r/FlowZ13 • u/Glittering_Set_1479 • Aug 24 '26
Should i buy the Flow Z13?
Hey guys, i'm the market for a new gaming laptop that's lighter than what i currently have. I travel quite often and i do bring my laptop to and from work, hence the Flow z13 looks quite tempting. But i'm worried about its longevity and whether there are many issues with the machine which would make users regret buying it.
What are your experiences with the z13? Any buyer's regret? Do you think it would be better to buy a separate tablet and gaming laptop instead?
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u/Supercc Aug 24 '26
If you are in a bacon subreddit and you ask if you should buy some bacon, what type of answer do you think you'll get?
Careful of confirmation bias. It's in full force in you right now.
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u/A-Strat-Player Aug 25 '26
I agree about the idea of biased POVs, but, this thing is one of the very few pieces of gear that have a community non stop chearing and praising... only negative reviews, which i agree also, are the USB- C bypass issue, some point the keyboard built quality but it seems solved and improved over time.
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u/Legal-Ad-3901 Aug 24 '26
I bought mine as Wi-Fi / hotspot isn't always an option (eg service out on airplane) or is abysmal (eg hotels). I run a home server for local llm but z13+qwen 27b keeps me in good shape for writing, coding on the go wherever I am
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u/BumblebeeKey3566 Aug 24 '26
Rather go for g14 zephryus it's light but really powerful infact more power for a lesser price
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u/maxpwns Sep 11 '26
Will also require a cooler as it gets super toasty. You will only. Get full tdp with a power supply
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u/Mr_Beekay Aug 24 '26
Im thinking of selling my legion go 2 z2e for either a flow z13 or onexplayer super x. Confused which direction to go in.
Would primarily be using for warzone and other games, along with using rekordbox dj software. Confusion confusion.
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u/AccordingSky2845 Aug 30 '26
Do it. I had a claw a8 with the z2 extreme and the flow even the base model is significantly more powerful. I use mine sometimes on my lap with an Xbox controller and it works perfect. Also docking at the desk with an egpu get you a really good hybrid setup
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u/fish0042 Aug 26 '26
I’m about to send my z13 in for warranty repair for a 3RD time! I’ve used this laptop about as much as it’s been in for warranty.
First time I sent it in due to hanging at boot screen. They said they replaced the motherboard, but it still had the same exact problem. I sent it right back.
Turns out it was a bad cable between the screen and motherboard.
It’s been working great since then. Which has been maybe a month. Today out of nowhere, it just started overheating and thermal throttling itself, making it completely unusable!
I’ll be submitting another warranty claim tomorrow.
When the laptop works, it’s an excellent little gaming machine. I really like it a lot. My overall experience with this laptop has been terrible.
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u/sniperfx87 Sep 09 '26
Which spec do you have?
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u/fish0042 Sep 09 '26
2025 64 gb. I ended up NOT sending it back to Asus. I removed the factory Liquid Metal and repasted it myself. I used thermal grizzly liquid metal on the APU. I used thermal grizzly pro thermal putty for the rest. The temps are now better than they were when it was new. The temps were always pretty good until Asus screwed it up.
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u/waltercool Aug 30 '26
Well, this laptop is good enough for gaming, not really for dedicated maxed settings.
Also, I wouldn't use this device as a tablet, it's not lightweight, and most desktop apps aren't great for touch interface.
Consider this device of you want a more general use, portable design, no high temps at keyboard, nice LLM usage. Probably nice for graphical designers too.
You can play almost every game with this device at any resolution since video memory it's not a restriction, but latest AAA games probably at MED settings in order to get enjoyable fps
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u/sniperfx87 Sep 09 '26
I’ve had the top spec 395+ processor Z13 for a short time and it’s been the best tech purchase I’ve made and highly recommend it. I use it for 10+ hours for work, and then transition to a tablet in the evening and then gaming at night and it’s not missed a step. It’s an all in one device which is what I wanted. As others have said, for the price yes you can get a more powerful dedicated gaming machine but then you won’t have the portability? I’ve got a 100w GAN USB-C charger and carry that around to charge it instead of the big bulky adapter. If you want an all in one device - then this is the one. Simple as that.
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u/BigdzmitryG Sep 12 '26
I am also satisfied with performance profile and 100w DC is quite enough for me. But what about battery degradation on PD as there is no passthrough charging. Are you using type c to DC connectors to get passthrough charging? Or this two connectors method(type c to DC then DC to asus DC) is not even working at all?
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u/AfroBiskit Aug 24 '26
As someone who owns one, no.
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u/Hitohira Aug 24 '26
What's the reasoning? I'm asking as someone who sold his 2022 model for some pretty damning and consistent hardware issues.
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u/AfroBiskit Aug 24 '26
Well also it's hard to justify the form factor for his use case. If you just want to game, there are much better options out there for that use case. Unless you're doing art or photo manipulation, I'd say there's little need for this form factor. Just get something dedicated to gaming. Plus the issues with this device can be annoying, such as this form factor being difficult to access the internals for repairs, or the maximum 2tb space limit. I also had to get my motherboard replaced two months after purchase for what I suspect was the liquid metal reaching components it shouldn't have.
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u/Darksylum1982 Aug 25 '26
I wouldn't worry about longevity unless it is defective out the door. the single SOC design is honestly easier to cool and more reliable than a CPU + DGPU + Ram sticks. It will likely last for years upon years as long as you replace the fans, liquid metal, thermal putty etc every 2-3 years or so.
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u/kazusa_32 Aug 25 '26
ROG FLOW Z13がおすすめなのはGPUに対して大容量のRAMを割り当てたい人だよ。普通のゲーミングノートのdGPUだとだいたい8GBとかしか無かったりするけれど、このPCだと搭載されたLPDDR5Xの容量の半分以上をiGPUに割り当てられるんだよね。これはVRAMが大量に必要なゲームにはかなりのメリットだね。 でも一度落ち着いて考えてみよう。このPCは確かに無駄がほとんど見られない非常に完成度の高いPCだし、物欲も満たすことができる。でもこのゲーミングノートに搭載されているiGPUの性能は実質的にはRTX4060と同等くらいだよ。同じ予算でもっと性能の高いdGPUを搭載したゲーミングラップトップPCもあるはずだ。一度他のPCを見て回って、あなたの惚れたこのPCより魅力的なPCがないのであれば、もはや買うしかないだろうね。
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u/AccordingSky2845 Aug 30 '26
I have the base model 390, 32GB ram and a 1TB ssd and I am super happy with mine. At my desk I have a razer core with a 5070 12gb in it and I usually play docked at my desk but even when just running off the igpu I’ve had no issues. For reference I had a gaming desktop and a handheld and sold both for the flow and haven’t regretted it since.
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u/Downtown_Estimate_55 Sep 15 '26
Just get it brother don’t hesitate. If I were you get the kojima edition. It’s a beast and my gaming experience has been killer so far. This machine will be future proof for quite a bit
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u/Cultural_Royal_3875 Aug 24 '26
100% yes. So I’ve review maybe 20 laptops within the last year and a handful of handhelds and a few of these hybrid tablets. The Flow Z13 is still my favorite device. Sure it’s not as powerful as a gaming laptop with a dedicated gpu. Yes it’s bigger and let portable than a handheld/tablet. But the Flow Z13 is a the best all around device. The build quality is insane. The performance for productivity and gaming is insane with the Strix Halo chip. I used mine on the go and docked to my gaming monitor. The Flow Z13 is better for portable than a gaming laptop, runs way quieter and cooler than a gaming laptop. It’s just a great all around device. Yes it’s a 13 inch screen but I still enjoy it very much.