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ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo UX 581 review: Are two displays better than one? (Updated!)

By Kenny Yeo - 23 Nov 2019
Launch SRP: S$4998

Battery life, temperature, & closing thoughts

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:

ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo price comparison
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.

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8.5
  • Design 7.5
  • Features 9.5
  • Performance 9
  • Value 8
  • Mobility 7
The Good
Gorgeous 4K OLED display
Genuinely useful ScreenPad Plus
Class-leading specs
Support for Wi-Fi 6
Quite reasonably priced
USB-A and USB-C ports
The Bad
Pricey
Position of keyboard not ideal
Trackpad is small
Bulky and quite heavy
Could use more USB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports
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