Asus Republic of Gamers Launches World s Most Powerful Gaming Tablet. Asus rog tablet

Asus Republic of Gamers Launches World‘s Most Powerful Gaming Tablet

LAS VEGAS, USA, January 4, 2022 — Asus Republic of Gamers (ROG) today announced the Flow Z13, the world’s most powerful tablet. The Z13 combines the best aspects of tablet mobility with PC versatility to create an all-new gaming experience. A tablet form factor allows the Z13 to stay incredibly light and slim at just 1.1 kg and 12 mm thick, while packing the gaming power of much larger devices. Built to accommodate all styles of play, mouse, gamepad and touch are all flawless on the Z13. When gamers need a little extra horsepower, a complete XG Mobile ecosystem provides the benefit of a more powerful GPU and I/O hub without sacrificing any of the portability that makes the Flow Z13 special.

All-new form factor

Boasting up to a 12th Gen Intel Core i9-12900H processor and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU, this machine is ready to tackle all the latest games and most demanding applications. Further supplementing this is a combination of up to 16 GB of insanely high-speed 5200 MHz LPDDR5 memory and up to a 1 TB PCIe SSD, allowing gamers to multitask and take more of their game library on the go. The Flow Z13 has the performance specifications of much larger devices.

As the world’s fastest gaming tablet, the Z13 has some unique design benefits over typical laptops. Inspired by the ROG Mothership, the Flow Z13 houses its components behind the screen. This unconventional layout for a gaming device allows the Z13 to stand high above a desk or table when in use, granting much better access to fresh air than traditional gaming laptops. In addition, the lack of a hinge mechanism allows for a wider vapor chamber and larger fans thanks to the extra space inside the chassis, all while keeping the machine just 12 mm thick.

A vapor chamber allows much more surface area for heat transfer compared to standard heatpipe cooling designs, plus contact with multiple heat sources, like the CPU, GPU, and VRM simultaneously. This robust cooling solution allows the Flow Z13 to pack some truly incredible hardware for its size. When paired with a liquid metal thermal compound, the Flow Z13 remains supremely quiet even under full load, with acoustics never exceeding 40 dB. In lighter workloads, the machine can operate with the fans at zero RPM for truly silent computing.

For those who prefer a more traditional touchscreen laptop, the ROG Flow X13 has also been upgraded with the latest hardware, powered by an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS processor and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti laptop GPU. The ultra-slim, ultra-light body is extremely portable, while a 360° hinge allows for console-like gaming with a controller, or creating works of art with its optional stylus. Corning Gorilla Glass protects the touchscreen, which comes in both 4K 60 Hz and 1080p 120 Hz options for either ultra-crisp or ultra-smooth gaming. Despite the incredibly portable design, the Flow X13 still sports a full keyboard with 1.7 mm of key travel, as well as a robust port selection — including HDMI, USB Type-A and Type-C — and the XG Mobile interface for connecting to ultra-portable family of external GPUs from ROG.

Multiple ways to play

No matter how gamers prefer to interact with a PC, the Flow Z13 supports it. When using the machine with standard keyboard and mouse controls, the screen cover doubles as a fully functional keyboard with 1.7 mm of travel. Multiple USB ports allow for quick access to precision and accuracy for the games and apps that demand it. Due to its unique form factor, the Z13 also excels when used to play titles that support gamepads. Gamers can expect an excellent wireless connection and can pair up multiple controllers to take on some friends with classic split screen action.

As a gaming tablet, the Z13 supports mobile and touch-compatible games as well as traditional PC games. Responsive touch controls live inside the 13-inch display, allowing gamers to enjoy the best of mobile gaming on the go. For moments when one screen is not enough, dual USB Type-C ports both support display output to seamlessly add external monitors. And for extra gaming or content creation horsepower, an XG Mobile external GPU is just one connector away. With just one device, there are infinite possibilities.

XG Mobile ecosystem

While the CPU and dedicated graphics are quite powerful on their own, some workloads demand more. The XG Mobile family was introduced in 2021 as companion hardware for the ROG Flow series, offering top-tier graphics performance and additional I/O ports when needed. With the addition of an AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT GPU XG Mobile for 2022, the family is now complete and offers incredibly powerful graphics card options from both AMD and NVIDIA.

With up to a GeForce RTX 3080 or Radeon RX 6850M XT, dedicated DisplayPort and HDMI outputs, multiple USB ports and an Ethernet port, XG Mobile brings flagship desktop performance in a mobile form factor. For high refresh rate gaming, streaming, or content creation, the Flow Z13 paired with an XG Mobile is the ultimate portable battlestation.

Up to Intel Core i9-12900H processor

Up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GDDR6 4 GB TGP 35 W (40 W with Dynamic Boost)

13-inch 16:10 UHD (3840 x 2400) 60 Hz, 85% DCI-P3, touchscreen display with Adaptive Sync, Pantone Validated, and Dolby Vision

13-inch 16:10 FHD (1920 x 1200) 120 Hz, 100% sRGB, touchscreen display with Adaptive Sync, Pantone Validated, Dolby Vision support

Up to 16 GB LPDDR5 5200 MHz

Up to 1 TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD

One zone RGB with Aura Sync Backlit chiclet keyboard N-key support 1.7 mm travel distance Detachable screen cover design

2 x speakers with Smart Amp Technology Dolby Atmos Hi-res certified AI Noise-Cancelation technology 3D Mic Array

Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax) Bluetooth 5.2

1 x XG Mobile interface (including 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C with DisplayPort 1.4 and Power Delivery) 1 x USB Type-C with Thunderbolt 4, support DisplayPort 1.4 and Power Delivery 1 x USB 2.0 Type-A 1 x 3.5 mm combo Audio jack 1 x MicroSD card reader

302.8 (W) x 204.8 (L) x 12 (H) mm

Up to AMD Ryzen 6000 Series processor

Up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GDDR6 4 GB TGP 35 W (40 W with Dynamic Boost)

13-inch 16:10 UHD (3840 x 2400) 60 Hz, 85% DCI-P3, touchscreen display with Adaptive Sync, Pantone Validated, and Dolby Vision

13-inch 16:10 FHD (1920 x 1200) 120 Hz, 100% sRGB, touchscreen display with Adaptive Sync, Pantone Validated, Dolby Vision support

Запустили Cyberpunk на планшете — обзор ASUS ROG Flow Z13

Up to 32 GB LPDDR5 6400 MHz

Up to 1 TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD

White light backlit chiclet keyboard N-key support 1.7 mm travel distance

2 x speakers with Smart Amp Technology Dolby Atmos Hi-res certified AI Noise-Cancelation technology 3D Mic Array

Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax) Bluetooth 5.2

1 x XG Mobile interface (including 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C with DisplayPort 1.4, G-SYNC and Power Delivery) 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C support DisplayPort 1.4 and Power Delivery 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A 1 x 3.5 mm combo Audio jack 1 x HDMI (HDMI 2.0b support)

Asus ROG Flow Z13 review: A full-fledged gaming PC disguised as a tablet

The company’s second attempt at a gaming tablet, the Asus ROG Flow Z13 offers greater versatility but remains a specialized and expensive system.

