ASUS ROG Flow Z13 (2022): The most powerful game tablet

We are not at all surprised that another ASUS experiment has become a full-fledged serial product. The Taiwanese company has already accustomed us to such curiosities. Remember the ROG Zephyrus Duo 15? ASUS came out with a cool thing – a powerful laptop with two displays. What do you think of ROG Mothership? Either a laptop, or a monoblock – bewitching, from which side you look at it. Finally, exactly a year ago, our website published a review of the ROG Flow X13 gaming ultrabook, which nevertheless received an 8-core Ryzen and a GeForce GTX 1650 in Max-Q design in addition. And since you are reading these words, it means that you have probably already understood that ASUS experiments on the ROG Flow series have continued. So meet ROG Flow Z13, a tablet equipped with laptop hardware, a 13.4-inch touch screen and Windows 11 operating system. And this is not all the new features!

Specifications, equipment and software

At the time of this writing, the official ASUS website listed 9 versions of the ROG Flow Z13. Among them there is both an option with integrated Intel Iris Xᵉ graphics, and models with a mobile GeForce RTX 3050 Ti (the latter are the majority). The main characteristics of the gaming tablet are shown in the table below.

The top version of the ROG Flow Z13 arrived for our test, which uses not only NVIDIA graphics, but also a 14-core Core i9-12900H. The tablet is also equipped with 16GB of DDR5-5200 RAM and a 1TB NVMe SSD. The screen supports WUXGA resolution with a refresh rate of 120Hz. Unfortunately, we did not find on sale the modification that we tested (GZ301ZE-LD225W). However, at the time of writing, for 1500 dollars, you could buy the GZ301ZA-LD137W model, equipped with a 12-core Core i5-12500H, 512 GB SSD and 16 GB RAM.

The Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211 module is responsible for the wireless connection in the ASUS tablet, which, as you might guess, supports the Wi-Fi 6 standard. When using a 160 MHz channel, a throughput of up to 2.4 Gb / s is provided.

The ROG Flow Z13 bundle is worth talking about separately. The tablet comes with a compact 100W external power supply. With all the wires, its weight is a little less than 350 grams. The PSU is connected to the USB Type-C connector.

Also bundled with the tablet, we received a ROG XG Mobile docking station, which I will talk about in detail later, a stylus and two bags at once: one for the device itself, the other for an external video card. The stylus registers 1024 pressure levels and is powered by an AAAA battery.

Appearance and Input Devices

The manufacturer claims that the ROG Flow Z13 is made in the style of retrofuturism. The body of the device is made of aluminum alloy and has a number of memorable decorative elements. For example, a small tempered glass window immediately catches the eye – it is equipped with a backlight. And this window also made it possible to place additional components on the back of the tablet’s motherboard – as ASUS claims.

The device has an oleophobic coating. The metal surface and the display can really be called non-marking.

The tablet is equipped with a folding stand. It allows you to change the position of the device, the maximum angle of inclination is 170 degrees. The hinges used in the design are quite tight: the tablet will definitely not collapse during the game.

The ROG Flow Z13 is just 12mm thick (not including the detachable keyboard) and weighs 1.1kg. If we consider the device only as a tablet, then we have a rather massive gadget. The same iPads weigh about half a kilogram each. But if we consider the Z13 as a laptop, then the device seems to be very compact and light – together with the keyboard, its weight is 1.5 kg. Flow is slim even by Ultrabook standards.

The tablet comes with a detachable keyboard. It also plays the role of a case that protects the screen. Inside – where the keys are – the coating feels like smooth skin to the touch; outside – dense suede fabric.

ASUS claims that the keyboard specifications are the same as those of regular ROG laptops. We are talking about independent processing of pressings, keys with a stroke of 1.7 mm and full-color backlighting, customizable in the Armory Crate software. And this is partly true. In particular, the key layout is almost identical to the layout of the ROG Zephyrus G14 series laptops. There is no digital block, but there are large main buttons: Enter, Shift and Backspace. At the same time, there is no Print Screen, and PgUp, PgDn, Home and End are now settled on the “arrows” and are called using the function key.

