Dual displays on the go
The ASUS ZenBook Duo is an interesting proposition — dual displays in a fairly portable 14-inch form factor.
At Computex earlier this year, ASUS unveiled the ZenBook Pro Duo UX581 and the ZenBook Duo UX481. The former is a 15.6-inch notebook while the latter is a smaller more portable 14-inch notebook. Both stand out for having two displays, courtesy of a secondary display that ASUS calls ScreenPad Plus.
I reviewed the larger ZenBook Pro Duo and found it to be an interesting and promising notebook that could appeal to professionals and power users. It’s powerful and the dual display concept can really be useful. However, I also noted that its not the most portable of machines. At 2.5kg heavy, sure, you could move it around but it’s not something you want to be carrying around all day in your bag.
Fortunately, the more compact ZenBook Duo is now available. Despite being smaller, it still has dual displays and powerful hardware. On paper, this is a mighty promising machine but does it live up to expectations? Let me tell you.
The Specs
Despite the twin displays, the ZenBook Duo isn't overly thick. Here, you can see its HDMI port, USB-A USB 3.1 Gen 2 port, an USB-C USB 3.1 Gen 2 port.
The ZenBook Duo weighs just 1.5kg and it’s about 22mm thick. That may sound chunky, but trust me, it’s actually really handy and easy to carry around. It’s quite incredible how ASUS managed to pack two displays into a notebook of this size.
Naturally, the ZenBook Duo features the latest hardware but it does have one problem: it’s powered by a Comet Lake processor and not an Ice Lake one. Before I explain the difference, let’s go through the ZenBook Duo’s specifications. It has the following:
- Intel Core i7-10510U processor
- 16GB 2,133MHz LPDDR3 memory
- 1TB PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD
- NVIDIA GeForce MX250 2GB GDDR5
Now, although both Comet Lake and Ice Lake processors are marketed as 10th generation Core processors, only Ice Lake processors are manufactured using a 10nm process. Comet Lake is actually built using a process that is a refinement of Intel’s 14nm process that began in 2015 with Skylake. Higher-end Ice Lake processors also have the benefit of Intel’s more powerful Iris Plus graphics. It goes without saying that if I had to pick, I would prefer a notebook powered by Intel’s newer Ice Lake processor.
Processor aside, the rest of the ZenBook Duo’s specifications is very respectable. It has a good amount of memory and a generous amount of fast storage. It even has a discrete GPU. Granted, it’s “only” a GeForce MX250 but it beats having to rely on the integrated Intel UHD Graphics.
Ports and connectivity
On the right side of the ZenBook Duo is a microSD card reader, 3.5mm audio jack, and USB-A USB 3.1 Gen 1 port.
The ports on offer are quite excellent and my only gripe is that its USB-C port doesn’t support Thunderbolt 3 and power charging. To charge, you’ll have to use the DC-in jack and the provided charger. This also means you can’t use aftermarket USB-C chargers with the notebook.
The single USB-C port supports the USB 3.1 Gen 2 standards, which means data transfer rates of up to 10Gbps with compatible devices. The ZenBook Duo also has a full-size HDMI port, a USB-A USB 3.1 Gen 2 port, and another USB-A USB 3.1 Gen 1 port. There’s also a microSD card reader.
As for connectivity, readers will be happy to know that the ZenBook Duo supports the latest Wi-Fi 6 standard. For those still unfamiliar with Wi-Fi 6, I urge you to read our guides here and here. But to put it briefly, Wi-Fi 6 promises faster networking speeds and support for more connected devices by using technology borrowed from LTE.
Display and ScreenPad Plus
My biggest gripe about the ScreenPad Plus is that it can be a little dim and hard to see.
The ZenBook Duo has two displays. The main one measures 14 inches diagonally, uses an IPS panel, and is said to support 100% of the sRGB colour space and is certified by Pantone. It may only be a Full-HD display but it still looks sharp enough. Colours are also well produced and accurate. What’s noteworthy is that it has a matte finish ― a rarity in notebooks today. This is to reduce glare and reflection from the secondary ScreenPad Plus display below and it is quite effective at doing so. One thing to note is that it doesn’t support touch inputs. This will be a crucial talking point as we go along.
The ScreenPad Plus secondary display measures 12.6 inches diagonally and has the same width and horizontal resolution as the main display. Its exact resolution is 1,920 x 515 pixels. It doesn’t look like it but it’s roughly half the size of the main display. More importantly, having the same width and horizontal resolution prevents any odd resizing issues that may occur as you drag windows from one display to the other.
Like the main display, it also has a matte finish to reduce glare and reflection. And while it is effective at reducing glare and reflection, the ScreenPad Plus display can appear dim even at full brightness especially in brightly lit places. Depending on your environment, it can be hard to see this secondary display. Also, unlike the main display, the ScreenPad Plus supports touch inputs.
The ScreenPad Plus on the smaller ZenBook Duo works just like the one found in the larger ZenBook Pro Duo. So for details on how it works and its capabilities and limitations, I would direct you to the review of the ZenBook Pro Duo. However, the differences in size and the fact that touch isn't supported on the main display does make for a confusing user experience, which I’ll talk about here.
You can still snap three windows in place in the ScreenPad Plus but it's smaller size means most of them will be cut off.
Even though the ZenBook Duo is smaller, you can still snap three windows to fit side-by-side in the secondary ScreenPad Plus display. But almost every app will be cut off, so it's better to be less greedy and just have two. The optimum working scenario, therefore, is to have your main window in the main display and two smaller windows in the ScreenPad Plus, which is still mighty handy.
