Asus’ ROG Flow Z13 is a Magnificent Gaming Tablet That You Shouldn’t Buy

I’ve by no means had such a conflicted relationship with a gadget, and it’s agonizing. You see, Asus made a extremely cool factor, however I’m having a tough time recommending it. It’s not a lot the execution, however slightly the value and, nicely, your entire idea. OK, so let me get to it: the machine I’m speaking about is the Asus ROG Flow Z13, a gaming pill with a removable keyboard and an non-obligatory exterior GPU.

Somewhere between an engineering marvel and an impractical experiment, the Flow Z13 is actually a Microsoft Surface turned gaming rig. I don’t imply one thing that may stream from the cloud or run Android video games—it is a correct gaming machine, full with a discrete GPU. If that wasn’t odd sufficient, the Flow Z13 good points critical horsepower when related to Asus’ proprietary eGPU, the XG Mobile.

In idea, the ROG Flow Z13 offers a great deal of energy in a compact chassis together with the flexibleness to show right into a gaming workhorse when stationary. It largely achieves that promise; the Flow Z13 is a succesful pill—with or with out the eGPU—due to its speedy efficiency, good show, and cozy keyboard. There are only a few issues: it’s costly (very costly whenever you add the eGPU), awkward to carry or use in your lap, and the battery life is nicely beneath common. That mentioned, if you’d like a Surface Pro-like machine with extra graphics oomph, that is your greatest (and solely) guess—in any other case, look elsewhere.

Price and configurations

The ROG Flow Z13 I examined comes with an Intel Core i9-12900H CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GPU, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, an RTX 3050 Ti GPU, and a 13.4-inch, 1920 x 1200-pixel at 120Hz show. It prices $1,899 at Best Buy. You should purchase it bundled with the XG Mobile Dock with an RTX 3080 GPU for—sit down for this—$3,300.

There is a barely cheaper mannequin, although the economics don’t add up. For $1,799, simply $100 much less, you should buy a base mannequin with a Core i7-12700 CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and an RTX 3050 GPU. The XG Mobile, which may also be outfitted with a Radeon RX 6850M XT GPU, ought to price $1,500 standalone, although I’m having hassle discovering any in inventory as of time of writing.

Asus’ web site additionally exhibits 4K and Core i5 variations of the Flow Z13, however once more, these are both not in inventory but or solely accessible in different areas.

Pretty however impractical

“Loud” involves thoughts when trying on the Flow Z13. While I usually choose an understated look, I’m bought on the flashy look of this pill, even when it’s all a bit…further. Clearly, Asus didn’t get the memo in regards to the market’s current shift away from overtly “gamery” aesthetics, as a result of the Z13 has all of them. RGB lighting illuminates the keys and a glass panel on the rear (extra on this beneath); sharp, aggressive cutouts (a vent within the form of “06”) and decals (an eye-roll-inducing “For those who dare” motto) are mapped throughout the again panel, and there are even pops of purple accents right here and there. There is a lot occurring that your eyes do not know the place to focus.

At least, as soon as they’re accomplished marveling on the rear glass home windows, beneath which you’ll see a bit of the motherboard highlighted in rainbow-hued RGB lighting. I get the identical giddy pleasure looking at this factor from an inch away as I do peaking via a glass desktop case at a sea of RGB. It’s all very sci-fi, and as a lot as I attempt to act mature, I can’t deny that one thing about this design speaks to my infantile nerd. Whoever designed the Z13 simply wished to make one thing cool, and this factor seems sick.

It’s simply an ergonomic ache within the ass. I say that about most removable tablets, however this one could be notably infuriating. That glass window I talked up is raised, so the pill wobbles whenever you place it on a flat floor. Part of me dies each time I hear it scrape towards my glass desk. Asus, why isn’t it flush?!

Then there’s the broader downside of rotating a kickstand every time you wish to go into laptop computer mode, and the way unsteady the pill feels in your lap. The latter grievance, it needs to be famous, is hardly a knock towards the Flow Z13—it feels as sturdy as any Surface Pro. What’s good about this kind issue is that kickstand mode places your gameplay entrance and middle, with no keyboard between you and the display screen.

The Flow Z13 is predictably chunkier than your common pill, at 11.9 x 8.0 x 0.5 inches and a pair of.6 kilos with out the included keyboard. Add the accent, and the thickness jumps to 0.7 inches whereas the dimensions tricks to 3.4 kilos. For comparability, the Surface Pro 8 is available in at 11.3 x 8.2 x 0.37 inches and a pair of kilos, whereas the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is 12.3 x 8.9 x 0.73 inches and three.8 kilos.

