Not much has changed between the new model announced at CES of the relatively powerful 13.4-inch Asus tablet with a detachable keyboard and the ROG Flow Z13 I checked it out when it was the first game, and unsurprisingly, my opinion hasn’t changed either. I like the idea and the execution, but it still feels impractical and isn’t the first thing I’d consider getting for anything other than occasional PC gaming where I want something with a bigger screen. than my steam deck.

It’s still slick and generally well-designed, plus Asus has improved in many aspects. For example, the touchpad is bigger, the keyboard travel is a bit deeper, the webcam is better and now supports Windows Hello, it now has a quad-channel speaker, the optional XG Mobile eGPU connects with Thunderbolt 5 instead of the proprietary connector and more .

The model I use includes brand-new AMD Ryzen AI Max Plus 395 processor with its integrated Radeon 8060S graphics — the Z13 previously used Intel processors — and a 1600p IPS touchscreen operating at 60Hz or 180Hz.

But like its predecessor, it is quite heavy for its size. That’s to be expected given the tank-like build, and the keyboard is also on the heavy side. It retains a full set of connections, however, including HDMI and a micro SD slot.

The Z13 comes in two models — the $2,199 one I’m looking at and a cheaper $1,999 model that differs in processor — it uses a lower-level Ryzen AI Max 390 with a smaller CPU and GPU cores. Future versions of the refreshed XG Mobile mobile versions include either an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 or 5080 GPU and have a cool translucent chassis design.

A Hand Flow

Since the chips won’t be available until later this year (some time before June), the Z13 I’m using is still in the early stages of operating software and firmware, so I haven’t benchmarked it. or tested the battery life (Asus estimates that it can. in the last 10 hours), and it’s possible that some minor issues I have will be resolved by the time it ships.

While I love the feel of the new keyboard — typing on it now! — the newly added RGB backlight is not very bright. It’s fine if you’re in a dark environment, but I’m sitting in the dark with Chrome open and the white screen makes the backlight useless unless you’re staring directly at it. The keyboard is pretty stiff, but like most of these devices, it’s not comfortable to use on your lap — when the kickstand is extended, you’ll need long femurs to fit it — so its stiffness might be a bit moot. The stiffness helps when it’s tilted on a table, though.

Magnets hold the keyboard section of the tablet on the top and bottom edges, whether closed or open, and it’s very strong. I put it on a metal table and found it strangely immobile. It was firmly attached to my iPad when I assembled it too.

The quad speakers, with Dolby Atmos support, are excellent. The screen seems pretty good, and Asus provides the usual calibration profiles — I didn’t test them because display performance can be sensitive to BIOS and other firmware. It only supports HDR for video (Dolby Vision), not for gaming, but still in theory, because I didn’t get anything to confirm that DV works. It looks good; the P3 color space coverage is helpful and the tonal range looks properly mapped, but there’s only so much you can do with a peak brightness of 500 nits, especially on a non-OLED screen.

Image Magnification

Performance aside, however, the ROG Flow Z13 remains a relatively niche device and may appeal to people who want something more powerful and upgradeable (via an external GPU) than a Surface Pro for playing and creating.