Introduction

XMG is a brand of Schenker Technologies GmbH, founded by Robert Schenker in 2002. The parent company initially operated as an eBay store and opened its own independent retail solution in 2004. The XMG brand—short for "Extreme Multimedia & Gaming"—was created in 2009, with the Schenker brand from 2013 instead focusing on mobile workstations and prosumer use. XMG laptops have quickly gained the favor of the PC community off late by offering a lot of enthusiast-first features, including an extremely customizable set of different platforms, being fully assembled in Germany where quality checks are also conducted, supporting right to repair and easy upgrading and hardware swapping, and generally providing good value for money in terms of hardware and after-sales software and firmware support. The platforms for the laptops are obtained from companies including Clevo and TongFang, so you will see variations of the same laptops sold under other labels, too. This keeps competition high, and brands such as XMG have to keep delivering each time.


When XMG sent out a press release early January, around the NVIDIA RTX 3070 Ti and 3080 Ti Mobile GPUs announcement, it in itself wasn't particularly noteworthy. After all, the debuting XMG NEO 15 had recently been updated in 2021, so this was surely just a specifications update? Then I read through the email and realized an external watercooling system was debuting alongside, which certainly piqued my interest. An online product briefing over Zoom commenced, following which I was soon convinced I simply had to see how the XMG OASIS would work in practice. External watercooling enclosures for laptops aren't new with ASUS having left a strong but commercially unsuccessful impression courtesy a heavy, bulky, and expensive external enclosure for an equally bulky laptop. It's been a few years since, and PC hardware is again getting all the more power hungry and hot, so is the XMG OASIS a novel solution or another gimmick? I decided to wait until the retail models were ready to test exactly what customers receive, and this review of both the XMG NEO 15 (E22) laptop and XMG OASIS external cooling system was nearly 100 hours in the making. Thanks to Schenker for arranging review samples for TechPowerUp!

Packaging and Accessories

The XMG NEO 15 (E22) and OASIS shipped together in a larger cardboard box, and we will examine the OASIS later on. The NEO 15 (E22) ships in a near-perfect sized shipping box with the necessary warning labels and plenty of foam pieces all around the product box. XMG also included a freebie XMG-branded mouse pad, which is beyond the scope of this review, but was a nice surprise. It's black on one side and green on the other to remind you of the XMG colors. The laptop box is extremely clean with very little to see and composed of a lid over a thick base, which makes for an unboxing experience not that different from a fancy box of chocolates.


Remove the lid, and the laptop is inside a protective sleeve, which can do double duty as a makeshift sleeve down the line, although I'd recommend getting a softer one with more padding. A plastic clamshell fits this assembly snugly, with the laptop coming in a plastic wrap of its own to keep it pristine and free of dust out of the box.


The bottom layer has two compartments with cardboard covers, and these hold two sets of accessories placed in another plastic blister clamshell box; in one, a USB drive with all necessary drivers and product manuals (can every laptop/motherboard/system maker adopt this please?) and various hardware component logos that usually come pre-applied. We also get a full cleaning kit consisting of a brush, microfiber cloth, air duster/blower tool, funnel that seems to have been misplaced from the OASIS packaging, and two dust covers for ports on the laptop, which should have been included with the OASIS, too. Some nice decisions were made here, and I appreciate the cleaning kit a lot. The other compartment holds the laptop power supply, a 280 W Chicony unit on this SKU (any XMG NEO 15 E22 with RTX 3070 Ti or 3080 Ti). A 230 W unit will be included instead if you opt for the RTX 3060 GPU. This sample came with a 2-pin EU plug cable in the box, although you can configure the plug type during order. I just used my own UK plug cable with the same standard C13 3-pin connector used on the power supply. This particular unit is 180 x 86 x 35 mm and weighs a little over 1 kg.