The ROG Flow Z13 was all the time going to be heftier than different tablets available on the market on condition that it homes a discrete Nvidia GPU. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that the extra thickness permits sufficient area for a USB 2.0 Type-A port. Only one, although, to go together with a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C enter, a microSD card slot (underneath the hinge), and a headphone jack. The energy button situated above a quantity rocker doubles as a fingerprint sensor. And whereas we’re speaking Windows Hello, the Flow Z13 lacks an IR digital camera for facial recognition, a characteristic that ought to actually be included at this value.

Keyboard worthy of a gamer

Those who will truly recreation on this factor will probably be happy to know that it ships with one of many higher removable keyboards I’ve used with a pill. It jogs my memory of Microsoft’s Type Cover keyboard in that the keys are pleasantly bouncy and have surprisingly deep journey. My fingers effortlessly sprung from one letter to the subsequent and had been met every time with plush, springy suggestions.

The keys needs to be massive sufficient for all however these with large arms. They are a tad smaller than what you discover on most laptops, however rather more comfy than different keyboard equipment. And in step with the general design, these keys are single-zone RGB backlit. For what it’s price, I typed at 126 phrases per minute with a 97% accuracy fee, which is true round my greatest outcome on any keyboard—pill, laptop computer, or mechanical. Below the keyboard is a touchpad that will get the job accomplished. It’s on the small facet, however responsive and easy to the contact.

Featherweight chassis, heavyweight punch

Let’s not waste any extra time. The actual query is whether or not Asus was blowing smoke or if the Flow Z13 can truly play video games with out connecting to the eGPU. The brief reply: sure, it may possibly. The pill’s Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti GPU will run most fashionable video games on the 1920 x 1200-pixel decision on excessive graphics at nicely above 30 frames per second.

We benchmark at Ultra settings, and even then the ROG Flow Z13 carried out admirably, powering Far Cry 5 at 1080p at a easy 52 frames per second, nicely above the 30-fps “playability” commonplace. Coincidentally, I bought the identical outcomes on the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark, that means you gained’t have any points enjoying these in style titles utilizing the built-in graphics card. Metro Exodus, nonetheless, was a special story, averaging a lowly 30-fps and infrequently dropping nicely beneath that threshold throughout the take a look at. I used to be additionally shocked by Total War: Warhammer II, which averaged 41 fps, an honest outcome however much less headroom than I’d choose.

If you want extra graphical oomph for top body charges or higher graphics, the Flow Z13 connects to Asus’ XG Mobile eGPU by way of a proprietary connection on the left facet of the pill. For those that missed our ROG Flow X13 assessment, the XG Mobile is actually a docking station that homes a cell Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 GPU. It will get you all of the ports you would probably want: HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4, RJ-45 Ethernet, 4 USB 3.2 Type-A inputs, and an SD card reader.

I’m simply unsure it’s definitely worth the problem except you’ve gotten actually excessive gaming calls for. For one, the XG Mobile isn’t all that cell. Combine its 2.6 kilos with the Flow Z13’s weight, and all of the sudden your entire setup is considerably heavier than transportable gaming laptops, like Asus’ personal 3.8-pound Zephyrus G14 or the Alienware x15 (5 kilos). With such a brawny GPU underneath the hood, the XG Mobile requires its personal energy supply, which comes by way of a chunky 280W energy adapter—simply the form of factor you had been hoping to keep away from by shopping for this technique.

The proprietary connector that plugs into the left facet of the pill jogs my memory of a VGA port in all of the incorrect methods. It’s chunky, rigid, and a locking slider must be enabled for the eGPU to work. Once you’ve related, the system will take a couple of minutes to change over to the eGPU. If you disconnect the XG Mobile earlier than doing so safely by way of the Windows Taskbar, the Z13 will get indignant and pressure you to restart the subsequent time or ask you to “accept the risk.”

Anyhow, as soon as it’s working, it sprints. The RTX 3080 within the XG Mobile supercharged this pill, which ran Total War: Warhammer II at 99 fps, a 58-frame enhance. Even the hardest of those video games—Metro Exodus—performed at a cool 78 fps with the settings on Ultra. Tomb Raider took full benefit of the 120Hz display screen, working at 125 fps whereas Far Cry 5 wasn’t far behind at 117 fps.

The Flow Z13 additionally did nicely on our computing benchmarks due to its Intel Core i9-12900H CPU, 16GB of RAM, and 512TB SSD. The pill scored an 11,358 on the Geekbench 5 total efficiency take a look at, topping the Zephyrus G14 (9,830), Alienware x15 (9,339), and decimating the Surface Pro 8 (5,873).

