Asus ROG Flow Z13 (2022) review

Part of the conversation about the ROG Flow Z13 is its unconventional design. It’s a 13.4in slab of metal and glass and that’s about it. All the insides of the laptop are behind the screen. Think AIO desktops or iMac and you’re close. The engineers at Asus ROG made the ROG Mothership first, before cleaning up its design to make the ROG Flow, which is a much easier-to-use tablet.

It’s got iPad-like bezels and a no-nonsense design on the front. Everything else is pushed to the back in a typical ROG style. The vents are on the top and sides, while the kickstand at the back is very similar to Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra’s cover kickstand. The kickstand is very reassuring because it has strong hinges that are built into the laptop’s chassis. The folio cover-esque keyboard magnetically attaches at the bottom and then sticks to the bottom bezel to give height to the front row keys.

It’s a two-step process to use the Flow as a laptop. You have to push the kickstand out from the back and then fold open the keyboard from the front. Depending on how you look at it, it’s either a task or a small price to pay for flexibility. And by flexibility, we mean quite literally because the hinge can drop down to 170 degrees for easy sketching using the bundled stylus. That said, we think the stylus hasn’t been updated for a very long time, and there are better ones on the market.

The design conversation just doesn’t end here either. Remember when we said the ROG Flow Z13 can also be a desktop with the right attachments? Well, there’s a ROG XG Mobile Interface port which lets you plug in Asus’ proprietary eGPU (which we’ll get to in a bit). Other than that, there’s one Thunderbolt 4 port, one USB 2.0 Type-A and one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port that supports DisplayPort, power delivery and Nvidia’s G-SYNC. There’s also a memory card reader at the back behind the kickstand. Very similar to the Nintendo Switch.

There’s also a tiny glass panel at the back that gives you a peek inside the laptop’s internals. It’s decorated with RGB lighting so you can attract as many eyeballs as possible. It’s definitely a conversation starter if the unusually tablet design wasn’t enough to invite an envious gaze.

Our review unit came with a 12th Gen Intel Core i9 -12900H and an Nvidia RTX 3050Ti GPU with 4GB GDDR6 and a digital MUX switch. It’s quite evident that the ROG Flow Z13 is more than capable of handling CPU-intensive tasks. Running multiple tabs on Google Chrome and other CPU-intensive software is a cakewalk here. 

However, that Intel i9 can be an overkill if you’re not utilising every inch of its performance. For starters, it keeps the Flow Z13 warm. Warm enough that you do not want to use it in tablet mode in your hands. The 1.18kg weight is not very friendly for your biceps either.

We did get a chance to experience the ROG Flow Z13 with the XG Mobile eGPU and that’s where the promises of desktop-level gaming, video editing and other GPU-intensive tasks start to make sense. Although, there are some proprietary limitations here. 

For starters, the XG Mobile eGPU is a single-body unit. This means it’s not like a traditional eGPU where you can swap out a desktop-grade graphics card and upgrade your way through life. No sir. You will have to rely on Asus to support the XG Mobile eGPU. Secondly, the GPU is also a mobile GPU, not a desktop version. Asus says it helps keep the bulk to a minimum and makes the Flow Z13 truly portable.

Naturally, the XG Mobile eGPU also has its own power supply, I/O ports and heatsink. It’s all very slim and appealing for anyone who wants to travel with a tablet, a gaming laptop and include some extra grunt on demand for when the going gets tough. It’s all neatly put together in a single package. Sadly, we didn’t get enough time to test the XG Mobile eGPU and its performance, but from our limited experience with the setup, it was worth noting that the proprietary port that links the eGPU and the Flow Z13 makes the switch between internal graphics and external graphics seamless. It’s monkey-easy and the laptop recognises the eGPU instantly and switches to it for more graphical grunt.

Coming back to the Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti internal GPU, the performance is as you’d expect from an entry-level graphics card. It’s also crammed into a small 13.4in chassis so expect some thermal throttling. Gears Tactics is one of the most fun games to play in tablet mode and we got around 63FPS on medium to high settings with texture details and shadows set to high. It’s can be a very demanding game but it’s clear that the RTX 3050 Ti inside the Flow Z13 is for casual FullHD gaming at best. The Falconeer is also one of the few games that you can enjoy while on a flight but anything demanding like God of War (2019) can easily heat up the Flow Z13 and drop frames quickly. Temper your expectations with the internal GPU and the Flow Z13 can be a great gaming tablet for casual gamers.

Being a one-third tablet also means that the display needs to be gorgeous and it is. It has a 16:10 touchscreen display and comes in FullHD at 120Hz or 4K at 60Hz. Our review unit had a FullHD display with Pantone validation. It was great for using Photoshop and InDesign for our magazine work. The colours really pop and if you’re going to be spending time with the stylus, the display is truly a canvas for your imagination.

It’s also packing entertainment chops. The Dolby Atmos support is rather half-baked at best, but the audio has a decent soundstage by laptop speaker standards. The speakers are still not as good as Apple iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab speakers.

This has to be one of our most difficult laptops to judge. Mostly because it’s more things than just a gaming laptop. Like the Microsoft Surface Book 2 which tried to be more than just a laptop, the Asus ROG Flow Z13 is the gamified version of the same concept. Although like most things ROG, this has been amped up to become more than just a gaming laptop and that’s where the eGPU comes in. 

The Flow Z13 isn’t the most comfortable tablet to use in the hand because of its weight but if you set it on a table, it can be a fun and casual gaming tablet. Think of Nintendo Switch but on steroids. Even the laptop mode isn’t appealing on a ‘lap’ of all things. The kickback stand digs into your lap and is always wobbly. The short takeaway is that there are as many caveats to using the Flow Z13 as there are opportunities. It just boils down to personal preference. For a designer who likes to game and sketch on a single device and may need some extra oomph from the eGPU, the Flow Z13 caters to that need exceptionally well. Especially when you consider how sleek and portable it is.