Overall, the XPG Xenia 15 with the Intel i7-9750H and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti delivers solid performance all around. Be it 3D rendering, gaming, or editing a video in Adobe Premiere Pro, it does the job quite well. The IPS display required some fiddling out of the box when it came to color accuracy as it wasn't quite where it should be, but that is to be expected considering it is tailored more around gaming with its 144 Hz refresh rate than professional content creators. That said, the high refresh rate was great for gaming, but otherwise nothing special. Even so, I will admit it was much easier on the eyes than a traditional 60 Hz panel.

Now granted, in most AAA games, you won't be anywhere near the 144 Hz limit at max settings. However, lowering a few settings will improve the framerate considerably, resulting in a silky smooth gaming experience. Taking a look at the whole package at roughly $1400, you end up with a fully loaded system consisting of 32 GB of DDR4 2666 MHz memory, a 1 TB high-performance SSD, 6c/12t CPU, and a decent gaming GPU, as well as a high refresh rate display. Surprisingly, under heavy load, the CPU typically settled at around 3.6 GHz in our testing, which is 1 GHz higher than Intel's nominal base clock. The CPU also routinely hit the maximum frequency of 4.5 GHz in single-threaded workloads.

Obviously, the system does get quite hot with such hardware in such a small form factor. The CPU will thermal throttle, but again, it typically settled at around 3.6 GHz. Meanwhile, the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti usually stayed in the sub 80 °C region. Due to these two components, the system tends to reach noise levels above 50+ dBA when delivering its maximum performance, and the keyboard also gets uncomfortably warm in some areas. For example, when playing Battlefield 5, temperatures would hit 40 °C around the Y-key (the frame below the key itself); near the WASD keys, temperatures were more reasonable at around 30°C during extended sessions. As for the keycaps themselves, the Y-key hit 35 °C on its surface, but it is worth keeping in mind that the longer you play, the more the entire area will heat up. The frame directly above the F1–F12 keys routinely hit 45 °C or more. I saw peaks of 49 °C. Such temperatures can burn you, and the heat spreading across the keyboard over time makes for a sweaty user experience.

I wouldn't call this a deal-breaker, but would have liked slightly better cooling to help keep noise levels down and make for a more comfortable user experience. The cooling system's noise levels drown out the speakers, but that's not a hard thing to do as the speakers are below average in terms of volume and sound quality. Thus, a headset will likely be mandatory for most users. What is a nice inclusion is the ability to toggle a button for various power modes. A quick press can allow for improved battery life when web browsing, but if you try to run heavier tasks, performance will suffer, and temperatures end up worse with further thermal throttling. So you have to keep those trade offs in mind.

When it comes to gaming, don't bother trying to do so on the battery. Yes, I know this is not just an issue with this laptop, and a fringe use case as those well-versed in laptops know all too well that performance will suffer when using battery power. However, I also feel the general user and consumer has no idea how severely performance will drop. All one has to do is look at the posts on various forums and, of course, Reddit to see that plain as day. With the XPG Xenia 15, gaming performance on battery power suffers due to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti having a 30-watt TDP when using the battery. Although the current norm, it would make far more sense to limit the CPU instead of the GPU for a gaming system. For example, in Cinebench R20, the Intel i7-9750H scores 2570 on battery power compared to 2915 when plugged in, which is a performance loss of around 11%–12%. This is due to the CPU no longer being able to sustain its Turbo clocks because it can no longer draw up to 100 watts. Instead, it is limited to just 60 watts. However, The Witcher 3, which runs smoothly at 57 FPS when plugged in, drops to 15 FPS. That is a 73% framerate reduction by comparison. This issue also extends to professional apps, with drops of 30%–70% in SPECviewperf 13. Again, this is due to the 30-watt TDP, down from 80 watts when plugged in. So while it may be standard industry practice to do handle it this way, I am sure many gamers would appreciate if they could configure those TDP figures for the workload at hand.