Best Today: Asus ROG Flow Z13 GZ301

The modular Asus ROG Flow gaming tablet just got more modular. Last year’s ROG Flow X13 featured a convertible 2-in-1 design with a 360-degree hinge that let you rotate between laptop and tablet modes. The new ROG Flow Z13 ditches the display hinge and opts instead for a detachable keyboard that can act as both an ultraportable laptop with its kickstand kicked out and a tablet with the keyboard detached and not swung around and stuck to its back.

In addition to tweaking the design, Asus also upgraded the internals. For the biggest upgrade, the ROG Flow Z13 swaps out the middling GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q GPU of the Flow X13 for RTX 3050 Ti graphics. This allows for greater gaming capability. And, should you reach for a AAA title that needs more muscle than the internal GPU can provide, the Z13 can connect to Asus’s eGPU module, the XG Mobile. This device bumps the graphics up to Nvidia’s potent GeForce RTX 3080.

Despite its more modular approach and upgraded internals, the Flow Z13 remains a specialized product for a narrow audience that wants or needs an undersized gaming laptop that can convert into a tablet and is willing to pay a premium for that mobility and versatility. The internal RTX 3050 Ti graphics lessen the need for the optional XG Mobile unit, a pricey add-on that really lets the Flow Z13 rip.

Specifications

Let’s take a look under the hood of the Asus Flow Z13 we reviewed. It’s currently 1,899.99 at Best Buy.

• CPU: Intel Core i9-12900H
• Memory: 16GB
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti @ 40 Watt TGP and external GeForce RTX 3080 @ 150 Watt TGP (with XG Mobile)
• Storage: 512GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD
• Display: 13.4-inch, 1920×1200 IPS touch
• Webcams: Front-racing 720p and rear-facing 8-megapixel
• Connectivity: One Thunderbolt 4, USB-C, USB-A, analog audio jack, microSD card reader.
• Networking: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2
• Biometrics: Fingerprint reader
• Battery capacity: 56 Watt-hours
• Dimensions: 11.9 x 8.0 x 0.5 inches
• Measured weight: 2.61 pounds (tablet by itself), 3.36 pounds (tablet with keyboard attached), 0.86 pounds (AC adapter)

Asus sells a handful of Flow Z13 models. Pricing ranges from 1,499 to 3,299 with Intel Core i5, i7 and i9 CPUs offered and either Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 or RTX 3050 Ti 40-watt GPUs. Our 1,899.99 test configuration features one of Intel’s latest and fastest CPUs, the 12th-gen Core i9-12900H. The chip features six performance cores, eight efficiency cores, and 20 processing threads. Some lower-cost models feature only 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, but our test configuration doubles up on both for an ample allotment of RAM and a fair amount of solid-state storage space. The optional XG Mobile eGPU with RTX 3080 graphics adds 1,499.99 to the bill.

Heavy tablet or ultraportable laptop?

You can view the Flow Z13 as an ultraportable laptop or as a thick, heavy tablet. The 13.4-inch display is smaller than most gaming laptops, which typically range from 14 to 17 inches in size. However, the tablet itself is half an inch thick and weighs 2.6 pounds, making it considerably heftier than most tablets. Despite its generous weight and thickness, the tablet doesn’t look or feel clunky. It’s made from high density aluminum alloy 6063, which gives it a rock-solid feel without even the slightest hint of flex.

Asus has made clear with its design that the Flow Z13 is a tablet built for gaming. The back of the tablet is littered with design elements geared toward gamers. The back panel is matte black with narrow vents on the top half arranged in rows and some grouped into an “06” shape, perhaps as a nod to the 6063 alloy used. There’s a small, red tab on the side of the kickstand that’s useful for flipping it open. The kickstand has a cutout around a window that provides a glimpse of the motherboard inside. The window comes complete with RGB lighting for added fun and gamer chic.

The RGB lighting extends to the detachable keyboard. Its keys feature one-zone RGB lighting that can be customized with Asus’s Aura Sync panel inside the Armoury Crate app. The keyboard may have only one zone of lighting, but the effect and color you choose extends to the small window on the back panel. The keys themselves feature narrower travel than that of most laptops and especially gaming laptops, but overall it feels snappy and responsive.

The keyboard sits at an angle and is never lying solid and flat against your desk. Combined with the thin nature of a detachable keyboard, the keyboard really starts bouncing around when you’re furiously mashing keys during intense moments in games. The touchpad is undersized and best for navigating Windows. For longer gaming sessions, you’ll definitely want a mouse and also a separate keyboard.

The tablet itself has a USB-A port on its right side for connecting either a mouse or keyboard, and right next to it is an audio jack for plugging in headphones. You’ll also find the power button and a volume rocker on the right side of the laptop. The power button doubles as a fingerprint reader for quick and secure logins.

The Flow Z13 features a microSD card slot and I had to be a bit of a sleuth to find it. It’s hiding behind the kickstand on the back panel.

On the left edge of the tablet, you’ll find a USB-C Thunderbolt 4 port and a rubber cover, behind which hides a PCIe port for connecting the Flow Z13 to the XG Mobile eGPU module. There’s a USB-C port you can use for charging the tablet or connecting to USB devices as long as the XG Mobile isn’t being used, as it connects to both the ports.

To keep the Flow Z13 plugged in while gaming with the XG Mobile, you’ll need to use the Thunderbolt 4 port, which creates a bit of a messy look because the power cable isn’t connected to the bottom of the tablet. Instead, it hangs off the side from the Thunderbolt port that’s nearer to the top.

The XG Mobile adds extra ports to complete a gamer’s setup with connections for a mouse and keyboard, an external monitor, and a wired network connection. It features four USB-A ports, HDMI and DisplayPort connections, and an Ethernet jack. It also features a little kickstand so you can prop it up at a jaunty angle instead of having it lie flat.

