ASUS ZenBook Duo: At First Glance
The ASUS ZenBook Duo is definitely an attention seeker. You will constantly find yourself intrigued by its elegant design.
The most intriguing part of this laptop is its dual-screen feature. ASUS ZenBook Duo features a regular 14-inch OLED display with a 12-inch Matte LCD display below it.
Overall, this feature makes the ASUS ZenBook Duo stand out from most of its competitors. However, anyone would be itching to ask why they would want a dual-screen laptop.
ASUS ZenBook Duo: Design, Dimension, and Weight
The ASUS ZenBook Duo is made of a magnesium alloy. Moreover, its magnesium alloy chassis has a celestial blue finish.
This laptop’s all-metal design is solid with no sharp corners.
In fact, the build quality of the ASUS ZenBook Duo is excellent. Moreover, this laptop has a MIL-STD-810G certification to prove how durable it is.
Furthermore, this laptop’s design could be said to be very unique to ASUS even though there are other laptops with dual screens. For instance, ASUS equips ZenBook Duo laptops with a hinge that lifts the screen pad by up to 7 degrees.
This hinge also lifts the laptop’s base. Therefore, the ASUS ZenBook Duo is designed to improve the viewing angle of the smaller screen.
Additionally, the 7 degrees hinge also improves the typing experience and airflow of the laptop.
Speaking of screens, the ASUS ZenBook Duo’s dual-screen is its most interesting feature. It features a bottom screen called the “screen pad plus” and a regular display.
Overall, this feature is designed to improve the productivity and functionality of the laptop.
Despite its somewhat complex build, the ASUS ZenBook Duo is not too heavy nor large. However, it a bit heavier than most traditional 14-inch laptops. The laptop weighs 1500 g and measures 323 x 223 x 19.9 mm.
Furthermore, the ASUS ZenBook Duo’s keyboard feels very nice. However, it is not as comfortable as a regular laptop’s keyboard because of its tight spacing.
Below this keyboard, you get a very sensitive and smooth touchpad.
In terms of ports, the ASUS ZenBook Duo offers 1 USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port, 1 USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A port, and 1 USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A port. It also comes with 1 HDMI port and a headphone jack.
Overall, this laptop’s design is very innovative and intriguing. However, you will have to get acquainted with the laptop in order to feel very comfortable with its unconventional form factor.
Nevertheless, it is an excellent laptop with a solid build. Therefore, it scores a nine in this review.
ASUS ZenBook Duo: Processor (CPU) Performance
ASUS offers two configurations for the ZenBook Duo’s processor. You can buy this laptop with a quad-core Intel Core i5 10210U or a quad-core Intel Core i7 10510U processor.
These processors are both very powerful. Moreover, the difference in performance power between these two processors is slight (based on the processor tests that were carried out).
This review focuses on the Core i7 10510U processor. The Core i7 processor gives the ASUS ZenBook Duo enough power to handle daily computing operations and even more demanding tasks.
Moreover, this laptop scored 16,720 on a Geekbench 4 test. Unfortunately, the ASUS ZenBook Duo was unable to surpass the premium laptop average score of 17,336.
The Lenovo Yoga C940 outperformed this laptop with a score of 18,672. Nonetheless, this laptop’s processor performance is solid even though it doesn’t outperform some of its competitors.
Hence, it scores an eight in this review for its solid processor performance.
ASUS ZenBook Duo: Memory (RAM) Performance
The ASUS ZenBook Duo comes with an 8 GB LPDDR3 RAM. ASUS allows a maximum of 16 GB upgrades for this laptop’s RAM.
This RAM powers the ASUS ZenBook Duo well enough to keep up with heavy day-to-day workflow. In fact, the ASUS ZenBook Duo handles multitasking with relative ease.
To offer you some examples, ASUS ZenBook Duo ran smoothly with 25 Chrome browser tabs opened while 3 apps were running in the background. To test this laptop further, I started streaming five 1080p YouTube videos simultaneously.