Regarding the other AAA games, I had to drop settings to Medium or in many cases Low to get somewhat tolerable performance. As such, I don't know why gaming laptops continue to place such substantial limitations on the GPU's potential while the CPU is allowed to gobble down watts like I do food at an all you can eat buffet. I am touching base on this issue now because of how severe the performance drop is compared to previously tested laptops. In fact, in my testing, performance on previous generations of laptops in similar situations was noticeably better. Right now, with these particular TDP limits in place, gaming performance on battery power with the Xenia 15 is only slightly better than what an AMD 3400G with RX Vega 11 IGP delivers. Again, I know that this particular issue may not impact most users, and many of our readers already understand this issue quite well. However, it is still something people who aren't tech-savvy should be made aware of.

When it comes to general computing, web browsing, or light-duty tasks, battery performance was exceptional. Keep in mind I didn't use any fancy tricks or gimmicks to improve battery life. The system operated at its maximum capabilities without restraints except for the previously mentioned TDP limits. Consequently, looking at the battery life chart, the 4+ hours I got when playing back media with no real power-saving features is quite good. Even light office tasks resulted in just under 4 hours of battery life. In those situations, dialing back performance, lowering the brightness, and so on, would extend that significantly. Some laptops I have looked at in the past, like the MSI GE63VR 7RF Raider with a GTX 1070, set at a similar screen brightness, only managed 112 minutes or slightly less than 2 hours in the VLC media test. Overall, battery life outside of gaming is better than with any other laptop I have tested in recent memory. This is especially true when you consider the level of performance the Xenia 15 can bring to the table when needed.

As for fit and finish, this laptop feels quite rugged. The display does have some flex, but it is not bad by any means, and the chassis is very rigid and strong because of the magnesium alloy, so I have no real complaints when it comes to actual build quality. Even the keyboard and touchpad are good. The keyboard is not mushy, and the keys only require slightly more actuation force than my mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX red switches. Also noteworthy is that the Xenia 15 uses optical mechanical switches, which are quite interesting and have a better feel than many other solutions I have used. However, they still don't feel quite as good as a traditional mechanical switch. Still, the keys feel responsive both in work-related tasks and gaming, and I felt comfortable typing on the XPG Xenia 15 for extended sessions. Yes, gaming, or taxing the hardware heavily, did have the keyboard get rather warm in spots, but it was still very comfortable to use for regular tasks that do not heavily stress the system.

The touchpad is also large enough to be practical, but not too large to activate accidentally. The glass top feels nice as well. In general, it felt accurate without fussing over various settings, and the size was just about perfect for a 15-inch laptop. Now that is not to say I want to use the touchpad for fast-paced shooters, but using it for regular tasks was fairly effortless, and the button presses felt good too. Overall, this laptop delivers a pleasant user experience when not pushed to its absolute limit.

As far as value for your dollar, XPG does alright here depending on your needs. There are other options on the market, and XPG is not the only company using this design. Others include XMG and Maingear, and compared to both, the XPG is a better value when looking at current pricing. For example, the Maingear Element costs $1699 as I write this, but only has 16 GB of DDR4 memory. Dell, for example, has an Alienware model with the same GPU and a more affordable CPU (Intel i5-9300H) that, when configured with a 1 TB SSD, jumps up to $1630 while still being stuck with just 8 GB of DDR4 memory. It, like several others, also use a smaller 76 Whr battery. So while there are better pure value-optimized gaming laptops available on the market, you do not typically find one for less sporting a 1 TB high-performance SSD and 32 GB of memory out of the box. Unlike the more affordable options, the XPG Xenia 15 can be used as a mobile workstation, be it for video editing or rendering out of the box, as long as you have an outlet available to get the most out of it.

In summary, the entire system is well equipped with next to no bloatware for the price, remains easily serviceable, and delivers exceptional performance across the board when plugged in. While it may be loud under heavy load and a bit hot, many other gaming laptops also have these problems. So if none of the issues I have touched on, like the bad gaming performance on battery life, matter to you, there is a great deal of value to be found here. That said, XPG is not alone, and more manufacturers need to step up to allow for better GPU TDP limits on gaming laptops even if it means robbing Peter to pay Paul, so to speak, by limiting the TDP of the CPU.