The New Asus ROG Flow Z13 Redefines Gaming on a 2-in-1 Laptop-Tablet

2-in-1 laptops that are aimed at gamers are already a rarity, let alone Windows-based gaming tablets, but that's exactly what the new Asus ROG Flow Z13 delivers and it's more than a little impressive. Featuring AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ 395, it offers gaming performance that rivals dedicated laptop graphics cards while also offering much better battery life and portability. A proper gaming laptop will still be a better choice for most gamers due to price alone, but the ROG Flow Z13 is a showcase for how far integrated graphics have come and what we can expect from them in the future.

Asus ROG Flow Z13 – Design and Features

The ROG Flow Z13 is a 13.4-inch Windows tablet that includes a detachable keyboard. Imagine a Microsoft Surface pulled straight from the universe of Blade Runner, and you'll be on the right track for its aesthetic. It's significantly thicker than the Surface, measuring a hair over a half inch at its thinnest point, and is adorned with the cybernetic tracings the ROG brand has become synonymous with. There's even a small viewing window that reveals the circuit board inside, illuminated with RGB backlighting that earns it some extra style points.

The added bit of thickness is forgivable when you look at its significantly more powerful internals. This is far more than an average tablet or even an average gaming tablet at that – rather it’s a proper PC that takes shape in tablet form, and that demands extra cooling which accounts for its thicker yet still portable size. There's little you can't do with it thanks to its powerful processor and impressively fast memory, and that includes dedicated gaming that doesn't force you to turn the settings to their minimum or drop the resolution just because it uses an integrated GPU. Make no mistake, the Asus ROG Flow Z13 is the dream gaming tablet in that it is a high-performance gaming laptop with a detachable keyboard.

Asus has more than just gamers in mind, however. You can tell that by its configurable memory, which can go all the way to 128GB if you have the cash to pay for it. That's significantly more than most gaming laptops can even support, let alone be configured such straight from the factory. But here, Asus presents us with a device aimed squarely at the cross-section between gamers, digital artists, 3D modelers, video editors and content creators more broadly, as well as anyone who wants to run local large language models (LLMs). It's also a good fit for students and professionals with deep pockets. Bring a stylus of your own, and it becomes an exceptional tool for handwritten notes.

All of this doesn’t come cheap. The model we were sent, which includes the minimum amount of RAM (32GB) and storage (1TB), will set you back $2,299. Doubling the memory to 64GB brings the price to $2,399 and the full 128GB version runs a steep $2,799. Of those three, the 64GB model feels like the best middle ground, since an extra $100 for an additional 32GB of memory isn’t a bad deal.

The flip side is that the system isn't upgradable after the fact. The RAM is soldered into the system as part of the CPU package which is how it’s able to achieve its exceptionally fast 8,000Hz memory speed. Its storage can be upgraded and is surprisingly easy to access with a small latch on the back of the screen. There's only a single slot, however, so if you upgrade, you'll also need to reinstall Windows and all of the laptop's stock applications over again. It also only supports the smaller M.2 2230 size, which, as of this writing, only goes up to 2TB.

Price and upgradability aside, the ROG Flow Z13 is a state-of-the-art 2-in-1 in many different ways. It has a premium fit and finish with an all-aluminum chassis, with plentiful venting to exhaust heat from the bottom and the sides. There's a built-in kickstand on the back to keep it upright, with heavy-duty metal hinges capable of holding it upright at very narrow angles. It has great connectivity options (with two USB-C ports, and USB-A 3.2 port, HDMI 2.1 out), and the buttons for onboard controls along its sides feel solid and tactile.

The included keyboard cover is also very good, which attaches magnetically to the screen very easily and stays put once it's in place. I was able to reposition the tablet any way that I liked without the keyboard case ever coming off. It's able to lock in at a slight angle, which I found more comfortable for typing, or lay completely flat to get rid of the small amount of flex in its typing experience.

It's one of the best keyboard case typing experiences I've had thus far, with solid travel and tactility in each keystroke, as well as per-key RGB backlighting. It also includes a large touchpad with integrated buttons that works reliably and didn't cause any ghost gestures throughout my entire testing period.

The display isn’t OLED, but it’s a good example of how good a high-quality IPS screen can look. You may expect a product of this caliber to go with OLED, but its screen is bright, fast, and vibrant while also lacking any risk of image burn-in or the haloing issues common to mini-LED displays.

Spec-wise, the display checks all of the right boxes. It has a high pixel density with its 2560x1600 resolution (the 16:10 version of roughly 1440p) and looks exceptionally crisp. It’s rated for a peak brightness of 500 nits with a 1,500:1 contrast ratio, and runs at a smooth 180Hz refresh rate. It covers 100% of the DCI-P3 color space and is Pantone and Dolby Vision certified.

The star of the show is its processor – the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 is the latest entry in AMD’s AI-enabled processor line. The Max+ indicates its higher level of performance versus the already impressive HX series (including the HX 370 that I’ve reviewed in multiple systems at this point). It’s a 12-core, 24-thread CPU with a max clock speed of 5.0GHz and a whopping 76MB of cache – far more than is typical on a mobile processor like this one.

That cache is important because it directly translates into performance. The larger the cache store, the more data the processor can store and access rapidly, which is exactly what you want for gaming. Likewise, the chipset is designed to provide the processor with a direct line to the system’s memory. It’s how Asus was able to achieve such a high speed and why it’s not upgradeable by the end-user.

