When a traditional gaming laptop just won’t do

On paper, the idea of a PC gaming tablet doesn’t really make sense. Anything with a screen larger than eight to ten inches is generally too big to hold for longer sessions. Their thin chassis don’t leave much room for big batteries, ports or discrete graphics. But with the second-gen ROG Flow Z13, ASUS is turning that line of thought on its head with a surprisingly powerful system that can do more than just game — as long as you don’t mind paying a premium for some niche engineering.

Design and display: Not exactly stealthy

For better or worse, the Z Flow 13 looks like someone tweaked a Surface Pro to accommodate the stereotypical gamer aesthetic. It has cyberpunky graphics littered across its body along with a small window in the back that’s complete with RGB lighting.

Unlike a lot of tablets, ASUS gave the Z13 a thicker-than-normal body (0.6 inches), which left space for a surprising number of ports. Not only do you get two USB 4 Type-C ports, there’s also a regular USB-A jack, full-size HDMI 2.1, 3.5mm audio and even a microSD card reader. This instantly elevates the tablet from something strictly meant for playing games into something that can also pull double duty as a portable video editing station.

ASUS’ 13.4-inch 2.5 IPS display leans into that even more thanks to a 180Hz refresh rate, strong brightness (around 500 nits) and Pantone validation. Regardless of what you’re doing, colors will be both rich and accurate. Rounding out the package are some punchy speakers, so you don’t have to suffer from subpar sound. But there are limitations here, as deep bass is always tough to produce on smaller systems like this.

Finally, there are some pogo pins along the bottom of its display for connecting its folding keyboard. Sadly, this is one of the system’s weak points. Because the Z13 is heavier than a typical tablet PC, its keyboard has to carry a hefty load. On a table, it’s fine. But if you try to use this thing on your lap (or any uneven surface), I found that the keyboard can flex so much it can result in accidental mouse clicks. It’s a shame because the bounce and travel of the keys generally feels pretty good. Nothing is more of a bummer than playing a game while relaxing on the couch and then having to fight with the tablet to avoid errant clicks.

Performance

Instead of relying on discrete graphics, ASUS opted for AMD’s Ryzen AI Max 390 or Max+ 395 APUs, which feature up to 32 cores and a whopping 128GB of unified RAM. However, our review unit came with a more modest, but still ample, 32GB. Unsurprisingly, this makes mincemeat out of basic productivity tasks while having more than enough power to quickly edit videos on the go.

But without a proper graphics card, can it actually game? Yes, and rather well, I might add. In Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p and Ultra settings, the Z13 hit an impressive 93 fps. And while numbers weren’t quite as high in Control at 1080p on Epic presets, 70 fps is still very playable. The one wrinkle is that when I tested Cyberpunk 2077 a second time on Ultra with ray tracing enabled, the Flow’s performance was cut in half to just 45 fps. Unless you’re playing a brand new AAA title that requires RT support (of which there are a growing number), the Z13 is a shockingly good portable gaming companion for frequent travelers.

You just have to be careful about how you configure its power settings. That’s because if you’re out in public or a quiet room, high performance (especially turbo) can result in a fair bit of fan noise, which may draw some unwanted attention. Or in my case, it got much harder to talk to someone sitting next to me on the couch.

Battery life

When it comes to longevity, you’ll get one of two outcomes. In normal use and on PCMark’s Modern Office productivity battery life test, the Z13 fared quite well, finishing with a time of six hours and 54 minutes. That’s not quite a full day’s worth of work untethered, but it’s good enough for most folks. You’ll just want to keep its chunky power adapter nearby.

However, if you plan on gaming without plugging this thing into the wall, just be prepared for the Z13 to conk out after two hours at best. When I played League of Legends’ Teamfight Tactics, I only made it through two games (about 30 to 40 minutes each) before its battery got dangerously low (around 10 percent). And suffice it to say, TFT isn’t a very demanding title.

Wrap-up

The Flow Z13 is a niche device that’s more of an all-rounder than it might seem at first glance. This system fills an interesting gap between ASUS’ gaming machines and more creatively-focused PCs from its ProArt family. In a lot of ways, slapping an ROG badge on it doesn’t really do this thing justice. It’s got more than enough performance to breeze through general productivity or video edits, and its built-in microSD card reader makes transferring footage to the tablet a breeze. Its screen is bright and vibrant, while also offering accurate colors and a decently high refresh rate. And even without a discrete GPU, the Z13 didn’t have much trouble rendering games with lots of graphical bells and whistles turned on.

However, this tablet’s issues boil down to a couple of major sticking points. Its detachable keyboard is simply too flimsy, to the point where if you use it anywhere besides a table or desk, you risk fighting with it just to ensure your mouse clicks are correct. But the bigger hurdle is price. Starting at $2,100 (or around $2,300 as tested), the Flow Z13 costs the same or more as a comparable ROG Zephyrus G14 with a proper RTX 5070. Not only does it have worse performance, it’s less stable too due to its tablet-style design. For people trying to get the most value out of their money, that proposition is a hard sell.

Deep down, I want to like the ROG Flow Z13. And I do, to a certain extent. It’s got a funky build and unapologetically aggressive styling. But unless you have a very particular set of requirements, it doesn’t fit neatly into most people’s lives as an equivalent laptop. And that’s before you consider how much it costs.

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