The Asus ROG Flow Z13 was already a unique beast. It’s a chunky gaming tablet with impressive AMD Strix Halo integrated graphics. I was really into it when I reviewed it around this time last year. But just look at it now, clad in the stylings of Hideo Kojima’s game studio and his longtime collaborator, artist Yoji Shinkawa.
This is the Asus ROG Flow Z13-KJP, a collaboration between Asus and Kojima Productions announced at CES. It’s officially inspired by Kojima Productions’ mascot Ludens, though it feels very Death Stranding, which makes sense, since Yoji Shinkawa designed both. Shinkawa is famed for designing legendary characters and gadgetry with Kojima, going back to the Metal Gear Solid series, and more recently the Death Stranding games.
The ROG Flow Z13-KJP is based on the most powerful configuration of the standard model Z13, with an AMD Ryzen AI Max 395 Plus APU and 128GB of memory. It costs $3,699.99, $400 more than the MSRP of that model (though $900 more than the current sale price), and it will include a Steam code for Death Stranding 2: On the Beachon PC, delivered via Asus’ Armoury Crate app. It’s up for preorder now, direct from Asus and at retailers like Best Buy and B&H Photo. The limited edition isn’t individually numbered, and Asus isn’t disclosing how many it’s making, but like the previous limited editions it’s likely to sell out. Accompanying the tablet are a matching ROG Delta II-KJP headset ($269.99), ROG Keris II Origin-KJP mouse ($169.99), and a ROG Scabbard II XXL-KJP desk mat ($69.99). All in, the limited edition collection costs $4,209.96 — sold a la carte in the US. It may be available as a bundle in some regions. As bonkers as that price is, I urge you once again: Look. At. This. Thing.
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Shinkawa’s influence is clear across the design of the entire collection. The tablet’s anodized “decennium gold” chassis has a smoother and nicer feel than the regular ROG Flow, and there’s a carbon fiber panel on the top left of the tablet’s rear, just because. And next to that is a decorative design combining gold lines and the negative space of a fan vent to look a bit like a mountain peak — the kind of hostile terrain common in Death Stranding. Even the otherwise boring power supply is adorned with a Ludens mascot design. Meanwhile, the mouse and headset feature a mix of black and white with gold accents, plus Kojima Productions iconography like the company’s Ludens logo illuminated in RGB light.
Everything is covered in sci-fi military jargon and iconography. Some are functional labels, like the M.2 SSD storage, but most of it is just for looks and laughs. The “For Ludens Who Dare” phrase is everywhere (a remix of ROG’s “For Those Who Dare” motto), as is the phrase “Extra-vehicular Creative Activity Device.” The name comes from Ludens’ spacesuit, the “Extra-vehicular Creative Activity Suit.” (Ludens isn’t in any games, but does appear as a 1:1 statue in the company office and has its own line of merch.) Another of my many favorites is a black-on-black “Caution: Actuator cycles: 100M exceed prohibited” on the left mouse button, referring to its rated lifespan of clicks. It’s such a fun little touch. Maybe more specs should be proudly worn as design elements on everyday things?
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The extra touches extend to all the Z13-KJP’s accessories, like the attaché case it comes in, which is inspired by the much larger version mounted on Ludens’ back. The tablet even comes with a remove before flight-style keychain, but sadly there’s nowhere to attach it to the case. Each item comes with a bunch of stickers and a printed thank-you note from the Asus ROG and KJP teams. The best part of that thank-you card is the reverse side, which shows some of Shinkawa’s original concept art for the collaboration hardware. I still haven’t played either Death Stranding game yet, but I’m a longtime Metal Gear Solid fan, and seeing a glimpse of Yoji Shinkawa artwork always sends the good chemicals flowing to my brain.
Asus also went the extra mile with software. Boot up the Z13-KJP and you’re greeted by a Kojima Productions logo animation with a suspenseful audio stinger, harkening back to the studio’s founding and its original logo trailer. I was not expecting to hear a sound like that when I booted up the tablet, so it gave me a solid jump scare. Once in Windows, the Armoury Crate and MyAsus apps show a render of the KJP tablet in their device settings, and Armoury Crate has a matching KJP theme. None of these little touches are necessary, but the thoroughness is appreciated.
The KJP edition you can buy will come with a keyboard that uses a new faux-leather palm rest and plastic keycaps in white, black, and gold with futuristic-looking legends. But Asus also made a small batch of keyboards with metal keycaps: 50 of them for Kojima and his team, and around 30 for Asus staff members and promotional purposes.
Asus sent me both the standard and metallic keyboards to try out, in part because I’m a wee bit of a keyboard sicko. The metal keycaps have a similar style to the regular plastic set, but with metallic silver keys in place of the white ones. There’s a subtle luster to them, and they catch the light in a unique way. They sound a little nicer, with an ever-so-slightly deeper bottom-out sound than the plastic caps. Both the plastic and metal sets look stylish as hell, though, so don’t get too much FOMO for not being able to own the same one as Kojima.
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I can’t remember the last time I’ve been this enamored of a computer. There are of course lots of wild custom PCs out there. The annual Dream Machines that Maximum PC used to make were the stuff of legends. And Asus has done its fair share of zany limited editions before, like the last-gen ROG Flow Z13 ACRNYM. But this one definitely speaks to me — hence my personal motivation to hike it up a snowy mountain Sam Porter Bridges style. (And nothing broke or shorted out from water ingress. Thankfully this tablet isn’t Fragile.)
The latest incarnation of the ROG Flow Z13 was already a pretty forward-looking device, with its cutting-edge integrated graphics and versatile form factor, and this KJP edition also makes it a thing of sci-fi beauty. It’s expensive as all hell, but the care and attention put into it makes it feel like a gem of a modern computer — one from the future, even.
Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge
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