Between the two kinds of 2-in-1 laptops, Asus has content creators covered either way. The Asus ProArt PZ13 we reviewed in December 2024 is a detachable tablet-plus-keyboard combo, while the ProArt PX13 seen here ($1,699.99) takes the more mainstream flip-and-fold convertible approach. With the same spiffy OLED touch screen and Microsoft Copilot+ AI hype as its sibling, the PX13 is a slightly pricier but powerful rival to the Lenovo Yoga 9i and HP Spectre x360, becoming the next Editors’ Choice award winner in the high-end category. The ProArt PX13 could be the best premium consumer convertible if you want outstanding performance for Adobe and other creative applications.
Configuration and Design: Almost Three of a Kind
Asus’ ProArt PX13, the Lenovo Yoga 9i, and the HP Spectre x360 all flaunt 2,880-by-1,800-pixel OLED panels, but the Asus is a bit more compact (0.7 by 11.7 by 8.3 inches) because its display measures 13.3 to the others’ 14 inches diagonally. Weight-wise, it’s in the middle, barely missing our ultraportable cutoff at 3.04 pounds; the Lenovo and HP are 2.98 and 3.19 pounds, respectively.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Our test unit (model HN7306WU) features a 12-core, 24-thread AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor, an ample 32GB of memory, a 1TB NVMe solid-state drive, and Windows 11 Home. It bolsters the CPU’s Radeon 890M integrated graphics with a 6GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU; a model HN7306WV ($1,999.99 at Asus’ web store) is identical except for a step-up RTX 4060.
Clad in “Nano Black” aluminum, the ProArt has passed MIL-STD 810H torture tests for travel hazards such as shock, vibration, and extreme temperatures. You’ll notice hardly any flex if you grasp the screen corners or press the keyboard deck. The screen’s bezels are slim around all but the bottom of the sunny OLED screen. Pressing the F10 key turns the webcam on and off at the top center, which provides face recognition for Windows Hello logins. The webcam can also lock and wake the system as you leave it and return, and it can dim the screen when you look away.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
For a petite machine, the PX13 has a broad array of ports. The laptop’s left side holds a 40Gbps USB4 Type-C port, an HDMI port for an external monitor, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a proprietary (not USB-C) connector for the AC adapter. Another USB4 port joins a USB 3.2 Type-A connection and microSD flash-card slot on the right. MediaTek-made Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth modules handle wireless connections from inside the system.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Using the Asus ProArt PX13: Cool Screen and Inputs, But Too Much AI Cruft
Asus preloads the PX13 with a slew of apps, led by MyAsus, for system settings, updates, diagnostics, and support. ProArt Creator Hub lets you set cooling modes and screen hues (normal, vivid, and manual versions of native, sRGB, and DCI-P3 palettes), launch groups of apps, and prioritize their performance.
You’ll also find a trial of ByteDance’s CapCut video editor and GlideX to link your PC and phone. ScreenXpert manages workspaces. StoryCube helps organize, tag, and trim images while MuseTree “grows your dreams with AI magic,” generating and grouping images on an “idea map.” (I gave it my usual request, “Batman on a unicycle,” and got “batman and batgirl on bikes in a park with a crowd of people.”) If that’s not enough, Virtual Pet provides a creepy cartoon robot mouse as an always-on-top AI assistant—like Clippy, but somehow not as cute.
(Credit: Eric Grevstad)
While AI bloatware is a lowlight, Asus’ Pantone-validated VESA DisplayHDR OLED screen is a highlight. The display delivers sky-high contrast and rich, vivid colors, with ample brightness and wide viewing angles. Its fine details are crisp, with no pixelation around the edges of letters, and images and videos pop with lavish, saturated shades. It’s a pleasure to work on.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
The 1080p webcam supports Windows Studio Effects, such as auto-framing and background blur. It captures well-lit and colorful images with minimal noise or static. Bottom-mounted speakers pump out medium-loud, audibly clear sound. You won’t hear much bass, but the audio isn’t harsh or tinny, and you can make out overlapping tracks. Dolby Atmos software, also accessible from MyAsus, provides dynamic, movie, music, game, and voice presets and an equalizer.