Typing text on the keyboard was quite convenient. Yes, I have long been accustomed to working with ASUS laptops. But gamers should understand that this is not a full-fledged laptop keyboard. She, for example, flexes quite a lot during online battles. Nevertheless, I would recommend using a full-fledged Claudia with the ROG Flow Z13, and taking this one with you only on the road.

There is such a keyboard and an undeniable plus. In classic laptops, hot iron is “buried” under the panel with buttons. As a result, in games, the keyboard surface is quite hot. And here the keyboard case always has room temperature.

Finally, the detachable case received a tiny touchpad. I have no complaints about it, but it is obvious that a gaming device will need either a good gaming mouse or a gamepad. By the way, up to four wireless controllers can be connected to ROG Flow Z13 at the same time.

There will be problems with connecting wired joysticks, since the tablet does not have very many interface connectors: a 3.5 mm jack for connecting a headset, one USB 2.0 A-type, one USB 3.2 Gen2 C-type, one Thunderbolt 4 , compatible with USB Type-C, DisplayPort and power supplies, as well as an interface for connecting the ROG XG Mobile dock. Hidden behind the stand is a card reader that supports microSD (UHS-II) cards.

The tablet received two cameras. Front – standard “webcam”, supports 720p resolution. And the second – rear – camera has a resolution of 8 megapixels.

Upgrade options

The tablet does not support upgrade – in the classic sense of the word. I strongly do not recommend disassembling it yourself.

In all models with discrete graphics, chips and related elements are cooled by a common evaporation chamber. Plus, the design uses two fans and two copper heatsinks. Arc Flow impellers received the lightest blades – up to 0.1 mm thick. The thickness of the radiator fins is 0.15 mm.

ROG XG Mobile can be connected to any ROG Flow Z13. In fact, we are dealing with an external video card connected to the tablet with a massive combined plug. It simultaneously occupies both an external PCI Express slot and a nearby USB Type-C.

The ROG XG Mobile version came to our test with a 16 GB mobile GeForce RTX 3080 (90NR04H0-P20370, 1500 dollars), but ASUS docking stations with other GPUs are on sale. So, the model 90NR04H0-P10370 with a mobile GeForce RTX 3070 already costs 1100 dollars.

ROG XG Mobile has its own 280W power supply inside. The docking station provides the user with HDMI and DisplayPort video outputs, four USB 3.2 Gen 1 A-types, gigabit Ethernet and an SD memory card reader.

Due to the fact that the external graphics are directly connected to the tablet’s CPU via PCI Express, ASUS has taken precautions to avoid failures during docking and unplugging. The cable is fixed in the ROG Flow Z13 connector with a lock, and before undocking, you need to turn off the dock through the application in the Windows notification panel.

Switching between integrated and external graphics, we did not encounter any problems: everything happens quickly and does not cause artifacts on the screen. You only need to restart some applications for them to detect the new GPU.

Test Methodology

The performance of mobile gaming devices is measured using various software that focuses on computer games. Testing this year with the following games and graphics quality settings (Full HD, WQHD and Ultra HD (if supported) for 16:9 laptops; WUXGA and WQXGA for 16:10 laptops) :

