ASUS ROG Flow Z13 Review: AMD Strix Halo Is A Potent Beast

You could be forgiven for thinking the ROG Flow Z13 is just another AMD-powered hybrid 2-in-1 tablet PC. There’s really nothing externally to give you the idea that it hosts the most powerful laptop CPU AMD has ever produced. It sure does, though—AMD’s questionably-named Ryzen AI MAX+, formerly known by the much cooler codename “Strix Halo,”  is finally here in the flesh, and we’ve put it through its paces and then some.

The ASUS infographic on the machine is detailed above, if you want some quick details at a glance. The short version is that the ROG Flow Z13 is a surprisingly dense 13″-class hybrid 2-in-1 detachable tablet PC that, at least in our configuration, comes with the top-end Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 SoC, 32GB of LPDDR5X memory at 8000 MT/s, a 1TB NVMe SSD, and not much else. Since AMD’s Ryzen AI MAX+ System on Chip also contains a ridiculously powerful integrated GPU though, there’s no real need for anything else. We’re getting ahead of ourselves, though. Let’s take a look at the specifications in full:

The Zen 5 CPU cores in this chip aren’t the same as the ones in the other “Ryzen AI” processors. While it isn’t exactly clear from the slide above, the sixteen Zen 5 CPU cores reside on a pair of eight-core CCDs—exactly the same chiplets that are used in Ryzen 9000 desktop CPUs and EPYC 9005 server processors. That means they have the full 32MB of L3 cache and full-width AVX-512 pipes, and it arguably makes Strix Halo more suited to workstation use than in a gaming device like this, but the part certainly serves in this capacity, to be sure.

This is not the top-end configuration of this machine; it will also be available in a few identical configurations save for the choice of SoC or the memory capacity. The cheapest model starts at $2099 and comes with the twelve-core Ryzen AI MAX 390, while you can pay the same price at Best Buy for this exact machine with 64GB of memory onboard, for a limited time. There will also be a model with 128GB of RAM, which allows it to deliver on the full promise of Strix Halo: devoting a massive 96GB of system RAM to the GPU for use with massive 70B-parameter AI models, machine learning or workstation graphics task that require tons of VRAM capacity.

Other notable details from the specifications include the beautiful “ROG Nebula” LCD screen and the machine’s size and weight. As far as the screen goes, it has zero HDR support and that’s just fine by us. It’s an IPS-type LCD, so it was never destined for great HDR anyway. Instead, ASUS has focused on making it look fantastic in SDR, and indeed it does. It can render 100% of the DCI-P3 colorspace and shines at up to a measured 493 nits, which is close enough to the rated 500 for our purposes. It’s bright, vibrant, and ridiculously sharp at 2560×1600, giving it a PPI of 225—sky-high for a laptop PC device, though still well shy of handhelds like the Ally X or Legion Go.

The ROG Flow z13 comes in stylish packaging with the tablet, the keyboard folio, and a 200W power brick that unfortunately uses what seems to be a non-standard connector. It’s sort of like a doubled-up USB Type-C plug, and just like that popular connector, it is reversible and connects quite securely. We don’t really have a problem with the connector or the charger, but it would have been nice to see a more common plug type. With that said, you actually can charge it off of USB Type-C, too, just much more slowly.

This is what the machine looks like with the keyboard folio closed. The surface area is probably meant to be some kind of fancy synthetic leather but it mostly just feels like rubber. That’s actually good, though, because it helps keep the keyboard and trackpad from sliding around while you’re trying to use them.

Flipping it over, this is the other side of the machine, or the back of the tablet. Most of the back of the system is dominated by air intakes, although the bottom half of the system is covered up by the extensible stand. It’s pretty stiff, and has a remarkably wide range of motion, so you can pick your angle easily. In the top-right corner you can see the 13-megapixel main camera, while at the bottom left is a holographic (not LED-lit) ROG badge.

The keyboard itself is like many others of its type, and makes significant concessions in terms of layout for the sake of retaining key size. We’re not crazy about the layout, particularly the lack of Print Screen, Insert, or right-side Ctrl keys. Some of that is Microsoft’s fault, with its Copilot key wasting some space. The lack of an editing cluster is somewhat forgivable, in that you can hold the Fn key and use the arrows for PgUp/PgDn and Home/End. You can also use Fn+F6 to enter snipping mode, although it’s much clumsier than just hitting Print Screen on other systems.

With all of that said, the keyboard actually feels pretty good to type on, with responsive key actuation and a decent amount of key travel. That’s true even when the keyboard’s metallic strip at the top is attached to the tablet; there’s a bit of flex to be sure, but it’s pretty minimal, all things considered. The keyboard supports RGB LED backlighting and while we didn’t find any capacity for re-binding keys, the Fn layer functions are well-thought-out for the most part. Oh, and one last note about the keyboard folio: it attaches to the bottom of the tablet magnetically and when it is on there, it is extremely on there — it attaches very securely.

On the right side of the tablet (shown here with keyboard removed), starting from the bottom, you have a 3.5mm audio combo jack, a 10-Gbps USB Type-A port, the ScreenXpert button, a volume rocker, and the power button. We really appreciate the inclusion of the two ports here. It would have been all too easy for ASUS to omit analog audio out and USB Type-A connectivity, although if we can be a little greedy, we would have liked a second Type-A port. It’s not the end of the world, though. The controls on this side work well, although we’re not wild about ScreenXpert. More on that later, though.

On the other side of the tablet, you have a UHS-II-capable microSD card reader, that odd power port, a full-sized HDMI 2.1 port with FRL support, and a pair of USB4 ports. Connectivity is pretty stacked on the top left side, and while this certainly isn’t a huge problem, it can be a little awkward if you have things connected to all four ports on the top left of the tablet. Just something to be aware of.

From this angle, you can also get an idea of just how thick this tablet is. It’s about as thick as the base of most gaming laptops, if not thicker. There’s room for a full-sized HDMI 2.1 port with most of a whole centimeter to spare. Attach the keyboard folio, and it’s almost a whole inch thick on the bottom where the stand folds out.

All told, my inexpert photography really doesn’t do the ROG Flow Z13’s looks justice. It’s a stylish, attractive detachable 2-in-1 laptop, even if a bit full-figured. Of course, you’re probably more concerned about how the system performs versus how it looks, so let’s start taking a look at that, next…