The new ROG Flow Z13 is ditching dedicated graphics but making up for it with AMD's next-gen Ryzen AI Max APU
No longer an elusive creature of legend, we've been learning all of the Strix Halo APU's secrets lately. Firstly, there's power in names and AMD's flagship laptop APU has finally been knighted the 'AMD Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 395 w/ Radeon 8060S.' Fair play to AMD—that is a name that strikes fear in the hearts of mortal men. However, it's not so intimidating once you break it down, as the 'Radeon 8060S' only refers to the integrated GPU inside the AI Max+ Pro 395.
Besides Jacob's further demystifying of AMD's next-gen APU, revealing all of the secrets we learned during CES 2025, here's the story that'll really still the air in your lungs: you'll be able to wield the power of the AMD Ryzen AI Max APU yourself in the 2025 version of the ROG Flow Z13 tablet. Talk about an absolute monster.
Stay your hand, knave—let's talk specs. First up, the ROG Flow Z13 (2025) has no dedicated GPU to speak of because that will be handled by the AMD Ryzen AI Max integrated graphics. That's why they call it an 'accelerated processing unit' because, in a manner of speaking, it's dual-wielding those two processing loads.
With up to 16 Zen 5 cores and 40 RDNA 3.5 Compute Units (CUs), AMD's Ryzen AI Max offers some serious power, even if it is an integrated chiplet. But as Nick wrote last year, while one Geekbench synthetic compute test score of 67,004 is definitely head-turning, we cannot know for certain how the APU will handle games until we actually get our mitts on it.
As for the ROG Flow Z13 (2025) more specifically, there's plenty more on the spec sheet to dive into besides its beastly heart. For instance, the 13.4-inch touch screen will offer 1600p resolution at 180Hz—like a gorgon, that'll be difficult to tear your eyes away from. With Corning Gorilla Glass 5 too, here's hoping the screen withstands scratches and drops far better than petrified stone.
I know it's a bit old hat to talk about how tiny powerful bits of kit are these days, but don't begrudge me this simple pleasure. So, speaking of how it feels in the hands, this 2025 release of the ROG Flow Z13 features a totally new chassis, measuring about half an inch thick. That remains a head-turning form factor, even if I can't yet speak to how heavy this thing will be.
In all, it's a smaller form factor than its predecessor by close to 15%, but I'm pretty chuffed to see that this tablet is still rocking a full-sized HDMI port. That's alongside two more Type-C ports, and it's also been confirmed this tablet will require 200 W charging.
Still, we'll have to wait and see what that battery life is like in practice—though if our time with the similarly Strix Point-powered OneXFly F1 Pro handheld is anything to go by, it may be a far from heroic performance.
Asus was also keen to highlight that the touchscreen remains cooler than its predecessors by around 1.3 °C in part thanks to a design that affords 70% more airflow.
I can at least hope for fingertips that are slightly less uncomfortably toasty, though until I get the chance to paw at the touchscreen myself, we'll have to wait and see if we're dealing with a genuine legend. At the very least, I'm hoping this revised 2025 release offers something a little more compelling than its years-old predecessor.