Best Devices for Office and Work: Tech Awards Editor's Choice 2022 (Part 3)

Note: This article was first published on 18 April 2022.

Best devices for Office and Work (Tech Awards 2022)

A professional is only as good as the tools he or she uses. And that’s why to do a good job, you need the best tools. You don’t send Messi onto the field wearing $2 flip flops, so why should you try to edit a video for a presentation using a crummy five-year-old notebook? For Tech Awards 2022, we have gathered and tested all the major devices you need to help you do your best work. These are the award categories that editors have assessed for this segment:

• Best Ultraportable Notebook
• Best SOHO Printer
• Best Wi-Fi 6 Router
• Best Premium Smartphone
• Best High-end Smartphone
• Best Noise Cancelling Headphones
• Best True Wireless Earbuds
• Innovation Awards

Other segments include the Best devices for the Home, Best of Mobile Gadgets, Best Devices for Office and Work (this article), and Gaming. Not to forget, our Readers' Choice results for the Best Tech Brands will be out in May 2022.

Read on and find out who the winners are in each category! For this segment, we begin with the most indispensable tool in every mobile worker’s arsenal – the ultraportable notebook.

Best Ultraportable Notebook

Advances in processor technologies and materials have made ultraportable notebooks incredibly thin, light, and powerful. Many ultraportable notebooks today only weigh a kilogram or less and can easily run for hours. Support for new technologies like Thunderbolt 4 also means these notebooks can be docked when users get home, which improves performance and functionality. Notebook manufacturers across the board have also made significant improvements in design and features, offering larger trackpads, higher quality displays, and improved connectivity options. Overall, these attributes make ultraportable notebooks the weapon of choice for many users.

To make the cut for this year’s awards, the notebook must be among the slimmest and lightest in the brand's lineup, and it must have been announced in the last 12 months. It can be a traditional notebook or a convertible or detachable. It can have discrete or integrated graphics and it must run Windows OS. After all, anyone who needs an Apple (or Mac) machine won't be needing comparisons like this. Finally, it must be powered by a full Intel Core processor (no ultra-low-voltage variants) or an AMD equivalent.

Nominees:

• ASUS ZenBook 14X OLED
• HP Spectre x360 14
• Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Carbon
• Microsoft Surface Pro 8
• Vaio SX14

You'll note that there aren't some of the usual brands you would expect like Acer, Dell, LG and Huawei, but that's because they've not had a suitable new model since our last Tech Awards assessment for this sector or that a review unit isn't yet available. Blame the great worldwide parts shortage, but our show must go on.

And the winner is...

Lenovo is on a roll. After winning this category last year, they have gone ahead and won it again with the new Yoga Slim 7 Carbon. What makes this notebook so awesome? Let’s begin with its gorgeous 14-inch OLED display which is sharp, crisp, and has vibrant colours. It’s also very light. Thanks to a body made from a blend of aerospace-grade magnesium alloy and carbon fibre, the Slim 7 Carbon is just 1.077kg. It’s thin too – just 14.9mm thick. Inside, Lenovo has decided to go with AMD’s Ryzen 5000 series processors which offer class-leading multi-core performance that far exceeds what Intel’s Core processors are capable of and yet maintains high efficiency. Even with the display set to maximum brightness, this notebook lasted well over 8.5 hours on our rather intensive battery test. But the cherry on the cake has got to be its price.

Despite the premium construction and OLED display, the Slim 7 Carbon was, by some margin, the most affordable notebook we tested. With this combination of performance, features, and price, it’s no wonder then that the Slim 7 Carbon is the best ultraportable notebook we tested to-date.

Here's a small snapshot of results from our full shootout article:-

For more details on how we selected our winners, check out the full reviews and articles listed in the References section below.