Bright, tall display

The 13.4-inch display features a 1920×1200 resolution and a 16:10 aspect ratio. The resolution is ample to produce a crisp image. Asus offers a 4k display option for the Flow Z13, but it’s not a necessary upgrade. Plus, you’ll get better battery life with a lower-resolution display. The 4K display option also has a 60Hz refresh rate while our test system has a 120Hz refresh rate. Both options have adaptive sync technology, so gamers will appreciate being able to hit 120 frames per second without tearing the 1900×1200 panel.

The 13.4-inch size is smaller than most gaming laptops, which can make games feel a bit less immersive than they would be on a larger screen. The 16:10 aspect ratio of the display provides more vertical space than a wider 16:9 display, which gives you a little more room to work in Windows and requires less scrolling through documents and web pages.

The display is rated for 500 nits of brightness and our tests revealed it’s even brighter than the manufacturer claims. I measured the panel at a maximum brightness of 610 nits with good uniformity. It also exhibited accurate color and excellent contrast with deep black and bright whites. The touchscreen features a glossy coating, but this is one of the better displays I’ve experienced in terms of keeping glare and reflections in check. I suppose it helps to blast the brightness up to 500 nits and beyond to help control distracting glare or reflections, but the display overall is quite impressive. It also boasts narrow bezels and edge-to-edge glass for a clean, modern look.

The tablet’s stereo speakers produce average laptop sound. They will struggle to fill a small room at max volume, but the sound does stay clear when dialed up to its maximum. Bass response is predictably lacking. For gaming or listening to music, you’ll want headphones.

The Flow Z13 features both a front-facing and rear-facing webcam. The front-facing camera is an average 720p camera that produces a noisy, but well-balanced image that will suffice for the occasional Zoom call but isn’t ideal for streamers. You’ll get better results with the 8-megapixel camera on the other side of the display, but how often are you going to snap photos or take video with a tablet?

Performance

Our Flow Z13 test system features the Core i9-12900H (a high-powered CPU from Intel’s latest 12th generation of Core processors), 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. It features GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics at 40 watts. It’s one of the lower GPUs in Nvidia’s latest GeForce 30-series lineup, but it’s still much more capable than the previous-gen GTX 1650 Max-Q CPU in last year’s Flow X13. When you need to reach for more graphics horsepower, the XG Mobile kicks it up to RTX 3080 at 150 watts.

Our first benchmark tests how a laptop is able to handle crushing CPU loads over a lengthy period—in this case, transcoding a 30GB MKV file to a format suitable for Android tablets using HandBrake, the free video encoding utility. The Flow Z13 was a step slower than we would have expected on HandBrake, given its 12th-gen Core i9 CPU. It finished behind a trio of laptops with Core i7 chips.

Next up is Cinebench, another CPU-intensive test but one that renders a complex 2D scene over a short period of time. The Flow Z13 performed better on Cinebench. The 12th-gen Core i7-based MSI Katana GF76 edged it on the All Threads test, but the Flow Z13 took top honors on the Cinebench’s Single Thread test.

Graphics performance

Multimedia tests are of some importance, but 3D graphics performance is paramount with the Flow Z13, so let’s jump in. On 3DMark’s Time Spy test, the system brought up the rear. Its RTX 3050 Ti GPU running at 40 watts couldn’t keep pace with the laptops that have higher-end RTX graphics or the MSI Katana GF76, which also features RTX 3050 Ti graphics but at 60 watts. On 3DMark’s Port Royal test, the Flow Z13 fared a bit better by edging the MSI Katana GF76.

For real-world game testing, we used Rise of the Tomb Raider at 1920×1080 resolution at the Very High quality preset and Metro Exodus at 1920×1080 at the Extreme quality preset. For each game, we tested the Flow Z13 first with its integrated 40-watt RTX 3050 Ti GPU and then with the XG Mobile attached that adds a jolt of RTX 3080 graphics at 150 watts.

On Rise of the Tomb Raider, the Flow Z13 turned in a playable 60 fps with its RTX 3050 Ti GPU and then leapt to the head of the class with the XG Mobile, more than doubling its output with 129fps. On the more demanding Metro Exodus, the Flow Z13 averaged a meager 17 fps with its RTX 3050 Ti GPU and a respectable 45 fps with the XG Mobile attached.

Battery life

We test laptop battery life by looping a 4K video using the stock Windows Movies TV app, with screen brightness set to about 250 nits and the volume dialed to 50 percent with headphones plugged in. The Flow Z13 lasted just shy of six hours on our battery-drain test, which is average for a gaming laptop but a bit disappointing on a compact tablet.

Premium versatility at a premium price

With the ROG Flow Z13, Asus dropped the convertible design of last year’s Flow X13 in favor of a more modular, detachable design. This approach makes the Flow Z13 more useful as a tablet because you don’t have the keyboard rotated around and lying on the back of the display when in tablet mode. It’s less useful as a laptop, however, because the detachable keyboard is about as far from a gaming keyboard as you can get, RGB backlighting or no.

The upgrade to RTX 3050 Ti graphics and a 12th-gen Core i9 processor make the Flow Z13 powerful for its size, but it remains a specialized product for users with specific needs. You’ll need to have some deep s, too. But high-end tablets always come at a premium.

A similarly configured Microsoft Surface Pro 8, for example, would cost nearly as much as the 1,900 ROG Flow Z13 with a lesser CPU and merely integrated Intel graphics. In that light, the Flow Z13 represents a fair value if you want a Windows tablet that lets you dabble in some gaming when the workday is done. It also gives you the option to double down on its gaming capabilities with the RTX 3080-based XG Mobile, which allows the Flow Z13 to morph into a highly capable if undersized gaming laptop. At a combined cost of 3,400 for the Flow Z13 and XG Mobile, however, you must really have a need for such modular versatility to stomach the cost.

Asus ROG Flow Z13 review: a true gaming tablet

The Asus ROG Flow Z13 is an excellent, but pricey gaming tablet, with some compromises. Many users would be better with a separate gaming machine and tablet but if you must have one machine, this can deliver.

• Neat lightweight design with excellent cooling
• RGB backlights for keys and back panel
• Strong gaming performance
• – The software to disconnect the XG Mobile dock is finicky
• – Like most tablets, won’t sit comfortably on the lap
• – Battery life is on the slow side

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What would you get if you crossed a gaming laptop and a Microsoft Windows Surface Pro 8? Something like the Asus Republic of Gamers Flow Z13, a Windows 11 tablet that includes a 12th gen Intel i7 processor and an NVidia 3050 Ti graphics processing unit, plus the option for an external NVidia 3080 GPU.

