Review cover ROG Flow Z13-ACRNM RMT02 (Hardware)
Official GBAtemp Review

Review Approach:

Product loaned by ASUS for the purpose of review.
A collaborative step up from the Flow Z13, we take a look at the latest and greatest in ASUS' gaming tablet lineup.

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I'm not exactly quiet when it comes to my love of portable gaming. Moving from traditional handheld consoles to Nintendo's hybrid Switch, and later into the portable PC world, there's just something to love about being able to game on the go. Perhaps the most curious of this portable gaming market is the niche of gaming tablets. With ASUS really being the only players in this form factor and power profile, just how much are they stepping up their game from the Flow Z13 we previously looked at?


An Upgrade on Paper


So before going any further, let's get some key specs out of the way. We have a 13th generation i9 CPU in the 13900H paired with an RTX 4070 Laptop series GPU and 32 GB of LPDDR5 RAM. Add to this a 165 Hz 1600p screen, that being 1440p in the 16:10 aspect ratio, and you really have a device that steps up its game in every way from my old 2022 Z13. It's genuinely impressive how much they've managed to fit into this form factor even if there have been a few compromises along the way, but we'll touch on those later.

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Much like the 2022 Z13 tablet we get a 1 TB 2230 M.2 SSD that's incredibly easy to access with a single screw under the kickstand and swap out. Again following on from its predecessor though, we see non-upgradable RAM, and a non-trivial time if you want to open it up to attempt to fix anything should it break.

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Looking to IO we have the exact same layout as before. You have your XG Mobile external graphics interface (that itself features a USB 3.2 Type C if you're not using an XG Mobile) alongside a more traditional Thunderbolt 4 USB C port. On the opposite side you have a USB 3.2 Type A port, 3.5mm combo jack, physical volume rocker, and a power button. And finally, hidden under the stand we have a UHS II Micro SD card slot. On paper very little has changed, and that's not a bad thing. It's not pushing any boundaries with its IO but it's certainly enough to cover most bases. While some kind of video output would be appreciated, most people will be covered by the USB C ports supporting DisplayPort, or the XG Mobile interface should the budget allow it. One small tweak comes from the power button, with it no longer being a fingerprint sensor. I quite liked this in the 2022 Z13, with it grabbing your fingerprint on turning the device on and carrying it through to the Windows home screen, something we're actually seeing again with the ROG Ally. It has been replaced with Windows Hello and it does work fine, but it could be seen as a regression all the same.

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One last thing worth mentioning in the box is the inclusion of a slightly stylised stylus for use with the tablet. Functionally I believe it's identical to the ASUS Pen, meaning it's lightweight and charges pretty quickly using a USB C port hidden towards the top of the pen. It's about as responsive as you'd expect from a Windows stylus and has two buttons on the side. I had good fun using this for some lighter games like Bloons TD6, Luck be a Landlord, and naturally some DS emulation.


Benchmarks and Performance


In terms of what you can expect from performance, it's good. It's almost certainly the best in its form factor, but you should taper your expectations a little. While the RMT02 does pack a 4070 Laptop GPU, it's operating at power levels far below what the card itself is capable of. The card being rated to run at between 35 and 115W, the 50W (plus 15W from dynamic boost) of the RMT02 sits pretty much in the middle. What this means is that while it does stand as a notable step up from the 3050 Ti in the 2022 Z13, and assumedly the 4060 in the 2023 Z13 that I unfortunately don't have to hand, it will fall short of 4070s in larger gaming laptops. In this kind of form factor, it's a delicate balance between performance and heat, but I think they struck it well.

For the benchmarks below, I ran the 2022 Z13 and the RMT02 through Geekbench and Cinebench on the CPU side. For the GPU I decided to use Geekbench again, as well as a few in-game benchmarks in Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Hitman 3. It should be noted that for both of these games I'm looking at the highest available settings with DLSS disabled, and that you can naturally get higher framerates by tweaking the settings. With Hitman 3, I also looked at the average FPS with and without ray tracing, again set to its highest configuration. Alongside the tablets, I also decided to include my 2022 Z13 when docked to the RTX 3080 Laptop XG Mobile. For those who have been looking at XG Mobile units with the coming ROG Ally release, this is comparable to the RX 6850M XT card that's soon to be available, albeit slightly slower in newer games thanks in part to be being the oldest XG Mobile (released in 2021 vs the 6850M XT releasing in 2022).

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The results shouldn't be too much of a surprise. While the 4070 isn't running at its best, it's still 65 to 70% better than the 3050 Ti on Geekbench scoring, and doubling the framerate in the 1080p game tests. I did also include the average framerate when running at the device's native 1600p, and it really does perform well. I'm glad ASUS decided to stick with 1600p this time around instead of overreaching on a 4K screen that really won't be utilised to its fullest. At 1600p you will be able to utilise the higher framerates the screen is capable of, though you'll likely have to drop your settings to something closer to medium to really reach the heights of 165 Hz.

