What you need to know
- ASUS just announced three new PCs for creators that will ship in the second half of 2024.
- Among these new devices is the ProArt PZ13, a convertible computer powered by the Snapdragon X processor.
- The ProArt PZ13 also features a 13-inch 3K OLED display, a stand, and a 70 Wh battery.
- We don’t know all the pricing details for the ASUS ProArt PZ13 at the moment, but the PC is expected to ship in the second half of this year.
ASUS just unveiled three new PCs at Computex 2024. The lineup includes the powerful ProArt P16 powered by AMD’s new Ryzen 9 AI 300 processors and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070, the convertible ProArt PX14 also powered by those Ryzen chips, and a Surface Pro competitor called ProArt PZ13 running on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X processors. We’ll cover powerful AMD PCs in a separate article. Here I will focus on the new ASUS convertible that is on the way.
The ASUS PZ13 is a 2-in-1 computer that can be used as a stand-alone tablet or with an attached keyboard. It also has a kickstand, which is surprisingly not as common in convertibles. The 13-inch 3K OLED display should deliver excellent color and contrast for creators and anyone using the ProArt PZ13. Inside, the convertible tablet has a Snapdragon X Elite processor.
At 9mm (0.35 inches) thick, the ASUS PZ13 isn’t as thin as the new iPad Pro, but it’s thin enough to be portable and easy to move around. The PC alone weighs 850g (1.87lbs), and its detachable keyboard adds another 350g (0.77lbs).
There’s a new Qualcomm tablet from @ASUS with the new ProArt PZ13 tablet with Snapdragon X. Due for 2nd half of the year (boo … The crowd was not happy lol) pic.twitter.com/srAc79UD5DJune 3, 2024
As a Copilot+ computer, the ProArt PZ13 meets the necessary specs to earn that designation, including 45 TOP for AI computing and 16GB of RAM. The ProArt PZ13 also has an IP52 rating and a 70 Wh battery. A pair of USB 4.0 Type-C ports and an SD card reader help the ProArt PZ13 stand out from its key competition.
We don’t know all the pricing details for the ProArt PZ13 right now, but our colleagues at Tom’s Guide say the ASUS PC will be priced in line with the Surface Pro 11. If the two PCs are priced the same, ASUS will have some key differences to highlight and which make the ProArt PZ13 a better option for some workflows.
More Copilot+ computers
A wave of Copilot+ PCs powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X processors is arriving this month. Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft and Samsung will ship Copilot+ PCs within weeks. But another wave of Snapdragon X computers is on the way.
Some of the second wave of Copilot+ computers go beyond the laptop form factor. Others, such as the ASUS ProArt PZ13 are 2-in-1s. The Snapdragon X Plus and Snapdragon X Elite inside the new PCs are intriguing as they promise all-day battery life combined with impressive performance. Windows on Arm is also prepared for waves of Arm-powered devices.
At least for now, all Copilot+ PCs run on a Snapdragon X Elite or Snapdragon X Plus processor. These devices represent a major shift in Windows computing that includes better battery life combined with performance that rivals Apple’s MacBooks. This isn’t a half-hearted attempt to make Windows on Arm work like we’ve seen in the past; major manufacturers participate, and Microsoft has optimized Windows for Arm computing.
Our Editor-in-Chief Daniel Rubino said that ARM64 and AI are «driving the ‘Great Reset’ of the Windows PC industry» and that these technologies are behind «a transformation unlike any seen in the last three decades.» We only have to wait a few weeks to see the new Arm computers in action and see if they live up to the hype. Then we will have to wait a few more months for the second wave.