AMD Strix Halo ASUS ROG Flow Z13 review (long-term Surface Pro user)

Like Andrei, I too got a chance to review the 2025 Asus ROG Flow Z13.  I’ve had it for about a month and have been using it as my daily driver this whole time.  It was a pretty easy transition for me too, since I used to carry around a Surface Pro 3/4 as my travel laptop in the past, before I switched to an iPad.  So, besides a minor quirk, I was fine with the form factor.

But I’m pleasantly surprised by the performance, particularly the gaming performance. If this is where internal graphics is headed, then I’m excited to see the future in portable laptops and tablets.

Since Andrei and I got the same model, I’m going to just focus more on my experience in the last month rather than dig deep into the descriptions and show redundant testing. I did do many of the same tests he did and got practically the same numbers, including with gaming.  So let’s get right to it and show you how I felt about this one.

Specs as reviewed – 2025 Asus ROG Flow Z13

Design and thoughts on the form factor

My thoughts on the overall design are very similar to Andrei’s thoughts.  As a whole, I like the construction, and it feels premium.  It looks cool too, although I’m hit or miss on the RGB on the back.  At least it turns off.

I like the variety of ports this has, but I’m also not a fan of the port placement, particularly on the left-hand side.  The power adapter being up so high is very awkward sometimes, and it’s even worse if you use USB-C for the most part, like I did.

Where Andrei and I differ is on the form factor, as I did spend a few years using a Surface Pro tablet.  So when I got this unit, I basically thought to myself, “this is an Asus Surface Pro”, albeit a little thicker and heavier.  It didn’t take long at all for me to adapt.

But one thing I struggled with is the kickstand.  For some reason, Asus only added a pull tab on the right-hand side of the stand, instead of both as I would expect.  And I’m right-handed, so for whatever reason, my muscle memory tells me to support the tablet with my right hand and open the stand with my left.  It took me a couple of weeks to switch this behavior, but I eventually got used to it.

I do still like this design, but I do agree it has its limitations regarding the form factor.  On flat surfaces, it’s great and performs similarly to any other 13” laptop as long as you’re ok with a screen angle that’s 100 degrees or more.  But on cluttered desks or laps, it can be kind of awkward or even impossible to use.  It just depends on your use case.

For me, I was able to use it on my lap just fine, but only because I’m used to it from the Surface experience – it truly is a tradeoff.   But know that if you wear shorts a lot, that hinge making skin contact is not the most comfortable feeling.

But in the places I did use it, it excelled.  My desk, hotels, my truck and airplanes – this is plenty portable enough for use in all those spots, so it suited me just fine.  But so does a 13/14” laptop like my Zephyrus G14, so there’s that… Here’s a side by side image of the Z13 and the G14.

But where this form factor stands up to a traditional laptop is in cooling.  I definitely noticed a lot better temps on this model as the fans are never blocked and the heat seems to dissipate quickly.  I also appreciate a touchscreen on laptops of this size, and my current laptop lacks this feature.

So if you intend on using this only as a laptop, I might just suggest getting a traditional laptop.  But if you want more versatility, the whole point of getting a device such as this is that you use it as a tablet as well.  Like a Surface Pro, you can either detach the keyboard completely or just flip it to the back of the device to do so.

When you do the latter, the system knows this and automatically adjusts the performance to cap it and prevent overheating.  For the times I did this, it didn’t matter at all, as I was just doing minor notetaking tasks.

But I wasn’t particularly that impressed in this mode, if I’m being truly honest.  I found the edges to be oversensitive, and it’s mainly because the bezels are so small.  So, handling the device while using something simple like a browser or MS Word may result in excessive scrolling or phantom clicking in the wrong spots.  There’s really no palm rejection either, so if you want to use it for note-taking, you may struggle.

It’s also a very chunky tablet, which contributes to the handling aspect in tablet mode.  At .59” and 2.74 lbs, this is both thicker and heavier than the Z13 last year.  Heck, it’s even thicker than the original Surface Pro, which was heavily criticized for that exact reason.  So, using it as a replacement for your traditional tablet is a tough sell.

And then, unlike on a Surface or iPad, there’s no place to put my pen.  And with the finickiness of using it in a Windows environment that isn’t optimized for pens, I find it more trouble than it’s worth.  That is the primary reason I switched to an iPad all those years ago.  But if you need it, it’s there and it works for what it is.

These things aside, this is merely an implementation of blending a tablet with a laptop, and it is what it is.  And in the end, it’s higher quality than others I’ve seen in the past, but you are really paying a premium for it.

Keyboard, trackpad, and screen

I don’t have too much to share here other than what Andrei already has.  The keyboard works great for a detachable tablet keyboard.  The keys were tactile and responsive, and as far as a detachable keyboard goes, it’s as good as it can get.  I appreciate that it’s backlit and RGB.