References

• ASUS ZenBook 14X OLED
• HP Spectre x360 14 review
• Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Carbon
• Microsoft Surface Pro 8 review
• Vaio SX14 review

Best SOHO Printer

Like the previous time we ran this category in 2020, for SOHO printers, we looked at All-In-One (AIO) printers that can print, copy, scan, and fax. As an office-grade printer consideration, we ensured it came with more usability features like duplex printing capability and an automatic document feeder (ADF). The latter is a key differentiating factor from our Home printer category.

Printers don't usually refresh every year, especially one at the same price point, which is why we didn't run this category the previous year. As per our requirement for Tech Awards 2022 Editor's Choice categories, the contenders must be launched in 2021 to qualify for nominations. For the Best SOHO printer class, we were also looking at options that cost about or under S$500 to make the cut. (For high-end workgroup printer recommendations, check out our earlier shootout.)

The scoping brought us to qualify printers from Brother and HP where both were using ink-based technologies. While the former was using normal ink cartridges, the other has gone the way by adopting an ink tank system as manufacturers are increasingly focusing on lowering printing costs, though it comes at a higher base cost.

Nominees:

• Brother MFC-J4540DW
• HP Smart Tank 750

From an assessment perspective, we looked at the size and footprint as space could be at a premium in a SOHO setup, along with the relevant features and connectivity options. While ease of use was important, the overall price of the printer, print quality, and cost of printing were key winning criteria. 

And the winner is...

The Brother MFC-J4540DW. We liked its print speed, its output, and the overall mix of features.

It has a nice touchscreen display, a good mix of connectivity options, two paper trays, a port for USB printing, an ADF to support duplex copying with ease, and I found it very easy to set it up and get it started. There is also a guide to how much ink is left at the bottom corner of the display and within the app.

It was also the faster printer in both our print and scan tests while also offering good quality prints (more on this below). Scanning was a straightforward chore; thanks to the ADF, multiple pages went through easily with no jams, and it didn't require anyone to intervene.

The mobile app looks more business-like than those from HP and Canon. HP’s app, for example, has a UI with coloured friendly squares, while Brother’s app is single toned, with a more corporate look and feel.

Handily for SOHO deployments, the printer also comes with a three-year warranty.

Our test results

As mentioned earlier, we liked the quality of the print results. And the fact we didn’t have to wait long, was even better.

The text was crisp and clear, being easy to read. There was little splotching or ink running from one word to another even when magnified, which is a good sign of quality.

Our graphic image also turned out sharp and clear, and I felt ts colour rendition was closest to our original. But I didn’t find any evidence of colour bleeding or excessive colour saturating.

However, it takes a hit in terms of value, with the problem being the cost of printing.

Unlike most printers released these days, the MFC-J4540DW uses ink cartridges rather than individual ink tanks. According to Brother’s website, replacement high-yield ink cartridges cost S$99 for both black and each individual colour cartridge with Brother saying that they can print 6,000 pages in black and 5,000 pages in colour. The default ink cartridges that ship with the printers can print 3,000 pages in black and 1,500 pages in colour.

This means once the owner is done with the initial ink cartridges, replacing all the ink cartridges with high-yield ones will cost S$400. This isn't unusual for standard ink cartridge costs, and one that's high-yield of this variety, but it's certainly a large expense for some owners. 

Having caveated the print costs, you can see why Brother still gets our vote as the print speed and quality are a fair bit better than the Ink Tank based HP option from our scoring breakdown below. If your print needs aren't high, and you value quality and speed, Brother's MFC-J4550DW is the one you'll need for a brand new printer for your home or home office.

*Note: Prices and ratings listed are accurate at the time of individual product evaluation.

For more information on how the nominees fared in detail and thus helping us pick our winner, check out the full reviews and articles listed in the References below. If you need more capable printers to tackle large workgroups, we've tested a bunch of them in a prior year over here.

