Windows Central Verdict
ASUS undercuts the Surface Pro 11 OLED model without much subtlety by including a magnetic kickstand case and opting for Qualcomm’s 8-core Snapdragon X Plus ARM processor instead of the 10-core X Plus found in Microsoft’s LCD variant. What you get is a beautifully color-accurate touch display compatible with a stylus, well-suited to photography edits and digital art creation. However, a dreadful rear camera rules out any on-location video production, and the glare-prone screen maxes out at around 380 nits on battery to restrict its usefulness outdoors.
10 to 12 hours battery life
Gorgeous color-accurate OLED panel
Keyboard kickstand case included
Cool and quiet under stress
Cheaper than Surface Pro 11 OLED
Stylus half-blocks USB-C ports
Slightly too heavy at 3.36lb
No power status LED
Disappointing camera quality
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We first described it asone of the most exciting Copilot+ PCs of 2024, and I’ve finally had an opportunity to get my hands on ASUS' new ProArt PZ13.
1.Price, availability, and specs2.Design & setup3.Keyboard, touchpad, & pen4.Display5.Camera quality4.Performance & benchmarks5.Battery, thermals & noise6.Competition7.Scorecard8.Should you buy?
It’s exciting for a few reasons, chiefly because it’s the first real comparable rival toMicrosoft’s Surface Pro 11and secondly because it featuresQualcomm’s brand-new 8-core Snapdragon X Pluschip variant, expanding the nativeWindows on Armcategory.
The ProArt PZ13 followsour review of ASUS' traditional clamshell VivoBook S 15with the 12-core Snapdragon X Elite and promises to be another excitingAI PCfor testing.
Can it stand up to Microsoft’s latest Surface Pro and, to a further extent, Apple’s new range of iPad Pro tablets for creators on the move? I’m putting the ASUS ProArt PZ13Copilot+ PCthrough its paces to find out for my review.
This review was made possible with a review unit provided by ASUS. The company did not see the contents of the review before publishing.
ProArt PZ13: Price, availability, and specs
At the time of writing, the ProArt PZ13 is not available on ASUS' official US store. However, it can be purchased for$1,099.99 at Best Buyvia in-store pickup or shipping. Those with aMy Best Buy membershipmight benefit from more purchase options, so check first.
Price:$1,099.99 at Best BuyCPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100RAM: 16GB LPDDR5XGPU: Snapdragon X Adreno X1-85Storage: 1TB PCIe Gen 4 (WD SN740)OS: Windows 11 Home (ARM64)Camera: 5MP IR (front) 13MP (rear)Display: 13.3-inch 16:10 OLED 3K (2880x1800) touchscreenPorts: 2x USB4 Type-C (40 Gb/s), microSD UHS-II readerConnectivity: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4Battery: 70Wh, 12hrs 4mins (benchmarked)Charger: 65W USB-CDimensions: 297.5 x 202.9 x 9mmWeight: 1.87lb (0.85kg) or 3.36lb (1.52kg) with magnetic cases
There are no customization options for the components inside, so what you see is what you get. Matching my review sample provided by ASUS, the PZ13 includesQualcomm’s new 8-core variant of its Snapdragon X Plusprocessor, the X1P-42-100, with 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM that users can’t upgrade manually and a built-in Qualcomm HexagonNPU (Neural Processing Unit)rated at45 TOPSfor AI workloads.
However, the internal storage uses a generous 1TBsolid-state drive (SSD)from Western Digital, the ultra-fast WD SN740, loaded withWindows 11 Home, built natively forWindows on Arm. The out-of-box experience (OOBE) is relatively clean, featuring a couple of ASUS companion apps and the Capcut video editor.
Built to a military-grade (MIL-STD 810H) standard, the PZ13 comes with an IP52 water and dust-resistant rating alongside a pre-packaged magnetic keyboard case and front cover. However, while my sample included an ASUS Pen 2.0 stylus, these are sold separately, currently listed for$69.99 at Amazon.