Like the best 2-in-1 laptops, the Asus ROG Flow Z13 can be used as both a laptop and a tablet, with a removable keyboard rather than one that just folds back behind the screen. That’s all in a sleek package that weighs just 1.17kg/2.6lbs. It’s an attractive if expensive combination, but it is undermined a little by being the jack of all trades, but master of none.

Asus ROG Flow Z13 review: price and availability

The Asus ROG Flow Z13 is available now and starts at £1899/1799/AU3099. My review model, with the 12th generation Intel i9-12900H 2.5GHz processor, Nvidia RTX 3050Ti internal GPU, 1TB SSD, and 16GB of RAM is priced at £1899/1899/AU3399.

The XG Mobile graphics dock with the Nvidia 3080 GPU and 16GB of VRAM is priced at an additional 1499 direct from Asus (UK and AU price unavailable). Or you can buy the 4K model with the XG Mobile graphics dock for £2998/3398 (not yet available in Australia).

Asus ROG Flow Z13 review: design and screen

The ROG Flow Z13 is a sleekly designed tablet, but it is a bit chunkier than some. At just under half an inch thick without the clip-on keyboard, it is thicker than the Surface Pro 8 (0.37 inches or 94mm thick) and heavier at 1.18kg/2.6lbs for the tablet alone, while the Pro 8 weighs just under 90g/2lbs. That extra thickness isn’t really a problem, though. The Flow Z13 is easy to carry around and isn’t going to weigh you down.

A thin bezel surrounds the screen on the front of the tablet. The screen is a 13.4-inch panel with a resolution of 1920 by 1200, making it a bit taller than an HDTV, with a 16:10 aspect ratio. There is a higher-res version available, with a 3840 by 2400 display that’s more like a 4K TV. This screen looks great, with plenty of brightness and clean, solid color. It also has a 120Hz refresh rate, so many games look especially attractive, with smoother movement and detail as you leap around.

On the back of the case is a fold-out kickstand, complete with a flash of bright red ROG branding. This kickstand is well designed and folds back to almost flat (170 degrees), so you can put the tablet sitting up or laying down, depending on your preference. That’s very useful if you want to use this with a pen and with the clip-on keyboard.

There is also, for no obvious reason, a clear panel on the back of the case that shows part of the circuit board with LED lighting. This pulses red when the tablet is in standby or flashes with rainbow colors while you are gaming, but you can also set the colors to whatever you want. I really can’t see any particular purpose to this. The part of the circuit board isn’t overly exciting, even when bathed in blinky lights. Above the window, a series of map coordinates give you the location of the legendary Republic of Gamers (25°07’29.3”N, 121°28’17.3”E), which is across the street from the Hong Ya Hamburger restaurant and just down the road from the Costco in Taipei.

Two vents on the top edge of the tablet offer a path for warm air while the processor and 3050Ti GPU are working hard. The engineering of this cooling system is impressive; the very thin fans inside the case make only a slight hissing sound, even when gaming. The case does get a little warm when things are cranking, though, so not all of the heat is being vented.

As well as the vents, the edge of the tablet body is the home to several other holes. There are two USB ports (one old-school type A and one USB-C) and one Thunderbolt 4 on the left side. The included USB-C type charger can be used with either the USB-C or Thunderbolt port, so you can charge it from either side. There is also a 3.5mm headset jack on the right and a Micro SD card slot on the back of the case under the kickstand. On the bottom left corner of the tablet case is the secret sauce of the Flow Z13. A proprietary port that Asus refers to as the ROG XG Mobile interface. That is where the XG Mobile dock connects, adding the 3080 GPU and more USB ports to the setup.

The XG Mobile dock connects to the tablet through a thick cable and a rather chunky plug, which includes a locking latch that holds it tightly in place. This cable includes a USB-C connection plus the equivalent of a 4X PCI Express socket that a desktop graphics card would plug into. That provides more bandwidth to transfer data than the Thunderbolt 3 connections that most external graphics cards use, but it is less than the 16X PCI Express connections that desktop cards use.

On the back of the XG Mobile are four USB 3.2 ports plus a single HDMI 2.1 and a Displayport connection. In addition, there is a gigabit ethernet port, and a 110V power socket. The power cable plugs straight into the XG Mobile: there is no external power adapter.

The idea is that you connect one or two external monitors and other devices to the XG Mobile rather than a mess of USB adapters. That way, you can charge the tablet and connect multiple devices and monitors, but there is only one single cable to unplug when you want to take it with you. However, as we will see, there is a price to pay for this combination.

Asus ROG Flow Z13 review: keyboard and pen

The included keyboard clips onto the bottom of the case, and two magnets hold it in place against the front of the tablet body. It’s a decent keyboard with large, widely spaced keys that have a better amount of travel than the Microsoft Surface keyboard. The Fold Z13 keyboard has a much more positive feel. You can actually tell when you have pressed a key down fully and it doesn’t flex like the Surface keyboard. The touchpad is also a decent size and has a slight click to it when you press down. Both are still a compromise, though. I wouldn’t want to use either for writing anything longer than a page or so.

Small LED lights under the keys illuminate each one, and these can be controlled through the Armory Crate app, which also controls the LED lights on the back panel. These can be set to produce a variety of effects, from rainbows to sound-reactive waves and other patterns.

It also has the curse of all tablet devices with clip on keyboards. You can’t use it on your lap comfortably. The stand digs into your legs, and the whole thing feels unstable compared to a laptop. It is fine with a table or something for the tablet to sit on, but it just doesn’t work on the lap unless you have it flat.

No pen is included with the Z13, but the touch screen supports any MPP (Microsoft Pen Protocol) pen, so you can use a Surface pen or many other types that support this standard.

Asus ROG Flow Z13 review: performance and features

I tested the Asus ROG Flow Z13 both running on its own and with the XG Mobile dock connected and found that it performed excellently in both modes, with plenty of processing power to spare. The built-in NVidia 3050 GPU managed a 3D Mark score of 4498, which translates to a frame rate of about 100fps in Doom Eternal running in Medium graphics mode (the highest supported) at the native 1920 by 1200 resolution of the display. That was very playable, but it lacked the graphics polish of the higher quality modes.

Plugin the XG Mobile dock and things change, though. With this connected, the 3D Mark score increased to 10986. That’s a bit behind the performance achieved by desktop 3080 graphics cards, though, which regularly achieve scores of 16000 and above. That is presumably because the cable for the XG Mobile dock is a limitation: the system can’t transfer data to or from the graphics card as fast as a desktop graphics card can.

