This Asus does have an ErgoLift hinge the props up the rear of the laptop at an angle. It chugged right along even when I tried my darndest to find its breaking point by playing four 1080p YouTube videos and a Twitch stream simultaneously. I wonder if it’s even worth having a touchpad on this device; I seriously cannot imagine anyone using this one regularly. Build quality is superb throughout. I had no problems dropping a specs sheet down to the ScreenPad Plus so I could read info while writing an embargoed news post about a laptop. You can use the Task Group icon to open up to 5 apps (two on the main screen and three on the ScreenPad Plus) with a single tap. The ZenBook Duo is the latest attempt to bring this tech to the masses. Equally, and perhaps a little surprisingly, Destiny 2 runs pretty well at 720p with a similarly tweaked low settings-based profile, delivering consistent frame rates between 45-55 FPS. I keep shiting my eyes between the metallic dark teal aluminum and the extra pixels on the deck shining up at me. If you haven't used it before, facial recognition is one of those you'll-never-go-back features. Please refresh the page and try again. The Asus ZenBook Duo UX481 is the best dual-screen laptop yet, combining good battery life with an intuitive UI in a 3.3-pound package. The midrange Comet Lake CPU isn’t the best choice for encoding videos or other demanding creative tasks, however — most power users will be better suited to the ZenBook Pro Duo, which comes with an eight-core Core i9-9980HK and a more powerful graphics card. It took just 5 seconds to complete the task, which equates to a transfer speed of 958.4 megabytes per second. When I'm working in my home office, I have multiple monitors with things on the go constantly. It'd be rude not to at least try and play some games on the ZenBook Duo as well, even though that's not what you buy any MX250 equipped laptop for. Post a quick review now to join the conversation! I'll go into more detail about the displays, keyboard and touchpad below but their uniqueness impacts the design; The second screen takes up the top half of the Duo's deck while the keyboard is on the front (nearest the user) and a vertical touchpad with discrete clickers is on the right side. For creatives, that may prove a hindrance. In our real-world Handbrake test that converts a 420MB file to H.265, the ZenBook Duo took exactly three and a half minutes. I’d have much preferred to see a brighter display with better colors and contrast on a laptop that’s intended for creative types. The ZenBook Duo has a stand out feature that's a real head-turner. It’s an unusual feature, outside of the ZenBook Pro Duo, and it’s far more useful than, say, Apple’s Touch Bar on the MacBook Pro. The basic act of dragging apps between the screens is easy to grasp, especially if you've used a dual-monitor setup before. Save an insane 73% on a new IPVanish subscription for a limited time, 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C, 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A, 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A, 1 x HDMI, 1 x Audio combo jack, 1 x MicroSD card reader. ASUS also includes an array of useful ports, including two USB Type A connections, one USB C, HDMI and a microSD card slot. The specification is rounded out by WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5. First, you need to decide if the ZenBook Duo is right for you, or if a more traditional laptop, like the Samsung Galaxy Flex 15 or Lenovo Yoga C940 would be a better fit. Then, there are trade-offs you have to make to achieve this form factor. Beneath the hood, the ZenBook Duo features Intel's quad-core i7-10510U, 16GB of RAM and NVIDIA's GeForce MX 250 GPU. We use industry standard tests in order to compare features properly. It can’t compare to excellent keyboards on the latest Apple MacBooks and the HP Spectre x360 13. The ZenBook Duo is a solid attempt at delivering a dual-screen ultraportable. Frankly, that’s unforgivable for a $1,500 laptop. It's not particularly high-resolution, nor is it overly bright, but it doesn't need to be. I’m not sure if there’s a way to make a Duo that’s also good at being a portable laptop. Don’t expect the Duo to last through to a second day, though. From the App Launcher menu, you can open an app called Quick Key, which gives you oft-used commands, like cut, copy, paste, undo, and more. When it comes to having a little extra horsepower for creative work on a compact laptop such as this, it's ideal. The lower display is augmented by Asus’ ScreenPad Plus Launcher, which can group apps together for quick opening. As for graphics performance, the ZenBook Duo is again well behind the larger ZenBook Pro Duo. And honestly, I was expecting a laptop like this to cost an absolute fortune, but the regular UK price of £1,500 is very reasonable. While the keyboard sports snappy keys with a firm mechanism and plenty of travel, I found it too small for comfortable typing. This machine will easily withstand frequent commutes. However, the second screen hampers the keyboard and trackpad and makes this machine thicker and heavier than rivals. The ZenBook Duo comes with a one-year warranty. Beautiful. You shouldn't buy one to game on, but you can still do a bit of gaming. Having two screens also means you'll also have to deal with having a laptop that's heavier and thicker than most ultrabooks. I'm happy with that. ASUS is still relying on its metallic ZenBook case design, which is sleek and smooth to the touch. But to craft such a unique device, Asus had to make compromises to the keyboard and touchpad, so you'll want to think long and hard about whether the ZenBook Duo is the right device for your needs. It's a striking design that will satisfy your creative side without making you self conscious about using something overly gaudy. It's yet another example of how useful secondary screens can be in a notebook -- but given its smaller size, ASUS had to make several compromises along the way. The ScreenPad Plus also has its own menu along its left side, letting you adjust its brightness and app shortcuts. Asus's ZenBook Duo is an innovative laptop with strong performance and a secondary 12.6-inch display at a reasonable price. The 15-inch Asus ZenBook Pro Duo is the first to put them together in the same laptop, making it a potential photo-editing powerhouse and a workhorse in cramped spaces-- if … In our battery benchmark, the Asus lasted for eight hours and 23 minutes. The ZenBook Pro Duo came first and now, recently revealed for North America at CES 2020, there's the ZenBook Duo. At 12.7 x 8.8 x 0.8 inches and 4 pounds, the Duo is thicker and heavier than the Samsung Galaxy Book Flex 15 (14 x 9 x 0.6 inches, 3.5 pounds) and Lenovo Yoga C940 (12.6 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches, 3 pounds). The ZenBook Duo UX481 model uses a Core i7-10510U processor – a low-power Intel 10th Gen chip. Find out why in our full review. I mostly kept distractions like Slack, Twitter, and Spotify on the bottom screen so they were out of my way while I did my primary work on the top, but I also sometimes kept notes or other information down there for reference. The ZenBook also falls behind rivals in some areas. Some of them will provide better performance and longevity, and most of them will offer much better keyboards and touchpads. More so, you've got smaller keys, the one that gets me the most is the tiny right-hand shift key which I missed every single time I tried to use. There are also useful buttons for moving windows around and changing the brightness of the second panel. That's the best part. Microsoft is on its steady push toward a dual-screen device future. There is a decent selection of ports on the ZenBook Duo, however, all premium laptops should now have a Thunderbolt 3 port for fast transfer speeds and for connecting to multiple 4K monitors. ASUS has built some custom apps for it, such as a number pad and a handwriting area, but you're not limited to just these. The keys are small, and the keyboard layout felt cramped, making typing a challenge. There are some fun things you can do with the secondary panels and some of the built-in features are genuinely useful. Laptop Mag is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. It doesn't really lead to much more performance compared to the XPS 13's integrated Iris Plus graphics though. ASUS did a decent job of fitting in a second display, but it leads to plenty of compromises. Instead of being located in the center or toward the back of the laptop, the keyboard on the ZenBook Duo is on the front of the deck. But it's definitely not a gimmick and it'll change the way you use a laptop forever. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. The Duo is also chunkier and heavier than other 14-inch laptops, so it doesn't make for the best travel laptop. I was wrong -- very wrong. The Zenbook Duo is the best laptop if …