bump in performance and help better utilize the 165Hz refresh rate.
Cooling & Sound Level
Gaming laptops get hot when gaming. The Xenia 15 is no different.
However, I’ve used budget-friendly laptops (namely older generations of the Acer Predator Helios 300 and the MSI GV63), that get so hot that it can have a negative impact on the in-game performance.
On my Helios 300, there are times when I played Rocket League that the laptop would throttle and performance would suffer greatly until the laptop cooled down a bit. And, once it got to that point, it would need an extended break, otherwise it would keep throttling.
This wasn’t the case for the Xenia 15. It never throttled in all of the time I spent using it. This is pretty remarkable considering how much more compact it is than the Helios 300.
But, this should be standard for higher-end laptops like the Xenia 15 and the Blade 15—to name a few.
Of course, also like other gaming laptops, the Xenia 15 gets loud when gaming.
There is a switch on the laptop next to the power button that allows you to cycle through three different performance levels, but I kept it on maximum performance while gaming. And, the fans get loud when the CPU and GPU are under load. So loud, in fact, that you can barely hear the audio from the laptop’s speakers.
If you do decide to get the Xenia 15, you’ll want to ensure you have a solid headset to use as the audio experience will suffer from the louder fans.
Storage & Battery Life
The other great thing about the Xenia 15 is how much storage and memory it comes with right out of the box.
With a 1TB SSD, you won’t have to worry about adding additional storage for awhile—if ever. And, with 32GB of RAM (3200MHz), you have more than enough memory to suit just about any intensive use case, be it gaming, streaming, content creation, graphics design, etc.
Of course, as ADATA is renowned for their memory kits and SSDs, it makes sense that they have included high-end options in this laptop. In fact, the included XPG GAMMIX S70 M.2 SSD is considered to be one of the fastest SSDs on the market.
For battery life, it obviously depends on what you’re doing. If you’re gaming, you’re going to get reduced battery life. But, if you’re browsing the internet, sending emails, taking notes in class, or performing other tasks, the Xenia 15’s battery will last you awhile. They claim a 7-hour battery life and that is about what I was able to achieve with casual use.
Overall, the storage, memory capacity, and battery life on the Xenia 15 are more pluses to an already excellent laptop.
Who Should Buy The Xenia 15?
There are a ton of laptops on the market. However, there are only a very few that offer the feature set that the ADATA XPG Xenia 15 offers.
From a hardware standpoint, the Xenia 15’s main standout features are its:
- 1440P 165Hz IPS display
- CPU/GPU/RAM combination
- Lightweight and compact design
In terms of competitors, the Razer Blade 15 is the probably closest option to the Xenia 15 in being able to provide all of those features in one laptop. (And, as mentioned above, Lenovo’s Legion 5, ASUS’s Zephyrus S15, MSI’s GS66 Stealth 10UG, and Alienware’s x15 RTX 3070 P111F are also similar competitors.)
However, the Xenia 15 offers double the RAM as the Razer Blade 15 and it currently costs ~$600 less, too.
So, who is the Xenia 15 a good option for?
Any gamer that has ~$2,000 to spend and is looking for a lightweight laptop that comes with a higher-than-1080P-resolution, and that can provide excellent in-game performance.
If you’re a hardcore competitive gamer, you’d probably be better off opting for a beefier RTX 3080 laptop that has a 1080P 360Hz display so that you can take full advantage of the higher framerates and refresh rate. (However, if you are playing competitive titles seriously, you should probably be looking at a desktop instead.)
Ultimately, if you are looking for a compact laptop that can provide a premium gaming experience, the Xenia 15 should be an option you take a long look at. It strikes the perfect balance between mobility and gaming performance.
Verdict: The ADATA Xenia 15 is the perfect lightweight laptop for serious gamers
Our rating: 9.3/10
Before I had the opportunity to review ADATA’s XPG Xenia 15, I was compeltely unaware that ADATA made laptops. What I’ve found through reviewing this gaming notebook is that ADATA has done an excellent job jumping into the laptop market.
It is a general consensus that Razer’s Blade lineup is considered to be the top option for lightweight gaming notebooks/laptops. However, the Xenia 15 should change that consensus a bit. There are some aspects where Razer’s Blade 15 triumphs over the Xenia 15. But, the Xenia 15 stands out in some more important ways: namely, it is actually lighter, it has double the memory, it has a better battery, and it is a lot cheaper.
At the time of publishing this review, the Xenia 15 is ~$600 cheaper than the Razer Blade 15, despite offering essentially the same in-game experience.
So, if you’re looking for a lightweight gaming laptop, it would be hard not to take the huge discount and other perks that the Xenia 15 has to offer over Razer’s Blade 15. I’ve had an excellent experience playing with this laptop and I highly recommend it to anyone who is in the market for a new gaming laptop.