ROG FLOW Z13: a week with the “Gaming Surface”

In recent years, the explosion of the gaming market has led to an increase in the offer of solutions with particular form factors and ideas for different products than usual have emerged. ROG Flow Z13 fits into this context: it is a tablet but also a powerful gaming PC, equipped with a Core i9-12900 H and an Nvidia RTX 3050Ti. A sort of Surface much more performing and with respectable multimedia capabilities.

It is certainly not a product suitable for everyone but this 13-inch, with touch screen and stylus support, allows you to work and play both at home and in the office, as well as on the move. Considering the particularity of the solutions adopted by Asus, we have chosen to use it on the go and try it in contexts that enhance this particular hybrid between a tablet and a gaming PC so as to understand how much a similar solution is already practicable today, where it excels and where there is still room for improvement.

We also got to exploit it in tandem with an RTX 3080 through the use of the ROG XG Mobilewhich connects to the Flow Z 13 through the Thunderbolt 4 located on the side of the PC and opens the way to a completely different gaming experience, designed for even more demanding users.

Having used a Surface Pro for several months, the construction and use concept of the ROG Flow Z 13 was nothing new. The metal chassis of the PC contains all the components and also makes room for the screen, while on the back there is an adjustable kickstand useful for choosing the inclination with which you want to work. The keyboard is instead magnetic, it can be detached and reattached at any time as well as overturned to take advantage of the PC in tablet mode.

The chosen hardware and the need to cool it properly have imposed a weight (1.19 kg without keyboard, 1.5 kg with keyboard) and dimensions (30.3 x 20.5 x 1.2 cm) higher in comparison to those of the Surface and other similar products: inevitable compromises that make, for example, the use in portrait mode a little less practical, let’s say a kind of extra. In most cases I found myself wanting to use the Flow Z 13 on a desk or otherwise placed on a horizontal surface, such as a train table. However, it remains a versatile product that offers a rather wide range of possible uses, as well as a decidedly practical user experience.

The assembly is of excellent quality and there is no shortage of extras, including the window with a view on the components and RGB lighting, for a look that does not give up the typical style of ROG products. The cooling system draws the air from the back and releases it from the upper frame, making the whole user experience very comfortable: when you play for several hours, you do not have components under the keyboard, which therefore always remains cool , it is a great convenience and even in terms of noise, the system always remains quite silent.

Connectivity is guaranteed by the presence of two USB-Cs placed on the left side, which also houses the proprietary connection for the XG Mobile, then on the right a USB-A, unfortunately only 2.0, and the 3.5 mm jack useful for those who wants to connect a pair of wired headphones, still very popular in gaming. Under the kickstand there is instead the entrance for the microSD which may not be very easy to reach, but it remains a good addition that is not trivial to find on devices of this type.

The keyboard / cover is a little heavier than that of the Surface Pro, which remains an excellence in this particular area, but does not make you regret it. RGB lighting and a longer key travel (1.7mm) make it more gaming-orientedbut also in everyday use – for example in the writing of this article – it is always comfortable.

As with all the other components of this ROG Flow Z 13, the keyboard also stands out for a respectable build quality: the buttons are not particularly noisy and any key you press, even with a certain force, does not show any kind of uncertainty. or flexion. In short, you can use it without fear even for long hours of work or play.

The connection to the PC is done through physical connectors, which offers the best possible response to inputs but there is no way to use it separate from the device, as would happen with a bluetooth keyboard.

The trackpad is good but not incredible, which can be handy when you don’t have a mouse at hand, but it remains a sort of second choice. The inner surface of the cover is coated with a very comfortable rubber which, however, inevitably, over time will tend to scratch a little. The external one, on the other hand, in a similar alcantara which, perhaps also due to the black color, seemed a bit too prone to getting dirty.

The ROG Flow Z 13 is available with two different screens: an FHD + with a resolution of 1920 x 1200, 120 Hz of refresh rate, 100% sRGB and 500 nits of maximum brightness. and then another UHD + at 60 Hz, 3840 x 2400 pixels of resolution and 85% DCI-P3.

I was able to test the first one and for my tastes it remains the best solution: considering the hardware specifications, a lower resolution but still more than sufficient on a 13 inch allows you to opt for higher graphics options, while the 120 Hz refresh rate narrows the eye to those who want great fluidity on certain titles, for example competitive ones.

