Asus ZenBook Pro Duo Review: A Hard Sell For The Two-Screen Concept

Many companies, including Asus, have been finding ways to add another display to their laptops for years, but what we have with the Asus ZenBook Pro Duo is something totally different, and actually useful.

Our review unit is the top-tier unit packing 32GB of 2,666MHz DDR4 RAM, Core i9-9980HK laptop processor, and Nvidia RTX 2060 GPU on the inside. And for the main display, we have a 4K OLED panel.

The appearance is similar to what Asus has done on the ROG Zephyrus laptop, a huge expanse for the 32:9, 14-inch ScreenPad Plus display on the front-loaded keyboard, and a trackpad.

Since both the ScreenPad Plus and the Touch Bar of Apple are both located above the keyboard, some people have been drawing comparisons between the two. While the former can be used as a control bar, that is not the primary purpose Asus gives it. It is more like the ScreenPad hardware to replace the touchpad, but this time, it actually has functionalities.

In comparison with the vibrant main display, the secondary one looks too small and lacks colors, making it hard for anyone to imagine having anything done with it. But if you have time with it, you will find that its primary purpose is to house all the distractions like Facebook and Slack, leaving the main display with only the real work.

When you need to focus on work, moving apps to the secondary screen is as easy as dragging them to an external display. Asus also gives its users with software offering a drag-and-drop hot spot to automatically place a window to the lower screen when you move it around. You will also have a physical button to disable the second display entirely or to swap the content of the two panels.

The device can be great for entertaining yourself too. You can have Netflix playing in full screen, all while being able to search for the name of an actor or actress without pausing the movie.

The aspect ratio of ScreenPad Plus makes it important for users to use several apps at a time. One of the preferred methods is to open three windows at a time, with two of them in minimum size. If you only use it to display one window, it will look kind of odd no matter the size you open it in. But in this way, you will also have to reduce the font size to have a decent amount of texts.

However, Screenpad is not without problems. There is no software to manage windows and apps, and sometimes windows may lose their preset widths.

Asus has given the screen hinge some extra degrees, but this does not save users from the need to crane their neck to read any content from the flat display, especially when they sit in a room with lots of overhead lights.

The answer to this problem might be the dual-hinge Honeycomb Glacier concept of Intel. However, for now, users of the Asus ZenBook Pro Duo will have to put up with the comfortability until the company finds a viable solution.

When it comes to power, the laptop can handle almost anything but the need for hardcore gamers and users with an intensive workload. The 32GB of RAM and the i9 chipset are more than enough for most people’s needs as long as they do not require it to run professional-level video editing or CAD rendering.

This much power comes with some compromises too, which are the portability and battery life. At full brightness and the usual Twitter and Chrome tasks, the ZenBook Pro Duo can last for two and a half hours away from the power source. Users who wish to use the device for more intensive work may find they have even less time than that.

The 6.4-pound weight will make anyone feel reluctant when thinking about stuffing the device into a bag. In short, the Asus ZenBook Pro Duo is more like a portable desktop than a mobile laptop.

The front-load keyboard makes it harder for users to type without a palm rest, and Asus should remove the small trackpad to add a real mouse.

The device comes at a steep price, but in return, many users will find their list options for ports are cut short. What you have are an HDMI port, two USB-A ports, a combined headphone/mic port, and a USB-C Thunderbolt 3 port. Given that this laptop focuses a lot on creative work, it is weird that Asus does not add an SD card slot.

This decision is understandable because most of the sides’ real estate has been dedicated to vents to dissipate the great amount of heat the laptop generates.

Even with Asus’s effort to cool down the device, the Asus ZenBook Pro Duo can still be too hot. The cause for this is the capable processor, two displays to power, and the beefy graphics card, all of which can produce a large amount of heat.

While on papers, the laptop can double as a great option for running games, the 4H display and the RTX 2060 GPU are the biggest bottlenecks. Unless you are willing to sacrifice by reducing the graphics to medium, the frame rates will be affected. So if you want to focus on games, you had better stretch your budget for a gaming device.

It sounds ideal enough being able to play the game on the main display while opening YouTube or Discord on the second one. However, most games for PC does not work like that. You can still open games in full-screen mode and have something running on the smaller panel, but if you tap on it, they will be minimized away.

With the hefty price tag, Asus ZenBook Pro Duo will be a hard sell even with an improve ScreenPad. However, as the first device of a brand new lineup, it is expected that this device has flaws.