Asus ROG Flow Z13 Review: Gaming Tablet That Makes More Sense As A Work Machine

 

The Asus ROG Flow Z13 is priced at Rs 1,36,999 in India, a price that will also get you a decent gaming laptop. But should you spend it on the laptop or the ROG Flow Z13? Read out review to find out!

Gaming equipment is fairly widespread. Gaming laptops, gaming PCs, gaming phones, and a wide variety of other devices are available. Gaming tablets are a category that hasn't gotten as much attention, though. Only a small number of companies could think of making such an audacious combo, and we don't hear much about gaming tablets. One of the few businesses that came up with such a product for the general public is Asus.

A whole pandemic later, during which both gaming and tablets took off, Asus has revived the concept, fusing two things that were in high demand during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Asus Mothership was one of the first gaming tablets that we have seen. It was released back in 2019. Despite its unique offering, the first product was not much of a success. The new 13-inch gaming tablet from Asus, the Asus ROG Z Flow 13, has comparable DNA to the Asus Mothership, brand-new internals, and an incredibly svelte look that will undoubtedly capture your eye. But for Rs 1,36,990, does it deliver a satisfying gaming experience? Find out by reading our review.

The control panel of a spaceship could have designed the Asus ROG Flow Z13. 

The 13-inch tablet is available in grey with black and red accents that further the feeling of an angular gaming device. 

Along with the "ROG" branding, a kickstand can be opened from the red tag in the bottom corner. 

The tablet has speakers on either side of the "Republic of Gamers" insignia, which is located on the tablet's top.

Additionally, the ROG Flow Z13 has a transparent panel that lets you see the motherboard's RGB lights. In addition to being incredibly eye-catching, the design is also very slim. Asus managed to cram a 12-generation Intel Core i9 processor and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 GPU into a rather small chassis. With a weight of 1.2kg without the keyboard, it might be heavy by tablet standards. However, 1.2kg is quite decent by the standards of a gaming laptop. The ROG Flow Z13 has a speaker grille on top and two USB type-C ports, one USB A port, one HDMI 2.0 port, and one 3.5mm headphone connector. A magnetically detachable RGB lighted keyboard is also available comes inside the box with the Asus ROG Flow Z13. This design will definitely 

catch some attention.

DISPLAY:-

For our review, we used an Asus ROG Flow Z13 model with a 1,920 x 1,200-pixel IPS touchscreen and a 120Hz refresh rate. A 4K display option with a 60Hz refresh rate is also available. The ROG Flow Z13's 1200p display doesn't feel as high-end as you might anticipate from a gaming laptop replacement. While using the stylus or writing on the screen, you can see the screen's low resolution and latency. The 1200p display feels a little bit under-detailed from the standpoint of a gaming tablet, but it is bright, I had no vision difficulties throughout my time with it, and the responsiveness with the 120Hz refresh rate is also spot-on.

COMPLEXITY AND BATTERY:-

Having a portable gaming system that enables you to play AAA games while on the go is now a pretty cool concept. There are, however, a lot of topics that need to be covered. The Asus ROG Flow Z13 has cutting-edge specifications right now. We get an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GPU together with a 12th Gen Intel Core i9-12900H CPU and 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM. That much power is impressive for any PC, much less a 13-inch tablet. Of course, using the Asus ROG Flow Z13 has no impact on performance or speed. I actually utilised the tablet for business for a good few weeks, and it ended up being a really excellent tool. There is a touchscreen, it is portable and convenient, and you won't have any trouble running any kind of programme on this incredibly capable tablet. Since I also edit films and photographs, the ROG Flow Z13 never slowed down when using programmes like Adobe Photoshop or Premier Pro, which both require a fair amount of processing power. In reality, the stylus greatly improves the intuitiveness of the editing process. Although the latency could be lower, it nevertheless serves the job well.

Regarding gaming, there are a few issues that should be mentioned despite the performance being good overall. First off, not all games on this tablet support high frame rates; the ROG Flow Z13 maxes out at roughly 60FPS when playing CPU-intensive games like Far Cry 5, Flight Simulator, and similar titles. However, the ROG Flow Z13 gives far superior performance and the frame rates are close to 90-100FPS when playing GPU-intensive games (and even when performing jobs like video editing).

The ROG Flow Z13 experiences a noticeable decrease in performance while using the battery, just like any other gaming device, and the Turbo mode is not available. A portable gaming gadget that can only be used to its full ability when plugged in seems a little contradictory, even though even top-tier gaming laptops cannot achieve this. Additionally, the detachable keyboard we receive is not the best for gaming. For real gameplay, the keys are too small and the device is rather frail. The Asus ROG Flow Z13 can be used with a third-party keyboard, however doing so would again compromise portability.

VERDICT :-

Now that we have that out of the way, will the Asus ROG Flow Z13 provide a sufficient experience to serve as a suitable replacement for a gaming laptop? The answer is no. While the Asus ROG Flow Z13 is still a powerful laptop and can play any game without a hitch, I wouldn't use it for gaming. The 13.4-inch screen is too small, the keyboard is not perfect, and if you have to keep it plugged in, it defeats the point of portability as gaming laptops also offer this level of portability, albeit with possibly somewhat larger sizes.

The Asus ROG Flow Z13, on the other hand, impressed me during my assessment as a work laptop powerhouse. It is compact and portable, supports pen input, has cutting-edge hardware that makes it lightning quick at multitasking, and has a sleek 120Hz display.