The brightly backlit keyboard (seriously, the lowest of its three settings is fine) has dinky cursor arrow keys that team with the Fn key for Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down. It has a shallow, soft typing feel, is nearly silent, and has decent feedback. A well-sized, buttonless touchpad takes just the right amount of pressure for a quiet click.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Touching a dot at the top right of the Asus DialPad touchpad and swiping diagonally center ward illuminates a small LED dot on the top left of the Asus DialPad. You can tap this dot for shortcuts ranging from spinning a finger to adjust volume or brightness to setting brush width or zooming in Adobe Creative apps. It takes a little getting used to but soon becomes a handy convenience.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Testing the Asus ProArt PX13: One Quick Convertible
For our benchmark comparisons, we pitted the Asus ProArt PX13 against two other premium 2-in-1 laptops: one detachable, its Asus ProArt PZ13 stablemate, and one convertible, the HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14. We rounded out the charts with two upscale clamshells, the Dell XPS 13 and Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition.
Productivity and Content Creation Tests
Our primary overall benchmark, UL’s PCMark 10, puts a system through its paces in productivity apps ranging from web browsing to word processing and spreadsheet work. Its Full System Drive subtest measures a PC’s storage throughput.
Three more tests are CPU-centric or processor-intensive. Maxon’s Cinebench 2024 uses that company’s Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene; Primate Labs’ Geekbench 6.3 Pro simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning; and we see how long it takes the transcoding tool HandBrake 1.8 to convert a 12-minute clip from 4K to 1080p resolution.
Finally, workstation maker Puget Systems’ PugetBench for Creators rates a PC’s image editing prowess with various automated operations in Adobe Photoshop 2024 (v.25). And Geekbench AI is one of the first AI processing benchmarks.
All these systems are fine for office apps—any score above 4,000 in PCMark 10 indicates excellent everyday productivity—but the PX13’s Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 annihilated the others in our CPU benchmarks and Adobe Photoshop, delivering outright workstation-class performance. Unlike many ultraportables, it’s well suited to demanding video and image editing and other content creation, as well as Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace.
Graphics Tests
We challenge laptops’ graphics with a quartet of animations or gaming simulations from UL’s 3DMark test suite. Wild Life (1440p) and Wild Life Extreme (4K) use the Vulkan graphics API to measure GPU speeds. Steel Nomad’s regular and Light subtests focus on APIs more commonly used for game development, like Metal and DirectX 12, to assess gaming geometry and particle effects. A fifth test, Solar Bay, emphasizes ray-tracing performance.
The PX13’s GeForce RTX 4050 GPU predictably spanked the other laptops’ integrated graphics. It won’t replace a serious gaming rig, but it can play current games at moderate settings and join its rivals in solitaire pastimes and video streaming. The main aim of this dedicated GPU is to boost content creation performance, which was displayed in its dominant Photoshop score in the previous test set.
Battery and Display Tests
We test each laptop’s battery life by playing a locally stored 720p video file (the open-source Blender movie Tears of Steel) with display brightness at 50% and audio volume at 100%. We make sure the battery is fully charged before the test, with Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting turned off.
We also use a Datacolor SpyderX Elite monitor calibration sensor and Windows software to measure a screen’s color saturation—what percentage of the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 color gamuts or palettes the display can show—and its 50% and peak brightness in nits (candelas per square meter).
You can’t find five better laptop screens than this group’s elite OLED panels; their color coverage and brightness are off the charts. The PX13’s battery life is a couple of hours short by modern ultraportable standards but still admirable, more than enough for a day of work or school plus an evening’s entertainment.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Verdict: A Nearly Flawless 2-in-1 Laptop for Creators
The AI robot mouse is unforgivable, but the ProArt PX13 deserves a rave review and Editors’ Choice honors. It doesn’t have the software-compatibility question mark the Arm-powered PZ13 tablet does, and its convertible design is more convenient for presentations and touch-screen apps if not sketching and scribbling. The HP Spectre x360 and Lenovo Yoga 9i are better values for those who stick to office tasks, but the Asus’ raw speed and DialPad are a winning combination for content creators.
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The Bottom Line
It’s an ounce over our ultraportable limit, but Asus’ ProArt PX13 2-in-1 laptop is a super-screened, screaming-fast compact convertible for demanding creative apps.
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About Eric Grevstad
Contributing Editor
