Note: This article was first published on 29 August 2019.
The ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo has two displays — hence the name.
Updated on 29 August 2019 with final conclusion and ratings after pricing has been revealed.
What is this?
The ZenBook Pro Duo was unveiled at Computex 2019 in Taipei, Taiwan, earlier this year. It is the flagship of ASUS’ ZenBook range of notebooks and it’s also what the brand calls the “laptop of tomorrow.” Essentially, it’s a powerful 15-inch notebook with an eight-core processor, discrete NVIDIA RTX graphics, loads of memory, and two displays.
It has two displays?!
See, two displays!
Yes. I kid you not. Have you not read our hands-on?
Break it down for me.
The main display uses an OLED panel and supports 4K resolution. It's lovely.
Right, let’s begin with the displays. The main display measures 15.6 inches across and uses an OLED panel that supports 4K resolution (3,840 x 2,160 pixels) and 100% of the DCI-P3 colour space. The bezels are fairly slim too, just 5mm on the sides and 10mm at the top. This, according to ASUS, gives the ZenBook Pro Duo an 89% screen-to-body ratio. As my colleague mentioned in her hands-on (see, you should really read it), it’s an impressive and stunning display ― easily one of the best displays I have seen on any laptop. Unfortunately, its glossy finish means it’s highly prone to glare and reflections.
The ScreenPad Plus is 14 inches across and displays about what half a normal 4K display would thanks to its 3,840 x 1,100 pixels resolution.
The second display, which is called the ScreenPad Plus, sits just under the main one and above the keyboard. It’s an IPS panel and it measures 14 inches across. Though it sounds large, it’s considerably smaller than the main one because of its 32:9 aspect ratio. Since it has a resolution of 3,840 x 1,100 pixels, you could say that it's about half a 4K display. This means you can drag windows from one display to the other without any odd resizing issues. It also has a matte finish, which ASUS says prevents it from reflecting content from the main display.
If there’s a second display, where does the keyboard go?
The keyboard itself is tactile and pleasant to type on even if the position isn't the most ideal. It's pictured here with the bundled palm rest.
The keyboard in the ZenBook Pro Duo has been shifted to the edge of the keyboard. The trackpad, on the other hand, has been shifted to the side of the keyboard and it doubles up as a virtual number pad. It's not as crazy as it looks and sounds because if you're right-handed, you would have your mouse on the right of a regular keyboard. So the placement of the trackpad is logical enough to work with the design limitations that afford it a secondary screen. ASUS also supplies the ZenBook Pro Duo with a palm rest, which greatly improves typing comfort if you need more palm support at the edge of the notebook. The keyboard itself is fairly tactile and the layout is sensible, so once you overcome the initial discomfort of its orientation, you’ll find yourself typing at your regular rate.
The trackpad is tiny and it also works as a virtual NumberPad.
The trackpad, though tiny at just 8.6cm by 6.2cm, is a Windows Precision Touchpad, so it’s accurate and responsive to use. Furthermore, the main display and ScreenPad Plus are both touchscreens so the tiny touchpad isn’t too much of a bother. The trackpad is also a virtual number pad and uses similar finger rejection technology in the ZenBook 13 and 14 so it can intelligently predict if you are trying to use the trackpad as a pointer or if you are trying to hit numbers. It doesn't work all the time, unfortunately, so I would definitely recommend turning off the virtual number pad if you have no use for it.
Back to the ScreenPad Plus, does it work or is it a gimmick?
To answer this question, we need to first understand what the ZenBook Pro Duo is and who it is designed for.
Ok, so what is it?
In a nutshell, it is a powerful 15-inch notebook with an additional highly customisable display.
How powerful?
Only the fastest will do for the ZenBook Pro Duo.
