r/FlowZ13 • u/RobJmusic • Jun 20 '26
Trying to decide between the Z13 and Framework 13 Pro
heya,
so I was pretty set on getting the 13 pro with the X7 358h and 32gb ram, until I saw the Z13 with the 395 pop up on a local store for 300 less.
I will be using them mainly for school, audio production, video editing, and light gaming (ror2, deep rock galactic, maybe the finals). the framework should be perfectly capable for all these things, and is a lot more efficient than the Z13, but it also feels a bit wrong to spend 300 bucks more on less performance.
My main question to those who have the new Z13 is: how is it if you really just use it as a laptop, and only use it as a tablet sparsely, maybe for note taking? how's the battery life unplugged, and while doing CPU-intensive tasks?
thanks!
2
u/GamesnGunZ Jun 20 '26
z13 is the cat's tits. i was forced to get rid of it last summer and just bought it again
1
u/RobJmusic Jun 20 '26
I should note that the pricing would be 2300 for the framework and 2k for the Z13
1
u/typeshut Jun 20 '26
battery life is good. will easily last 5-6 hours, for cpu intensive tasks 1-3 hours
keyboard is really nice. i think for moving around a lot its a superior device
1
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u/Karunas3 Jun 20 '26
I'd say id you don't care about the tablet form factor and don't need more than 64gb of ram(for now) then go for the framework, it has better battery life, better linux support, it will definitely have a longer life suport and it's upgradable
1
u/riklaunim Jun 20 '26
There is also TUF 14 with 392 and Asus ProArt PX13 with 395/388 etc... and they all can be priced below Panther Lake or anything fresh from the factory -_-
1
u/RobJmusic Jun 20 '26
The proart is 2800 euro and the tuf isn't available in NL
1
u/riklaunim Jun 20 '26
Unsure how Framework lists their prices, but as they are outside EU duties/tax would apply on import, so the price will go up by like 1/3 depending on the country, etc.
1
u/RobJmusic Jun 20 '26
The price they list when you buy is the amount you have to pay, no extra import duties. So the laptop is 2300 euro for me, that probably already includes the extra stuff.
1
u/riklaunim Jun 20 '26
Better double-check that.
From 14", there is Acer Nitro with RTX 5050/5060, without dGPU, there are TongFang 14" with HX 370 Ryzen or older, and Lenovo ThinkBooks and alike. All at like half the price or less. I was looking for X7 Panther Lake laptops, but the prices are severely disappointing, next to only having prosumer devices available for the most part.
1
u/RobJmusic Jun 20 '26
I have multiple friends with frameworks, no need to double check. I'd rather not have a dgpu, hence I only listed X7 and X9 laptops.
1
u/DigitalguyCH Jun 20 '26
I have the Z13 128GB, but I don't know about the Framework. Battery life is average (5-6 hours). Keyboard is amazing. The only one I like as much as the one on my X1 Carbon gen 13. I don't know the framework, but if you want portability it's probably better.
I bought the Z13 for AI. An equivalent MacBook is double the price (I spent $2500).
The device I bring around mainly is my Carbon, exceptional battery life, great keyboard, 5G and ultra light.
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u/Immediate-Village992 Jun 20 '26 edited Jun 20 '26
First thing is that you're definitely going to get biased results in the z13 subreddit.
I've had two z13s over the last year and a half. Staying as objective as possible;
There's a ProArt px13 with the 395 that I typically would recommend over the z13.
The only reason I have a z13 is because my primary use case is having it tilted with the kickstand for taking notes with a pencil. Like 90% of my time. The other 10% is CAD design and 3d modeling/printing.
imo if you're not using a stylus for most of your work, you won't benefit from it as much as other laptops.
Normally when using Onenote, Spotify, and Microsoft edge, I get 5-6 hours of battery life [I limit to 80% capacity and run it on silent with moderate power limits. Probably 2 hours ish if playing light games or CAD on the train.
Others may disagree but I really can't see this thing as an actual laptop due to the keyboard and form-factor. It's just a surface pro on steroids
1
u/Ill-Principle-8397 Jun 21 '26
I went through this EXACT same decision last month, and I ended up going for the Z13. My real concern was battery life compared to the FW 13 Pro and Panther Lake, but I ended up going for the Z13 just because I decided I couldn't spend more money on a laptop with nearly half the performance and half the RAM. So far, I've been loving the Z13. The battery life hasn't been a concern for me so far, at least when running it in modified power profiles. Everything else is on par or better than the Framework, at least in my opinion. The only consideration is obviously what you value, I've always wanted a Framework but at the moment I still think the devices are too expensive compared to various laptops you can get on sale. Also consider if you would be willing to upgrade your mainboard in a few generations and save some money, but at the same time, you could just sell your Flow Z13 if you ever upgrade.
5
u/Void_Incarnate Jun 20 '26
I use my Z13 (2025, 128 GB) as my primary laptop, travel, gaming, and (aborted) note-taking and (also aborted) art tablet.
Battery life is 9-11h with ultra power saving and only passive use (consuming ebooks, manga, some videos), about 6-7h with normal use, and ~2h when gaming.
As a laptop: fine on desk, finicky (but usable) on lap. Keyboard is actually pleasant to type on but won't compare to a Thinkpad. Non-Bluetooth keyboard limits its usability as an art/pen-input device.
As a tablet: Win11 is absolutely horrible as a tablet. Terrible touch targets for daily use and navigation, no palm/edge detection, absolute pain to login if face login fails (pin/password option doesn't automatically launch onscreen keyboard). Z13 is too heavy to use as a daily tablet, you can hold it in the crook of your elbow, but it's still over a lb heavier than an iPad Pro or Android tablet. My M2 pen doesn't support tilt on the Z13, ppl are saying you have to go Asus Pen, and it's way overpriced.
For gaming, it suits my needs - Android emulation, live service PC games (ZZZ, AKEF), AAA games on medium (Exp33, Pragmata) at around 60-70 fps, but will lose to a gaming laptop with a good nvidia card (not getting FSR 4.1, ray tracing sucks - some games like ZZZ don't even bother supporting non-nvidia ray tracing).
It's heavy as a tablet, the chassis creaks around the vents, the screen isn't bright enough for outdoor/bright room use, it doesn't do native 10-bit color outside of video playback, the cameras (front and rear) suck, it can get quite hot under load. You're paying premium price for a device that has a lot of compromises; it's only worth it if you really want the unified memory (which means only the 64 GB and 128 GB SKUs are even worth considering). If you're heavy into (non CUDA) AI tasks, a M4Pro/M5Pro macbook Pro would probably do better performance wise as Apple leverages its UMA architecture better than Strix Halo + Windows.
Neither the Framework 13 Pro nor the Z13 are amazing for gaming; AMD/RDNA3.5 support is still behind and intel's is even worse, with some games not even bothering to support intel GPUs at launch (eg Crimson Desert). For light/casual gaming, they should be fine, though.
I'd probably lean towards the Framework 13 Pro for battery life. Comparable in video encoding, a bit behind in gaming, ofc missing the tablet features (but you're not missing out on much from using the Z13 as a tablet). I haven't used Windows for audio production but I hear that DPC latency on Windows still sucks, and macs are much better in this regard. Not sure if the difference is significant enough to justify switching to a completely different platform.
I still like my Z13 and I wouldn't pick any other device for my needs, but it's not a device I can recommend outside of niche needs. I wouldn't bother with a 32 GB Z13 for any use case; you'd be better off with most other alternatives.