Asus ROG Flow Z13 (2025) review: The most powerful integrated graphics I’ve ever tested

Who the heck asked for a gaming tablet? I know I didn’t, but that didn’t stop the Asus ROG Flow Z13 from landing at my door, and it didn’t stop me fawning over it.

Asus made a cannonball-level splash when it dropped the AMD Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 processor into the Flow Z13. Its AMD Radeon 8060S iGPU is the most powerful integrated graphics we’ve tested. Top that off with excellent battery life, a bright display, and a versatile design, the Flow Z13 is stacked.

However, I cannot ignore its flaws. You need to spend over $2,000 to get even the base model. What further frustrates me is the keyboard’s poor function for gaming, and how this thing gets hotter than a steam engine in a desert.

Most people will be better off buying one of the best gaming laptops. But a detachable 2-in-1 gaming tablet was never going to be for most people, so if you’ve stuck around, you may be the special niche gaming tablet enthusiast that Asus envisioned, and I have a story for you about the Asus ROG Flow Z13.

Asus ROG Flow Z13: Specs and benchmarks

Asus ROG Flow Z13: Price and configurations

Oh baby this thing is expensive. For a whopping $2,299, you can get the Asus ROG Flow Z13 with an AMD Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 processor, an AMD Radeon 8060S iGPU, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a 13.4-inch, 2560 x 1600, 180Hz IPS touchscreen display.

You can drop to the Ryzen AI MAX 390 CPU for $2,099 or bump your RAM to 128GB for $2,799. Unfortunately, all of these models are either only available for pre-order or out of stock at the time of writing. Our model can be found on the Asus website, where you can sign up for notifications on availability.

As far as the value you’re getting… It’s bad. The price-to-performance ratio ain’t cutting it. You should be able to get something of this caliber for $800 less. However, the key feature of the Flow Z13 that’s hard to measure is portability and functionality. There aren’t many gaming tablets out there, so this may be your only choice, making the question of value redundant.

If you need something more affordable with the same performance, check out the best cheap gaming laptops.

Asus ROG Flow Z13: Design

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You can’t beat Asus in style, and you certainly can’t get as slick and weird as the Asus ROG Flow Z13. This gaming tablet is thick and heavy, but it’s the most portable PC gaming solution outside of handhelds like the Asus ROG Ally X or MSI Claw 8 AI+.

The face features a 13.4-inch panel surrounded by uniform bezels with an ROG Flow logo at the bottom and a webcam at the top. The left and right sides hold room for ports, but the right side alone features the power button, volume rocker, and a button that enables ScreenXpert (more on that later). Meanwhile, the top is home to a Republic of Gamers logo and the bottom features the magnetic attachment for the keyboard.

Turning it over reveals numerous diagonal vents surrounding a diagonal glass pane highlighting the internals. It looks sick. A decent portion is dedicated to the kickstand at the bottom while the top holds room for another webcam. (It’d be nice to get some privacy shutters on these cameras.)

The detachable keyboard takes little space but provides enough for a comfortably sized deck. It’s soft, similar to other detachable keyboards, with a black colorway that isn’t all that alluring. The gamer font with the weak single-zone RGB lighting makes it look a little cheap.

Overall, it operates well in tablet mode, but you can’t really use it in your lap. The kickstand works wonders, though, so it’s stable on a desk.

At 2.68 pounds and 11.81 x 8.03 x 0.51~0.59 inches, the tablet alone is quite portable, as I’ve said. Adding the 0.86 pound keyboard brings the total package up to 3.53 pounds, however. Here’s how that compares with a wide spread of competitors:

• Asus Zephyrus G14 — 3.3 pounds, 12.3 x 8.7 x 0.6 inches
• Microsoft Surface Pro (11th Edition) — 1.97 pounds (tablet) 2.6 pounds (with keyboard), 11.3 x 8.2 x 0.4 inches
• Asus ROG Flow Z13 (2023) — 2.91 pounds, 11.89 x 8.43 x 0.61~0.79 inches

Asus ROG Flow Z13: Ports

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Despite its unique form factor, the Asus ROG Flow Z13 offers enough ports for your standard suite of gaming peripherals, like a keyboard, mouse, and headset. Here’s what you get:

• 1x 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack
• 1x HDMI 2.1 FRL
• 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A (data speed up to 10Gbps)
• 2x Type-C USB 4 with support for DisplayPort / power delivery (data speed up to 40Gbps)
• 1x card reader (microSD) (UHS-II)

Need more ports? Check out our best USB Type-C hubs and best laptop docking stations pages.

