Preorder Now: ASUS’ New 2-in-1 Gaming Laptop with Powerful AMD Hardware

Since touching down in Las Vegas for CES 2025, I’ve been eagerly awaiting this moment, and now it’s arrived! Pre-orders are opening for the ASUS ROG Flow Z13 (2025), a completely revamped edition of ASUS’ innovative 2-in-1 detachable Windows laptop tailored for gaming. This device boasts some of the most advanced hardware AMD has ever produced for lightweight devices, making it an intriguing piece of technology. I can hardly wait to test it out myself!

ASUS hasn’t specified an exact shipping date for the ROG Flow Z13 preorders yet, but you can reserve your device from several retailers. For power users, there’s a configuration boasting an impressive 128GB of RAM, which is ideal for running numerous Google Chrome tabs or handling demanding AI tasks, as stated by ASUS.

Some weird hardware to make our nerd hearts happy

The Microsoft Surface Pro pioneered the category of 2-in-1 detachable devices by offering powerful, feature-rich Windows laptops with flexible, ultra-portable designs that are ideal for a variety of uses. However, it’s important to note that the Surface Pro design wasn’t designed for gamers or those requiring extreme power. Still, ASUS took a daring approach and created the ROG Flow Z13, which is quite unusual but still manages to offer gaming capabilities.

Approximately two years since the last ROG Flow Z13 model was launched, we now have a redesigned follow-up with a significant change in design philosophy. Unlike its predecessor that housed a power-consuming NVIDIA GPU within a tablet form factor, the latest ROG Flow Z13 leverages AMD’s most advanced Accelerated Processing Unit (APU). This cutting-edge technology integrates an incredibly potent CPU and graphics processor on a single chipset.

This upgrade significantly enhances the ROG Flow Z13’s performance, primarily by boosting efficiency and increasing its battery size by 25%. Consequently, the device should offer considerably extended battery life. Moreover, the new ROG Flow Z13 has been upgraded to a top-tier Copilot+ PC due to its advanced Neural Processing Unit (NPU), capable of delivering up to 50 TOPS of AI computational power. In simpler terms, this means that the device is well-equipped to handle any AI features that Windows 11 might introduce in the future, ensuring it remains state-of-the-art for years to come.

The latest AMD Ryzen AI MAX series seems tailor-made for such tasks, offering up to 128GB of quad-channel RAM (in contrast to the previous Flow Z13’s 16GB). Remarkably, 96GB of this can be dedicated to the GPU. While no video game will require that much Video Random Access Memory (VRAM), ASUS is positioning the ROG Flow Z13 as a robust AI worker, capable of running an entire 70B large language AI model locally.

Absolutely, the ROG Flow Z13 is specifically tailored for gaming (the illuminated RGB glass panel at the back serves as a clear testament), and it’s expected to outperform any gaming handheld on the market due to its 16-core Zen 5 processor and RDNA 3.5 graphics unit. The Radeon 8060S, capable of drawing up to 80W, is a significant upgrade from the previous ROG Flow Z13’s 65W NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060. Additionally, this new model inherits the dedicated Command Center button from the ASUS ROG Ally, enabling quick access to performance settings and shortcuts.

Beyond these enhancements, I’m thrilled about the significant upgrade in port selection, an enhanced keyboard featuring larger keys and a more spacious touchpad, a swift 180Hz display with narrower bezels, and numerous additional improvements. If you have concerns regarding the absence of Thunderbolt 4 support due to the transition to AMD, let me put your mind at ease; both USB Type-C 4.0 ports on the ROG Flow Z13 are fully compatible with Thunderbolt eGPUs and various other accessories or docks.

The latest ASUS ROG Flow Z13 (2025) is now available for pre-order at a starting price of $1,999.99 from ASUS, but if you’re after the configuration that offers better performance, it’s available for $2,199.99 on Amazon. This higher-priced model features the AMD Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 chipset. Although this new ROG Flow Z13 has a higher starting price than its predecessor, it comes with significantly more memory and storage, as well as numerous upgrades, making it expected to surpass the 2023 model in terms of overall performance.

In this upcoming review on Windows Central, I’ll be receiving the ASUS ROG Flow Z13 (2025) for evaluation. This will give me the opportunity to thoroughly test it out and determine if there truly is a market niche for a 2-in-1 detachable device that caters to gaming and heavy AI tasks. I’m genuinely thrilled that manufacturers like ASUS continue to innovate with unique hardware, and it comes as no surprise that the ROG Flow Z13 is among my most eagerly anticipated device launches of the year thus far.

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2025-02-18 17:09