The front 5MP camera uses an IR sensor forWindows Hellocompatibility, while the rear 13MP camera handles basic photography and 4K video recording. Besides a dual pairing ofUSB-C 4.0ports and microSD card reader, the PZ13 supports the latestWi-Fi 7 standardand Bluetooth 5.4 for wireless peripherals and accessories. ASUS recommends using the included 65W AC adapter but supports charging with other compatible USB-C power sources.
ProArt PZ13: Design & setup
The ProArt PZ13 comes in recycled (and recyclable) cardboard packaging, with the AC power adapter stored in a separate section along with a microSD to full-size SD card adapter and support for the same optional ASUS Pen 2.0 stylus as theZenbook Duo (2024). It’s subtle and clean, with reflective badging on the front of the box and not much else. By far, the most surprising first impression was just how heavy thisCopilot+ PCis, at 3.35lb (1.52kg) when fully assembled.
Separately, the ProArt PZ13 tablet weighs 1.93lb (877g), so it’s the keyboard cover that mostly contributes to an extra 0.82lb (373g) heft with 0.60lb (274g) felt by the magnetic rear kickstand cover. Fortunately for ASUS, the magnetic covers are gorgeous and functional, with the detachable keyboard and touchpad automatically putting the PC into sleep mode when it’s closed.
Yes, the kickstand is built into the rear cover and not the device itself, but the magnets are strong enough to hold it in place. A circular cutout for the rear camera is positioned next to a soft material stylus strap, which helps remove the rear case if you ever need to. Still, I’m used to working with a 2.86lb (1.30kg)Surface Pro Xand 14-inch laptops like the 3.15lb (1.43 kg)Lenovo Slim 7i 14 (Gen 9)so the ProArt PZ13 feels heavy.
Yes, the kickstand is built into the rear cover and not the device itself, but the magnets are strong enough to hold it in place.
Booting intoWindows 11 24H2, the most striking default setting is a 250% scale for the display, causing nine pre-pinned app icons to span the entire taskbar, which auto-hides itself. I can understand it from the perspective of easing a user into a touch-only experience, butdropping the number to 200%felt much more manageable and gave me more real estate for navigating the operating system.
After that, I noticed a permanent ASUS logo edited into therainbow ribbon Copilot+ PC wallpaper variant, as if the ProArt and manufacturer branding weren’t enough already. It’s easily changed, as anyone comfortable withpersonalizing Windows 11will know, and a creator-focused device pairs best with a user who will probably change their wallpaper before anything else.
Besides seeing the MyASUS companion app and AI-powered StoryCube media management apps on the taskbar upon my first boot, the ProArt PZ13 isn’t lightyears away from a stock install, thoughWindows Recallisn’t listed anywhere in Settings despite the45 TOPS NPUinside. There aren’t any annoying startup apps to disable and nothing pre-installed that I would consider egregious bloatware besides the TikTok-centric video editor CapCut, but I’d always recommendDaVinci Resolveto budding editors, anyway.
Installing a gamut ofpatches from Windows Updateand the latest versions of each pre-installed app from the Microsoft Store didn’t take long, and the MyASUS app handled firmware hotfixes. The onlyMicrosoft software I removed was OneDrive, as I had no real need for it on a sample machine and didn’t want my personal files on the ProArt PZ13, but everything else remained the same. Checking the speakers with some video and music provided almost no bass response but a decent playback quality overall.
Finally, ASUS' ProArt Creator Hub required a mandatory update upon its first launch. It’s similar to the MyASUS companion app in that it offers system diagnostic information, likeCPU temperatureand memory usage, but with a few extra creator-focused features. A color control menu handles gamut presets for sRGB, DCI-P3, and Display P3, which ensure accurate hue and temperature representation when editing images or video.
I didn’t need any special connectivity steps for the snap-on keyboard cover, and some close inspection shows that the F12 key opens the ProArt Creator Hub, and F8 opens Windows 11’semoji picker, with F4 handling the keyboard backlight brightness level. There’s nothing left to set up besides removing an explanatory sticker showing touchpad shortcuts and charging the ProArt PZ13’s battery to 100%, which exposes a curious omission.