References

• Brother MFC-J4540DW review coming soon
• HP Smart Tank 750 review coming soon

Best Wi-Fi 6 Router

The adoption of Wi-Fi 6 has been swift. Nearly every new smartphone, tablet, and notebook worth buying today supports it. There's even talk of Wi-Fi 6E now. At any rate, Wi-Fi 6 improves overall networking performance in two ways. The first is by increasing data transfer rates by increasing the maximum amount of data that can be carried by each stream. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, it enables routers and compatible devices to communicate with each other simultaneously – something that cannot be done using the older Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) technology. Check out this Wi-Fi 6 (Wireless 802.11ax) guide for more details.

However with the worldwide parts shortage and disruption in the supply chain ecosystem, many brands have had very erratic launch schedules since the Covid pandemic began. As such, we've tried our best to match suitable high-end products to ensure we can give a meaningful assessment for the best products in each category.

To make the cut for this year’s awards, we've shortlisted high-end dual-band Wi-Fi 6 routers that were released in the past year and it must be the company’s best offering of its class such as meeting the AX5400 speed rating or higher.

Nominees:

• ASUS RT-AX89X dual-band WiFi 6 router
• D-Link Exo AX AX5400 Wi-Fi 6 router (DIR-X5460)
• Netgear Nighthawk AX5400 Wifi 6 router (RAX50)

And the winner is...

After some extensive comparisons, we found the ASUS RT-AX89X is the winner in this category.

Let’s address the elephant in the room first and that is price. Yes, this is a very expensive router. It costs a lot more than its rivals. However, it backs up its tremendous price tag with an unrivalled feature set. To start, it has a lot of ports. Not only does it have 8 Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports, but it also has a regular Gigabit Ethernet WAN port and two 10Gbps ports that are handy if you subscribe to a 10Gbps fibre plan or have a high-end NAS that supports 10GbE connections. For users living in apartments, support for DFS (dynamic frequency selection) should certainly help alleviate channel congestion. And then there’s ASUS’ AiMesh feature which allows you to create mesh networks using this router and other compatible ASUS routers. It performed decently too and served up respectable wireless speeds across our tested ranges. Lastly, it offered the most polished app interaction as well as an admin console with a plethora of controls.

Overall, because of its combination of performance and features, we felt that it justified its high price tag and was worthy of our Best Wi-Fi 6 Router of the year award.

For more details on how we selected our winners, check out the full reviews and articles listed in the References section below.

References

• ASUS RT-AX89X review
• D-Link Exo AX AX5400 Wi-Fi 6 router (DIR-X5460) review coming soon
• Netgear Nighthawk AX5400 Wifi 6 router (RAX50) review coming soon

Best Premium Smartphone

To say that the smartphone industry faces immense challenges is an understatement. With our new ways of life coming to head, phone makers now have to contend with chip shortages, shipping and launch delays, and even more discerning consumers with evolved requirements at work, play, and everything else in between.

To make the cut, the phone has to be announced and/or released between March 2021 (after our previous Awards assessment) to January 2022 and has to be the brand's flagship offering that best embodies everything it has to offer - beyond just top phone specs and yet appeal to a majority of consumers. It can also include foldable-screen phones that are essentially a bar form-factor when fully open to compete with non-foldable counterparts.

Nominees:

• Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3
• Oppo Find X3 Pro
• Huawei P50 Pro

Before we talk about the comparison victor, we would like to clarify why some notable phones weren't part of the nomination list. While Huawei's P50 Pocket is also up for consideration given our new qualifying criteria, it's nearly $1k more expensive than the P50 Pro and doesn't offer much else other than scoring design points. As such, Huawei has chosen to compete in this comparison with their P50 Pro model. Elsewhere, Sony's Xperia Pro-I and Samsung's Z Fold 3 are both specialist devices that appeal to photography enthusiasts and tablet-like form factors respectively, and as such, not part of our main list of nominations.

And the winner is...

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 revived genuine interest in the future of smartphones by delivering on a combination of its palatable price tag, leading processor choices (for Singapore), its unique-yet-practical folding form factor, and undeniably, a premium experience one expects from paying top dollar for a phone.