In Doom Eternal, the 3080 in the XG Mobile performed extremely well, producing a wonderfully smooth 120FPS at the native resolution of the tablet display, even with ray tracking enabled. It also managed to achieve 100fps on an external 4K monitor in Doom Eternal, so it obviously has plenty of gaming performance, just not quite as much as its desktop cousins.

I did find that the system for unplugging the XG Mobile was a bit quirky. If you just unplug it, Windows crashes. The right way to do it is to right-click on the XG Mobile app in the system tray and select disconnect, which prepares the system to disconnect, but this app sometimes just didn’t respond or vanishes from the system tray.

A series of firmware and software updates did partially solve this issue. The system tray app was more reliable and responded to a right-click to start the disconnection process. It was still a pain, though – you have to close all programs that are using the external GPU, and then restart them once it is unplugged. A Web browser session in Chrome was able to continue, but things like games, graphics and video editing apps will need to be shut down.

To be fair, all external GPU systems have similar limitations, but it isn’t quite the grab-and-go setup you might be hoping for: you can’t pause a game, unplug it and resume it on the go. Instead, you have to save, quit the game, run the disconnection app, wait for it to do its thing, unplug the cable and then start the game and load your save.

Asus ROG Flow Z13 review: cameras and speakers

The small speakers in the body of the Fold Z13 produce plenty of volume, with a decent amount of bass and clear, sharp treble. They are definitely heavier on the bass than the high notes, but that usually works for gaming sound. It is definitely loud enough for an immersive gaming feel, though, and there is good stereo separation from the two speakers so you can hear where the baddies are coming from.

There are two cameras on the front and back of the tablet: the front is a 720P video camera, while the back camera is an 8-megapixel model. Both produce decent-quality images, but the image gets rather noisy in low light. If you are planning to use them for Zoom video conferencing, you’ll need to add some more light for a more flattering look.

Asus ROG Flow Z13 review: battery

As the old saying goes, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. The downside of all of the features of the Asus ROG Flow Z13 is that the 56Wh battery doesn’t last that long. I measured the battery life playing back a 1080P video at 6 hours and 31 minutes. That’s enough for a day of work, but it is much shorter than the 10 to 12 hours you would get from the Surface Pro 8.

The battery life when gaming is even shorter. I got less than an hour’s worth of Parademon killing in Doom Eternal out of the battery. The bottom line here is that you can get a few hours of work on the go out of the Flow Z13, but not much gaming without plugging in.

Asus ROG Flow Z13 review: verdict

The Asus ROG Flow Z13 is something of a contradiction. It’s a mobile device that doesn’t have great battery life, and a gaming device that has slightly weak performance. It sits between the two worlds, trying to straddle both but not quite managing it. That doesn’t make it a failure, though. It has good gaming performance and acceptable battery life, but just not as good as a dedicated device.

The price is the real Achilles heel here. For the 3400 that my fully-specced-out review model would cost, you could buy a decent gaming laptop and a low-end Surface Pro 8 to do some work on the road with. Is the extra worth it to buy one product that can do both? For most people, probably not. But if you have the scratch and want an all-in-one solution, it’s the one to beat.

Asus ROG Flow Z13 review: also consider

The obvious rival to the Flow Z13 is the Microsoft Surface Pro 8, which has better battery life, is a bit thinner, and is much cheaper. But it isn’t a gaming machine by any stretch. Microsoft’s tablet can handle a game of solitaire, but that’s about it. The Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio has a similar configuration with a dedicated GPU, but also includes a flip-out screen that means it works better as a laptop. It is more expensive, though. If you are looking to save a bit of money, take a look at the Asus RoG Flow X13. This is last years model, but it’s still a great 2-in-1 device, and the price has fallen a lot recently.

Asus ROG Flow Z13 Review: Stunning, Expensive, And A Tad Vexing

Every once in a while, a PC maker goes out of its way to build a machine that either defies the logic of that class or simply blends two seemingly mismatched categories. The ROG Flow Z13 Falls in the latter bracket. It almost feels like Asus took the Microsoft Surface Pro and swapped its modest internals with a beefy Core i9 processor and a discrete NVIDIA GeForce 3000 series GPU. The somewhat unthinkable result is a full-blown gaming laptop that also pops out its keyboard folio and turns into possibly the most powerful tablet on the planet.

From the get-go, this is an audacious experiment that underplays the level of graphical power and thermal demands of a true-blue gaming laptop and hides those shortcomings behind a form factor that won’t hurt your back. It even wades into the tablet category and absolutely destroys the entire competition while at it. But not everything is as good as this device’s specs sheet would indicate.

A beautiful screen

Asus has armed the ROG Flow Z13 with a 13.4-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) Pantone-validated screen that offers a smooth 120Hz refresh rate and has the full sRGB color gamut covered. This device’s display panel’s aspect ratio is 16:10, which gives it just a wee bit of extra vertical space beyond the average laptop or tablet screen. It’s good for day-to-day work and certain sorts of video content, but letterboxing happens at the top and bottom of the screen in a bunch of games.

As far as quality goes, this touch-sensitive screen is stunning. With a peak brightness of 500 nits, it is easy to work on the screen even outdoors without worrying too much about dim content and reflections. The viewing angles are great, the colors look punchy, and a 120Hz refresh rate ensures that everything feels smooth and snappy.

Asus also offers the machine in a 4K screen configuration, but exchanges 120Hz for 60Hz in the process. If you’re buying the ROG Flow Z13 predominantly for gaming, stick with the FHD 120Hz option. The bezels are not the thinnest out there, but considering the heft of the device, they are of critical importance to ensure a strong grip.

A design unlike any other laptop

This device is smaller than the 14-inch MacBook Pro along all the edges and also weighs less than its Apple competitor at just 2.60 pounds. In comparison, the Apple-branded laptop tips the scales at 3.5 pounds. The chassis of the Asus device is made of aluminum alloy, and it feels sturdy without any sort of flex across the frame.

Nadeem Sarwar / SlashGear

Of course, it’s a ROG machine, which means there are sharp aesthetic lines and cuts all over the rear panel. They don’t look garish though. But the real gem here is the small glass window in the lower half that offers a look at the internal board. And yes, it’s lined with RGB lights that can be made to pop up with varied lighting effects. In the weeks that I spent testing it across multiple coffee shops, I’ve had a healthy bunch of strangers ogling at the machine and asking about it.

Nadeem Sarwar / SlashGear

Asus did a neat job blending minimalism without going overboard with flashy gamer-pleasing lights. Another neat surprise at the back is an SSD bay. It can be accessed with a single Phillips screw, but only accepts the condensed M.2 2230 SSD format — which is a bummer.