Asus ROG Flow Z13: Battery life

Honestly, the last thing I expected out of the battery life on this monstrous gaming tablet was for it to last longer than it took to open the packaging. But I was wrong, the Asus ROG Flow Z13 is one of the longest-lasting gaming machines.

On the Laptop Mag battery test, which sets it to continuously surf the web over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness until it perishes, the Asus ROG Flow Z13 lasted 10 hours and 14 minutes. For clarity, we tested the Flow Z13 at 60Hz refresh rate with the keyboard detached and RGB off. When gaming, it lasted 1 hour and 34 minutes, which is about what we expect. Here’s how it compared:

Asus ROG Flow Z13: Display

I expect a gaming tablet’s display to look absolutely gorgeous, and the Asus ROG Flow Z13’s 13.4-inch, 2560 x 1600, 180Hz IPS touchscreen met that standard. While we have seen more colorful tablets, the Flow Z13 is plenty bright and colorful.

I jumped into Far Cry 6 and started blasting. Well, first I got Chorizo some treats and gawked at the gorgeous midday sun creating a strong contrast between the bold greenery and the shade under the Montero Farm. Everything in and out of the sun looked sharp, from the leaves to the rusty cabinet. When I raided a warehouse at night, the balanced brightness enabled me to accurately pop some heads despite the distance.

I watched the trailer for Jurassic World Rebirth, and lush trees and undergrowth popped around the characters. For a display that couldn’t keep up with its former self, it certainly looks colorful as heck. Navigating through the wrecked lab, the darkest corners with filing cabinets and wires maintained decent detail thanks to the high brightness, and despite the glossy screen.

When it comes to the numbers, the Asus ROG Flow Z13’s benchmarks confirm that strong level of brightness. However, it’s the dullest with regard to gamut coverage. Here’s how it compares:

Asus ROG Flow Z13: Keyboard and touchpad

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This is rough. I actually like this keyboard — it’s clicky, bouncy and offers decent spacing between the keys. However, it’s too deep into the chassis and too close to the touchpad. I noticed that problem when I tried to use the spacebar to jump. My thumb couldn’t depress the key while my fingers hovered over WASD, and that’s because I caught resistance from the elevated deck. The keyboard is great for casual typing, but not for gaming (I recommend seeing the best gaming keyboards).

I typed 77 words per minute on the 10fastfingers.com typing test, which fell short of my usual 81-wpm. That’s due to the small size of the keyboard, it’ll take some getting used to.

The 5.0 x 2.0-inch touchpad wrapped my finger in a soft blanket and snuggled me in each corner of its surface. Not really, but it is pretty damn smooth. And it offers a pleasant click that most touchpads don’t provide.

Meanwhile, the touchscreen of the display left a poor impression. The panel gave too much resistance, so unless you’re using a stylus, I wouldn’t want to use this as a casual tablet.

Asus ROG Flow Z13: Audio

Blasting the Asus ROG Flow Z13’s side-firing speakers revealed strong volume and decently balanced mids and highs. But the lows could have been better.

Again, I went blasting in Far Cry 6, and the gunshots were impactful, not only tearing through my opponents, but producing a rumble to strike fear in their hearts (I imagine). The ambiance of the birds and insects of the night were crisp alongside the dialogue, braiding an immersive atmosphere.

Continuing my current obsession with Epic: The Musical, I listened to “Six Hundred Strike,” and the epic guitar backed by Odysseus’ voice was poppy and crisp. However, Poseidon’s following taunts fell a little short because the backing strings couldn’t fulfill those lower tones. Despite that, the instruments felt distinct, so nothing got lost in the mud (maybe just dipped into it).

You can adjust the audio profile via Dolby Access, which comes with a full equalizer in addition to presets for Dynamic, Gaming, Movie, Music, and Movie.

Asus ROG Flow Z13: Gaming and graphics

When I first heard “gaming tablet,” I didn’t expect the best performance, but the Asus ROG Flow Z13’s AMD Radeon 8060S iGPU kicked all the butt for not being a discrete graphics solution.