Heck, the Galaxy Z Flip3 was able to single-handedly account for the massive foldable smartphone market we have at the end of 2021.

The foldable display form factor for phones is hardly new at this point (even Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip saw several iterations before it got awarded by us). So what did they do to win?

The Galaxy Z Flip3, despite its unique foldable display form factor, did not skimp out on must-haves for premium phones. If anything, Samsung took extra care to make sure its CAM mechanism is more robust than before, and still managed to include all the basics like NFC, IP-rated water resistance, and an eye-pleasing AMOLED display. It's also 5G-compatible too.

Surely, the massive improvements to One UI also create a high-quality user experience, but Samsung took extra UI care with additional special touches to make good use of its bigger 1.9-inch Cover Screen (even though we did wish it was even more useful at its launch).  It's a useful viewfinder for its rear cameras, it lets users add a personal touch to their devices, and offers basic yet crucial functionality like message previews and music control without needing to squint. 

The phone also performs respectably where it counts. Daily usage is smooth, performance is almost top-notch, and it has a reasonably long battery life for its form factor. Smart pricing strategies helped immensely too since it offered a complete premium package that's a good S$300 to S$800 lower than other premium alternatives that aren't as exciting to own.

It may not be the best shooter out of Samsung's stable, but a winner for our Best Premium Smartphone category doesn't go to a handset that earns top marks in only one arena; it needs to deliver across the board, and the Galaxy Flip3 does exactly that with the added pizazz in a folding display that feels less of a gimmick and more of a lifestyle choice. A high-quality, flagship-performing lifestyle choice no less.

The Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max deserves a special mention given the tough fight it put up. It took barely three months for the Apple contender to sit among the top 10 in phone sales for 2021, and that's considering how its rivals had much more time to clinch the other nine spots. But, Apple playing it safe meant that the accolade went to a rival that not only did better by its consumers, but also gave them a visible reason to appreciate the upgrade.

 

*Note: Prices and ratings listed are accurate at the time of individual product evaluation.

For more information on how the nominees fared in detail and thus helping us pick our winner, check out the full reviews and articles listed in the References below.

 

References

• Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max review
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 review
• Oppo Find X3 Pro review
• Huawei P50 Pro review

Best High-end Smartphone

Discerning phone users sometimes just want a phone that packs hardware equal to flagship components, but also want none of the fluff that pushes its sticker price past a certain point. Or, they don't see a reason for overpowered components, favouring instead a balanced, yet high-quality handset.

For these folks, we have this High-end phone category that satisfies the best of both worlds: a more palatable price for the parts and features that matter. So, you're probably not getting over-the-top imaging prowess or all-metal construction, but you're still getting the best hardware, tangible features, and other perks that constitute a high-quality experience without paying out of your nose.

To make the cut, the phone has to be announced and/or released in the last 12 months and has to offer true flagship-level performance and features around the S$1,000 mark or less.

Nominees:

• Xiaomi 11T Pro
• ASUS ZenFone 8
• Vivo X70 Pro
• Oppo Reno7 Pro
• Samsung Galaxy S21 FE

Note: The Xiaomi Mi 11 and Vivo X60 Pro are 2021 handsets that would've also qualified for nomination in this category, but the fluidity and frequency of phone launches have rendered these alternatives obsolete for awards comparison. 

And the winner is...

The Samsung Galaxy S21 FE may have been late to the 2021 party, but it still holds up well enough to be a winning budget flagship device that packs high-quality necessities in one.

Other brands should take note: the Galaxy S21 FE offers a 2021 top-end processor, a beautiful AMOLED display with high refresh and touch sampling rates, a decent set of all-purpose rear cameras, 5G support, NFC, IP68 water resistance, fairly-fast charging at 25W -- all for just under S$1,000 at launch (and is in fact under S$900 since the Galaxy S22 was released).

