XMG OASIS Unboxing and Closer Examination

The XMG OASIS shipped alongside the NEO 15 (E22) in a larger box, which will be the case if bundled with the laptop, too. There is a product box dedicated to the XMG OASIS in all its plain cardboard glory, with an extremely simple render and "Liquid Cooling Box" on front, which continues on the sides with "Made in Taiwan" and side flaps keeping the contents in place. Opening the box, we see a thick foam sheet for added protection, which has cutouts to accommodate the items of interest below. Indeed, more foam present on the bottom is shaped for the three compartments here—two for the OASIS with an extension for the cable on the left and the third for other included accessories. They all come inside plastic wraps to keep them clean and free of dust.


With the OASIS, you get two 65 cm long, 9 mm diameter pieces of soft tubing with a textile black sleeve for aesthetics, and there is no mention of the tube composition itself. These are pre-paired and affixed to a connector stock on one end, which has pre-installed push-fit brass fittings for a quick release connector to the laptop. The other side has two screw-type fittings of a to PC DIY watercooling unique polycarbonate and ABS plastic composition, and everything is again black. New from the prototype shown at CES is a finished drainage adapter included with all retail units to quite easily drain the OASIS and laptop's loop compared to the original idea of using a thin object to break surface tension and capillary pressure. One end of the adapter plugs into the quick-release fittings here. A small plastic funnel is also included, and the two port covers we saw in the laptop box should instead be here. Those are meant for the Type-C and HDMI ports on the back of the laptop next to the OASIS connectors, and the intention is to minimize any risk to the laptop by keeping unused ports safe from inadvertent coolant spill.


At 203 x 75 x 186 mm, the XMG OASIS is tiny compared to other such external cooling systems, which made me contemplate using it in a portable manner! The "predominantly aluminium" on the laptop doesn't carry over though, with the predominantly plastic construction making the OASIS lightweight and seemingly cheap because XMG/TongFang had to cut some corners to hit a low enough price point for this first-generation accessory to succeed commercially. That having been said, I never did feel that the build quality is poor and prefer a plastic exterior with a solid interior build any day of the week. There are large ventilation holes on the sides for airflow into and out of the cooling system inside, with these also providing a sneak peek at the fan and radiator setup. On the front is a thin, tall reservoir window with level markings, inlet at the top with a power button for the OASIS, what look to be indicator LEDs at the bottom, and two ports where the tubing no doubt screw into.


Next to certification labels, four rubber feet on the bottom prevent the OASIS from sliding around on your desk, and the back side has another barrel plug connection the laptop power supply fits into. A short pass-through cable on the bottom will connect to the laptop itself, which means the OASIS does not need a second power supply as it piggybacks off the 280 W brick of the laptop. This also making for cleaner cable-routing with the OASIS placed in the middle.


Here is a closer look at the reservoir window, which isn't the easiest to see through. You might have to rely on the coolant's meniscus for a better idea of how much is inside the 160 ml reservoir. Removing the cover on the top provides access to the reservoir fill port the funnel easily slots into, and I appreciated the pressure relief notch, too—another update made to the retail package compared to the CES prototype based on some suggestions I and no doubt others provided at the time. Removing the threaded caps on the ports indeed confirms the tubing screws in here, which completes our look at the XMG OASIS from the outside.


Plastic clips hold the side panels in place, removing which provides a closer look at the internals, but probably voids the product warranty—especially if you break something. This is the first time I was left seeking something else since XMG is clearly using a 120 mm aluminium radiator with aluminium tubing and serpentine fins. It explains the mass and no doubt cost savings, but we now have aluminium, brass, and copper in the loop. The radiator appears to be 30 mm thick, and it is paired with a generic 25 mm fan which appears to have a hybrid rotor design and should still be fine. Internal tubing segments go from the radiator to the plastic see-through reservoir to the pump and on to the copper heatpipe in the laptop. The fitting on the right thus directly exits the pump, making it the designated inlet port to the laptop. Barb fittings are used. As such, replacing the radiator with a copper one isn't trivial, and not expected of customers buying the OASIS plug-and-play solution. The pump is a brushless DollaTekAD20P 12 V unit meant for fish tanks and costs all of $9 by itself. With a maximum head of 300 cm, maximum flow rate of 240 L/h, and lifetime of 10,000 hours, it's hopefully not going to die anytime soon. XMG added sound absorbing foam around the pump to reduce noise output, so that's a plus.