No word yet on the configurations that might be on offer here but the one that we received for testing is a mighty one. Here are the highlights:
- Octa-core Intel Core i9-9980HK processor
- 32GB 2,666MHz DDR4 memory
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6GB GDDR6
- 1TB PCIe 3.0 x 4 NVMe M.2 SSD
That’s not all. It is also one of the few new machines to support the new Wi-Fi 6 standard (802.11ax). With compatible Wi-Fi 6 routers, like ASUS’ own RT-AX88U, you should get wireless speeds that exceed 1Gbps. In fact, ASUS claims the ZenBook Pro Duo can support a maximum data transfer rate of 2.4Gbps.
What about ports?
The ZenBook Pro Duo comes with a single USB-C port that supports Thunderbolt 3 and two full-size USB-A ports that supports USB 3.1. It also has a single HDMI 2.0 port that supports up to 4K output at 60 Hz. Older HDMI 1.4 ports can only support 4K output at 30 Hz. For users with compatible 4K displays, you’ll get smoother visuals.
Unfortunately, there’s no memory card readers of any sort and charging is still done via a DC-in jack. The USB-C port, even if it supports Thunderbolt 3, can’t be used for charging. That’s a bit of a bummer because the bundled 230W adapter is burdensome.
On the left are a DC-in power jack, an HDMI 2.0 port, and a USB-A port that supports USB 3.1. Note how large the cooling vent is and also the ErgoLift mechanism that lifts the keyboard at an angle quite substantially.
Speaking of which, how large and heavy is it?
The ZenBook Pro Duo is actually quite compact considering it has two displays and its formidable specs. It weighs 2.5kg and is about 23mm thick. Admittedly, it isn’t the most portable 15-inch workhorse laptop around, but it’s a reasonable trade-off for its top tier specifications and feature set. Still, I would say that it is more transportable than portable.
Right, so who is it designed for?
The ZenBook Pro Duo is quite a thick notebook. Note the single USB-C port (supports Thunderbolt 3), 3.5mm audio jack, and second USB-A port supporting USB 3.1 lined up on the right profile of the notebook.
This isn’t a notebook for folks who want to browse the web and answer emails at the cafe. It’s a transportable powerhouse for creative content creator types like video editors, photographers, and even gamers. It goes without saying that the powerful processor is perfect for video and photo-editing while the capable GeForce RTX 2060 GPU is great for gaming. Any powerful enough notebook can provide the same kind of experience, so what makes the ZenBook Pro Duo stand out for such applications is its built-in second display in the form of the ScreenPad Plus.
Of course, even if you don't intend to do any serious work, you can still bring it out to your favourite cafe, but be warned that you'll likely draw attention as a duo-screen notebook like the ZenBook Pro Duo, is one-of-a-kind for now. Find out what you can do with the ScreenPad Plus on the next page!
What can the ScreenPad Plus do?
Together with the main screen, you can comfortably keep multiple windows opened and line them up neatly.
Windows sees the ScreenPad Plus as a second display so you can practically use it to display anything you want. To ensure users are familiar with the ScreenPad Plus, there’s a ScreenPad Plus tutorial that launches the first time you boot the ZenBook Pro Duo up. Additionally, ASUS has built-in a couple of tools to make the ScreenPad Plus easy to use.
The main tool is a contextual menu that pops up whenever you click and start dragging an app or window. The pop-up gives you three options: you can quickly move the app to the ScreenPad Plus, add it to the Launcher (more on this later), or view the app in ViewMax mode which expands the window across the main display and ScreenPad Plus. And when you move your app over to the ScreenPad Plus there’s a windows management feature that automatically resizes your app to help you fit multiple apps into the ScreenPad Plus.
Whenever you click and start dragging a window, this handy menu pops up to help you arrange it. Options are as follows (starting from the left): Move the app to the ScreenPad Plus OR main screen, add it to the Launcher (more on this later), or view the app in ViewMax mode.
There’s also a little on-screen button on the ScreenPad Plus that launches the aptly named Launcher ― think of it as a Start menu just for the ScreenPad Plus. Here, you can access the ScreenPad Plus settings and adjust things like brightness, quickly launch your favourite ScreenPad Plus apps, and access other tools that ASUS has built specifically for the ScreenPad Plus like the Task Group.
You can create different Task Groups with different apps and layouts.