It may not sound mind-blowing until you realise how other phones of this level don't actually offer all of these features in one device. Either the processor isn't a flagship one, or its water resistance rating is lower, or it's just too compact to offer a fuller viewing experience.

Frankly speaking, the Xiaomi 11T Pro would've won with its adherence to the basics of high-quality experiences (display, processor, big battery) topped off with 120W fast-charging and an amazing sticker price. But the Galaxy S21 FE took the lead, thanks to its better UI and UX and Samsung Knox, while doing everything else the 11T Pro can to a more reasonable extent (120W charging is nuts, really). It's important to note that a phone goes beyond its device, seeing how Samsung confers its premium flagship software advancements to the FE versions, albeit a little slower than its more expensive counterparts.

 

*Note: Prices and ratings listed are accurate at the time of individual product evaluation.

For more information on how the nominees fared in detail and thus helping us pick our winner, check out the full reviews and articles listed in the References below.

References

• Xiaomi 11T Pro review
• ASUS ZenFone 8 review
• Vivo X70 Pro review
• Oppo Reno7 Pro review coming soon
• Samsung Galaxy S21 FE review

Best Noise Cancelling Headphones

The past two years have shown just how invaluable noise-cancelling headphones are. What used to be an indispensable tool in the skies has proven to be an extremely helpful companion for working at home. At home, these headphones are excellent at nullifying unwanted noises and creating a cocoon of silence in which to concentrate and work. And now that we are slowly and gradually returning to normalcy, these headphones are once again proving their worth during our daily commutes, cancelling out unwanted noise so that we can better enjoy our music.

To make the cut for this year’s award, the headphone must be the flagship of the brand, have an over-ear design, wireless, equipped with active noise-cancellation technology, and released in the past year. Like many other categories, the uneven product release cycles mean not every brand gets to participate every year. That said, here are our contenders:-

Nominees:

• Bang & Olufsen Beoplay HX
• Bose QuietComfort 45
• JBL Club One
• Technics EAH-A800

Yamaha had the YH-L700A that could have made the comparison list, but it had to sit out as we couldn't obtain a test set.

And the winner is...

At first glance, it’s hard to tell that the Bose QuietComfort 45 headphones are even new. It looks pretty much identical to its predecessor. And while that may be, Bose has completely re-engineered its active noise cancellation technology. The end result is arguably the best active noise cancellation that I’ve heard in any headphone. I think it’s slightly better than even Sony (who was last year's winner). It sounds pretty nice too. I don’t think it’s the best-sounding headphone you can buy, but it’s smooth, just about punchy enough, and pleasant to listen to for extended periods. Speaking of long periods, thanks to its plush earpads and lightweight construction, it’s comfortable and never feels fatiguing to wear. Battery life isn’t bad either. In my tests, a single charge easily lasted over 20 hours with on and off listening. Ultimately, there are headphones that perhaps do other things better. But as an all-around package and as a headphone that I could use every day no matter what, I can’t think of a better one than the Bose QuietComfort 45. 

For more details on how we selected our winners, check out the full reviews and articles listed in the References section below.

References

• Bang & Olufsen Beoplay HX review coming soon
• Bose QuietComfort 45 review coming soon
• JBL Club One review coming soon
• Technics EAH-A800 review

Best True Wireless Earbuds

One of the biggest audio trends in recent years is true wireless earbuds. These are headphones that, as their name suggests, are unencumbered by wires and sit within your ears. Their owners love them for their convenience, freedom, and flexibility. And right now, there’s no shortage of true wireless earbuds to choose from. Nearly every mobile and audio brand have a couple of earbuds in their lineup. Crucially, true wireless earbuds have gotten better over the years. They now come with features like customisable EQ and active noise-cancellation at much lower price points. Battery life has also improved significantly for most models and so has basics like enhanced resistance to water and dust.

