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ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo Is A Fascinating Laptop From The Future & It Makes Everything Else Look Old


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ASUS already made a convincing case for dual-screen laptops with the ScreenPad on the ZenBook Pro last year. A cool idea indeed, but it didn't excite me in a way the new ZenBook Pro Duo did when I saw it for the time. Like, do you ever see a piece of technology that's so thoughtful and innovative that it literally makes everything look old? Yeah, it belongs to that breed.

Although I was wowed by and drooling over the ZenBook Pro Duo's retina-searing 4K OLED panels and its futuristic looks, I wasn't completely sure if it's actually a good laptop. I mean, yes, it makes the Apple MacBook Pro's Touchbar look silly and all, but I wanted to know if and how it really affects the rest of the laptop experience. And that's exactly what this review is all about.

Asus ZenBook Pro Duo Review© MensXP/ Karthik Iyer

ASUS let us use the top-of-the-line variant of the ZenBook Pro Duo for a couple of weeks to see if we like it. Well, here's everything that you need to know about this laptop before dropping your money on it.

Let's Talk About The Screens

It's best if I start talking about the displays first because that's what's running the show here. Both the screens, I must say, have crazy specs. The main 15.6-inch touchscreen OLED panel will serve you 4K resolution worth of pixels that's aplenty for anything you can possibly imagine.

Asus ZenBook Pro Duo Review© MensXP/ Karthik Iyer

ASUS is pushing this laptop as a creative tool, so as expected, the display has good brightness, great contrast ratio and produces vibrant and sharp images. It's just perfect for all kinds of creative work and then some.

The secondary display, i.e. the ScreenPad Plus is where the real magic is happening. It's a 14-inch IPS Touchscreen that uses a 32:9 aspect ratio. It's not quite the 4K resolution, but it's super sharp and looks great as a display for the top half of the keyboard base.

Asus ZenBook Pro Duo Review© MensXP/ Karthik Iyer

However, I must point out that there's a difference in quality between the main and the secondary screen. In comparison to the main screen which handles sRGB, Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 color gamuts with equal skill, the secondary screen is dimmer and has a slightly poor contrast ratio. The difference isn't obvious when you first look at it, but you'll definitely notice it once you use it for an extended period of time.

By the way, you also get a stylus with the ZenBook Pro Duo and it works just as advertised. Fast and responsive, it's super handy to edit videos and move things around.

ScreenXpert Software

I was more interested in seeing how this second screen would benefit someone who's not necessarily in the field of creative work. You know, someone who just wants a good laptop for multitasking and maybe for casual gaming. So I started carrying this to work for my every day needs.

Asus ZenBook Pro Duo Review© MensXP/ Karthik Iyer

ASUS' ScreenXpert Software that manages the second screen was surprisingly useful for me. I was able to set up clusters of apps and browser windows which I could open with just a tap. For instance, I had set up one of the shortcuts to open the Google Chrome window on the main screen and a window of Chrome on the second screen along with the notes app and Spotify. So all I had to do was tap the shortcut whenever I reach the office. Just one tap and everything is ready for you.

The ZenBook Pro Duo also lets you do other things like extending the window on the main screen to the second screen or swap the windows and more. I wasn't a huge fan of the software on the normal ZenBook Pro laptops with the ScreenPad, but I must say that ASUS had done a kickass job here with the ScreenPad Plus.

Design

Asus ZenBook Pro Duo Review© MensXP/ Karthik Iyer

Enough about the screens, what about the design? Has ASUS made any compromises? Well, yes, there are a few. For starters, this isn't a slim and light notebook like some other ASUS notebooks that we've seen in recent times. You'll feel the weight in your backpack, so I won't recommend carrying this around if you're not used to carrying heavy laptops.

That said, the ZenBook Pro Duo is a well-built machine. It feels super premium, thanks to the brushed aluminum and dark panels. The visible cooling vents on the sides also give it a nice personality. And although this notebook has a webcam, unlike the ROG Scar 3, I have to say that ASUS has indeed taken a step back when it comes to I/O.

