XMG seizes CES to announce a new version of the XMG Neo 15. That laptop can be equipped with an external water cooler, the XMG Oasis. In addition, the Neo 15 laptops get Alder Lake processors and the latest Nvidia GPUs.
XMG has developed the Oasis in collaboration with Tongfeng, a Taiwanese manufacturer of barebone laptops. The water cooler consists of an external housing of 186x203x75mm, which contains a 120mm radiator. The radiator is supplied with cool air by a 25mm high 120mm fan. The radiator is connected to the laptop using 65cm long hoses. The coolant flows through an aluminum pipe, which is soldered to the heat pipes of the existing air cooling. According to XMG, this should result in a temperature reduction of 20°C, which also has the advantage that the fans in the laptops can run slower and are less noisy. In addition, the CPU and GPU in the laptop can run at maximum power. XMG provides the Neo 15 with, among other things, the Core i7-12700H processor, which has a maximum consumption of 115 watts, and an RTX 3080 Ti video card, which can consume 175 watts. Because the radiator is also made of aluminum, the cooling water does not come into contact with other metals, so that no galvanic corrosion should occur over time.
The Neo 15 can also be used without an external water cooler. The manufacturer then recommends draining the approximately 20ml of coolant from the laptop by holding the laptop horizontally and tilting it vertically and back a few times. You can then protect the couplings with the rubber cap that is on the back of the laptop. The cooling system is therefore different from that of the GX700, which ASUS released in 2016. That laptop was just fitted with a closed external cooling system that worked like a dock into which the laptop was clicked. The coolant of the XMG Oasis can be topped up by the user and if you take the radiator with you, the manufacturer recommends emptying the 160ml reservoir before transport.
The water cooler is connected to the laptop via bluetooth and the fan speed can be read via that connection. If the Bluetooth connection is lost, the pump switches off for safety, so that in practice the laptop switches to air cooling.
According to the manufacturer, the connector that connects the hoses to the laptop is ‘forward-compatible’, which means that the manufacturer intends to make future products compatible with the water cooler. Although XMG says it has worked closely with Tongfeng for the development of the water cooler, the German company will not be the only one to release the water cooler. Tongfeng’s other partners are allowed to release the barebone laptop and water cooler under their own brand.
The Neo 15 is XMG’s top model and can be supplied in numerous configurations. It is not yet known which options will be available, but there will in any case be the option for a Core i7-12700H processor. As for video cards, there will be a choice between RTX 3060, 3070 Ti and 3080 Ti models.
The Neo 15 will be available to order at the end of January and will be delivered in mid-February. XMG mentions a German target price of 2500 euros for a configuration with i7-12700H processor and RTX 3070 Ti video card, 16GB DDR5-4800, WQHD screen at 240Hz and a 500GB SSD. The Oasis water cooler will not cost more than 200 euros.