Since I charged and depleted the battery so often, I remarked on the lack of a power status LED, with nothing to show that the PZ13 was charging. Connecting it to AC power when the battery is completely dead leads to a few seconds of inactivity before a standard charging icon appears on the screen. Before that, however, there’s no way to confirm that the laptop is actually receiving any power. It’s a strange feature to pass on, leading me to regularly check that the adapter was actually plugged in.
If the ASUS Pen 2.0 stylus is stored in the material loop attached to the magnetic front case, all ports are frustratingly half-blocked.
Finally, all ports are located on the left side, though only a single USB-C 4.0 port is consistently accessible, which could be expanded with aThunderbolt 4 or 5 dock. A second USB-C and microSD slot are available once a rubber strip is lifted out of the way, but if the ASUS Pen 2.0 stylus is stored in the material loop attached to the magnetic front case, all ports are frustratingly half-blocked. Volume controls are over on the right, with a power button on the top-left side and cooling vents off to the right, explaining why ASUS didn’t have many other options for stylus storage.
ProArt PZ13: Keyboard, touchpad, and pen
Analyzing ASUS' keyboard cover for the ProArt PZ13 without drawing comparisons toMicrosoft’s Surface Pro Flex Keyboardis practically impossible, but imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so let’s roll with that angle. Measuring roughly 6mm in thickness, it attaches to the tablet with an extremely familiar set of centered gold pins and two plastic notches that keep its position aligned.
You get a diagonally-measured 5.78in (14.7cm)Precision touchpad, which, thankfully, matches the 16:10 ratio of the screen so the mouse accurately moves to follow your finger. There are preset gesture shortcuts, with a vertical movement on the left side controlling volume while the right side controls screen brightness, and a horizontal swipe along the top can control media playback or move the text typing cursor.
The only shortcut I genuinely dislike enough to deactivate is a diagonal drag-in from the top-right section of the touchpad that opens the ScreenXpert window management tool. It’s useful if you have an external display connected, and creators almost certainly will at some point, but the floating icon lingers, albeit semi-transparent, on the desktop and becomes irritating.
Typing on the skinny keyboard case is fine, offering nothing particularly exciting but managing to avoid feeling weak or flimsy. Its keys respond with a deep membrane thud, and there aren’t any uncomfortable hot spots from any internal components since it’s a totally separate accessory. The arrow keys are frustratingly slim, leaving gaps above the left and right, but that’s more of a personal irk than a downside.
While the ASUS Pen 2.0 stylus came with my sample, it’s not a standard accessory for the ProArt PZ13 and is sold separately for$69.99 at Amazon. Nevertheless, it’s a pleasure to use with the color-accurate OLED panel, at least with art-centric apps.Adobe’s ARM-native Photoshopbehaved the best in my testing overall, making this 2-in-1 a well-suitedPC for Adobe Creative Cloudwhen editing photos and images. On the other hand,Cocreator for Paintremains little more than a novelty. It’s a fun way to test the stylus if nothing else.
The ASUS Pen 2.0 stylus is not a standard accessory but is sold separately.
However, the material strap designed to hold the ASUS Pen 2.0 ends up being more of an annoyance than any kind of convenience, half-blocking the USB-C ports and microSD card slot. It’s tricky to remove from this stiff sleeve, and I quickly lost interest in the concept of using it regularly. Comparing this toMicrosoft’s (albeit expensive) Pro Flex keyboardwith space to hold the Surface Slim Pen made me wish ASUS could have found a similar solution with the included kickstand case.
ProArt PZ13: Display
The ProArt PZ13’s 60Hz OLED display is as color-accurate as ASUS claims, scoring between 99% to 100% for Adobe RGB and 100% accuracy for sRGB (web) and DCI-P3 (cinema) color gamuts. For creators, this is exactly the kind of result they want to see because it means the colors on the screen properly represent what is stored in the image, artwork, or webpage. There’s no way tochange the refresh ratefrom 60Hz, and this is the highest it’ll reach.
