Asus is on a quest to make the ideal gambling system — one that do as an extremist - portable machine when you ’re move and a potent play fishing gear when you ’re at home . The party ’s latest attempt builds upon last year’sROG Flow X13 , a compact 13 - inch translatable laptop with the power to connect to an optional XG Mobile eGPU for RTX 3080 fluid operation .
This year atCES 2022 , the Chinese laptop maker is debuting a 2.2 - pound lozenge version called the ROG Flow Z13 .
What ’s impressive about this ticket are the components you get before plugging in any peripheral gadget : an Intel Core i9 - 12900H CPU twin with an Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti GPU and up to 16 GB of DDR5 - 5200MHz store and a 1 TB of PCIe 4.0 SSD .
Image: Asus
Where the GTX 1650 in the base ROG Flow X13 models was a potential bottleneck , the ROG Z13 should give you enough horsepower to move intensive tasks and play most modern games at 1080p on medium - to - in high spirits graphics setting without being bob . When you need 4 K resolve or higher soma rates , the Z13 connects to Asus ’s XG Mobile eGPU via a PCIe 3.0 x8 user interface to harness the power of a GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile River GPU or AMD ’s newly revealed Radeon RX 6850 M XT GPU .
Asus want the ROG Flow Z13 to be your do - to - all twist — a portable pill alike in form to the Surface Pro 8 that shape - shift key when connected to the eGPU into a potent gaming articulated lorry comparable to Asus ’ big ROG Zephyrus laptops . It just may do so , but only for those who can open their wallets encompassing enough . We do n’t eff yet have it away how much the pill will be , but the XG Mobile eGPU currently goes for $ 1,500 ( and is out of stock ) .
How did Asus put such powerful components inside a tablet form factor ? Well , the ROG Flow Z13 is n’t exactly iPad thinly , measuring 0.5 inch — about as thick as a ZenBook 14 laptop computer . And that ’s without the keyboard . Add the add-on and the Z13 becomes slightly stumpy , though still thinner than you ’d gestate given the specs . Also allowing Asus to use such in high spirits - power component is a cooling system incorporate of liquified metal , 84 - blade double fans , and a vapor sleeping room that lead the entire length of the twist . Asus claims the Flow Z13 can lead at under 32dBa when pushing a sonorous workload , and there is a 0dBa silent mode when running simple project .
Image: Asus
I touch on on this before , but the Flow Z13 is most alike in anatomy to Microsoft ’s Surface Pro pill in that it employ a kickstand to stand just but can rotate 170 stage for better viewing angles . Where the Surface Pro is about minimalism , the Flow Z13 goes full cyber-terrorist . On the rear of the CNC Al chassis is aggressively angle etch , a brilliant red ROG logo , and RGB lights find out through a clear-cut glass windowpane that bring out the motherboard underneath .
Display alternative for the Z13 admit a 13 - column inch , 3840 x 2400 panel with a 60Hz refresh rate or a 1920 x 1200 firmness of purpose with a 120Hz refresh charge per unit . Both are rated to tiptop at 500 nits of luminousness so you should n’t have problem viewing the tablet in cheery term .
Below the kickstand is a microSD calling card time slot next to a “ quick accession door ” where you may swap out the M.2 SSD . Along with the card slot , you get a Thunderbolt 4 input signal , a USB 3.2 Type - nose candy port , a proprietary eGPU connection , a USB 2.0 Type - A stimulus , an HDMI 2.0 , and a earphone jack . Connecting to the XG Mobile adds four USB Type - A ports , a full wit reader , and an Ethernet port .
Screenshot: Asus
A magnetic RGB keyboard attachment with 1.7 mm of travel Lashkar-e-Taiba you use the Flow Z13 in clamshell mode when you do n’t have a mechanically skillful keyboard on helping hand . Artists who require to use the Flow Z13 for content creation — and it may be unspoilt for that than gaming — get stylus reinforcement but need to append a pen themselves .
For the ROG Flow Z13 to be a best - of - both - world equipment , it will require to let you play at least a few hour of Halo Infinite before shutting down . Asus did n’t provide any battery life ratings so we ’ll need to do our own testing to see how the 56Wh battery hold up . We should learn presently ; the Z13 will be available in Q1 / Q2 of this year .
If you opt a translatable laptop over a tablet , Asus also update the ROG Flow X13 with up to AMD Ryzen R9 6980HS processor and RTX 3050 Ti GPU with DDR5 RAM .
Image: Asus
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