• World of Tanks EnCore RT. DirectX 11. Benchmark. Ultra mode, RT off
• Counter Strike: Global Offensive. DirectX 9. FPS Benchmark map. Multi-core processing – incl. Maximum quality.
• The Witcher III: Wild Hunt. DirectX 11. Novigrad and surroundings. Maximum quality.
• GTA V. DirectX 11. Built-in benchmark. Maximum quality, FXAA + 2x MSAA, advanced quality settings – on, 16x AF, image resolution scaling – off. In 4K – no AA.
• PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. DirectX 11. Training mode. Ultra Mode
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider. DirectX 12. Built-in benchmark. Maximum quality, DXR – off, TAA.
• Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. DirectX 12. Built-in benchmark. Quality mode “Ultra”, DXR – off
• Red Dead Redemption 2. Vulkan. Built-in benchmark. Maximum quality (advanced settings – off), TAA.
• God of War. DirectX 11. The beginning of the game. Ultra Mode
• Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition. DirectX 12. Taiga. Quality settings “Ultra”, MB – “high”, RT – “normal”. ”, DLSS (for NVIDIA) – “balance”, REF – “hybrid”, 2x VRS, HW – on, PhysX – on, tessellation – on, 16x AF.
• Horizon Zero Dawn. DirectX 12. Built-in benchmark. Top quality, TAA.
• Far Cry 6. DirectX 12. Built-in benchmark. Quality mode “Ultra”, TAA, HD textures off, DXR off.
• DOOM Eternal. Vulcan. Beginning of the game. “Ultra” mode – for video cards with 6 GB of video memory, “Medium.” – for video cards with 4 GB of video memory. For everyone else – “Absolute Nightmare”.
• Watch Dogs: Legion. DirectX 12. Built-in benchmark. Ultra mode, TAA, DXR off, DLSS off
• Cyberpunk 2077. DirectX 12. City trip. Impressive quality mode, DXR off, DLSS off
• DEATHLOOP. DirectX 12. Downtown. Quality mode “Ultra”, HBAO +, DLSS – off, DXR – off, sharpness – standard, highlights and rays – yes, anti-aliasing post-processing – “temporal”.
• HITMAN 3. DirectX 12. Chongqing. Ultra Mode, 16x AF, Super Sampling 1.00, Simulation Quality – Best.

Gaming performance was measured using the well-known CapFrameX program. It allows you to get the rendering time of each frame. The use of the 99th percentile instead of the minimum frames per second is due to the desire to clean up the results from random performance fluctuations that were provoked by reasons not directly related to the operation of the main components of the platform.

Testing the laptop in games and applications was carried out with the activation of the fastest mode suitable for these tasks.

Applications:

• Corona 1.3. Testing rendering speed using the renderer of the same name. Measures the build speed of the standard BTR scene used to measure performance.
• Blender 3.1.0. Determining the speed of the final rendering in one of the popular free packages for creating three-dimensional graphics. The duration of building the final model pavillon_barcelona_v1.2 is measured.
• x265 HD Benchmark. Testing the speed of video transcoding to H.265/HEVC format. The tables and graphs show the average integer value obtained after five runs of the test.
• CINEBENCH R23. Performance measurement of photorealistic 3D rendering in CINEMA 4D animation package, CPU test. The tables and graphs show the average integer value obtained after five runs of the test.
• Adobe Premiere Pro 2020 – Rendering a project in 4K resolution.

Comprehensive benchmarks:

• Futuremark PCMARK10 Professional Edition 2.1.2177. Testing in Essentials scenarios (typical work of an average user: launching applications, surfing the Internet, video conferencing), Productivity (office work with a text editor and spreadsheets), Digital Content Creation (creation of digital content: photo editing, non-linear video editing, 3D rendering and visualization -models).
• 3DMark Professional Edition 2.11.6846. Testing in Time Spy and Fire Strike scenes.
• Unigine Superposition Benchmark. 1080p Extreme testing.

Notebook testing in resource-intensive applications was carried out in the default mode without any adjustment of the parameters of the central processor and cooler.

Display testing is performed using the X-Rite i1Display Pro colorimeter and the DisplayCAL 3 application.

The battery life of the laptop was tested in two modes. For this test, the current version of the Google Chrome browser at the time of testing is used. In the second mode, video in .mkv format and Full HD resolution is played in the built-in player of Windows OS with the repeat function activated. In all cases, the same display brightness was set to 200 cd / m², and the keyboard backlight (if any) and the sound were turned off.

In games and other applications, the results of the following laptops are considered:

Display and sound

ROG Flow Z13 models are equipped with both WUXGA and WQUXGA screens. In the second case, we are talking about support for a resolution of 3840 × 2400 pixels and a frequency of 60 Hz. A lower resolution display can be considered a gaming display, as the vertical refresh rate is 120 Hz. For all matrices, support for Adaptive-Sync and Dolby Vision HDR technologies, a wireless stylus, and a Pantone Validated certificate are declared.