The true ace up its sleeve, however, is its integrated graphics chip: the Radeon 8060S. It’s the first iGPU we’ve tested from Asus’s Strix Halo RDNA 3.5 lineup, and it’s more than a little impressive with its 40 compute units and boost clock speed of 2900MHz. For 1080p gaming, its performance lands around the RTX 4060 laptop GPU while using significantly less power, generating less heat, less noise, and allowing the ROG Flow Z13 to be as lightweight and portable as it is. For the people who would consider a high performance 2-in-1 in general, it’s a big benefit that lends the device far more utility than it would otherwise have.

As a result of its efficiency, and the need for portability, Asus equipped the Z13 with a 70WHr battery. It’s nowhere near the largest at this price point but given the AI Max+ processor and less power-hungry hardware elsewhere (such as the screen when compared with OLED), it’s able to offer similar battery life in day to day tasks and better battery life than a typical gaming laptop can when actually running games.

Another point in its favor is its generous selection of ports for a tablet. Often, tablets have one or two USB Type-C ports and little else. Here, you get those two ports (both USB-C 4 with DisplayPort and PD support), a 10Gbps USB Type-A, a full-size HDMI 2.1, a microSD card reader, and a headset jack. There’s also a port for the system’s 200-watt power brick – something you’ll need to unlock Turbo performance mode but isn’t necessary for its standard performance mode and recharging the battery over USB-C.

Since it’s a laptop as well as a tablet, it includes cameras on both the front and back. The rear-facing camera is 13MP but isn’t very sharp. It’s one of the few areas of the system that feels like an afterthought, but it’s also the most likely piece to see regular use in the whole system. The front facing camera is 5MP and is definitely sharper, but struggles a bit with challenging lighting and bright windows. It will work for meetings and classes, however, but I wouldn’t use it for streaming or making videos personally.

Finally, the speakers on the laptop are decent and free of distortion even on their highest volume but lack some of the body found on Asus’s normal gaming laptops. I was impressed at the amount of detail they were able to present at max volume, but when pushed to its limit, it can sound a touch shrill. They can certainly work in a pinch for videos or gaming, but like usual, a solid gaming headset or pair of earbuds is going to offer a better experience.

Asus ROG Flow Z13 – Software

The ROG Flow Z13 uses Armoury Crate and Asus's ScreenXpert software for its configuration. Both programs should feel very familiar if you've ever used Armoury Crate for other devices before. They aren't difficult to come to grips with, but I will say that the implementation of ScreenXpert has been the best I've experienced of any Asus laptop yet.

Beginning with Armoury Crate, the first screen you're greeted with is a dashboard that also has toggles for the system's different performance modes. On this screen, you can get a quick look at your GPU and CPU usage, fan speeds, memory usage, and remaining storage, as well as toggle different features like disabling the Windows key or Alt-Tab. You can also view storage and memory utilization as well. Going one tab down takes you to a more in-depth configuration menu that also has toggles for different functions like enabling the Windows key or touchpad, and Modern Standby Assistant.

There are also tabs within this menu to configure the system's lighting. There is no per-key RGB backlighting, but it is able to display a static color or several different preset animations for a bit of extra flair, and the same is true of the window on the back of the system. If you have other Asus peripherals, it's also compatible with Aura Sync to quickly align the lighting for everything at once.

Further down in the tabs is a screen configuration section called GameVisual. Here you can choose between a number of different preset color configurations, similar to a gaming monitor. You can also choose the color temperature between very warm and very cool (although this isn't measured in Kelvin, but instead in a gradient slider). There is also a dropdown menu to choose your color space between sRGB, DCI-P3, and Display-P3 for content creation. This is especially useful because of how well-suited the ROG Flow Z13 is to different creative pursuits.

ScreenXpert takes the form of a toolbar that, for the most part, can mitigate having to open Armoury Crate. A floating icon lives on the right side of your screen and, when tapped, opens up a selection of configuration options, including the system's performance mode, on-screen keyboard, microphone settings, task groups, as well as a battery monitor for any connected devices you might have.

If all you're worried about is changing the performance mode, rest assured that there's still a dedicated hotkey on the detachable keyboard for changing this without opening the software at all. Still, I found the sidebar to be useful and easier to use than the full-fledged Armoury Crate suite.

Looking for a proper gaming headset?

Beginning with synthetic benchmarks, things are as you would expect from an APU with a good integrated graphics chip. The results are decent but not mind blowing or class-leading. At this point in the testing, I admit that I was a bit worried, but in real world gaming, things take a turn for the better.

I’ve mentioned in prior reviews that we have recently changed our testing methodology and are rebuilding our data set with a new suite of benchmarks. Since the other laptops I’ve tested with this new suite have dedicated GPUs, they don’t offer a fair comparison, so I also ran it through the old test routine to analyze how it compares to lower level GPUs and APUs.

Looking at the game data set, there’s not a lot of point of comparison, so looking at the Flow Z13 on its own, we can see that it performs decently overall but you’ll still get much more bang for your buck with a dedicated gaming laptop if that’s all you’re after – remember, these results are at Ultra settings on a system that lacks a dedicated GPU. Outside of benchmarking, you would almost certainly turn down the settings in any of these games, so there’s room for every title here to play smoothly.

(Unfortunately, Red Dead Redemption 2 consistently crashed during the benchmark, so that test was left out but will be updated here as I figure out what’s causing the CTD error.)