Same goes for the trackpad.  Sure, it’s small, but it takes up all the available space, and it works just fine.  It’s either glass or just as smooth, and I didn’t have any trouble using it.  The touchscreen is where I opted to go over the trackpad for the most part, and that worked great for me.

Speaking of the screen, it’s bright and IPS, so for what it is, it’s great.  But on something at this price point and how premium it is, I was expecting an OLED.  At least it’s bright, though, as otherwise using a dim IPS screen outdoors would be a dealbreaker.

I didn’t see any problems with my screen as the image is pretty much perfect at all angles.  The contrast was very good, but at 500 nits, the blacks are obviously not true black.  I didn’t notice much backlight bleed, although the little I did notice is only at the bottom edge and only while the keyboard is propped up at an angle.  I guess the magnets cause some of it.

Hardware and performance

With this being one of the first AMD Strix Halo implementations, I was definitely excited to see how this Flow Z13 performs.  And I wasn’t disappointed at all.

For normal day-to-day tasks, this laptop excels at pretty much everything I could throw at it.  The AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor bundled with 32GB of RAM is more than enough for even the heaviest workloads.

I did do some testing before I realized Andrei and I were reviewing the same model.  So here are some of the synthetic benchmarks I’ve taken for reference.

For the first round, I set the performance to Turbo in Armory Crate.  Here were my results in this mode:

• 3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 23773 (Graphics – 26488, Physics – 37287);
• 3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 10288 (Graphics – 10157, CPU – 11100);
• 3DMark 13 –CPU profile: max – 12008 16 – 12693, 8 – 7926, 4 – 4486, 2 – 2297, 1 -1164;
• 3DMark 13 – Port Royal (RTX) Graphics: 5211;
• 3DMark 13 – Speed Way: 1927;

Next I tried Performance mode:

• 3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 20855 (Graphics – 23283, Physics – 34539);
• 3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 8564 (Graphics – 8287, CPU – 10566);
• 3DMark 13 –CPU profile: max – 11782 16 – 11566, 8 – 7300, 4 – 4461, 2 – 2291, 1 -1163;
• 3DMark 13 – Port Royal (RTX) Graphics: 4590;
• 3DMark 13 – Speed Way: 1702;

Here are my results after switching to Silent mode:

• 3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 15855 (Graphics – 17769, Physics – 29765);
• 3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 6614 (Graphics – 6267, CPU – 9651);
• 3DMark 13 –CPU profile: max – 9813 16 – 9799, 8 – 6681, 4 – 4197, 2 – 2294, 1 -1163;
• 3DMark 13 – Port Royal (RTX) Graphics: 3619;
• 3DMark 13 – Speed Way: 1288;

Finally, here are my results after switching to Performance mode while on battery power:

• 3DMark 13 – Fire Strike:20166 (Graphics – 23178, Physics – 28870);
• 3DMark 13 – Time Spy:8444 (Graphics – 8496, CPU – 8163);
• 3DMark 13 –CPU profile: max – 10558 16 – 10880, 8 – 7106, 4 – 4370, 2 – 2291, 1 -1163;
• 3DMark 13 – Port Royal (RTX) Graphics:4465;
• 3DMark 13 – Speed Way: 1714;

• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme:5146;
• Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Medium:13987;
• CineBench R15:CPU 3730 cb, CPU Single Core 304 cb;
• CineBench R2024:CPU  1428 pts, CPU 1292 pts(10 minute run), CPU Single Core 107 pts;

The real treat with this device is just how well it performs even on Silent mode.  And besides gaming, that’s the mode I primarily used this device in.  Even CAD and my 3D printing tools worked great in that mode and the fans were hardly audible at all.

More details on performance on various profiles and settings are available in Andrei’s review of the same configuration of the ROG Flow Z13.

I did, of course, play some games, but I didn’t go through the whole gamut of testing like Andrei did in his review.  I managed to play a lot of just a couple AAA titles like Black Myth: Wukong and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and was very pleased with the 50+ fps I was able to achieve on both.  For integrated graphics, this is great, and I could totally make this work if it were my daily machine.

I didn’t experience any major problems with programs or gameplay, but I do think the drivers are going to need some work.  On a couple of occasions, I did notice some flickering in games.  It eventually resolved, but these never happened on the same game on other machines.  At least it was infrequent enough not to be a big deal for me, though.

One perk worth mentioning is performance while on battery.  Both Performance mode and Quiet mode are available unplugged from the wall, with practically zero downside, as the output is pretty much identical.  I don’t think playing a game more than 30-45 minutes is all that practical, but it’s there if you need to.  Adjusting the settings to draw less power may prove beneficial.

But what this also means is that it was pretty easy to just use a GaN charger to charge the device while I was playing games.  In fact, once I tested it out, I didn’t bring the stock charger with me anywhere.  I’m sure I probably missed out on some burst performance here or there, but I didn’t notice.