Asus ZenBook Pro Duo Review© MensXP/ Karthik Iyer

It has one Thunderbolt 3 USE port that supports USB-C, an HDMI port, a single headphone jack, and two full-size USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports. That's about it. There's no card reader, which I think is a must for creators, no Gigabit Ethernet, etc. And speaking of disappointments, I think it's a good segway to the keyboard layout and the trackpad.

Asus ZenBook Pro Duo Review© MensXP/ Karthik Iyer

Keyboard and Trackpad

Since the ScreenPad Plus takes most of the space on the deck, both the keyboard and the trackpad have been pushed towards the bottom of the deck It's very similar to ASUS' Zephyrus S, except here, space is being used for a screen instead of cooling.

Asus ZenBook Pro Duo Review© MensXP/ Karthik Iyer

The keyboard itself is solid, though. The buttons have a decent amount of travel and it feels good to type on. It's the kind of premium keyboard that you'd expect from a laptop like this. It's just I don't like how the keyboard is pushed towards the bottom. To make things easier, ASUS is giving wrist-rest with the laptop for free inside the box. It helps a lot when you're using the laptop on, say, a table. But it's hardly of any use when you're using the laptop on, you know, your lap.

Similarly, the trackpad is not bad per se. It has a smooth surface and it's very responsive. In fact, I really like the buttons on it. It's the trackpad's position that irks me. It doubles as the number pad, so that's cool, I guess.

Performance & Thermals

Asus ZenBook Pro Duo Review© MensXP/ Karthik Iyer

Remember how I mentioned this laptop is a bit chunky and how difficult it is to carry it around? Well, that's because of the internals. My unit here is packed with an Intel Core i9-9980HK, which happens to be one of the most powerful mobile chipsets out there. It's coupled with 32GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, an RTX 2060 GPU, and other components for things like Wi-Fi 6.

I don't know about you, but if I see those numbers on a specs sheet, I dare not to question the capabilities of the laptop. I did use some resource-intensive photo and video editing apps to put it to test, and I wasn't surprised by the performance at all. It can handle pretty much everything with ease, including gaming.

Asus ZenBook Pro Duo Review© MensXP

Geekbench scores returned some crazy numbers like 5,421 on single-core and 26,262 on multi-core. It's about as high as it gets. Believe it or not, I also played and reviewed Borderlands 3 on this laptop. I was comfortably running it at 1080p resolution with graphics settings set to high.

And besides all the powerful components, ASUS has done a commendable job of handling the thermals. Yes, the fans do kick in every time you start the laptop and use it for, say, an hour, but it never bothered me. The fans aren't loud, so I wasn't getting distracted. It does get warm to touch at times, but overall I'd say the thermals are well under control.

Battery Life

Two high-resolution screens, powerful internals to drive, like Core i9 and RTX 2060 - what do you think the battery life is going to be like? Well, if you are like me who are running both the displays at peak brightness at times, then you'll probably be looking at around 3 hours of battery life. Even if you disable the ScreenPad Plus and use just the primary display, you'll still be looking at around 5-6 hours.

Asus ZenBook Pro Duo Review© MensXP/ Karthik Iyer

And if you're running some heavy application and making the cores kick in, then take out some more numbers off of that. Look, the point that I am trying to make is that the ZenBook Pro Duo doesn't have the best battery life and you'll definitely be needing a power source almost all the time.

The Final Say

The ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo, as I mentioned, is a thoughtful piece of technology that rethinks what a laptop can be. With those beautiful displays, powerful internals and a well-built chassis, the ZenBook Pro Duo is nothing short of a complete package. But there's a price for everything, and in this case, we're looking at a starting price of Rs 2,09,990.

Is the ZenBook Pro Duo worth buying at that price? Well, that depends on the kind of use that you're looking to get out of it and how much you're going to be using those screens. If not, then you'd be better off buying something like a MacBook Pro which makes up for the lack of ScreenPad Plus with a Touchbar and a slimmer and lighter body.

But with all that being said, I am glad that the ZenBook Pro Duo exists and I have nothing but respect for ASUS for pushing the boundaries and coming up with innovative products like this. Like it or not, you have to admit that the ZenBook Pro Duo is one of the coolest pieces of technology that you may have ever seen. If this is what the future of laptops look like, then I just can't wait to get there

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