Asus ProArt PZ13 Review: A Cheaper Surface Pro

Microsoft's latest Surface Pro is the standard-bearer for detachable 2-in-1 Copilot+ PCs. But arsenic I noted in my reappraisal astatine the time, it suffers from respective issues—most notably a sky-high terms of $1,950 arsenic it was configured for our tests. No substance what you deliberation astir the detachable keyboard concept, this instrumentality comes with an awfully hard terms to swallow.

Enter Asus with a suspiciously akin concept, albeit considerably cheaper. I wouldn’t rather telephone this the Wish mentation of the Surface Pro, but astatine $1,100, the ProArt PZ13 whitethorn astatine slightest instrumentality immoderate of the sting retired of the currency outlay should you task down this road.

To trim the price, Asus has made its just stock of sacrifices. Certain elements stay the same, including a 13-inch touchscreen, 16 GB of RAM, and a magnetically attached keyboard, which comes included with your purchase. Otherwise, the ProArt comes crossed arsenic a somewhat antithetic animal. It starts with the stripped-down CPU: The ProArt uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P42100 alternatively of the much susceptible Elite that dominated the first question of Copilot+ PCs. The facet ratio and solution of the 2 screens are somewhat different—2,880 x 1,920 pixels connected the Surface versus 2,880 x 1,800 connected the ProArt—and though the ProArt surface isn’t astir arsenic vibrant and bright, I had nary complaints with it done respective days of use.

Surprisingly, determination are a mates of upgrades connected pat from Asus implicit what comes connected the Surface Pro. Instead of Microsoft’s 512-GB SSD, Asus packs successful a 1-TB thrust by default. It besides enhances the 2 USB-C 4.0 ports—one required for charging connected the ProArt, dissimilar the Surface Pro—with a full-size SD paper slot. Oddly, the paper slot and 1 of the USB-C ports are hidden nether a rigid integrative flap that’s hard to unfastened and does small much than get successful the way.