To make the cut for this year’s award, the true wireless earbuds must be the best the brand has to offer, was released in the last 12 months, must have a closed-back truly wireless design with active noise-cancellation capability.

Nominees:

• Bang & Olufsen Beoplay EQ
• Bowers & Wilkins PI7
• Jabra Elite 7 Pro
• JBL Club Pro+
• Klipsch T5 II ANC
• LG Tone Free FP9
• Master & Dynamic MW08
• Nothing Ear (1)
• Oppo Enco X
• Samsung Galaxy Buds2
• Sony WF-1000XM4
• Technics EAH-AZ60
• Xiaomi Redmi Buds 3 Pro

And the winner is...

Sony's long-awaited successor to the WF-1000XM3 did not disappoint. The WF-1000XM4 arrived in the middle of last year to much fanfare and it was a thorough redesign and rethink of Sony’s flagship earbuds.

To start, it’s more compact, which makes it more comfortable to wear for extended periods. It also has a new Integrated Processor V1 chip that delivers class-leading active noise cancellation. If silence and serenity is what you seek, no earbuds do a better job than the WF-1000XM4. It sounds fantastic too. Tonality and timbre is excellent, and if you don’t like what you hear, you can tweak its sound signature using the accompanying Headphones Connect app. The WF-1000XM4 is also one of the few earbuds to support the higher bit-rate LDAC codec, which I’m sure more discerning listeners will appreciate. Overall, Sony really hit it out of the park with the WF-1000XM4. It’s very easily the best true wireless earbuds for most people.

For more details on how we selected our winners, check out the full reviews and articles listed in the References section below.

References

• Bang & Olufsen Beoplay EQ review coming soon
• Bower & Wilkins PI7 review coming soon
• Jabra Elite 7 Pro review coming soon
• JBL Club Pro+ review coming soon
• Klipsch T5 II ANC review coming soon
• LG Tone Free FP9 review coming soon
• Master & Dynamic MW08 review coming soon
• Nothing Ear (1) review
• Oppo Enco X review coming soon
• Samsung Galaxy Buds2 review
• Sony WF-1000XM4 review
• Technics EAH-AZ60 review coming soon
• Xiaomi Redmi Bud 3 Pro review coming soon

Innovation Awards

Three Innovation awards were also given out in this year's Editor's Choice segment to recognise innovative products and cutting-edge technologies that have emerged during the eligibility period. Unlike previous Tech Awards, this year, we've also accepted featuring and recognising up-and-coming technologies and products worthy for consumers and enthusiasts to take note of. Here then are our Innovation Award winners for Tech Awards 2022 in no particular order of merit.

Apple M1 Max

Apple’s transition to its custom silicon for Macs has been nothing but a resounding success. And the most important chip in the line-up is arguably the new M1 Max. Now that Apple has followed up with the M1 Ultra, we now know that the M1 Max is the building block of Apple’s custom Mac chips. And that the original M1 is better thought of as a scaled-down version of the M1 Max, as opposed to the M1 Max being a souped-up M1. Sure, M1 Max is very powerful. Its 10 CPU cores and 32 GPU cores deliver performance rivalling very high-end desktop workstations. But what is more impressive is that we now know that it has a very high-speed interconnect called UltraFusion that enables Apple to combine two M1 Max to create a single ultra-high-performance chip called the M1 Ultra, which is used in Apple’s new Mac Studio that’s designed for very compute and graphics-intensive professional work. And if that’s not all, Apple has announced that it’s working on an even more powerful Mac called the Mac Pro. It will be very interesting to see where the ceiling is with the M1 Max.

Reference: Apple 14-inch MacBook Pro review, Apple Mac Studio and M1 Ultra announcement

Intel's 12th Gen Core (Alder Lake architecture)

The last few years have been tough for the big blue to maintain its status quo as the processor of choice for enthusiasts. Sure, it's still the most sought after option in the mobile and server space, but enthusiasts have had renewed interest in AMD's Ryzen series as viable and strong alternatives for their next work and/or gaming platform.

