Asus ROG Flow Z13 (2025) review: hold up, integrated graphics are good now?

The beefy Windows gaming tablet is back, and it’s done 2 things I thought impossible. It made maine respect integrated graphics, and it convinced maine a Windows tablet tin beryllium fun.

The Asus ROG Flow Z13 is simply a 13-inch tablet pinch a detachable keyboard, a agleam screen, and the courage of a gaming laptop. I knew it was thing typical erstwhile I utilized a clamp-on controller to move a preproduction exemplary into immoderate benignant of superpowered, supersized Steam Deck. In regular use, it’s much for illustration a husky Surface Pro, pinch an AMD Strix Halo processor featuring powerful integrated graphics for gaming and a artillery that lasts a afloat workday successful non-gaming tasks. It’s a charming and versatile instrumentality that could plausibly switch a desktop, laptop, and a tablet aliases handheld for a definite type of PC gamer — 1 who doesn’t mind the $2,100 starting price.

The ROG Flow Z13 is simply a tablet that’s besides trying to beryllium a hardcore gaming machine. It has a 13.4-inch, 180Hz IPS touchscreen pinch pen support, 32GB of unified representation (up to 128GB), a 1TB m.2 SSD, and ample larboard selection, starting astatine $2,099.99. The Ryzen AI Max Plus 395 APU successful our $2,299.99 reappraisal portion offers amazingly bully gaming performance, particularly for a tablet. And the detachable keyboard pinch larger keycaps and trackpad feels for illustration it’s pulled straight from the fantabulous ROG Zephyrus laptops. It makes for a potent portable gaming instrumentality — 1 you tin moreover usage connected your thigh without your legs burning up.

I utilized it keyboardless connected the sofa for a Discord movie and crippled nighttime pinch immoderate buds, and it near capable abstraction connected my thigh for my feline to curl up. I stuck it connected my desk, betwixt my elephantine 4K show and my mechanical keyboard, and it doubled arsenic my desktop machine and a useful secondary screen. I moreover plugged it into my TV for illustration a crippled console — 1 pinch overmuch amended graphics than immoderate docked handheld. The expertise to do each these things makes it a batch of fun.

The Flow Z13’s Strix Halo processor is very tin successful graphics-heavy games astatine its autochthonal 2560 x 1600-inch resolution. Don’t expect extras for illustration way tracing, but do expect coagulated framerates successful the 50 to 60-plus fps scope connected low-to-medium settings. In games that support FSR 3 and framework generation, you tin push things further: pinch those scaling options enabled, Cyberpunk 2077 hit complete 60fps and moreover pushed into the 70s astatine precocious settings connected a 4K outer monitor.

I’ve besides played a bunch of Elden Ring on the Z13. (I blasted the caller Nightreign web test for giving maine the itch again.) At autochthonal resolution, it was consistently successful the 50fps scope connected precocious settings, and astatine 1200p, it deed the game’s 60fps ceiling. By comparison, the first Z13, backmost successful 2022, could hardly muster 30fps astatine 1200p connected mean settings successful the Lands Between. That wasn’t acold disconnected from the overmuch cheaper and little powerful Steam Deck, which tops retired astir 40fps astatine 800p and mean settings, pinch plentifulness of framerate dips.

Elden Ring remains one of the most-played titles connected Valve’s $400 handheld. But it’s so overmuch better connected the caller ROG Flow, and the delta betwixt the Z13 and the Steam Deck is now overmuch wider. You tin moreover play for astir 90 minutes connected artillery connected the Z13, arsenic opposed to 70 minutes connected the Steam Deck. The Steam Deck is cheaper and comfier to use, but it’s besides different instrumentality to support way of. The Z13’s detachable keyboard gives it immoderate of the play-anywhere use of the Steam Deck while still being bully for different things. If the Z13 conscionable had dedicated controllers like I tried to adapt, it’d beryllium for illustration a Super Steam Deck.