The display on the ROG Flow Z13 is really excellent: Sharp’s LQ134N1JW54 matrix has high brightness and contrast, which is sorely lacking in many entertainment laptops.

Cooling System Efficiency

ROG Flow Z13 models are equipped with both WUXGA and WQUXGA screens. In the second case, we are talking about support for a resolution of 3840 × 2400 pixels and a frequency of 60 Hz. A lower resolution display can be considered a gaming display, as the vertical refresh rate is 120 Hz. For all matrices, support for Adaptive-Sync and Dolby Vision HDR technologies, a wireless stylus, and a Pantone Validated certificate are declared.

The display on the ROG Flow Z13 is really excellent: Sharp’s LQ134N1JW54 matrix has high brightness and contrast, which is sorely lacking in many entertainment laptops.

The sound in ROG Flow Z13 is also on the level – for a tablet, of course. The speakers have a decent volume margin, but the presence of bass was the most pleasant surprise.

Efficiency of the cooling system

Armory Crate has three manufacturer-prepared laptop modes: Silent, Performance, and Turbo. When working from the network, the “Efficiency” mode is enabled by default. If the tablet functions offline, then the Quiet preset is available. We tested the ROG Flow Z13 in all three modes, including battery operation.

Tablet heating (games, Turbo mode)

 

The results are very interesting. Immediately noteworthy is the fact that the GeForce RTX 3050 Ti mobile graphics runs at a maximum power of 40 watts in Dynamic Boost mode. In fact, in the same “Cyberpunk” GPU power consumption averaged 35 W in the test scenario.

Unfortunately, in 2021, laptop manufacturers were not interested in testing models with mobile graphics GeForce RTX 3050 and GeForce RTX 3050 Ti – the most popular GPUs in budget gaming laptops today. As a result, our website published a review of only one model with such graphics – it was the ASUS TUF Gaming F15 (FX506H). The power consumption of the GeForce RTX 3050 Ti in this laptop ranges from 60 to 75 watts – a lot depends on the work of Dynamic Boost technology. The reasons why the ROG Flow Z13 almost halved the power of the GPU are obvious to everyone.

In the “Turbo” mode in games, the noise level of the tablet can be considered high, but not critical. Playing in front of the device is quite comfortable. In the “Efficiency” mode, as you can see, the main components of the ROG Flow Z13 heat up a little less – and the noise is reduced slightly. And only in the “Quiet” mode – what a surprise! — the tablet is really quiet. This is achieved, among other things, due to the stronger heating of the CPU and GPU.

It is quite possible to play some kind of Gwent while holding the tablet in your hands – the metal part of the case around the edges does not heat up much. And yet, I believe, ROG Flow Z13 was developed taking into account the fact that the device during games will stand on a flat surface, and not be in the hands of a gamer.

I also note that the docking station with the mobile GeForce RTX 3080 is quite hot and noisy. This is a retribution for its small size and weight. But there are also pluses, because when you connect the ROG XG Mobile, the tablet’s CPU works at full power. Thus, in games, the external video card is loaded more – FPS increases.

Interestingly, in resource-intensive tasks that use only the power of the central processor, the cooler copes with the removal of 60 W of electricity from a 14-core chip. That’s 15W more than the PBP (baseline processor power) rating of the flagship Core i9-12900H. At the same time, the chip heats up quite a lot, that is, it works at the limit of the cooling system.

Summary data on the operation and configuration of a laptop in processor-dependent software (for example, CINEBENCH R23)
		“Turbo”	“Efficiency“	“Quiet“	«Quiet» (battery operation)
CPU frequency (P-cores/E-cores), GHz	Medium	3.1/2.5	3.0/2.4	3.0/2.4	2.1/1.7
CPU temperature, °C	Maximum	97	97	97	66
	Medium	90	96	96	63
Noise level, dBA	Maximum	40.2	36.8	36.4	35.8
CPU power consumption, W	Medium	62	60	60	30
Performance (more is better), score		14 528	14 162	14 164	10 062

Performance

As we have already found out, the power consumption of the GeForce RTX 3050 Ti has been halved relative to the maximum value, which is quite acceptable for this graphics. This resulted in the ROG Flow Z13 losing 25%, 24%, and 30% to the TUF Gaming F15 in the benchmarks when considering the overall score. And it turned out to be slower by 28 and 27% in 3DMARK, if we take into account only the results of the “Graphics” section. In both cases, the computers were running in “Turbo” mode.

