We have already posted the first impressions of Asus’ latest laptop, the Zenbook Pro Duo which has a very innovative dual display technology. The laptop is not only innovative but also comes with very powerful hardware. This is our review of the Zenbook Pro Duo thas has been launched in India today along with its sibling Zenbook Duo.
Key Specifications:
CPU: 2.4GHz Intel Core i9-9980HK (octa-core, 16MB cache, up to 5GHz) Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 RAM: 32GB DDR4 (2,666MHz) Screen: 15.6-inch, OLED Ultra HD (3,840 x 2,160), 14-inch Ultra HD (3,840 x 1,110) touch display Storage: 1TB PCIe SSD Ports: 1 x Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C), 2 x USB-C 3.1, HDMI 2.0, headset jack Connectivity: Intel Wi-Fi 6 with Gig+ performance (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5 Camera: IR webcam with Windows Hello support Weight: 5.51 pounds (2.5kg) Size: 14.13 x 9.68 x 0.94 inches (35.9 x 24.6 x 2.4cm; W x D x H)
Design and Display(s) of Zenbook Pro Duo:
Right off the bat, you see that the Zenbook Pro Duo is very thick and heavy unlike other models from Asus. This could probably be due to the addition of the 4K secondary screen above the keyboard layout. The laptop is built with a metal case and polished edges which make it solid and also gives a very premium look.
Zenbook Pro Duo comes with a gorgeous 15.6-inch 4K OLED display which is absolutely a delight to use. The display features HDR and all the benefits of an OLED screen like great contrast and very dark blacks. It has a 5mm-thin bezel with an 89% screen-to-body ratio and 178 degrees viewing angle.
As the name suggests, we also get a secondary screen in the Zenbook Pro Duo which is a 4K screen below the main display and spanning across the keyboard layout. This one is called the ScreenPad Plus and is an LCD display that allows three apps to be opened side by side. It is 14 inches diagonally but only 4 inches tall which makes it ideal for some applications like Spotify, Whatsapp, etc. Both the displays of Zenbook Pro Duo are touchscreens and allows easy drag and drop of apps between them just like how you drag an application to a secondary monitor. The ScreenPad Plus, with its 4K resolution, is good for watching Youtube videos as well but feels a little underwhelming given how good the primary screen is.
Performance, Battery & I/O:
Zenbook Pro Duo comes with pretty powerful hardware like Intel’s 9th-gen Octa-Core i9-9980HK CPU, NVIDIA’s RTX 2060 GPU and 32GB of DDR4 RAM. This machine could just handle whatever was thrown at it without any issues. Apart from intensive content creation tasks, you can also play every modern game available at 1080p or 1440p. The benchmarks are very close to some of the best gaming laptops in the market. With respect to performance, there is no doubt that this laptop is very capable of handling everything.
Similar to the Zephyrus series, the keyboard has been moved to the bottom of the laptop but in this case, the space available is for ScreenPad Plus. This design is not so convenient for typing and takes some time to get used to. The trackpad is at the right-hand side which also doubles up as Numpad with the press of a button. Overall, the design of the keyboard is not so ergonomic, but you can always snap on the included wrist rest for a more comfortable typing position.
On the I/O side, you get few ports like the full-sized HDMI, a USB-C Thunderbolt 3 socket and two USB 3.1 Type-A connections. There is no built-in SD card reader which is a bummer given this will be mainly used for content creation. The battery life is definitely on the lower side given the Zenbook Pro Duo has two 4K screens. With my regular work and juggling apps between the screens, the battery life was around 3.5-4 hours but once you disable the secondary screen, the battery can provide juice up to 6-6.5 hours.
Conclusion:
Asus has come up with a very innovative way of using multiple displays after introducing the smaller ScreenPad in previous Zenbook models. The company has also given thought on how the consumers would be actually using secondary display and provided necessary optimizations. The ZenBook Pro Duo is not meant for a casual user who expects lighter laptop for portability, rather it is a mean machine for those who spend more time on the laptop for content creation and use multiple displays for more productivity. This could be the beginning of many more laptops with dual screens.
The Asus Zenbook Pro Duo has been launched in India at a price of INR 2,09,990 and the lesser powerful Zenbook Duo for INR 89,990.