This is the first instrumentality of immoderate benignant we’ve tested that uses AMD’s caller Ryzen AI Max Strix Halo processors, which harvester speedy CPU cores for illustration the ones connected AMD’s Strix Point processors pinch AMD’s astir powerful integrated graphics cores. It besides gives this Z13 overmuch amended artillery life than erstwhile models. It lasted a very respectable 10 hours successful our artillery rundown test, and I could get done an 8 to nine-hour workday if I wasn’t reckless (no games, astir 200 to 300 nits brightness, powerfulness ratio mode, and artillery saver astatine 30 percent). The last Flow Z13 we tested, successful 2023, pinch an Intel Core i9-13900H CPU and Nvidia RTX 4070 mobile GPU, lasted astir 4 and a half hours successful regular usage and conscionable 48 minutes while gaming.

In our benchmarks, the Z13’s AMD Ryzen AI Max Plus 395 thumps the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 of the Asus Zenbook S 16 (a productivity laptop) and Zephyrus G16 (a gaming laptop) — and beautiful overmuch immoderate Intel spot we’ve seen successful a laptop precocious — successful single-core and multi-core CPU tests. And the 40-core Radeon 8060S is astonishingly powerful for an integrated GPU, rivalling Nvidia’s RTX 4060. The RTX 4070 successful the Zephyrus G16 still handily wins successful GPU capacity by 40-55 percent successful Geekbench and 3DMark Time Spy, but Strix Halo proves formidable. And let maine to stress erstwhile more: integrated graphics.

To get that capacity connected the Z13, you’ll person to pony up $2,299.99 for the configuration pinch the Ryzen AI Max Plus 395. That’s $200 much than the AI Max 390 spot successful the guidelines model, but according to YouTuber Cary “The Phawx” Golomb’s hourlong heavy dive into some versions of the Z13, the upgrade, which gets you 4 much CPU cores and 8 much GPU cores, is worthy the money.

All configurations of the Z13 are 0.51 inches heavy and 2.65 pounds without the keyboard, which adds 0.86 pounds. By comparison, a Surface Pro 11 is 0.68 inches heavy and 2.7 pounds pinch the keyboard. Asus’s upcoming 2025 ROG Zephyrus G14 will beryllium 0.63 inches heavy and 3.46 pounds, which is somewhat lighter and thinner than the chonky-for-a-tablet Z13. Hefty arsenic the Z13 is, its compact size and rigid build make it consciousness much portable and knockaround-friendly than you’d expect. The sturdy kickstand really helps erstwhile toting it astir the location aliases repositioning it, since you tin instrumentality your hands nether it and assistance pinch support from your forearms, arsenic opposed to conscionable your fingers. It’s still champion thought of arsenic a gaming laptop pinch a detachable keyboard, but it’s astonishing really overmuch much elastic that makes it.

The Z13 besides has a 5-megapixel webcam and 13-megapixel rear-facing camera. You’d person to beryllium deranged to return existent pictures pinch the rear camera connected a Windows tablet; it’s mostly useful for showing group things connected video calls. The dual speakers are workable but don’t connection a peculiarly afloat sound, particularly astatine the debased end, and you whitethorn accidentally artifact 1 erstwhile holding it successful scenery orientation. And the chunky 200W powerfulness adapter uses Asus’ reversible proprietary connector (it supports 100W Power Delivery via its USB-C 4 ports, arsenic well).

As a tablet that makes a plausible gaming laptop and moreover desktop, the ROG Flow Z13 is arsenic adjacent to an all-in-one instrumentality arsenic location is correct now. And for illustration immoderate all-in-one, it’s costly and it makes immoderate compromises compared to much accepted devices — value being the astir obvious. You tin walk little money connected a much powerful (and moreover much compact) gaming laptop for illustration the Zephyrus G14, aliases you tin spell the different measurement and get a desktop and a Steam Deck. But there’s thing astir the Flow that’s charming and joyful. If it weren’t rather truthful expensive, I’d beryllium tempted to bargain it alternatively of a accepted gaming laptop and handheld.

The Strix Halo spot wrong the Z13 whitethorn extremity up being a bigger woody than the tablet itself. That’s already evidenced by its implementation successful Framework’s endearing small Desktop and much traditional laptops connected their way. But, for now, this intriguing spot takes 1 of the quirkiest and coolest tablet-laptop hybrids and makes it much powerful, much efficient, and a batch much compelling.

Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge