Introduction

Finally, RTX 5000-based laptops are crawling their way to the market. As always, the entry-level and the mid-range ones should be way more popular than the high-end machines, which is understandable given the price difference.

Just like every year, the manufacturers offer giant behemoths for the enthusiasts out there. At the time of writing this review, the availability of these devices is limited, but perhaps this will change in the near future. Today, I'm about to show you the SCHENKER KEY 18 Pro (E25), which is not just a regular big-screen laptop. Thanks to its powerful hardware, color-accurate panel, and surprisingly decent portability, it's a multipurpose, jam-packed notebook suitable for general use, content creation and even heavy-duty workstation tasks.


We were able to acquire two nearly identical siblings of the same series. Both are rocking the same chassis, processor, and RAM configuration. The only two differences between these pertain to the graphics card and display. The top dog boasts an RTX 5090 (mobile version, GB203, similar core count to RTX 5080 desktop, but with 24 GB VRAM), while the other is equipped with the slightly less powerful RTX 5080 (also GB203, but 16 GB VRAM, similar to 5070 Ti desktop). These GPUs come with a pretty hefty 175 W TGP limit (150 W + 25 W Dynamic Boost). The CPU is the Intel Core Ultra 9 Processor 275HX, which falls into the enthusiast category with its 55 W base power, 8P+16E cores, and a 36 MB L3 cache size. In case you aren't familiar with the Arrow Lake-HX series of processors, Hyper-Threading isn't available for these chips, but this is not an issue since they have plenty of cores with notably improved IPC over the previous generations; Raptor and Meteor Lake, especially the E-Cores saw massive improvements in performance.

Cooling is always a crucial part of every top-end laptop. If the hardware isn't properly cooled, performance will be lower than otherwise. This also means that your hard-earned money would potentially not be optimally spent, compared to going with a different laptop with similar hardware but better cooling. That's why XMG has installed a big thermal system with copper heat pipes, taming the processor and graphics card during intensive workloads.

In terms of displays, you get a choice of two 18" 500 nit 16:10 IPS panels. The base one is a 1600p 2560x1600 240 Hz unit, and the optional upgrade is a 2400p 3840x2400 panel with a 200 Hz refresh rate. Both have G-Sync certification.

All the necessary gaming goodies are also on board. I'm talking about the NVIDIA Advanced Optimus + MUX switch combo, which allows you to switch to dGPU-only mode without restarting the laptop. An iGPU-only mode is also available via the XMG Control Center 3.0 app.

Specifications