It also probably shouldn't be a surprise to see the XG Mobile beat out the internal 4070. With gains between 10 and 20% in framerate, you're seeing the full 150W capabilities of the 3080. It's nice to see this dock still stands up being the oldest in the range, but I don't think that power uplift is really worth the price of entry here. You're only likely to get significant gains by investing in 2023's XG Mobile that comes packing a Laptop 4090 GPU, and when that alone costs £2000, I'd probably recommend bumping your game's graphics down if you find it running poorly.

The CPU also sees a nice generational increase in performance, coming out about 10% higher in single core performance across both benchmarks, with multicore performance being boosted by 10% in Geekbench and a more impressive 40% in Cinebench. Having used the RMT02 for around a month now, there's not been anything from my library it wasn't capable of handling, and it coming with three months of Game Pass Ultimate means you'll have plenty to try after turning it on.


The Acronym Factor


Here though there's more to talk about than just its performance. After all, this isn't just an ASUS ROG device. This is an Acronym device. For those who don't know, myself being among you until recently, Acronym are a pretty big name in tech apparel. That is to say tech-oriented clothing. They have some interesting design philosophies, and while I don't think they'll gel well with everybody, I do feel there's a lot to like.

Having previously partnered with ASUS in 2020 to release a custom Zephyrus G14, they came together again to design something significantly more bold. Much like their clothing, I don't think this design will be for everybody, but to me it is stunning. Gone are the days of plastic. Here we have a full aluminium body with thick flat edges. Each corner has a notch that I assume would mitigate the impact of a drop (I didn't want to test this), but also serve to elevate the screen a little. This is something I appreciate as somebody who uses these devices with their included keyboards detached most of the time. The back of the tablet has a really funky machined aluminium design, and I think they did a spectacular job in making it easy to grip from all sides. The kickstand also sees some improvement and can now comfortably hold the tablet in both portrait and landscape orientations.

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The keyboard is thicker and more rugged, featuring a unique font and some accented keys to fit with the Acronym brand. It all comes together really cohesively, and tied up with the notches mentioned earlier also functioning as mounting points for an included harness. Clothing is Acronym's domain, so making the tablet wearable isn't as out of character as you'd expect. It functions well, and in an ideal world I could see myself using this a lot. Reality however is a little different, and walking around with something like this exposed seems more likely to make me a target than anything. Wearing it with the keyboard side facing outwards is lower profile than I would've expected, but it's just a lot of money to be leaving on-show.

Despite the additional ruggedness of the keyboard, I will note here that I did somehow manage to break it. The trackpad at least. Everything else is completely functional and there's no visible damage, it just doesn't work, and it doesn't appear to be a software issue either. With the keyboard sharing an interface with my 2022 Z13, I tested it on that with similar results. I've gone through ASUS repair processes before in the UK and they have been quite accommodating, so assuming this is a one-off caused by cosmic rays, it'd probably be a simple fix. It does however raise potential issues in terms of longevity if this has happened after a month; it's a blemish on an otherwise great device.

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I really do love this design, and I'm a little upset to see it come from a collaboration in oppose to it being a mainstay product. The 2023 revision to the Z13 is already out there and it looks no different to the 2022 model I have on hand. It's still a good tablet, but this is leagues apart in terms of both build quality and feel. This does come at a cost though, and with a £3000 price tag, this is a niche product within an already-niche category.


Closing Thoughts


Put simply, this is my dream tablet, but it's one I'll likely never buy in part to its price, and in part to what I assume will be its limited availability as a collaborative release. ROG and Acronym have come together brilliantly to deliver on a device that can't be matched in its field. By no means it a mainstream product, but for those wanting to push the tablet form factor to its modern limits, look no further. It's a premium you pay, but you get what you pay for.

Verdict

What We Liked ...
  • Iterates on what was already best in class for gaming tablets
  • Easily upgradable 1 TB SSD
  • 32 GB of DDR5 RAM
  • Meaningful additions to the device coming from the Acronym collaboration
  • ASUS Pen included in the box
What We Didn't Like ...
  • RAM non-upgradable and device isn't easily user-serviceable
  • Longevity concerns due to fault experienced
  • Poor value if power for pound is important to you
  • Likely a one-off design due to it being a collaboration
8
out of 10

Overall

The RMT02 is nothing short of my dream tablet, but it's one I definitely wouldn't recommend to the vast majority of people reading this. A niche product sitting within a niche segment of the market, it is absolutely the best in its class, but you'll be paying a lot for its stellar performance. If you have the money to spend and are as in love with the tablet form factor as I am though, this might just be for you.
EEk, that's one ugly looking device. I'm thinking the person that came up with the straps for it had some weird bondage fetish. If I was forced to carry that thing about in public it would be going in a proper laptop bag. Still if I was stuck and there were no other computers around I would temporarily use it to surf the web for a new laptop.
 
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