If there’s one device all of us have spent more time on than ever before over the past 18 months, it’s our laptop.

Whether you were a professional adapting to work from home for the first time in your career, a student watching lectures over Zoom or a gamer playing your way through the pandemic-enforced home time, the laptop became the centre of our focus across a broad range of use cases.

“Due to the pandemic, computers regained the importance in households for working, studying and entertainment,” says Morgan Chen, Business Development Manager for UAE and GCC at ASUS Middle East.

Over this period, ASUS observed consumer trends and developed a range of laptops to suit a swathe of needs.

“ASUS released a wide range of OLED laptops, which emit 70 per cent less harmful blue light,” adds Chen. Blue light not only causes eye strain and age-related macular degeneration but has also been proven to have an adverse effect on our sleep cycle.

“Users can have better eye care while using OLED-laptops for long hours when working from home and e-learning,” says Chen, adding that the rich, accurate colours of OLED display technology lend an extra degree of immersion to entertainment – be it Netflix or the latest COD.

“Witnessing the trend of longer use hours on laptops during the pandemic, ASUS was eager to provide products with better visual experience and eye care,” he says.

We’ve seen OLED technology, with its more vivid colours and deeper blacks, in TVs and smartphones for some years now, but ASUS is determined to take a lead in the laptop implementation of the tech.

But OLED isn’t all about fun – it offers productive uses too. “From creative powerhouse laptops to mainstream on-the-go models, ASUS OLED devices deliver the best displays to a wide variety of users and creators, enhancing creative workflows with exceptional graphic precision and incredible visual experiences.”

Going forward, Chen believes ASUS’ creator-centric UI and software will continue to deliver innovative new products for creative professionals, including video editors, graphic designers, architects and animators.

With home entertainment becoming more important in 2020 than any other year, it’s not surprising that brands across the segment performed well – although few (if any) can match ASUS’ growth rate of 30 percent in 2021 (so far).

“ASUS leads the market with gaming laptops and OLED laptops. This excellent achievement is credited to the innovation and breakthrough ASUS has made. It not only fuelled the demand but also an unspoken proof of how local consumers positively support the advancements we made.”

While the focus on gaming laptops was previously limited to hardware performance, Chen has noted trends of consumers seeking out machines that offer a unique identity, stylish design as well as multitasking capabilities.

“That’s why we launched the ROG Flow X13.” An ultra-portable convertible gaming laptop, the Flow X13 can be hooked up to a powerful external GPU to dramatically improve a game’s graphics and FPS rate. “This unique form factor provides the perfect balance of performance and portability.”

“ASUS provided variant segments and form factors of gaming laptops with powerful performance and high-responsive displays, so gamers can enjoy the perfect plays and have fun with friends simultaneously.”

The tech brand’s market growth is credited, Chen says, to its vision of centering everything around a simple objective: “How do we make people’s lives easier and better?” For ASUS, the answer lies in product design and feature innovation.

For example, after studying consumer demand for multitasking tools, ASUS launched its ZenBook Pro Duo and ROG Zephyrus Duo, both of which integrate a 4K secondary display that sits above the keyboard, under the main screen.

“We took it to the next level by using a new auto-tilt mechanism that improves readability, aids cooling and works seamlessly with the main display,” Chen explains. Form- and function-driven innovation achieved in one fell swoop, then.

This combination of innovative product design, reliable quality and supportive after-sales service has helped ASUS emerge as the top choice of laptops in the market, Chen concludes.