what you should Know
- ASUS has 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 PC powered by a Snapdragon X processor.
- The ProArt PZ13 also has a 13-inch 3K OLED display, a kickstand, and a 70Wh battery.
- We don’t know full pricing details for the ASUS ProArt PZ13 at the moment, but the computer 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 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 processors, the convertible ProArt PX14 also powered by those Ryzen chips, and a rival to Surface Pro called ProArt PZ13 running on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X processors. We will look at powerful AMD computers in a separate part. Here I will focus on the new ASUS convertible that is on the way.
The ASUS PZ13 is a 2-in-1 PC that can be used as a standalone tablet or with a keyboard attached. It also has a stand which is surprisingly not that common in convertibles. The 13-inch 3K OLED display should provide excellent colors and contrast for creators and anyone using the ProArt PZ13. Inside, the convertible tablet has a Snapdragon X Elite processor.
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 PCs weigh 850g (1.87lbs) on their own, 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. 2nd half of the year coming (boo… The crowd wasn’t happy lol) pic.twitter.com/srAc79UD5DJune 3, 2024
As a Copilot+ computer, the ProArt PZ13 hits the necessary specs to earn that moniker, including TOP 45 AI computing and 16GB of RAM. The ProArt PZ13 also has an IP52 rating 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 main competitors.
We don’t know full 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 distinctive features it can highlight that make the ProArt PZ13 the better option for some workflows.
More Copilot+ computers
A wave of Copilot+ PCs powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X processors are on the way this month. Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft and Samsung will ship Copilot+ PCs within a few weeks. But there is another wave of Snapdragon X PCs.
Some of the second-wave Copilot+ PCs go beyond the laptop form factor. Others, like the ASUS ProArt PZ13, are 2-in-1s. The Snapdragon X Plus and Snapdragon X Elite in the new PCs are intriguing as they promise all-day battery life combined with impressive performance. Windows on Arm is also poised 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 the likes of Apple’s MacBooks. This isn’t the half-hearted attempt to make Windows on Arm work that we’ve seen in the past; major manufacturers are getting on board and Microsoft is optimizing Windows for Arm computing.
Our Editor-in-Chief Daniel Rubino said that ARM64 and AI are “driving a ‘grand reset’ in 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’ll have to wait a few more months for a second wave.
