Schenker's XMG Apex 15 is the world's first Ryzen 9 3950X laptop

We have seen quite a few high-end Intel desktop-grade CPUs packed in laptop form-factors over the years, yet no one really bothered to do this for AMD’s top processors. Now that the latest Ryzen 3000 CPUs are seeing increased popularity and indeed present better price/performance ratios compared to Intel’s gen 9 CPUs, the tables appear to be turning in the red team’s favor, with OEMs quickly adapting to the new trends as we now see all-AMD systems and even laptops powered by the fastest desktop-grade Ryzen CPUs. Among the first (if not the first) to offer Ryzen 9 3950X laptops is Schenker, a German OEM that specializes in custom-built systems.

Schenker’s XMG Apex 15 laptop comes with a custom B450 motherboard that supports desktop-grade AM4 CPUs and up to 64 GB of DDR4-3200 RAM. Budget-oriented users can opt to equip the laptops with Ryzen 5 3600 or Ryzen 7 3700X processors, while the more demanding gamers may up the ante with Ryzen 9 3900X and 3950X chips. All CPUs are limited to 65 W and the Ryzen 9 models have to run in Eco mode in order to achieve lower TDPs. Due to the increased power requirements, the included 62 Wh battery might prove a bit underwhelming, especially when boosting the Ryzen 9 3950X.

These desktop-replacements are a bit bulkier than your average laptop, but they are also quite lighter than any of the Intel-based counterparts, with maximum weights of around 5.7 lbs. Schenker is using Clevo’s latest barebones with 15.6-inch 144 Hz 1080p IPS displays. For discrete GPUs, users can choose between the Nvidia’s RTX 2060 and RTX 2070 (presumably desktop versions, as well).

Unfortunately, the custom motherboard does not support PCIe 4.0. There is, however, support for PCIe 3.0 x4 and x2 NVMe/SATA 3 SSDs and a 2.5-inch HDD bay for up to 6 TB of storage space. Port selection includes 1x USB-A 2.0, 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen2, 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen2 (DP compatible), mini DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.0b video outputs, GbE jack plus audio outs.

As far as prices go, a Ryzen 5 3600 model with 8 GB of RAM, 256 GB SSD and RTX 2060 costs 1,337 Euros (~US$1,510), while a Ryzen 9 3950X model sporting 32 GB of RAM, 1 TB NVMe SSD and RTX 2070 costs 2,631 Euros (US$2,882). A full option model would set you back more than 3,500 Euros (US$3,850). Note that all custom laptop orders take up to 10 weeks to ship.