The Task Group lets you define app groups to launch at a press of a button. With this, you can open up to 5 apps simultaneously and have them open in a pre-defined arrangement. You can have up to two apps in the main display and three apps in the ScreenPad Plus. Then there’s Task Swap, which simply swaps the apps opened in the main display and the ScreenPad Plus. There’s also an app switcher that lets you browse apps that are opened.
Bundled accessories include the ASUS Pen and a palm rest.
The built-in tools aside, the ZenBook Pro Duo also comes with an ASUS Pen stylus that can be used for sketching and handwriting. This turns the ZenBook Pro Duo into a notebook with a built-in drawing pad and that can be a very attractive option for digital artists.
So, is the ScreenPad Plus useful?
This picture should give you a rough idea of what I'm seeing. The ScreenPad Plus is right on the edge of my field of vision and is helpful enough without being entirely distracting.
It depends. I certainly found it to be handy but that could be because of my penchant for working with large monitors and multiple windows. I use an ultra-wide 34-inch at home and a 27-inch at work.
What I can say is that, insofar as practicality and functionality are concerned, the ScreenPad Plus is a step up from the ScreenPad of the ZenBook Pro 15. That’s largely due to three factors: size, position, and flexibility.
The ScreenPad Plus’s ultra-wide 14-inch display gives it a huge advantage over the ScreenPad’s tiny 5.5-inch display. Size aside, it’s also much easier to see what’s on the ScreenPad Plus because it’s positioned right under the main display. This is further aided by the ErgoLift, which lifts the ZenBook Pro Duo up at an angle so that the ScreenPad Plus falls just right on the periphery of your field of vision. And if you are the kind that likes to sit slightly higher than average on your chair, it’s even easier to see the ScreenPad Plus.
Depending on your own usage habits, the ScreenPad Plus can either be super helpful or superfluous.
The older ScreenPad fails in this respect because it is essentially the trackpad and therefore at the furthest possible point from the main display. You have to move your head and eyes far too much to go from one display to the next. Finally, the flexibility to display anything you want on the ScreenPad Plus just makes it so much more useful than the ScreenPad.
Here are a handful of use case scenarios that ASUS has come up with for the ScreenPad Plus:
Here are some ways you can put the ScreenPad Plus to good use.
Ultimately, it depends on your usage habits. Have you always been comfortable working on a small display with limited real estate? If you are, then the additional display real estate might go unused and unappreciated. But if you are like me, and you are used to working on large or even multiple displays, then the ScreenPad Plus goes a long way in alleviating one of the biggest shortcomings that come with working on a notebook ― namely a smaller display, without lugging around a separate portable monitor.
Having said all that, I must also warn you that they are some shortcomings and niggles that come with the ScreenPad Plus.
Shortcomings? What are they?
Perhaps the most pertinent ones are performance and battery life, which I will touch on in later pages. But very briefly, drawing all those pixels on the ScreenPad Plus costs some performance and puts a drain on battery life.
There are also some minor niggles. If you are used to swiping to the bottom of your screen to search or to click on the taskbar, you might find yourself overshooting and ending up in the ScreenPad Plus. Also, if you are running a full-screen app like a game, accidentally tapping on the ScreenPad Plus will cause you to exit and minimise your app. But I think these can be overcome once you get used to the ZenBook Pro Duo.
How does it perform?
To find out, we will be pitting the ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo against comparably-spec’ed 15-inch machines such as the HP ZBook Studio x360, ASUS ROG Strix Scar III, Aftershock Forge 15 Pro, and more. Here’s how the ZenBook Pro Duo stacks up against its competitors.
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Performance was generally good, which is what you’d expect given its crazy high-end specifications. CPU performance was stellar, as you would expect from Intel’s flagship Core i9-9980HK mobile processor. Looking at the Cinebench scores, it blitzed the HP ZBook’s formidable Core i7-8750H processor with over 30% higher multi-core scores.
Can it run games?