My unit only came with the standard charger, but I did have two GaN chargers on me to try: a 130watt one from Razer and the 140watt one from Asus.  Both worked about the same, but I did get a warning while using the Razer charger that it wasn’t enough to support all performance modes.  I was able to switch to Turbo mode, though, and got good results.  Here’s what I got using the Razer brick on Turbo, for example:

• 3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 10362 (Graphics – 10331, CPU – 10542);

That’s more or less identical to using the main charger.

So, besides the obnoxious port placement of the USB-C slots at the top left side, using my own GaN charger to get similar performance was definitely worthwhile.  Like I said, I primarily used Silent mode, but even when in Performance mode for gaming, the adapter was more than enough to keep the unit charged.  Other than the test above, I didn’t even bother with Turbo mode.

As mentioned, my unit came with just the 200W charging brick, and I didn’t get a GaN charger like Andrei did. That seems to differ between regions.  The brick is a little big, which is why I stopped carrying it and just used my own GaN charger instead.  The stock charger has plenty of wattage and can fill the 70Whr battery very quickly.

Speaking of the battery, another highlight of the device is the battery life.  The efficiency of this unit is above average, in my opinion, and I consistently was able to work for 4-6 hours on a single charge, depending on the workload I was doing.  I’d be very happy using this device on a regular basis, as I found it to be quite reliable in standby mode, and I didn’t turn it on randomly to find that it was unintentionally drained.

Noise, Heat, Connectivity, speakers, and others

The placement of the cooling system and fans certainly make the device run at some reasonable temperatures.

I also appreciate the low fan noise, which really never bothered me at all.  In battery mode on Silent, I was measuring a peak of 34dB(A), and on Performance mode, it would get as high as 40dB(A).  I didn’t spend much time in Turbo mode, but it was 45dB(A) with the couple of benchmarks I ran.

As far as temps go, they were consistent with Andrei’s measurements.  I didn’t experience any noticeable throttling in my use, and the fact that the components are built into the screen, the device never felt overly hot on my lap.  Really, if you like gaming on your lap, this is the way to go (besides the awkwardness of the form factor).

The speakers are, unfortunately, a disappointment on this one.  Using my test song, I only reached 68dB(A) and the sound was noticeably muffled when playing music.  The drivers themselves just lack bass, and the midrange is limited as well.  The treble is fine, so making out voices on movies and shows is ok, but games aren’t going to sound as good with music and effects going at the same time.

The webcam was also pretty bad.  It’s something I expected to be better since this is supposed to be a tablet that could replace a work PC or tablet.  This performs worse than both my laptop and my iPad (no surprise there), so I’d have a tough time justifying a switch.  The rear camera is better, but I don’t understand what I’d ever use it for…

Final thoughts- Asus ROG Flow Z13 (2025 gen) review

To sum up my thoughts, I quite enjoyed my month with this ROG Flow Z13.  It’s certainly a lot different than the average 2-in-1 computer, but there are definitely some remarkable things about it that make it shine above other options.

For starters, the “Surface-like” form factor has its own appeal, but only to those who are looking for it.  And if you are, there are a few options that replicate what Microsoft has perfected over the years, and this is one of them.  Besides my minor complaint about the kickstand tab, this is a good implementation of the form factor.

The performance is the other thing I like most about this device, especially with the integrated graphics.  Being able to do this much on Silent mode and on battery power is a strong selling point, especially if you plan to run work tasks on battery.

But there are a few things I was also disappointed in.  The speakers, for example, are just not loud enough for a device like this.  Sorry, but devices like this are bought because they consolidate work and play devices together somehow.  So it’s hard to believe someone wouldn’t want to watch movies or listen to music or run any other entertainment loads.  If you use headphones primarily, you probably won’t care about these speakers, but otherwise, you should think twice.

The other concern I have is the portability.  For a tablet, it’s pretty chunky, and it kind of takes away from the whole point of having a tablet, since it’s not exactly portable.  Compared to my 2024 Asus Zephyrus G14, this machine is barely smaller and is actually heavier.  So from my perspective, it’s hard to argue why I wouldn’t just continue to carry a laptop like that and a smaller, thinner tablet alongside it, as I do today.  But that’s just me.

To add to this, the cost is significant, even if at $2299, I’d say it’s fair for a device such as this. Follow this link for updated pricing at the time you’re reading the article.

But the lack of OLED and the concerns above would also make me lean towards separate devices as well.  My current tablet and laptop, for example, add up to only $200 more than this price.  But since I have no drawbacks to either of those devices, the mere $200 savings would make me think twice, other than the fact that I’d have one less device.

In the end, if one desires an all-in-one laptop/tablet solution with plenty of power and performance, this one is certainly one to look at, especially because of the Ryzen Max 395 processor.  But the tradeoffs need to be measured to make sure this is the right product for you.  I’d highly recommend going to see one in person if they have one on display at your local store.

So that wraps up my opinion on this model.  I’m happy to answer any questions you may have on it in the comments below.

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