However, the fact that one of the display is touch-enabled and the other isn’t is a bit of a problem. This creates inconsistencies in how you interact with the laptop since you can’t use your fingers to swipe from one display to the next. The workaround is to simply stick to the keyboard and trackpad or mouse but that’s where you’d be faced with another set of problems.
Keyboard and trackpad
Because of the ScreenPad Plus, the keyboard and trackpad have to be shifted to the edge of the notebook.
The keyboard and trackpad have been shifted to the bottom edge of the notebook. To be honest, it’s not the most ideal position for a keyboard and trackpad but that’s the sacrifice you have to make for having a second display. The keys themselves are actually nice to type on. They have sufficient travel and a firm and responsive feel. Also, the hinge of the notebook doubles as a stand and it lifts the keyboard up at an angle making it slightly more comfortable to type on.
The layout, however, is compromised. Because space is at a premium, the right Shift key has been shrunk and it sits to the right of the up key and that's problematic for users who use the right Shift key to capitalise their words. I’m one such user and even after two weeks using the ZenBook Duo on and off, I couldn’t get used to the shrunken right Shift key. And while I'm at it, I also think that the Enter and Backshift keys could be bigger.
The size and position of the right Shift key is less than ideal. Note also the size of the trackpad.
The position of the trackpad also causes some problems. It’s offset to the right and that’s alright if you are a right-hander and all you want to do is browse the web and scroll through documents, but it's awkward for left-handers and it’s especially clumsy for users to use two hands with unless you twist your body to the right. It’s also of an unconventional shape ― an upright rectangle ― and its fairly small at just 7cm wide and 5.5cm wide. If these don’t bother you, then the trackpad is actually quite pleasant to use since its a precious touchpad and it’s responsive and accurate.
Performance Analysis
Unsurprisingly, the ZenBook Duo proved to be a brisk notebook. Thanks to its 10th generation Core i7 processor, a generous amount of memory, and fast storage, the ZenBook Duo was easily the top performer in PCMark 10 and was about 7% faster overall.
And because it has discrete graphics in the form of the GeForce MX250, it was one of the best performing notebooks in 3DMark too ― bested only by the Razer Blade Stealth which features a GeForce MX150 GPU.
The ZenBook Duo’s gaming performance was credible too. It managed very playable frame rates in Tomb Raider even on the more intensive High settings. However, the MSI Prestige PS42 and Razer Blade Stealth both performed better even if they were powered by less powerful GeForce MX150 GPUs. The likely reason is that the ZenBook Duo has to drive not one but two displays. Remember, the ScreenPad Plus isn’t some low-resolution display. With a resolution of 1,920 x 515 pixels, it’s nearly half the resolution of a Full-HD display. In other words, that’s another million pixels that the ZenBook Duo has to draw.
Battery life
We used PCMark 10’s new built-in battery benchmark to evaluate the ASUS ZenBook Duo’s battery life. Since we only started using this benchmark recently, we are still building up results, hence the shorter list of comparison notebooks. We tested the notebooks on the Modern Office and Gaming workloads. The first simulates regular daily use with web browsing, word processing, and video conferencing workloads. The Gaming workload is self-explanatory and represents a worst-case scenario of how long the notebook will last if it was taxed to the maximum.
Battery life was commendable especially when you consider the ZenBook Duo has two displays and that we ran the secondary display at maximum brightness too. It comfortably lasted over 7 hours on the modern office workload and it was one of the few notebooks to clock over 2 hours on the intensive gaming workload. Deeper investigations revealed that, despite having two displays, its power consumption figures were actually quite reasonable.
Final Thoughts
If you can get past the ASUS ZenBook Duo's quirks and shortcomings, you'd find that it's actually a pretty great notebook.
Much like its larger sibling, the ASUS ZenBook Duo represents both an interesting concept but also a bag of compromises. The dual displays are genuinely useful for anyone who is used to working with large displays and across multiple windows. And it’s quite amazing how ASUS managed to cram two displays into such a compact (relatively speaking) form factor.
On the flip side, there are a few notable compromises to the ZenBook Duo. The most noteworthy one being that of the keyboard and trackpad. Both the layout and positioning are not ideal and will require commitment to overcome. Also, the fact that the main display doesn’t support touch and the ScreenPad Plus does make the ZenBook Duo somewhat confusing to use especially if you are accustomed to notebooks with touch displays. Another notable drawback is that the USB-C port doesn’t support charging. This means you can’t use third-party USB-C chargers with it and you’ll need to carry around the supplied charger.
The ScreenPad Plus' usefulness is somewhat negated by its dim display. In brightly lit environments, it can be hard to read.
But even so, I think most readers can and will forgive the ZenBook Duo when they find out that at S$2,198, the ZenBook Duo is just S$100 more than what ASUS charges for the ZenBook UX434 ― ASUS’ more conventional ultraportable 14-inch notebook with a single display. At this price, it is also one of the more affordable 14-inch notebooks to feature a Core i7 processor with 16GB of memory and a 1TB SSD. These are my dream specs for a portable 14-inch notebook.
Overall, the ZenBook Duo is something of a flawed genius. The packaging is clever, the performance and build quality are good, and the pricing is attractive. However, it does have some serious shortcomings that can be a dealbreaker for some people ― namely the less than ideal keyboard and trackpad positioning and layout. But if you can overlook these shortcomings, the ZenBook Duo represents good value for money and its dual displays are genuinely helpful.
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