It additionally did nicely rendering a 3D picture in Blender, a process it wanted solely 3 minutes and 51 seconds to finish, placing it forward of the Razer Blade 14 (5:58) and Surface Pro 8 (8:25) however barely behind the Zephyrus G14 (3:15). It carried out equally on the Handbrake take a look at, needing solely 7 minutes and 11 seconds to transform a 4K video to 1080p, a process that took the Surface Pro 8 greater than 12 minutes. This time, the laptops had an edge, with the Razer Blade 14 (3:48) and Zephyrus G14 (3:15) handing over sooner occasions.

When Asus first revealed the Flow Z13, my speedy concern was the potential for overheating. It didn’t. Not even throughout lengthy gameplay classes. A max temperature studying of 120 levels Fahrenheit may sound scorching, but it surely’s not when in comparison with most transportable gaming laptops. The Zephyrus G14 flirted with the 140s whereas the keyboard remained over 100 levels all through my GPU testing—as compared, the keyboard on the Z13 doesn’t heat when the system is working.

Fast and shiny show

Bright, colourful, and quick, the 13.4-inch, 1920 x 1200-pixel (FHD+) panel is a delight for watching motion pictures, searching the online, or enjoying video games.

The 120Hz display screen stored up as F1 automobiles rocketed their method throughout the display screen as I watched the Imola Grand Prix, and the panel did justice to the automobiles’ colourful livery. When I watched the trailer for Severance, the display screen captured the pure white snow surrounding the ominous workplace constructing and matched that hue on the lifeless inside partitions. I used to be notably entranced by the ‘90s aesthetic, with its muted colors and funky retro tech.

After playing several rounds of Halo Infinite, there was no doubting that the 120Hz panel improved my kill-to-death ratio (it still wasn’t nice, FWIW) in comparison with enjoying on my 60Hz workplace monitor. Keep in thoughts, nonetheless, that you might want to be related to the XG Mobile to achieve body charges that’ll benefit from the display screen’s excessive refresh fee.

Whatever was on show—sports activities, a film, video video games—seemed crisp and detailed. And for the reason that display screen will get very shiny, at 495 nits, I had no issues utilizing the pill outdoors on a sunny Texas day. I simply choose enjoying on a bigger display screen, although the scale restraints are comprehensible right here.

The twin audio system on the Flow Z13 are advantageous. They had been loud sufficient to fill my small workplace and didn’t distort once I moved the slider to 100%. Treble and midrange tones had been crisp, if considerably frail, and there was a predictable lack of bass. These are adequate for watching YouTube movies and informal listening, however players ought to actually purchase headset, just like the HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless.

The battery lifetime of a gaming rig

The ROG Flow Z13 desires so badly to be a gaming laptop computer that it adopted the lead of its bigger rivals by lasting solely 6 hours and 26 minutes on our battery take a look at, which includes video playback at 200 nits of brightness.

That places it simply behind the Razer Blade 14 (6:41) and a number of other hours wanting the Zephyrus G14 (9:21). Other tablets, just like the Surface Pro 8 (8:18), commerce the additional graphics oomph for longer runtimes.

Should you purchase the ROG Flow Z13?

No, you most likely shouldn’t, and it’s a disgrace as a result of the gamer nerd in me desires to like this factor. It has a enjoyable design, a shiny 13.4-inch show, sturdy efficiency, and an honest keyboard that’s included within the field. It even averted overheating and remained comparatively quiet all through my testing.

As you’ll be able to see, the execution is kind of good. I simply can’t get previous the price of the total bundle: round $3,000 with the XG Mobile. I’d slightly get monetary savings and purchase gaming laptop computer; Asus’ personal ROG Zephyrus G14 is a extra balanced possibility and doesn’t sacrifice an excessive amount of in the best way of portability. OK, so it isn’t as speedy because the Flow Z13 with XG Mobile, but it surely’s simpler to journey with and significantly extra highly effective by itself than the pill is. Another deal-breaker for me is the poor ergonomics; I’d a lot slightly spend this sort of money on the Flow X13, the laptop computer model of this hybrid machine.

And but, I do suppose the Flow Z13 is the correct machine for somebody. Ignore Asus’ advertising and marketing and a extra acceptable viewers turns into clear: individuals who desire a Surface Pro 8 however want further graphics energy, like 3D designers, artists, or builders who journey for work. If you fall into that class, yet another bit of recommendation: test your credit score restrict earlier than you shell out on the Flow Z13.