Nadeem Sarwar / SlashGear

At the same time, keeping in mind that this is a tablet, being able to upgrade the SSD is still a huge bonus. There’s also a separate SD card reader at the back that doesn’t need any screws to access.

Novel thermals, odd port selection

Along the top edge are the heat vents to blow the air channeled by the two fans inside. Asus has put in place a vapor chamber cooling system inside and liquid metal over the CPU. This approach keeps space needed for cooling to a minimum — and surprisingly, it seems to keep fan noise to a minimum, most of the time. On the flip side, the rear panel gets hot even under mild stress. The fans are usually quiet, but if you’re pushing the silicon under Turbo mode, get ready to hear the fans whizzing.

Asus hasn’t skipped on the port selection part, considering this is a tablet after all. On the right edge are a 3.5mm headphone combo jack and a USB Type-A port along with a volume rocker and a power button.

Nadeem Sarwar / SlashGear

On the left edge is a Thunderbolt 4 port for charging and file transfer, a standard USB-C port, a full-sized DisplayPort, and the custom ROG mobile port for connecting to the external eGPU with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 series card that Asus sells separately.

Nadeem Sarwar/SlashGear

This is a surprising amount of ports for a tablet, but for your average laptop, this isn’t a lot. MacBook (non-Pro) users might find it generous, but for the rest of the Windows PC-using community, Asus could’ve done a few ports better, especially with the adequate inches for edge thickness.

Surprisingly good keyboard

The keyboard that comes bundled with the tablet attaches magnetically, just like the one Microsoft charges extra for when you buy a Surface tablet. Yes, it’s RGB backlit, and you can customize the light flow of the keyboard as well as the glass window at the back. These RGB adjustments can be made from the Armory Crate, Asus’ pre-loaded app that allows users to adjust the system profile, and fan speed, and play with the lighting effects on its gaming laptops.

The keyboard has a smooth silicone finish and feels sufficiently premium. As for the typing experience, it’s surprisingly good. The key travel is decent and delivers healthy feedback. I found it to be an improvement over my Surface Pro Type Cover, which is no small achievement.

One con with this keyboard is the lack of a dedicated print screen button. I’ve grown to love that convenience on my Asus ROG Zephyrus G-series laptop, and not having it on the ROG Flow Z13 was a little vexing. Another annoyance with the keyboard is that the reverse side is a magnet for dust. And if you got furry pets, may God help you.

Nadeem Sarwar / SlashGear

The trackpad buttons offer a satisfactory click, but the overall size is rather small, which I found to be a tad limiting while editing images and doing basic 3D sketching.

The screen also supports stylus input. I tried Asus’ own SA200H stylus pen on the ROG Flow Z13, and it was a smooth experience. However, it is not as good as the minimal latency and great tilt control offered by Samsung or Apple’s styli for their respective tablets.

Benchmarking above the best

The configuration we’re reviewing here came equipped with a 12th-Gen Intel Core i9 (12900H) processor that has 14 cores and offers a peak frequency of 5 GHz. It was paired with 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GPU with 4 gigs of graphics memory. The pairing of a top-end Intel CPU and an entry-level GPU might seem odd, but the results are palatable.

I ran three instances of each benchmark with the Turbo overclocking mode enabled in the Armory Crate. Blender finished the bread-and-butter BMW car scene in 3 minutes and 2 seconds. The V-Ray GPU CUDA test delivered 461 paths, while the V-Ray GPU RTX run produced 614 vray points.

Nadeem Sarwar / SlashGear

Compared to a GeForce RTX 3050Ti in a proper gaming laptop like the ROG Zephyrus G14, those results are only about 10-15% lower. Simulating “Battlefield 5” (1440p resolution, Ultra settings), 3DMark Time Spy returned a graphics score of 4246, which is good enough. Cinebench R23, on the other hand, offered a single and multi-core tally of 9805 and 1840 points.

The ROG Flow Z13 put up a tally of 1922 and 12903 on Geekbench’s single-core and multi-core tests, respectively. These results are better than the top results posted by Apple’s latest 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro notebooks with the mighty M1 Max inside.

A modest machine for AAA games

When it comes to gaming, the device is limited by the power draw on the CPU as well as GPU due to its portable form factor. The Intel chip only maintains a sustained 50W output, while the RTX 3050Ti inside can only reach 40W in the boost profile. To put it simply, don’t go around comparing it with a full-blown gaming laptop with similar specs.

However, the Asus ROG Flow Z13 can still hold its own when it comes to playing AAA titles, as long as you leave your Ultra graphics expectations behind. Starting on the higher end of the spectrum with “Elden Ring,” ROG Flow Z13 mistered around 35-40fps on average with medium graphics settings.

Nadeem Sarwar / SlashGear

In “Cyberpunk 2077” I averaged around 40-44 fps at medium settings, but given the sheer depth of graphics adjustments in the game, your tally might go up or down. “Assassin’s Creed” wasn’t too different. There were a few jitters here and there, but the overall experience was smooth.

Step down the AAA gun for real fun

For less demanding games or even older AAA titles, you can enjoy 1080p gaming at a 60-70fps range. For example, “The Witcher 3” comfortably sailed at over 70fps with high graphics settings. I tried a bit of experimenting with “Forza Horizon 5” at peak settings and only got about 30-35fps.

The experience was not terrible as there was still a sufficient amount of detail, but the experience was nowhere close to the high-FPS experience in low-graphics settings. I noticed that turning off ray tracing can bump up the fps count by at least 30-50% in demanding games like “Shadow of the Tomb Raider.”

In “Apex Legends” and “Fortnite,” I got around 60fps consistently, and new titles like “Metal Hellsinger” and “Deathloop” can touch that FPS mark at lower visual fidelity without ruining the experience. If you’re more into less demanding indie titles like Hades, you can enjoy them in all their graphics glory at over 90fps.

It can handle your serious work, too

If you’re comparing the ROG Flow Z13 with a productivity powerhouse like the new MacBooks with the M-series hardware, the Asus tablet is in the same league as workflow beasts, and even beyond in certain benchmarks. In general, it is hard to find a non-gaming laptop that goes all the way up to the Intel Core i9 and packs in a discrete GPU.

I handed the machine to my architect friend who ran Lumion 11, one of the most demanding 3D rendering applications out there, and got a smiling thumbs up from him. My sister also tried her hands on the shiny machine with graphically demanding ML modeling tasks and running Python scripts with Anaconda prompt, and came out impressed.

But do keep in mind that the machine packs a Max-Q design GPU, so if you’re planning to fire up something like Maya and Houdini and 3D modeling, the GPU here is far less capable of churning out those pixels and shader units. Simply put, the GPU here won’t be nearly as capable as it is with your average video game.