Of course it can. However, we noticed that graphics performance was lagging, especially when you compare its performance against the Aftershock Forge 15 Pro which is powered by a similar GeForce RTX 2060 GPU. The reason is likely because the ZenBook Pro Duo has to drive a 4K display and the additional ScreenPad Plus. That’s a lot of extra pixels to draw, even if they aren’t all being used during the benchmarking process. That said, gaming performance is decent and good enough as long as you stick to Full-HD resolution.
Does turning the ScreenPad Plus off help?
It some cases it does. On 3DMark, the scores remained the same even with the ScreenPad Plus turned off. But in games, we noticed improvements. On Deus Ex, turning the ScreenPad Plus got us at least a 10% boost in frame rates. On Far Cry 5, we got a 20% increase performance on the High preset, but nothing in Ultra.
Does the Turbo mode work?
The Turbo mode is activated by pressing the crosshair-like button next to the Delete key. The key to its right swaps the app between the main display and the ScreenPad Plus. The next key to the right (to the left of the power button) turns off the ScreenPad Plus.
Again, it does, but it seems like it works best in CPU-intensive workloads. As you can see from the charts below, GPU-intensive benchmarks like 3DMark and games saw little to no improvement. However, there was a vast improvement in Cinebench, with multi-core scores jumping by nearly 20%. And if you look at the breakdown of PCMark 10 scores, you can see that the ZenBook Pro Duo performed noticeably better on the Essential workloads ― which tests everyday performance including app startup times ― in Turbo mode.
How's battery life?
Battery life was tested using PCMark 10 with the ZenBook Pro Duo's two displays at full brightness. You can read more about our battery testing methodology and philosophy here.
With its two displays and power-hungry Core i9 processor, the ZenBook Pro Duo's battery life was unsurprisingly the shortest at just 221 minutes or 3 hours and 41 minutes. Surprisingly, in the Gaming benchmark, it actually lasted the longest and was the only notebook to get over 2 hours worth. This is likely due to a combination of its less power-hungry GPU — GeForce RTX 2060 as comapred to the GeForce RTX 2070 of most of the other gaming notebooks — and sizable battery. The Aftershock Forge 15 Pro also has a GeForce RTX 2060 GPU but its battery capacity is just over 48Wh — roughly 67% of the ZenBook Pro Duo's.
Looking at the power consumption figures, we can see that the ZenBook Pro Duo's weren't the highest. In the Modern Office benchmark, it was bested by the HP ZBook Studio x360 which lasted longer in the battery life test mostly because of its massive 92Wh battery. Also, it's gaming power consumption figure of just over 32W was the lowest by a great deal — at least 35%.
Is it better with the ScreenPad Plus turned off?
Yes, of course. With the ScreenPad Plus disabled, battery life on the Modern Office benchmark went up by 41 minutes or over 18%. On the Gaming benchmark, the difference was less pronounced at just 10 more minutes.
So it is portable when you take weight and dimensions into account?
Not exactly. As I mentioned, the ZenBook Pro Duo is more transportable than portable. It's bulkiness, weight, and slightly below average battery life meant that its Portability Score was unimpressive, especially on the Modern Office benchmark. However, it scores highly on the Gaming benchmark mostly because the rest of the notebooks did poorly in this benchmark.
Does it run warm?
Not exactly. It's running temperatures were comparable to other notebooks of similar specifications. However, because the top part of keyboard is actually the ScreenPad Plus, the warmest parts of the notebook was actually somewhere in the middle in the top right and left corners of the keyboard where the heat vents were.
Closing thoughts?
The ZenBook Pro Duo melds range-topping specifications with a radical two-display design.
Putting price aside, for now, the ZenBook Pro Duo reaffirms ASUS commitment to reimagining notebooks. In recent years, the company has been introducing some radical notebook and they should be applauded for that, even if not all of their attempts were clear-cut hits.
Certainly, the ZenBook Pro Duo is an interesting notebook and the effectiveness of the ScreenPad Plus is much more obvious than, say, the ScreenPad of last year’s ZenBook Pro 15. Whether or not users will find the ScreenPad Plus genuinely useful will come down to personal usage habits. Some people are so accustomed to running apps in full-screen mode on their notebooks that a larger or even an extra display won’t matter. Others will absolutely revel in having an extra highly customisable display.