Surprisingly, this laptop didn’t slow down at all. There was no stuttering while I switched between the numerous operations that were running simultaneously.
As a result, this laptop scores a nine in this review for its immense multitasking capabilities.
ASUS ZenBook Duo: Storage Options and Performance
The ASUS ZenBook Duo offers a 1 TB PCIe Gen3 x4 SSD storage.
This laptop’s Solid-state drive is extremely fast. In fact, all operations on this laptop are undeniably faster thanks to its storage.
For example, this laptop recorded excellent speeds on a CrystalDiskMark test. The ASUS ZenBook Duo recorded a sequential read speed of 3534 MBps and a sequential write speed of 2816 MBps.
Moreover, it took this laptop just 4 seconds to copy a 4.97 GB multimedia file at a transfer rate of 959 MBps. Unfortunately, its incredible copy rate still isn’t the best when compared with its competitors.
For example, the Lenovo Yoga C940 copied the same file at 1,018 MBps. However, the ASUS ZenBook Duo exceeded the premium laptop average copy rate of 658 MBps.
Therefore, it scores an eight in this storage review for its fast storage speed.
ASUS ZenBook Duo: Graphics Card Performance
The ASUS ZenBook Duo features a dedicated NVIDIA GeForce MX250. This GPU has a base frequency of 937 MHz and a boost frequency of 1038 MHz.
ASUS also offers a 2 GB GDDR5 dedicated VRAM to support this laptop’s GPU performance.
With this GPU, the ASUS ZenBook Duo offers a satisfactory gaming performance. However, you might need to reduce the gaming settings in order to enjoy some AAA title games.
On a gaming test, this laptop played Dirt 3 at an impressive rate of 106 FPS. Its frame rate doubled the Lenovo Yoga C940’s 51 FPS.
The ASUS ZenBook Duo also played The Witcher 3 at 58 FPS, Dota 2 Reborn at 75 FPS, and X-Plane 11.11 at 44 FPS. Hence, it scores an eight in this review for its above average gaming performance.
ASUS ZenBook Duo: Battery Life and Performance
The ASUS ZenBook Duo comes with a 4-cell lithium 70Wh polymer battery. ASUS claims that this laptop can last up to 22.4 hours with the ScreenPad Plus off.
With the ScreenPad Plus on, ASUS claims that the ASUS ZenBook Duo can last up to 15.7 hours.
However, the ASUS ZenBook Duo didn’t last as long as ASUS claimed it would in both situations. Nevertheless, this laptop offered an impressive battery life.
On a battery test that involved continuous web surfing, the ASUS ZenBook Duo lasted 9 hours 50 minutes with the ScreenPad Plus on. With the ScreenPad Plus off, this laptop lasted 11 hours 55 minutes.
In conclusion, the ASUS ZenBook Duo scores a nine for its long battery life despite its power consuming display.
Frequently Asked Questions
The ASUS ZenBook Duo is powerful enough to handle the level of productivity that programming requires. It is a laptop that has been designed to improve productivity.
The ASUS ZenBook Duo is an impressive laptop with a beautiful design. Its chassis is also extremely durable despite its complex build. To top it all, this laptop offers fast performance, long battery life, and a functional second display in a stylish design.
The ASUS ZenBook Duo is good for video editing. After all, ASUS’s primary target users are creatives. So, ASUS has designed this laptop with a lot of functionalities to help improve a creative’s productivity. One of these functionalities is its dual-screen feature.
ASUS offers a touch screen option for this laptop’s 14-inch screen.
AsusTek Computer Inc is a Taiwanese multinational computer and phone hardware and electronics company. The company headquarters is in Beitou District, Taipei, Taiwan.
Conclusion
The ASUS ZenBook Duo is a remarkable laptop that you will find very useful. If you are someone who can benefit from an extra screen on a laptop, you should consider this laptop.
However, you will need to spend some time customizing your workflow to fit the laptop’s dual-screen. It is difficult to maximize the functionality of this laptop if you don’t understand its features.
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