Perplexing pricing

Save for the unique form factor, there is little inside the Asus ROG Flow Z13 to justify that asking price. It starts at 1,300 for the base model with an Intel Core i5-12500H processor and no discrete graphics. For the Core i7-12700H variant paired to a GeForce RTX 3050 card, Asus’ website is charging 1,800.

The configuration we tested had the Core-i9 CPU married to the slightly more powerful GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics card. This one is currently listed as out of stock on the Asus website, but surprisingly, Best Buy is currently selling it for 1,700 with a discount, while it regularly sells for a cool 1,900.

Just to add some perspective here, for that price, or a hundred dollars lower, you can pick more powerful gaming laptops from within Asus’ own ranks. The best machines to look at here are the brand’s latest set of Asus ROG Zephyrus G-series laptops, which offer a neat blend of powerful innards, a comparatively portable build, and a more sensible asking price.

Why should you buy it?

The Asus ROG Flow Z13 does a lot of things right, but its form factor also brings a lot of practical limitations. No other tablet out there offers such high performance. If you’ve ever wanted a machine that goes from a “Halo” machine to a legitimate productivity horse, and finally evolves into a video-watching tablet, this Asus machine should be on your radar.

I particularly loved the fact that I can simply prop the tablet half on a table or my lap, and breeze past a few races in “Forza Horizon 5” with an Xbox controller without having to care about the keyboard. Plus, unlike a traditional gaming laptop with bottom-firing heat vents that can quickly make it hard to keep it in one’s lap, the Asus ROG Flow doesn’t offer any such thermal discomfort.

If you’re concerned about raw performance, know that this machine can handle even the most demanding workflow. Overall, the Asus ROG Flow Z13 is a one-of-its-kind machine that is a jack of many trades, and won’t leave you wanting for a lot more. That is if you are willing to pay for all those conveniences and are willing to ignore other more reasonable options.

Why should you avoid it?

If thin and powerful are your primary criteria, you should look at Razer’s lineup of laptops which go all the way up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080Ti and also let you pick from AMD silicon. In case you can’t look beyond the Asus ROG Flow Z13 but still wish for more power, the external eGPU that Asus sells (separately or bundled) is your only option.

The ROG XG Mobile is a portable external GPU enclosure that offers the power of GeForce RTX 3080 in order to ramp up your gaming potential. The unfortunate part of this equation is that your final cart value will balloon all the way up to 3,300. That’s an obscenely high price to pay for a gaming machine, portable or otherwise. For that sum, you can buy yourself a more standard laptop and a tablet or two and still save a few dollars.

Nadeem Sarwar / SlashGear

Then there are the local, but extremely practical, limitations. If the ROG Flow Z13 isn’t plugged in, an hour-long session of a heavy game like “Cyberpunk 2077” will deplete the battery. With the brightness set to 50%, I marathon-watched the “Lord of The Rings” trilogy, but the battery started blaring the low-power warning barely past halfway through the second film. While using it as my work machine with a predominantly Chrome-heavy workflow, the ROG Flow Z13 could only average around 5 hours. In a nutshell, not great.

Verdict

It’s never easy to justify the asking price demanded by most high-end gaming laptops, particularly for folks that are looking to work and play on the same machine. But the Asus ROG Flow Z13 is a glaring exception. The ROG Flow Z13 does the computing part better than most productivity laptops out there. It is powerful enough to handle your games, as long as you’re not dreaming about 120fps Ultra graphics gaming.

This Asus device goes a step further by cramping all that firepower into a rather unique chassis. This is a full-fledged Windows tablet that blows the Surface Pro (and iPads) out of the water on every performance metric. The Asus ROG Flow Z13 has the brawn covered, but this machine is more about versatility than just raw gaming pedigree. If you seek an RGB-lit tablet-laptop mashup that can be the perfect desk companion for work and can also inject some “Cyberpunk 2077” energy during the breaks, this is the machine to get.

It also helps that no PC maker has successfully made such an audacious hybrid. But it’s hard to overlook the realistic expectations that one has from a laptop, especially in terms of battery life, port selection, and overall value for money. If you know your priorities and how your workflow aligns with what the Asus machine has to offer, start saving for the Asus ROG Flow Z13.

Asus ROG Flow Z13

The Asus ROG Flow Z13 is by far the most compact gaming system that you can get in the market. It offers a solid build quality that will surely grab a lot of attention and provides a balance of work and play while on the move. The system does come with similar hardware as other Flow-series products. But the ROG Flow Z13 feels like a better package for anyone who prefers portability over form factor.

Pros

• Portable design
• Sturdy build
• Looks stunning
• Comes with a complete package of accessories

Cons

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Two-minute review

Before we deep dive into the review of the Asus ROG Flow Z13, you should understand that most gaming laptops in the ROG branding are premium. They offer some of the best bling and gaming features that were once seen only in Dell’s Alienware laptops. However, since the launch of the ROG Flow Z13, it has become a favourite device for me. So much so, that I regretted using my now 6-month-old 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro.

First and foremost, I must say that the ROG Flow Z13 would be one of the best choices for a portable gaming laptop just for the build and design. You get a sturdy chassis that is made out of aluminium alloy. The entire laptop with the folded keyboard weighs in at just approximately 1.2 kgs. You also get a 170° kickstand which allows you to lay the laptop flat for more creative tasks like drawing and editing photos. You also get a sneak peek into a section of the hardware within the Asus ROG Flow Z13 at the back which is RGB-lit.

The second reason to consider getting the Asus ROG Flow Z13 would be the accessories provided. The laptop comes with an RGB detachable keyboard, a stylus and a carry case for the laptop. All of that at no extra cost. The keyboard comes with chicklet-style keys that are comfortable to type on and the trackpad is also responsive. It comes with a rubberized texture which adds to the premium quality of the product.

The Asus ROG Flow Z13 comes in a compact form with a similar 13-inch display. So, I immediately felt comfortable using the convertible laptop since I was already travelling. It features a touchscreen panel and is also useful when paired with the stylus that comes in the box. The colours on the display are vibrant and are capable of handling HDR content as well.

The battery life on the ROG Flow Z13 is what you would expect from any gaming PC. If used at bare minimum power usage, the laptop is available to stretch up to 6 hours. This is after we reduced the brightness and set the profile to “Windows” through the Asus Armoury app. Gaming will reduce the usage time, but surprisingly the system performs better when plugged directly into a power source. It supports fast charging, so juicing up the laptop in a hurry isn’t an issue.

