I've been ready for this since landing in Las Vegas for CES 2025, and the time is finally here. Preorders are opening for the ASUS ROG Flow Z13 (2025), a brand-new and total redesign of ASUS' unique 2-in-1 detachable Windows laptop designed for gaming. Packing some of the most powerful hardware AMD has every designed for thin-and-light devices, the ROG Flow Z13 is looking to be an exciting bit of tech. I'm definitely stoked to be getting my hands on it.
ASUS didn't inform me exactly when we can expect ROG Flow Z13 preorders to ship out, but you can at least reserve your unit from a number of retailers. There's even a configuration with a whopping 128GB of RAM, for those who need to open all the Google Chrome tabs (or to handle some serious AI workloads, according to ASUS).
If preorders aren't showing as available to you yet, you can count on retailers simply taking their sweet time updating listings.
Some weird hardware to make our nerd hearts happy
The Surface Pro defined the 2-in-1 detachable category as capable, full-featured Windows laptops with highly versatile, ultra-portable designs. The Surface Pro form factor has never been aimed at gamers and users who demand ridiculous levels of power, but ASUS decided to do it anyways with the fantastically weird ROG Flow Z13.
• Price: From $1,999.99 at ASUS
• Display: 13.4-inch IPS LCD ROG Nebula Display, 16:10 aspect ratio, QHD+ (2,560 x 1,600) resolution, 180Hz refresh rate, 3ms response time, 500nits max brightness, 1,500:1 contrast ratio, Dolby Vision HDR support, 100% DCI-P3 color gamut, Pantone Validated, multi-touch & stylus support, Corning Gorilla Glass 5
• CPU: Up to AMD Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 (Zen 5 architecture, 16 cores, 32 threads, up to 5.1GHz)
• GPU: Up to AMD Radeon 8060S (RDNA 3.5 architecture)
• NPU: AMD XDNA 2 (Up to 50 TOPS)
• RAM: Up to 128GB LPDDR5X @ 8,000MHz
• Storage: 1TB M.2 2230 NVMe PCIe Gen 4.0 SSD
• Battery: 70Whr, 200W DC charging
• Ports: 2x USB Type-C 4.0 w/ Power Delivery 3.0 & DisplayPort 2.1, 1x USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 2, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x 3.5mm audio jack, 1x UHS-II microSD card reader
• Dimensions: 300 x 204 x 13-14.9mm (11.81 x 8.03 x 0.51-0.59in)
• Weight: 1.2kg (2.65lbs) w/o keyboard, 1.59kg (3.51lbs) w/ keyboard
Now, nearly two years after the last ROG Flow Z13 was released, we're getting a redesigned successor and a massive shift in design approach. Rather than shoving an entire, power-hungry NVIDIA GPU into a tablet, the brand-new ROG Flow Z13 utilizes AMD's most advanced Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) ever, which combines a ridiculously powerful CPU and integrated GPU on one chipset.
How does this benefit the ROG Flow Z13? Well, massive efficiency gains and a 25% physically larger battery should translate to much improved endurance, and the new ROG Flow Z13 is a full-blown Copilot+ PC thanks to its class-leading Neural Processing Unit (NPU) with up to 50 TOPS of AI computational power. That means you're future-proofed for every AI feature that comes to Windows 11 for years to come.
The new AMD Ryzen AI MAX lineup feels made for this, with support for up to 128GB of quad-channel RAM (compared to just 16GB with the last Flow Z13) — and up to 96GB of that can be allocated to the GPU. No video game you'll play will ever demand so much VRAM, but ASUS is also positioning the ROG Flow Z13 as a serious AI workhorse, able to run an entire 70B large language AI model locally.
Of course, the ROG Flow Z13 is designed with gaming in mind (the return of that RGB-lit rear glass window is all the proof you need), and the 16-core Zen 5 CPU and RDNA 3.5 GPU should easily make this tablet considerably more capable than any PC gaming handheld on the market. The Radeon 8060S can pull up to 80W — the last ROG Flow Z13 could only give 65W of power to its NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060. The new ROG Flow Z13 also borrows the dedicated Command Center button from the ASUS ROG Ally, so you can always quickly access performance profiles and other shortcuts.
On top of that, we get a much-improved port selection, an upgraded keyboard with larger keycaps and a roomier touchpad, a faster 180Hz display with slimmer bezels, and other improvements. If you're worried about the loss of Thunderbolt 4 support with the switch to AMD, don't be; both of the ROG Flow Z13's USB Type-C 4.0 ports fully support Thunderbolt eGPUs and other accessories or docks.
The new ASUS ROG Flow Z13 (2025) is now up for preorder from $1,999.99 at ASUS, but the configuration that most people will want is available for $2,199.99 at Amazon, which bumps you up to the more impressive AMD Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 chipset. This is a higher starting price than its predecessor, but the new ROG Flow Z13 starts with considerably more memory and storage in addition to all the other upgrades, and should comfortably outperform the 2023 model across the board.
I'll be getting the ASUS ROG Flow Z13 (2025) in for review on Windows Central, so I'll be able to put it to the test and see if there really is a place for a 2-in-1 detachable designed with gaming and hardcore AI workloads in mind. Personally, I'm ecstatic that companies like ASUS are still making weird hardware, and I'm not surprised that the ROG Flow Z13 counts among my most anticipated device releases of the year so far.