Closer Examination

I have always gone with 17" laptops because of the dedicated numpad, which meant using large, bulky laptops from the get-go, so taking out the XMG NEO 15 was pleasant not only because it weighs ~2.2 kg, but also as it comes in at ~360 x 244 x 27 mm. I appreciated the matte gray "predominantly aluminium" chassis to keep things feeling premium and solid throughout, too. By default, the XMG NEO 15 (E22) comes with the XMG logo embossed on the display lid, but there is a €29 option to remove the logo for a laptop without any branding. I do wish the chassis were less prone to fingerprints instead since it does seem to catch smudges relatively easily. Suddenly, the cleaning kit in the box makes a lot of sense!


Having resisted the temptation to open the lid right away, I first examined the I/O options on this TongFang platform-based system. The left side has a Kensington lock slot, vents aiding with cooling and airflow, full-size superspeed USB 3.2 Gen2x1 (10 Gbps) port, and separate 3.5 mm TRS headphone out and microphone in. Having had them before and losing the separate ports in favor of a single combo port on my current laptop, this is the way to go for a lot of different applications. Note the gentle curves in the bottom and the sides with the display lid and plenty of leeway for movement along the bottom case panel. The right side continues the pleasantness by offering a full-size SD card reader supporting SD, SDHC, and SDXC in addition to microSD cards with an adapter, which helps the traveling photographer who no longer has to rely on an external card reader or microSD cards with an SD card adapter on laptops that are going the smaller card reader route. Rounding off this section are two USB 3.2 Gen1 (USB 3.0, 5 Gbps) Type-A ports, and another of the same vent cutouts for side airflow exhaust no doubt.


More I/O is on the back to hide connected cables from view when the laptop is used, as are more vents matching those on the sides and the expected power plug for the power supply, low-profile RJ45 Ethernet port with 2.5 Gbps throughput, full-size HDMI 2.1 port with 48 Gbps transmission capable of providing 8K/120 Hz signals while being compatible with HDCP 2.3, Dolby Vision, HDR10+, and full 4:4:4 or 4:2:2 chroma subsampling—it's also the video output you will use for G-SYNC displays since the HDMI port is powered directly from the on-board dGPU. This is contrary to the Thunderbolt 4-based USB Type-C port alongside, which is run through the iGPU. So while this means you won't have a powerful signal for VR headsets relying on the Type-C connection, you do get DisplayPort 1.4a specifications including FreeSync and G-SYNC compatibility from the Type-C port, and may use a TB 4.0 dock for expansion. Hiding behind a silicone cover are two special connectors that make the XMG NEO 15 (E22) compatible with the OASIS external watercooling solution. These inlet/output ports connect to a watercooling loop, which we will discuss more in due course of time. The cover minimizes any leaks and contaminants entering the ports, so I recommend keeping it on when not used.


Ah, time to lift the lid, and note that the XMG NEO 15 (E22) easily passes the one-finger lift test—the base does not move up with the display lid whatsoever. A small notch helps, and notice the stealthily placed LED light bar right below—it lights up when the system is powered on. XMG placed a second microfiber cloth between the display and keyboard to keep everything clean and avoid keycap smudges on the screen. Take it off and marvel at the space-efficient design, including the excellent Microsoft Precision glass touchpad with a plastic cover on top and all of 114.5 x 70 mm. There are the expected two integrated tactile buttons at the top, and this is one of the best touchpads in the business with everything working beautifully. While here, remember to remove the plastic covers on either side of the touchpad to reveal another matte palm rest, which will smudge, but isn't glossy or tacky. The display lid opens a fair degree for good viewability across different opening angles, but we will talk more about the screen later on in the review.


Small bezels on the top and sides of the screen make integrating this 15.6" display into a laptop footprint with 13.3/14" screens not that long ago possible, and I am happy to see a Windows Hello-compatible web cam up top, which is where it should be—no nostril close-ups here! There is a microphone port alongside, placed far enough from the camera cutout for security-concerned users to install an aftermarket webcam shutter, and it's a full HD camera with alright picture and video quality, comparable to some 720p standalone webcams. Still, it's a good bit better than the cheaper HD (720p) integrated webcams found in even far more expensive laptops. Windows Hello adds security and login options too, and it worked flawlessly during my weeks of testing.