For some. the ScreenPad Plus will be genuinely useful.
Still on the topic of personal usage habits, prospective buyers will also need to get used to the unorthodox position of the keyboard and tiny trackpad. It’s not the first time a notebook manufacturer or even ASUS themselves have done this but that doesn’t mean its ideal. But if you are the kind that genuinely finds more screen real estate useful, then I guess it’s the price you have to pay.
What’s undeniable, however, is the ZenBook Pro Duo’s performance. Thanks to its mighty CPU and GPU, the ZenBook Pro Duo was super fluid, responsive, and a sheer joy to use. No stutter or lag whatsoever when manipulating high-res images, running intensive apps, or multiple applications. Gaming performance is slightly off the mark against comparable gaming notebooks but one has to remember the ZenBook Pro Duo has to drive an additional high-resolution display in the ScreenPad Plus. Speaking of displays, let's not forget that this notebook comes with an absolutely gorgeous OLED main display. Overall, the ZenBook Pro Duo is nothing short of a powerhouse.
How the ZenBook Pro Duo will ultimately rate is down to its price. As it is, the hardware is very good and build quality is very high. The ScreenPad Plus is also a genuinely useful feature that I think a good number of users will appreciate. Bearing in a mind that systems with lesser specifications like the HP ZBook Studio x360 costs S$3,500 and the Gigabyte Aero OLED XA costs S$3,799, if ASUS can get the price of the ZenBook Pro Duo (with tested specifications) under S$5,000, I think it will be a very compelling option to users who are searching for a powerful but still fairly portable notebook.
How would you rate it now that the price is revealed?
ASUS has just announced that the ZenBook Pro Duo will cost S$4,998 and that unit comes with the specifications that we tested, which is mighty.
As I mentioned previously, if ASUS can get the ZenBook Pro Duo to be under S$5,000 it will be a compelling option to anyone looking for an über high-end notebook. To compare the comparison clear, consider the following rivals:
Model | ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo UX581 | HP ZBook Studio x360 | Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED XA |
Display | 15.6-inch 4K OLED | 15.6-inch 4K HP DreamColor IPS | 15.6-inch 4K OLED |
Processor | Intel Core i9-9980HK | Intel Core i7-8850H | Intel Core i7-9750H |
Memory | 32GB | 32GB | 16GB |
Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 | NVIDIA Quadro P1000 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q |
Storage | 1TB M.2 PCIe SSD | 512GB M.2 PCIe SSD | 512GB M.2 PCIe SSD |
Price | S$4,998 | S$3,541.70 | S$3,799 |
The ZenBook Pro Duo might cost more but that premium is mostly justified with its superior processor, gorgeous top-rate 4K OLED display, secondary ScreenPad Plus display, larger memory, storage, faster wireless connectivity, and build quality. The last aspect is often overlooked by many buyers who are too preoccupied with chasing specifications but it should definitely be one of your considerations especially if you are ready to shell out big money for a notebook. Of course, if none of these mean anything to you, then there are plenty of other alternatives.
The things that really count against the ZenBook Pro Duo are the compromises made to accommodate its dual display concept. It is thick, heavy, and the placement of keyboard and the size of the trackpad are all things that will discourage users from taking it out and about, and this detracts from its ability to be a portable powerhouse.
If you are ready to buy a flagship-class notebook, it would be remiss of you not to check out the ZenBook Pro Duo.
In summary then, though the ZenBook Pro Duo is pricey, it offers superlative specs and its ScreenPad Plus offers a unique experience that you can’t find on any other notebook in the market today. It’s up to users to determine if it’s something that will really benefit themselves, but it’s hard to argue that the ZenBook Pro Duo doesn’t offer something special and at a pretty reasonable price too.
Note: If you are looking for something even more compact and affordable but still with dual displays, the ZenBook Duo UX481, which is a 14-inch notebook with a ScreenPad Plus, will come coming out sometime in mid to late September next year. It will be priced at S$2,198.