Again, you can target sRGB, DCI-P3, and Display P3 gamuts in the ASUS ProArt Creator Hub app, but the out-of-the-box experience is accurate for colors. The lowest measurable brightness hit only 4 nits, while the top-end reached 388 nits. It’s not quite as bright asMicrosoft’s Surface Pro 11, but the focus is undoubtedly on color accuracy, and the PZ13 delivers that.
4K videos look gorgeous, particularly with HDR enabled, though it automatically deactivates when away from AC power unlessthe setting is changed in Windows. Outside of Windows 11’s OS defaults, an automatic screensaver from ASUS activates to protect theOLED panelfrom potential burn-in if sleep settings are adjusted away from their defaults. ASUS Lumina OLED panels continue to be impressive, and I have no complaints about the PZ13’s display when used with touch or a stylus. Great stuff.
ProArt PZ13: Camera quality
ASUS doesn’t go too deep into the dual-camera pairing in its advertising for the ProArt PZ13, outside of claiming it"unleashes your creative self.“I had excited notions of spending a full day outside with it, filming, editing, and rendering video to test its creative capabilities on the go, but that was quickly shuttered when I discovered how disappointing the rear camera quality is.
I wouldn’t even shoot B-roll footage on the PZ13.
Including a trial membership for the third-party Capcut video editor seems targeted at those who shoot video on smartphones, which is where I’d recommend staying because I wouldn’t even shoot B-roll footage on the PZ13.
The front camera is fine, at least in line with the bump in the quality you can expect fromQualcomm’s Snapdragon X Pluschips over traditional x86-64 variants, butWindows Studio Effectsdoesn’t do much to pretty up the overall lackluster images. It’s disappointing enough that I wonder why ASUS included the rear camera in the first place, especially when there’s not much use outside of snapping professional-centric captures of documents and whiteboards. Here, the ProArt PZ13 is beaten out byApple’s cameras on its iPad Pro(via Tech Radar) for those who need them for video creation.
ProArt PZ13: Performance & benchmarks
When analyzing the raw performance of the8-core Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100processor inside the ASUS ProArt PZ13, it’s clear that the reductions have, to no surprise whatsoever, dropped its rankings below the flagship12-core Snapdragon X Elitechip. It’s still placed relatively well amongIntel’s 16-core “Metor Lake” Core Ultra 7 155H and 12-core Ultra 7 155Hwith rapid-fire, burst processing data in Geekbench 6 but far below theSnapdragon X-Elite-powered Surface Pro 11and two models of Apple’s latest iPad Pro.
That puts the $1,099.99 ProArt PZ13 only $100 away from its flexible competitor, the Snapdragon X Plus-based Surface Pro 11 featuring the more powerful10-core X1P-64-100 variant, which sells for $1,199.99 at MSRP, but you’d need to spend $1,499 to get the equivalent OLED screen on a Surface Pro 11, with a bump to theSnapdragon X Elite. Matching ASUS' 1TB storage offering would raise the price for an 11-inch M4 iPad Pro to $1,599, but you won’t be running any Windows apps on that, neitherARM-nativeorx86-64 emulated.
Sustained stress tests in Cinebench 2024 helped demonstrate the ProArt PZ13’s cooling capabilities, as the internal fan keeps the CPU at a reasonable temperature and reduces the need for performance throttling. It’s a decent result, showing no real change in placement from the burst-processing tests of Geekbench 6, so there’s no danger of this 2-in-1 laptop becoming sluggish when it’s under stress from intensive apps.
The only exception isAMD’s ROG Ally Xhandheld, which I included here to demonstrate how gaming devices prioritize CPU cooling, even in an ultra-compact form, due to their regular exposure to constant stress. Of course, the ProArt PZ13 isn’t advertised as a gaming device in any marketing, so I’m comparing apples to oranges. Still, seeing how modern chips handle sustained stress with raised temperatures is always interesting, and the8-core Snapdragon X Plusmanages just fine.
