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Asus has long carved its own corner in the tech world and every once in a while introduces gadgets that highlight design brilliance with its own quirky elements. The Asus Zenbook 14 Space edition and the Asus Zephyrus G14 Alan Walker, introduced in the last two years, are excellent examples of Asus’ standout offerings. The latest to wow gaming enthusiasts this year is the Asus ROG Flow Z13-ACRNM (pronounced acronym), which showcases the best of tech and fashion, based on its collaboration with fashion brand ACRONYM® GmbH.
Design
The design of ROG Flow Z13-ACRNM builds upon last year’s ROG Flow Z13. The tablet delivers a starship-like feel with a machine-milled aluminium chassis built like a tank and has the looks and features that make it a premium gaming tablet. Managing to pack both the screen and the powerful body of a high-end studio laptop into the tablet form factor of the ROG Flow Z13-ACRNM is a good example of getting things right with the design.
Carrying straps for the mobile content creator. | Photo Credit: Bijoy Ghosh
The four side corners of the screen are reinforced by aluminium and rubber bumpers, to shield the screen from drops. With the tablet’s built-in kickstand, I could prop it up and enjoy versatile screen orientations for various activities like consuming content, drawing, gaming, and even reading e-books in vertical mode.
Display
13.4-Inch QHD+ display | Photo Credit: Bijoy Ghosh
The ROG Flow Z13-ACRNM features a 13.4-inch 16:10 touch display, which can display QHD+ (2560 x 1600 resolution). The touchscreen has an impressive refresh rate of 165 Hz making this an ideal screen to play fast-paced FPS games. In case you’re a content creator, the device’s screen is 100 per cent DCI-P3 making it ideal for video editing and consuming media.
The tablet has support for Active Stylus 2.0, which was a joy to use with drawing apps and the occasional scrubbing of video timelines on DaVinci Resolve.
Active Stylus 2.0 | Photo Credit: Bijoy Ghosh
Performance
The ROG Flow Z13-ACRNM features a 13th Gen Intel Core i9-13900H processor paired along with an 8 GB NVIDIA RTX 4070 laptop GPU, 32 GB RAM, and 1 TB Gen 4 SSD, all packed into a tablet form factor. The device scored 642 points on the CPU (Single-Core), and 13,325 points on the CPU(Multi-core) Cinebench R23 platform placing it third against desktop class Ryzen Threadripper processors.
I used the device to play games, such as Halo Infinite, which rendered at a steady 60+ FPS, and Deathloop at 80 FPS at ultra graphics with ease. The fact that the tablet features a mobile 4070 RTX laptop GPU and support for NVIDIA broadcast to help with AI noise cancellation, video framing, and more makes this device the ideal portable work device for content creators.
The two side-firing speakers are quite weak and do not deliver a surround sound experience while gaming. I preferred plugging in gaming headphones into the 3.5 audio jack to get a more immersive experience.
Accessories
The snap-on keyboard is shipped with the tablet and attaches to the screen via magnets and contact pins at the bottom. The keyboard offers great travel and tactile feedback, but the ACRNM branding-lettering alongside the regular alphabet on each key was confusing to use at first. The keyboard features a backlight that helps in those late night review writing sessions.
The trackpad was a little too small for my liking with very little room for movement. It is also flimsy to handle fast paced movement while gaming, so I’d anyday prefer using a dedicated gaming mouse.
The keyboard accessory doesn’t have battery or Bluetooth-connectivity, which makes it quite limited in terms of functionality. So, for example, the device cannot be docked to a larger display and used for typing or browsing.
The device also features a 13MP rear camera and 5MP IR camera on the top for video calls. The quality would suffice for most video calls.
Connectivity ports and keyboard | Photo Credit: Bijoy Ghosh
Connectivity
The ROG Flow Z13-ACRNM features one USB-A port, one USB Type-C Thunderbolt 4 port, and Asus’s proprietary module XG Mobile connector, which also features a USB Type-C Gen 3.2 port hidden behind a rubberised access port. The only upgradable component is storage via an M.2(2230) slot hidden on the back of the tablet under the kick-stand and a Micro SD card slot also for storage expansion.
Battery
The ROG Flow Z13-ACRNM features a 56 WHr Li-ion battery. The battery life was average - about 4.5 hours on power efficiency/ eco mode and around 1.5 hours while on best performance mode unplugged and under an hour while gaming. The Flow Z13 can be charged via a 130-Watt USB Type-C power-brick which charges the device from 0-100 in under 2 hours.
Conclusion
The ROG Flow Z13-ACRNM delivers excellent performance in a compact form factor with a great processor and GPU. The ROG Flow Z13 is ideal for gamers, content creators, and media professionals who can afford a powerful Windows tablet. But, how many consumers would prefer a tablet - no matter how powerful - over a full-blown gaming laptop or a portable workstation?
The prohibitively expensive price tag of the ROG Flow Z13-ACRNM and its limited utility as a specialised gaming tablet is not an alluring combination. Especially, when there are premium gaming laptops with similar features and specs that cost less than 2 lakhs, such as the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i and the Dell Alienware m15 R7.
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