ASUS proves dual display laptops are no longer a gimmick; they are a reality
At first glance, the tech looks just like another laptop. You bring it out of your backpack, unfold and start using it.
The keyboard stays flat on whatever surface you place the laptop while the display stares at you.
Then, you hold the laptop keyboard on both sides and pull it all the way up.
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A friendly warning: do not attempt this at home if your laptop is anything other than the 2024 edition of ASUS Zenbook DUO.
Pulling the keyboard up reveals another display hidden below the keyboard, just as vibrant as the OLED display you were looking at when you first opened the laptop.
This is not a 2-in-1 convertible device. It is a whole package meant for one thing and one thing only – efficiency.
I felt quite perplexed when I saw this laptop for the first time during an Asus unveiling event last Tuesday (7 May).
I wondered what I could possibly do with two of these displays in one laptop, and I couldn't find any possible explanation.
And then it was dropped at my house.
It took maybe ten minutes for me to automatically keep sending all the tabs I wasn't working on, but I still had to keep an eye on that secondary display.
It even comes with one of those built-in kickstands that let you raise the bottom display and place both displays vertically right in front of you so that you get a more comfortable viewing angle while you work.
The best thing about the laptop, however, has to be its display.
Display - Entertainment
Both of the displays of ASUS Zenbook DUO 2024 are OLED with 3K resolution and 120Hz refresh rate.
But these are just some numbers.
While using the laptop, I came across Coke Studio's latest "Ma Lo Ma" music video on YouTube. I watched it on my phone, which has an excellent OLED panel, and then I watched it on the Zenbook DUO only to realise they are so close in terms of vibrancy and colour production that I barely noticed any difference.
The blacks are as black as it can get, and that's one of the core and most basic characteristics of an excellent OLED panel.
This also comes with the auto display brightness feature like the modern smartphones. So I didn't have to keep toggling the display brightness either.
Another thing I think I forgot to mention. Both of the displays are touchscreens.
Display - Work
I use a 15.6-inch laptop at home and a 21.5-inch monitor at work. And this 14-inch dual display won them all.
It is the little attention to detail that matters.
Even with smaller fonts, I could easily read them all due to the accuracy of the display, and the 3K resolution for both displays allowed me to keep two windows open simultaneously in displays.
As I was filing a story in the top left window, I could see whether or not Reuters published something on Reuters Connect or UNB published something on their Dashboard. And it significantly reduced the time I needed to pick stories from agencies.
I also noticed the least amount of eye strain while using this laptop, even though there were two displays. It might be because of the years of effort on ASUS's end in reducing the blue light by 70%.
Performance
Having dual displays with 3K resolution alone wouldn't allow you to work with four open tabs. You would need strong hardware to keep all those windows open at once.
ASUS Zenbook excels in that as well. It packs the latest Intel Core Ultra 9 processor with a whopping 32 GB of LPDDR5x RAM.
ASUS bid farewell to Hard Disks a long time ago from most of their laptops, except for some entry-level ones. In the latest Zenbook, they have put a 1TB PCIe SSD, one of the fastest varieties of solid-state drives.
Don't put your hopes too high by just reading the numbers, though. This is not a gaming laptop and shouldn't be treated as either.
However, if you want to travel through the vast world of Teyvat in Genshin Impact occasionally, you can do so. Just consider using medium graphics settings.
Battery life
The battery life in Zenbook DUO is impressive, and it's not solely because of the battery itself.
It's impressive because ASUS has done a lot to ensure you get the most out of the 75Wh battery inside the laptop.
Opting for OLED instead of other displays is one way for ASUS to save batteries. Each laptop also comes with its own MyASUS app, which lets you further customise the power profiles of the laptop.
It also has the feature to stop charging whenever the battery hits 80% to further enhance your laptop's battery life.
The 2024 edition of Zenbook DUO can run up to 13 hours straight if you use one of its displays and 10 hours if both are used. But just like all other battery-run devices out there, it mostly depends on the load you put on the system.
The laptop is also shipped with a 65-watt charger that makes it charge faster, and the charging port is USB-C. So you can charge your laptop even on the go with a power bank.
ASUS says it takes a 65-watt charger 49 minutes to charge the laptop to 60%.
Perfect laptops do not exist
While ASUS Zenbook DUO has many awe factors, it also has its lackings.
For starters, you might be as annoyed as me when you find just one USB A and two Thunderbolt 4 ports on the laptop. While the stripping of ports is not at the level of Macbook Air, it is still significantly less for an ASUS laptop.
If you are a photographer on the go and love this setup, you would be heartbroken to know that the laptop does not have a dedicated SD card reader either.
I could make peace with these with ease, considering that the laptop is slimmer, and I can buy one of those USB-C to USB-A dongles anyway.
But I could not make peace with how much this laptop heats up during work.
This heat does not affect the performance in any way. At least for me, it didn't. However, it makes it difficult to use the laptop on top of your lap for a prolonged time.
While writing the Zenbook Pro 14 Duo review last year, I mentioned how it was a nearly perfect device, except that it ran on Microsoft's Windows 11, which was still buggy back then.
This year, the experience was much more fluid. However, I still believe that Windows needs to improve further to get the best out of devices like Zenbook DUO.
Should you buy it?
The Zenbook DUO costs Tk2,52,000, more than enough to deter most from purchasing it.
But it also has specs and features that justify such a price tag.
Ultimately, the purchase decision will depend on what you want from your laptop.
It might not be a good fit if you want a gaming laptop. As a matter of fact, I would recommend you to get a full PC setup if gaming is your main priority.
If you want a dual display setup, buying a monitor and connecting it to your existing laptop is a much cheaper option.
If you, however, want a laptop with two displays for work and multimedia consumption, this 1.65-kilogram laptop might be the perfect fit.