The solid-state drive inside the ProArt PZ13 is a Western Digital SN740, exactly the same asASUS uses in the Zenbook Duo (2024). It performs brilliantly here, with read speeds sneaking slightly over 5MB/s for ultra-fast boots into Windows after a hard reset and general snappiness when browsing your files and folders. Write speeds come close to parity at 4.9MB/s, exhibiting the same performance asLenovo’s dual-screen Yoga Book 9i (Gen 9).
Testing the AI capabilities of the 8-core Snapdragon X Plus with Geekbench’s AI benchmark scores 1,822 (single), 1,466 (half), and 4,841 (quantized) with ONNX (Open Neural Network Exchange) CPU settings.
It’s a new type of test, so comparisons are tricky with such a shallow result pool, but running the same test onLenovo’s Slim 7i 14 (Gen 9)shows Intel’s Core Ultra 7 155H processor score 2,008 (single), 829 (half), and 2,830 (quantized) under the same settings. Again, it’s all new data and concluding these numbers is extremely difficult, given the complex nature of AI computing, but the results are here for the sake of future comprehension and comparisons.
Can the ASUS ProArt PZ13 play games?
The only vague mention of gaming in ASUS' marketing for the ProArt PZ13 is inMicrosoft’s Copilot+ PC brandingwithAutomatic Super Resolutionsupport. Otherwise, it never alludes to this 2-in-1 as any kind of gaming machine. Still, it’s interesting to test ARM-native games, like the latestWorld of Warcraft: The War Within expansionrunning with around 40 to 60 FPS, the former mainly exhibited in busy areas.
I wouldn’t recommend it as your daily driver, but it works well enough if you need to log in for a few daily quests. If you’re serious about portable gaming on Windows, look towards anASUS ROG AllyorLenovo Legion Gofor a far better solution. Otherwise,Valve’s Steam Deckis your cheapest option if you’re comfortable with emulation. Long story short: yes, itcanplaysomegames, just like theSurface Pro 11, but it’s far from the best way to play.
ProArt PZ13: Battery, thermals, and noise
Keeping the ProArt PZ13 at 63% brightness to match 150 nits as closely as possible, I used it to write a significant amount of this review and for browsing the web during my downtime. Paired with experiments in filming and editing video alongside drawing and editing images with the ASUS Pen 2.0 stylus, it gives me a reasonably realistic average for battery life whengenerating a battery report in Windows 11.
(The battery lasts) an average of 12 hours and 4 minutes (but) 10 hours feels closer to reality for the PZ13.
To promote complete drainage of the ProArt PZ13’s battery, I also left a 4K video streaming from YouTube while I wasn’t actively using it. It all led to an estimated average of 12 hours and 4 minutes, which is a little higher than the 10 hours and 8 minutes delivered byMicrosoft’s Surface Pro 11 in our review, but during my most active days, 10 hours feels closer to reality for the PZ13.
ASUS advertises"21 hours of FHD video playback” and “17 hours of web browsing,“which certainly feels optimistic, but anything close to 12 hours should be considered a good score. If I were to do absolutely nothing stressful with the ProArt PZ13 and binge-watch Netflix or YouTube, I’d believe the 17 to 21-hour metric, but that feels like an unusual use case for a creator-centric device. So, 10 to 12 hours is the most realistic estimate for thisARM-based2-in-1.
While the ProArt PZ13 does feature an internal fan for air cooling, it doesn’t activate for anything below 70°C, and theSnapdragon X Plusprocessor seemingly performs comfortably at these passively cooled temperatures. Pushing the components into a more stressful scenario with sustained benchmark testing in Cinebench 2024 sees the fan kick into gear and the highest recorded temperatures hitting 45.7°C around the side vents and the rear camera module. It’s warm, but generally, it’s not an issue since the keyboard and touchpad are separate. Otherwise, the tablet remains around 29.5°C in a 20°C room.