Overall performance is good even though the panel doesn’t have lightning-fast response times and this occasionally results in some ghosting effect on the images. Nothing too annoying but at times you notice and, considering the cost of the system, it is certainly not pleasant. The touch response is very good: for me the tablet soul of the ROG Flow Z13 is only residual, but when you happen to interact with your fingers on the screen you are never disappointed.

As previously mentioned, the cooling system does a great job: it has two dedicated fans and two radiators that help to cool both the CPU and the GPU, then pushing the hot air out of the chassis from the top side. The body reaches about 40 degrees of external temperature when under stress, which are felt if you choose to use it in tablet mode and hold it in your hand or, for example, on your legs without taking advantage of the kickstand.

The compact size, with the screen and the components placed one next to the other, suggested opting for some rather radical choices, such as starting the fans once the system reaches and exceeds 50 degrees centigrade, but without never settle on alarming noise levels. Playing we recorded about 45 – 50 dBA perceived at the distance at which one normally sets while using the PC, values ​​anything but extreme.

Instead, more could have been done, in my opinion, on the front of the speakers: those mounted inside the ROG Flow Z 13 see the audio come out from the side slits, produce a decent sound but with not too satisfying bass and a maximum power not incredible (we measured a maximum of 80 dBA about putting us as usual in a normal use position, in front of the PC).

The desire to be also a tablet and, more generally, a device that winks in an important way to use on the move, has forced Asus to work hard to ensure a more than decent battery life. The 56 Wh one inserted inside allows you to enjoy, also thanks to the good work done on the internal components, of about 6 hours of video playback on Netflix, Prime Video and similar streaming services with the brightness set to 50%, and about 5 hours of work and browsing on Google Chrome. When you start playing, choosing the maximum consumption and performance profile, you obviously go down a lot but this is certainly not a surprise.

The front webcam has a maximum resolution of 720p and in good light conditions allows you to participate in online meetings and video conferences without any thought, while the 8 megapixel rear camera is an extra that you will hardly use and that all in all takes forgettable images. Let’s say that it can be taken into consideration in emergency situations but nothing more.

There are no huge margins for upgrades, however, since access to components is limited to the M.2 SSD which can be replaced by accessing the part hidden from the kickstand, but it is a compromise that all in all could be expected considering the particular structure of this device.

Observing the specifications of the ROG Flow Z 13 immediately catches the eye as, at least in the version tested with an Intel Core i9 12900H, an NVIDIA RTX 3050Ti (in the version with 4GD GDDR6 and 35-40W of power) and 16GB of LPDDR5, the processor is oversized compared to the GPU.

An answer to this problem comes from the possible connection of the XG Mobile dock which, through the proprietary connection, provides an RTX 3080 and a handful of other ports to increase connectivity (HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4, four USB 3.2, an SD reader and an Ethernet input).

This is an expensive solution with limitations, for example it is not designed to see any future upgrades, so inside the chassis the RTX 3080 must remain mounted at the start. Despite this, it remains an interesting solution for those who do not have budget problems and want a power boost perhaps when they return home, attach the Flow Z 13 to the monitor (or monitors) and need more power than when using. this curious hybrid for working on the go.

The ROG Flow Z 13 is not an easy product to judge. The idea of ​​creating a sort of Surface designed and built for gaming – or in any case for a certain type of advanced performance – is very interesting and, to date, it is a unique product on the market..

The build quality is excellent and there are a whole series of solutions, such as those chosen for cooling, which indicate how much attention has been paid to the design of this hybrid. In everyday life made of traveling and working on the move, the Flow Z 13 always behaves adequately, guarantees excellent performance, as well as handling and versatility that only this format halfway between laptop and tablet can offer.

At the same time there are some limits, first of all the price: about 2,200 euros for the tested version, to which another 1,000 must be added and also the XG Mobile module equipped with RTX 3080 is put on the desk. In total, the tested configuration is around around 3,500 euros. The choice to combine an i9 12900H with an RTX 3050Ti creates a rather evident bottleneck and adds to a series of youth problems, for example related to the availability of ports and the non-optimal response times of the screen, which further future revisions they will certainly mitigate.

To date, the Flow Z13 remains a niche product, aspirational for users who are passionate about video games who over the years have seen gaming computers become increasingly thin and performing and now dream of a last leap towards maximum versatility.