The new ZenBook Duo introduces a lifting second screen without too much of a weight penalty

The new ZenBook Duo introduces a lifting second screen without too much of a weight penalty

Compact for a laptop with so much screen space; Main display quality is excellent; Impressive battery life;

Cramped, awkwardly positioned keyboard and touchpad; No wristrest;

There’s a lot to like about the ZenBook: the second screen offers huge creative possibilities if you can fit it into your workflow, and those displays both have good quality. The Asus also serves up great battery life, solid internals, and better connectivity than its key rival. While the ScreenPad is useful, though, it also makes this machine heavier and thicker than the competition, and hinders the keyboard and trackpad. It’s also easy to find more power if that’s more important to you. If you’ll use the second screen extensively, though, then those compromises are worth it – and Asus’ design gamble will have paid off. This is an impressive, innovative, but flawed machine.

Impressive, high-quality dual-screen design ; Lengthy battery life; Decent features and connectivity; Solid processing power;

Rivals are faster; Competitors are slimmer and lighter, too; Keyboard and trackpad are cramped;

The Asus ZenBook Duo is a great all-round Ultrabook, but the ScreenPad arguably adds more issues than benefits. While the second touchscreen is great for multitasking with apps such as Slack, Spotify and Premiere Pro, it also pushes the keyboard down to a more awkward position, limiting the appeal of this design.

Excellent productivity performance; Outstanding battery life; ScreenPad is handy for apps; Pleasingly portable ;

Keyboard is uncomfortable to type on; Screen isn't accurate enough for creative professionals ;

Doubling Down on Dual Displays. Asus is starting off CES 2021 with a bang by improving upon its dual-screen 14-inch subnotebook with brighter displays, new hinges, and faster performance. It mostly works if you can deal with some inherent limitations.

In our review of the ZenBook Duo UX481, we criticized the ScreenPad for its poor viewing angles rela...

ScreenPad makes muilti-tasking much easier; excellent CPU performance sustainability; quiet during low to low-medium loads; carrying case and active pen included; well-calibrated primary display; dual Thunderbolt 4 ports; respectable battery life;

heavier and slightly thicker than most traditional 14-inch laptops; color space of ScreenPad is much narrower than primary display; ScreenPad viewing angles are still suboptimal; very warm CPU temperatures when stressed; digital camera shutter instead of physical; RAM is not user-upgradeable; no fingerprint reader; slow MicroSD reader; only one USB-A port;

Impressive, high-quality dual-screen design ; Lengthy battery life; Decent features and connectivity; Solid processing power;

Rivals are faster; Competitors are slimmer and lighter, too; Keyboard and trackpad are cramped;

The new ZenBook Duo introduces a lifting second screen without too much of a weight penalty

Compact for a laptop with so much screen space; Main display quality is excellent; Impressive battery life;

Cramped, awkwardly positioned keyboard and touchpad; No wristrest;

The new ZenBook Duo introduces a lifting second screen without too much of a weight penalty

Compact for a laptop with so much screen space; Main display quality is excellent; Impressive battery life;

Cramped, awkwardly positioned keyboard and touchpad; No wristrest;