Finally, in late 2021, Intel unleashed a brand new processor architecture that's totally reworked from the ground up and has moved on from the DNA laid out in the Skylake architecture since 2015. Codenamed Alder Lake, it is the basis of Intel's 12th Gen Core processor family. Intel also wasted no time populating the desktop and mobile segments with a vast array of new processors that are now featured in various desktops and laptops. Alder Lake is a massive shift of architecting a family of processors where two different core types - Performance and Efficient - exist to address various workload types based on the intended market segment it is addressing. Using Intel's new 7 process technology, the Alder Lake has processor models to fit the ultra-mobile segment with 9W TDP chips, all the way to their leading desktop juggernaut at 125W TDP.

This is the first time that a performance-oriented x86 processor has been designed with two distinct core types, just like many Arm processors. To make this a reality, the Intel Thread Director intelligence layered was designed to work with Windows 11 and schedule jobs to the most appropriate processing cores available at any instant, including weighing telemetric data to consider the load, temperature and other parameters. To round up the new processor's capabilities, new smart power management and an AI acceleration engine called Intel AMX were added to better manage the processor and tackle new-age applications that frequently employ AI-enhanced tasks.

Last but not least, the Alder Lake architecture via the Intel 12th Gen Core is designed to take advantage of cutting-edge platform technologies such as DDR5, PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 6E and Thunderbolt 4 as standard fare. It was a long time coming, but the 12th Gen Core wasn't just a marketing spiel as their Core i9-12900K showed us its mantle, thus clinching our best gaming CPU recommendation or even the best CPU outright for any work. Even on the mobile front, their top-end Core i9-12900HK had an impressive showing.

With so much engineering at various levels to make the Alder Lake architecture a reality, we're gladly awarding the 12th Gen Core our Innovation Award to recognise the immense steps that Intel has taken, and we look forward to more systems championing the new processor series this year.

References: Alder Lake hybrid scalable architecture, 12th Gen Core i9-12900K, the new best gaming CPU, Test driving the mobile Core i9-12900HK

ROG Flow Z13 gaming notebook (GZ301)

The ROG Flow Z13 is not quite like your ordinary gaming notebook. For one, it’s more a tablet than a notebook – albeit one that’s designed from the ground up for gamers. Then, there are the specifications. The 13.4-inch model sold in Singapore is powered by an Intel 12th Core i7-12700H processor and paired with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 GPU. Mixing the lowest-tier discrete graphics processor from NVIDIA with the powerful Intel CPU seems like an odd decision, since the RTX 3050 may not offer a lot of gaming prowess. But it does allow for the Flow Z13 to retain its slim and mobile design since it does not require a large cooling system. It also meant that the notebook offers a lot more in terms of battery life than notebooks with more powerful GPUs.

We think it’s a great foresight by ROG from a design perspective.

Think about it: “Gamers” these days do not just play games on their devices. They want more possibilities, and the Flow Z13 offers that by virtue of its ‘tablet’ form-factor. 

Want to catch your favourite Netflix show on the couch? Fold the detachable keyboard to the back or remove it completely and place it on your lap. Do you love mixing EDM tracks? Connect a DJ controller to it and the Flow Z13’s touchscreen and kickstand allow you to turn it into a mixer. Oh, you really want to play high-end games too? Guess what, you can connect an ROG XG Mobile eGPU that’s powered by a GeForce RTX 3080 (the eGPU is sold separately) and turn it into a gaming powerhouse.

We truly consider the ROG Flow Z13 one of the gaming company’s best innovations yet. Granted, the ROG Flow Z13 is also arguably ahead of its time. But if anything, it offers a wondrous peek at what the future of “mobile” gaming could possibly look like. And we got to say we like what we are seeing.

Reference: ROG Flow Z13 Impressions

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