When I tore through the sky in Far Cry 6 in my little plane, I crashed into the ground at a strong 50 frames per second on Ultra, 1600p settings. The gameplay felt smooth, but keep in mind this is when connected to a charger. The performance dips significantly on battery power. Thankfully, the charger placement isn’t awkward (looking at you, Nintendo).

I jumped into Monster Hunter Wilds and found some chunky frog to cook (after beating the frog to death), and I averaged a strong 60 fps at Ultra, 1200p with Ray Tracing at max and AMD’s upscaling on. It gets a bit choppy now and then, but I could probably chalk that up to Monster Hunter’s wonky performance.

It fell a bit short of its discrete competitors, but it put up one heck of a fight. Here’s how it did:

Asus ROG Flow Z13: Performance and heat

Pow! The Asus ROG Flow Z13 swings with punchy performance thanks to its AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor and 32GB of RAM. It was more than enough to take on the couple dozen Google Chrome tabs and handful of YouTube videos I threw at it. I noticed a tiny bit of slowdown when navigating the browser while Monster Hunter Wilds ran in the background, but not enough to have me tapping my foot.

The Asus ROG Flow Z13 destroyed the competition in our overall performance benchmark and video-editing test. It even blasted through our SSD speed test. This gaming tablet is built with power in mind.

However, it runs hot. The highest temp we clocked was 110 degrees at the very top of the back of the tablet, near the middle of the top bezel. That’s far above our 95-degree comfort threshold. Now, the numbers don’t always give the full story, because materials provide a different feel. But my wife simply touched the back of this thing and burnt her finger. That’s bad for a product meant to move around, artists will need to be especially careful about how they hold this thing.

Here’s how the Asus ROG Flow Z13 compared:

Asus ROG Flow Z13: AI features

Naturally, the Asus ROG Flow Z13’s AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 is outfitted with an NPU (neural processing unit), so it can run a number of AI processes that the average user may not take advantage of.

There aren’t too many Asus-branded AI features on board. I found two AI Audio settings in the MyAsus app, which let you adjust the noise-canceling in the microphone and speakers.

There’s plenty of Copilot features like Recall, Live Captions, and Cocreator. While not fully released, Recall can take you through your past computer usage, the same way you’d scroll through your browser history. Live Captions is the most useful feature, providing real time subtitles for nearly 50 languages. With Cocreator you can draw something up and make the AI turn it into something pretty (and devoid of heart).

Asus ROG Flow Z13: Webcam

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The Asus ROG Flow Z13 comes with two cameras, 2.5K in the front and 4K in the back. Can you guess which one sucked and which looked great?

With the 2.5K webcam, the blue sky and colorful outfits of the My Hero Academia poster behind me looked washed out. I looked hazy while the window behind me was overexposed by the poor contrast. Conversely, the 4K webcam captured crisp detail and color in the same poster, like the characters jumped straight out of the anime.

Let’s be real, no one is taking pictures with their gaming tablet. Asus should’ve nixed the rear camera and shoved it in the front. It’s tough to recommend getting the best webcam for a tablet, but if you’re planning on streaming in a stationary spot, you may need one.

Asus ROG Flow Z13: Software and warranty

There are two major apps to focus on: Armoury Crate and MyAsus. The former gives you access to all the performance settings and RGB lights you can ask for. The latter gives you access to the boring (but critical) features like driver updates, hardware scans, and warranty information.

Meanwhile, the ScreenXpert app (as mentioned earlier) can appear when clicking the side button. It offers quick settings for the Armoury Crate, performance mode, microphone, touch keyboard, and screen recorder. It can also display the battery levels of connected devices and set up task group windows.

The ROG Flow Z13 features a one-year limited warranty.

Bottom line

The Asus ROG Flow Z13 is excellent in its individual parts, from its long battery life and incredible performance to its strong speakers and bright display. However, at its steep price, it can’t justify its price-to-performance ratio when its keyboard is unusable for gaming and it runs ridiculously hot.

If you want something even more powerful with similar longevity at a cheaper price, then the Asus Zephyrus G14 is a great alternative.

However, it’s tough to beat the size and portability of the Asus ROG Flow Z13. Artists will especially find great use in the Flow Z13, as long as they don’t burn themselves.