I described my preference for 17" laptops for a reason, and the XMG NEO 15 is quickly making me re-consider my options going forward as it provides what is effectively a 90% keyboard with most of the dedicated numpad, too. As the company is EU-based, no ANSI layouts are available, so I chose a US ISO keyboard layout. It comes with the fat L enter key I still maintain is a massive waste of space, but my eyes were drawn to the numpad using a novel key layout to provide the numbers, mathematical functions, and enter key alongside once you get used to the minus and plus keys above their usual spots. Notice the dedicated Delete key and cleverly assigned secondary functions for the missing functions of a full-size keyboard; this is not that different from all the 96% keyboards I have used in the past! Placed in the top-right corner, next to holes for speakers to let sound and a tiny bit more internal airflow through, are low-profile buttons for both power on/off and profile switching—two tiny power/activity and battery status indicator lights complete this section.

Disassembly

Given XMG not only does not void the laptop warranty if you disassembly it, but even encourages it as part of its support for the right to repair movement, I disassembled even before all testing was complete. This is the kind of transparency and customer service I want to see from more companies going forward. Helping the process is the use of nothing but 14 Phillips head screws keeping the bottom panel in place—11 on the bottom and another three on the back after removing the silicone cover on the two ports for the OASIS system. A precision screwdriver is handy thus, and the back panel simply lifts off, revealing a composite construction, which explaining the "predominantly aluminium" description for the chassis, and shielding.


We now get to the meat of the laptop, and the engineer in me appreciated the logical chaos here. There is more shielding on relevant items, including the reinforced barrel plug connector for power and battery charging, isolation around the two dynamic speaker drivers on the bottom corners, and relatively large 93 Wh lithium polymer battery, which is just shy of the magic 99 Wh mark allowed for carry-on luggage items on airplanes. Given we rarely see 99 Wh batteries on even 17" screen laptops, having a 93 Wh battery is very good, but we will soon see how battery life fares, and whether the larger battery makes sense or not. The battery is screwed in place and can be replaced by an official XMG replacement battery, which improves product longevity.


The warranty seal is for the motherboard, which is more involved than just taking the back panel off to clean the fans and removing or upgrading some of the more accessible components, unlike the Realtek audio hardware on board. These are not going to be any audiophile's dream—you are better off getting a portable DAC/amp as seen here. This particular laptop configuration included the excellent Samsung 980 Pro 1 TB PCIe 4.0 NVME drive, and there is another M.2 2280 slot for storage expansion. It's backed by 32 GB of 4800 MHz Samsung B-die DDR5 through 2x16 GB SO-DIMM sticks, and XMG states either Crucial or Samsung is chosen depending on what is in stock. These are user-replaceable too, so you could chose the minimum RAM configuration and add a compatible kit. Rounding off this upgradable pathway is the NIC with an Intel AX201 WiFi 6/Bluetooth 5.0 add-in card. Having the AX210 WiFi 6E/BT 5.2 as an option on the product page would have been nice, and you can't just swap over to it given the NEO 15 antennas don't support WiFi 6E either.


The reason this article even happened is the more novel cooling system, which builds upon the praised heatpipe and fan assembly in the previous NEO 15 (E21). Plenty of copper heatpipes are still both dedicated to and shared by the CPU—the Intel Core i7-12700H—and GPU—the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti (150 W TGP + 25 W Dynamic Boost), which in turn have heatsinks and thin blower fan assemblies blowing hot air past aluminium fins and out the vents. But what makes the E22 version of the XMG NEO 15 special is the new heatpipe, which is a flat coolant tube going from the ports we saw on the outside. The heatpipe is soldered to and opened into brass connectors, with capillary pressure overcome by a pump before coolant enters the heatpipe from one end and exits the other, which removes heat from other heatpipes via conduction, and we will discuss heat dissipation with the XMG OASIS later in the review. As it stands, the NEO 15 (E22) still seems to self-sufficiently cool itself—it does not require the OASIS to function any differently from a directly competing product.