What do you need to know
- ASUS has just announced three new creator PCs that will launch 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 has a 13-inch 3K OLED display, a kickstand and a 70Wh battery.
- Full pricing details for the ASUS ProArt PZ13 are unknown at this time, but the PC is expected to ship in the second half of this year.
ASUS has just unveiled three new PCs at Computex 2024. The range includes the powerful ProArt P16 running on the new AMD Ryzen 9 AI 300 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 processors, the convertible ProArt PX14, which is also powered by these Ryzen chips, and a competing Surface Pro called the ProArt PZ13 running on Qualcomm Snapdragon X processors. We will cover powerful AMD computers in a separate section. 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 standalone tablet or with a keyboard attached. It also has a kickstand, which is surprisingly not that common in a convertible. The 13-inch 3K OLED display should provide excellent color and contrast for creators and anyone using the ProArt PZ13. The convertible tablet has a Snapdragon X Elite processor inside.
At 9 mm (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 computers themselves weigh 850g (1.87lb), and its detachable keyboard adds another 350g (0.77lb).
There’s a new Qualcomm tablet from @ASUS with the new ProArt PZ13 tablet with Snapdragon X. Ship date 2H (boo… The audience was not happy lol) pic.twitter.com/srAc79UD5DJune 3, 2024
As a Copilot+ computer, the ProArt PZ13 meets the required specifications to earn this designation, including 45 TOP for AI computing and 16GB of RAM. The ProArt PZ13 also has IP52 protection and a 70Wh battery. A pair of USB 4.0 Type-C ports and an SD card reader help the ProArt PZ13 stand out from some of its key competitors.
We don’t know full pricing details for the ProArt PZ13 at the moment, but our colleagues at Tom’s Guide say that the ASUS PC will be priced the same as the Surface Pro 11. If the two PCs are priced the same, ASUS will have some key differences that can be highlighted that make the ProArt PZ13 a better choice for some workflows.
More Copilot+ computers
A wave of Copilot+ PCs powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon X processors is on the way 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 Copilot+ computers exceed laptop dimensions. Others, like the ASUS ProArt PZ13, are 2-in-1s. The Snapdragon X Plus and Snapdragon X Elite inside the new PCs are interesting because they promise all-day battery life and impressive performance. Windows on Arm is also ready for waves of Arm-enabled devices.
At least for now, all Copilot+ computers run on either a Snapdragon X Elite or Snapdragon X Plus processor. These devices represent a major shift in Windows computing that includes better battery life coupled with performance that rivals Apple’s MacBooks. This isn’t the half-hearted attempt to get Windows on Arm working that we’ve seen in the past; major manufacturers are on board and Microsoft has optimized Windows for Arm computing.
Our editor-in-chief Daniel Rubino said that ARM64 and AI are “driving a ‘great reset’ in the Windows PC industry” and that these technologies are behind “a transformation not seen in three decades”. We only have to wait a few weeks to see the new Arm PCs 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.