Gaming and mobility continue to inspire ASUS. The firm takes advantage of CES 2022 to unveil a brand new device: the convertible tablet ROG Flow Z13. This new slate takes the concept popularized by Microsoft with its Surface Pro, but diverting it to players.
A convertible tablet running Windows 11, dedicated body and soul to gamers. This is the concept carried by the ROG Flow Z13 tablet unveiled on January 4 by ASUS. Seemingly stocky, the latter combines a low-power processor and a dedicated graphics card to delight gamers on the go. Like the ROG Flow X13 last year, it is compatible with the ROG XG Mobile external GPU (which offers the latest GPUs from AMD and up to an RTX 3080 on the NVIDIA side), thanks to the proprietary ROG XGM connector.
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A tablet designed to appeal to gamers
For now, ASUS does not yet communicate the full details of the specifications of this gaming tablet, but we should find the latest low-power Intel Alder Lake processors (12e generation) and a dedicated NVIDIA GPU (presumably an RTX 3050 or 3050 Ti). The manufacturer nevertheless specifies that we can count on a maximum of 32 GB of LPDDR5 at 5200 MHz and a maximum storage capacity of 1 TB, in M.2 NVMe SSD.
To effectively cool its components, the ROG Flow Z13 tablet is equipped with a vapor chamber, already used in the past at ASUS on some gaming laptops, while liquid metal once again replaces the traditional thermal paste to improve the maximum dissipation. Two 84-blade fans will be responsible for expelling the heat outside the chassis. The latter is however a little larger than on the more traditional Windows 11 tablets: count 302.8 x 204.8 x 12.9 mm for 1.1 kilo (without the keyboard).
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On the screen side, ASUS offers a choice of an Ultra HD 60 Hz IPS panel (85% DCI-P3) or a Full HD IPS panel rising to 120 Hz and covering 100% of the sRGB spectrum. The 16:10 ratio is relevant in both cases, for increased comfort in office automation. Finally, the tablet is powered by a 56 Wh battery compatible with fast charging. It will be able to regain 50% of autonomy in just 30 minutes on the mains, assures ASUS.
The connectivity of this tablet intended for gamers is based on a USB-C Thunderbolt 4 port, a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port (supporting display and power), a connector dedicated to the ROG XG station. Mobile, a USB-A 2.0 port, a micro SD card reader, an HDMI 2.0 output and a headphone jack. Wi-Fi 6E was also mentioned.
The G14 reinvents itself (a little) and finally embeds a webcam!
Still on the theme of mobility and gaming, ASUS announces a new version of its ROG Zephyrus G14. Last year, the device had simply been updated on the hardware side. This year, it is evolving a little more markedly, without changing.
Fans of this 14-inch ultraportable gaming therefore find a product still as compact (312 x 227 x 19.5 mm for 1.75 kg) whose chassis is once again based, among other things, on a magnesium alloy. However, we are moving to a more interesting screen, which adopts the 16:10 ratio and therefore benefits from much more discreet borders. ASUS again offers two options for the display. You can opt for a QHD panel, 120 Hz, 100% DCI-P3, 3 ms response time and having a maximum luminance of 500 nits, or else favor the speed with a Full HD screen, 144 Hz, 100% sRGB, 3 ms and rising to 450 nits maximum.
Another novelty, ASUS has also redesigned the AniMe backlighting system, present on the cover of its ultraportable gaming. The company has managed to increase the number of mini-LEDs by 19% to allow finer and more beautiful animations to watch than in the past.
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The most interesting ? This is what evolves inside the chassis. Faithful to AMD with this new G14, ASUS offers the group’s latest low-power and high-performance processors. We will thus go up to the Ryzen 9 6900HS (35 W), and the latter can this year be coupled with AMD Radeon GPUs (Radeon RX 6800S 8 GB or RX 6700S 8 GB, both with 80 W of TGP). To cool all these beautiful people, a steam chamber is also topical, coupled with new “Arc Flow” fans which improve air flow by 5%.
The 2022 ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 also ships a maximum of 16 GB of DDR5 at 4800 MHz (with a SODIMM slot left vacant to upgrade to 32 GB if necessary) and has 1 TB of SSD on its high-end version. range. Its connectivity includes a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port (which supports power and display), a classic USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port, two USB-A 3.2 Gen2 ports, an HDMI 2.0 output, a player SD card (UHS-II) and a headphone jack. Finally, the device has a 76 Wh battery that can regain 50% of autonomy in 30 minutes. ASUS promises that it is able to offer more than 10 hours of battery life in video playback. We will verify this during our test.
Last, and not the least, the G14 finally gets a standard webcam (it was not the case before), which is also compatible with facial recognition via Windows Hello.
On the availability side, the new G14 will be launched from the 1st quarter of 2022, from 1,599 euros. The ROG Flow Z13 tablet will hit the market during the same period, starting at a price of 1,499 euros this time.
Sources: ASUS Briefing, ASUS press releases
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