As it hits its highest temperatures, the PZ13’s internal fan kicks into high gear, and noise levels rise to around 47.5 dBA,almost that of a refrigerator, which isn’t too annoying. During most tasks, including streaming video, theSnapdragon X Plus8-core chip operates comfortably without the fan, and there’s nothing audible above a whispered 33.9 dbA. It’s a relatively quiet device, even under the heaviest loads, and I’m left with a positive impression of how much the ARM-based processor can handle without needing significant airflow.
ProArt PZ13: The competition
Quick links
In case it isn’t obvious by now, the only real competitor for the ASUS ProArt PZ13 isMicrosoft’s Surface Pro 11, and vice versa. Sure, there are other 2-in-1 laptops with removable keyboards, likeLenovo’s Yoga Book 9iand, to a certain degree,ASUS' own Zenbook Duo, but the primary rival is clear. Pairing a single-screen experience with a stylus pen and magnetic keyboard case has recalls the age-old “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” feeling, and it’s too easy to recommend the Surface Pro 11.
You can get close to the overall experience with the ProArt PZ13 by getting an OLED screen compatible with the ASUS Pen 2.0. However, there isn’t anywhere convenient to store the stylus outside of a material loop on the side of its magnetic case. It doesn’t hold a candle to the dedicated cutout inMicrosoft’s Pro Flexkeyboard, but it is cheaper by an incredible degree. The overall vibe for the ProArt PZ13 is “Surface Pro 11 but cheaper,” which is undoubtedly appealing. However, if you value camera quality, Apple crushes with its new iPad Pro models in a trade-off where you lose access to proper desktop applications.
ProArt PZ13: Scorecard
ProArt PZ13: Should you buy it?
You should buy this if …
✅You want an affordable alternative to the Surface Pro 11
Packed with a budget-grade Snapdragon X processor but still boasting a gorgeous OLED touchscreen and stylus support, ASUS throws in a keyboard case for no extra charge, and the experience is similar.
✅You’re focused on creating images and digital art
As the ProArt name suggests, the PZ13 excels best with apps like Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, and the color-accurate screen comes in clutch for editing real-life images or painting artwork from scratch.
You should not buy this if …
❌You want to shoot, edit, and render video
While native support forWindows on Armis improving, the lack of a dedicated GPU, combined with Qualcomm’s weakest Snapdragon X Adreno iGPU and a pair of disappointing cameras, rules out on-location video production.
❌You want a lightweight 2-in-1 device
At 3.36lb (1.52kg) with the magnetic keyboard case attached, the ProArt PZ13 borders on becoming a burden when traveling, especially compared to the Surface Pro 11 at 2.73lb (1.24kg) with its Flex Keyboard and Slim Pen.
While it doesn’t provide a perfect solution for all creators, the ProArt PZ13 at least suits its namesake: artists. With an additional ASUS Pen 2.0 stylus, its OLED screen makes for a color-accurate canvas, and the all-day battery life survives even through lengthy 4K video streaming if you’re looking for inspiration elsewhere. It won’t take thebest 2-in-1 AI PCcrown away fromMicrosoft’s Surface Pro 11but offers a more affordable alternative to those who care primarily about the vibrant Lumina OLED screen.
Video creators will need to keep a dedicated camera or capable smartphone with them during travels, as the built-in rear camera can’t stand up to even simplistic B-roll shots, and the combination of a weighty construction and glare-prone screen makes the PZ13 better suited to staying indoors. Overall, however, it’s a well-built device with a fantastic design and a generous price tag. ASUS continues to prove that it has some of the best OLED panels in the business, and Qualcomm’s 8-coreSnapdragon X Pluschip makes this ARM-basedCopilot+ PCa fantastic option for the right audience.
Ben is a Senior Editor at Windows Central, covering everything related to technology hardware and software. He regularly goes hands-on with the latest Windows laptops, components inside custom gaming desktops, and any accessory compatible with PC and Xbox. His lifelong obsession with dismantling gadgets to see how they work led him to pursue a career in tech-centric journalism after a decade of experience in electronics retail and tech support.