As a result, in the case of ROG Flow Z13, we see the following picture:

• Relatively old projects, as well as multiplayer online games, work on the tablet, as they say, with a bang.
• New AAA games of the reduced power GeForce RTX 3050 Ti at the specified graphics quality settings are difficult. In some cases, you will have to reduce the quality of graphics.

In general, a relatively comfortable FPS (with drawdowns of at least 30 frames per second) is observed in 13 games out of 17. At least 60 FPS – only in two. For a tablet, this is, in my opinion, an excellent result. After all, where there are 30+ FPS, you can always play around with the settings without serious damage to image quality. And in some games, DLSS and FSR functions are available, which also increase the frame rate – albeit with a “soapy flavor”. And certainly a model like the ROG Flow Z13 does an excellent job with games 5-7 years ago.

The results of testing the tablet together with the ROG XG Mobile docking station (it was connected to an external monitor) speak for themselves: the “walled” mobile GeForce RTX 3080 really turns the ASUS tablet into a gaming device on a fundamentally different level. What cannot but please potential owners of the Z13, who expect to prolong the youth of their electronic computing unit.

* Using ROG XG Mobile, we were unable to launch God of War – the game constantly complained about lack of memory at startup. Other owners of the dock claim to have the game launch.

The ROG Flow Z13 also looks quite interesting when working with professional software.

Below are the results of testing a laptop in a comprehensive PCMARK 10 benchmark – both in Turbo mode and in Quiet mode, when powered by battery. As you can see, performance has almost halved.

Offline work

All ROG Flow Z13s are equipped with a 56Wh battery. Compared to compact gaming laptops, the battery capacity is far from a record, despite the fact that the chips in the tablet are quite “adults”. Therefore, it is not surprising that the tablet at a brightness of 200 cd / m² is not able to function from dawn to dusk. The result is 6-7 hours of operation without being tied to an outlet in light load modes. And in games such as Gwent, the tablet will work no more than half an hour.

But ROG Flow Z13 supports the accelerated charging function – in the off state, using the included 100 W power supply, you can charge the battery from 0 to 50% in about half an hour.

Conclusions

You can argue for a long time about the pros and cons of the ROG Flow Z13, considering this mobile device both as a tablet and as a laptop. So, the hero of the review has an unprecedented level of performance and is really (albeit with some reservations) suitable for modern games in WUXGA resolution. But at the same time, the autonomy of a tablet, namely a tablet, can be considered low – especially when it comes to simple games. If we consider the ROG Flow Z13 solely as a gaming laptop, then I have no complaints about the battery life of the device. Exactly the same analogies can be drawn for all parameters of the tested device, evaluating its functionality, the possibility of self-upgrading, ergonomics and efficiency of the cooling system. And yes, the display of the tablet is cool, from whatever position you look at it.

Of course, ROG Flow Z13 can and should be used in two modes at once. You go, like this, with a tablet to the kitchen to drink coffee and read the news. If necessary, you can connect a keyboard case, because it is more convenient to use the same social networks. And then – hop! – and your tablet turns into a gaming computer or a fairly powerful workstation – the Core i9-12900H will not let you lie. You can also buy ROG XG Mobile to ROG Flow Z13, which dramatically increases both the functionality and the level of performance of the assembly as a whole. Beauty, for which, however, you will need to seriously pay extra.

In general, ROG Flow Z13 turned out to be a very interesting thing – against the background of the same type of laptops, it was interesting to work with it. For this device receives the award “Innovation and Design”. But in view of the foregoing, whether to take such a tablet into service or not is a purely individual question. I have provided all the information needed to make the decision.