The pair of most compact gaming computers in the company’s arsenal will become more powerful in 2023
Among all the powerful computers at CES 2023, the pair of sophisticated compacts from Asus that are designed to allow gaming worthy of its name on the go stood out, once again – the ROG Flow Z13 in tablet configuration and the ROG Flow X13 in a more classic hybrid configuration.
The ROG Flow X13 continues the romance with Asus and adopts the octagonal Ryzen 9 7940HS as its main engine, with an operating frequency that reaches up to 5.2GHz, which is combined with a 13.4-inch touch screen that is capable of 360-degree movement on Draw like any other hybrid mobile – a screen that will be available with an IPS panel of 1,920×1,200 pixels with a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz and coverage of 100 percent of the color spectrum in the sRGB standard as the cheap default, or with a more advanced IPS panel with a resolution of 2,560×1,600 pixels with A refresh rate of up to 165 Hz, 100 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut, average response times of 3 milliseconds and G-Sync support.
16GB of dual-channel LPDDR5 memory will also be the new default for the device, with possible support for 32GB only in the most advanced model, plus NVMe storage in the Gen 4 standard with a volume of 512GB as a base or 1TB in more advanced models – based on a tiny M.2 card in the 2230 configuration. All models will come with fast Wi-Fi 6E connectivity, an internal 75Wh battery, a 1080p webcam with support for Windows Hello technology, an array of a pair of stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos support, an array of three microphones for advanced noise filtering and a set of connections that includes One USB 4 in the Type-C interface, a pair of additional USB 3.2 Gen 2 connections, a full-size HDMI 2.1 port and also a dedicated ROG XG connector for external video cards.
The most important difference between the sub-models will be in their graphics capabilities, of course – when the basic model with a 1080p screen will be satisfied with the built-in Radeon 780M core of the processor, while three other models will include the GeForce RTX 4050, the GeForce RTX 4060 or the -GeForce RTX 4070 in the most expensive and advanced configuration – all with a power envelope of only up to 60 watts (45 watts as a base with an additional 15 watts possible thanks to Dynamic Boost) but also a dedicated multiplexer and support for Advanced Optimus technology that will allow them to operate in front of the built-in display directly without switching through the video interfaces of the built-in graphics core.
The 2023 ROG Flow Z13 continues to claim the title of the most powerful tablet in the entire world, and probably rightly so – with NVIDIA’s latest GeForce RTX 4050 or GeForce RTX 4060 in a power envelope of up to 65 watts (of which 50 watts as a base and another 15 watts possible with Dynamic Boost) , alongside a somewhat “nostalgic” base version with a GeForce RTX 2050 in it that everyone would be better off being careful and even avoiding, if only due to the lack of support for new generation technologies such as DLSS3 which are a very important component of the set of capabilities that claims to be greater than the sum of its parts within the Lovelace architecture.
The unusual tablet will benefit from an Intel Core i9-13900H processor with 14 physical processing cores inside, 16GB of dual-channel LPDDR5 memory, PCI-Express 4.0 storage of 512GB or 1TB, Windows 11 Pro version system, 13 megapixel rear camera, selfie camera / a 5-megapixel front network and an internal 56Wh battery – all in a device with a weight of only 1.18 kilograms and a maximum thickness of 14.2 millimeters when the accompanying keyboard cover is not taken into account.
The Flow Z13 screen for 2023 will be the same in all three sub-versions, and it is probably also the same as the one the company uses for the advanced models of the Flow X13 – QHD resolution in IPS technology with a refresh rate of up to 165 Hz, coverage of 100 percent of the range of colors in the DCI standard -P3, support for Dolby Vision content and color calibration verified by the Pantone company – but without official support for G-Sync, but only the more basic Adaptive Sync technology of VESA.
The set of connections on the tablet includes one USB Type-C with Thunderbolt 4 technology, which is also intended to be a replacement for the HDMI port thanks to its support for the transmission of DisplayPort, an additional USB 3.2 Gen 1 connection in a physical Type-A configuration, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 connection in a Type-C configuration – And the unique ROG XG connector for external video cards, hopefully Basus will provide continuity of support for the technology with the launch of RTX 4000 versions of those compact card cases adapted to accelerate the performance of the internal hardware, in both Flow Z13 and Flow X13.
Are you impressed by the technologies that Asus managed to cram into this duo, or not really? Let’s share in the comments.