The hardware within the laptop is similar to most other gaming laptops in this price range. The laptop comes with the latest 12th generation Intel Core CPUs and features the RTX 3050 series of graphics cards (except the base Intel Core i5 model that comes with Iris Xe graphics).

The only downside to the system would be that a 13-inch display may not be as immersive for those who’re looking for a portable gaming machine. To put the system through its full potential, the Asus ROG XG Mobile can be used to convert the laptop into a gaming beast. However, this is still a premium product sold separately.

Pricing and availability

The Asus ROG Flow Z13 is available in various configurations. The base variant of the convertible laptop which costs Rs. 1,28,700 features the 12th generation Intel Core i5 chipset with Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics. It comes with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage on board. The display is Full HD with a 120Hz refresh rate. This is the only model in the lineup that features an integrated graphics card.

You can get the Intel i7 variant with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 at Rs. 1,64,990. The Intel i9 models come with the RTX 3050 Ti and 1TB of SSD storage but can be configured with a Full HD high refresh rate display at Rs. 1,81,990 or a 60Hz Ultra HD display at Rs. 1,91,990. The laptop is also available at a very premium price with the ROG XG Mobile bundled.

Design

The design of the Asus ROG Flow Z13 is what I’ve fallen in love with. You could categorise the Flow Z13 as a tablet PC, but at the core, it still is a laptop thanks to the detachable keyboard. The entire system may look bulky and thick. But this is not much of a problem considering the hardware and cooling system within the aluminium chassis.

As mentioned previously, the laptop comes with a kickstand that can help to keep the laptop flat facing upwards. The hinges are pretty strong. You don’t need to worry if the slightest nudge would fold the stand and cause the laptop to fall on its back. A micro SD card slot is hidden just below the kickstand as well.

Even in this small form factor, the laptop was able to pack in a full-size USB port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a Type-C port for charging and data transfer as well as the ROG XG Mobile interface. The ROG Flow Z13 also come with stereo speakers on either side and support Dolby Atmos. This provides an immersive entertainment experience when watching movies and TV shows.

The vents for the laptop are located at the top which is accompanied by the Republic of Gamers name. The power button has an integrated fingerprint scanner and supports Windows Hello sign-in.

I’m really happy with the unique design of the ROG Flow Z13. The laptop/tablet PC is compact, portable and has powerful internals.

Performance

The Asus ROG Flow Z13 is a well-balanced laptop that can be used for both work and light gaming sessions. Our review unit laptop came with a 12th generation Intel Core i9-12900H processor clubbed with 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 1TB of PCIe Gen 4 SSD. The chipset is capable of handling multiple applications and there were no lags at all. Of course, this is the high-end variant but can expect to see similar performance even in the Intel i7 models too. You can expand the storage through another M.2 2230 SSD slot that is located behind the kickstand.

The display on the review unit was a Quad HD display with a 60 Hz refresh rate. However, we would suggest users go for the Full HD models to get the best gaming experience. Higher refresh rates are anytime better than higher resolution. All of the models come with the same Dolby Vision display with a 16:10 aspect ratio. The brightness levels are good even for outdoor conditions and the touch response is also accurate.

The Asus ROG Flow Z13 also comes with cameras on the front and rear. The front-facing 720p camera is decent for video calls and the 8MP rear camera is only mostly helping with scanning documents. Anyone rarely clicks pictures with a tablet PC.

As a gaming laptop, the Asus ROG Flow Z13 came with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti which has a 4GB VRAM. The graphic card is capable of playing most triple-A games at Full HD resolution at high settings. During my testing, the laptop performed well and the gaming was smooth. I played a bit of Apex Legends and Battlefield 2042. The frame rates were stable between 50 and 55 frames per second. With the Full HD models, you get a 120Hz refresh rate and it will make the gaming experience better.

You can expand the capabilities of the ROG Flow Z13 using the XG Mobile external GPU unit. Retailing as a separate accessory, it comes with a dedicated RTX graphic card that can improve performance and quality. So, if you’re still happy with an Ultra HD display but want to get better quality for gaming, then the XG interface on the laptop will come in handy. If you do invest in an external graphics card unit, this will be compatible with other Asus ROG products that have an XG Mobile interface like the ROG Flow X13.

In terms of thermal management, the device can dissipate heat well. The exhaust vents at the top do push out warm air during gaming. The fans do tend to spin faster and louder as you continue playing games at high settings and leave the system plugged into a power source. We would recommend that you connect the device to power and play games to get the full capabilities of the laptop. Even though the chassis does heat up at the back, there is no cause for worry and it cools down if you leave the system with the stand propped open. These are normal for a gaming laptop and are not deal-breakers at all.

Battery life

Battery life on the Asus ROG Flow Z13 is similar to any portable gaming laptop. When playing games on battery, the laptop manages to provide just more than an hour with graphics set at high. I did lower the resolution and increased the quality to very high and got only marginally better results. That’s not to say that it’s bad.

The laptop is more of a productivity and gaming machine in one. Anyone who is travelling and wants to get some work done would be able to get close to 5 hours of usage time. Reducing the brightness and turning on “Windows” mode does help to concentrate the resources more towards the chipset.

You can also improve the battery life by turning off the MUX Switch through Asus Armoury. The MUX Switch helps to redirect the graphical processing from the graphic card directly to the display when turned on. The graphic card uses more power and can provide a lag-free gaming experience. Turning off the feature will reduce power consumption and improve battery life.

Buy it if.

You want a mix of work and play

The ROG Flow Z13 is a great laptop that offers the perfect balance between work and play. The 12th generation Intel i7 and i9 models give you enough power for work while the RTX 3050 Ti can offer a Full HD gaming experience at high settings.

You need a portable gaming machine

The compact form factor of the laptop is better than a regular gaming laptop. It’s half the weight and will also easily fit in most backpacks. Not many products in the power in small packages.

You want accessories bundled at no extra cost

The laptop comes with a detachable RBG-lit keyboard, stylus and a travel pouch all included within the retail pack. This saves on getting additional accessories separately.

Don’t buy it if.

Gaming is all you want to do

While the chipsets are capable of handling most heavy tasks, the RTX 3050 Ti can be a good graphic card for Full HD gaming at high settings. To get a better gaming experience, you will need to shell out more for the ROG XG Mobile external GPU. While the latter is expensive, it is also heavy and will be an added weight to your luggage.

You’re not comfortable playing on a smaller screen

If you’re more inclined to play games on a larger display, then the ROG Flow Z13 is not for you. There are many more products within the ROG portfolio than can be purchased at a similar price.