At a look

Expert’s Rating

Pros

• Stunning main show and straightforward to see secondary show
• Excellent I/O choices and wi-fi connectivity
• CPU / GPU energy meets the wants of content material creators

Cons

• The battery life is missing for a productiveness laptop computer
• The trackpad is small and awkwardly positioned
• Rear oriented ports will be exhausting to succeed in

Our Verdict

With beautiful and ergonomic twin shows and a succesful CPU/GPU mixture, the Asus Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED is a perfect companion for content material creators that wish to work unencumbered.

Price When Reviewed

$2,000

Best Prices Today: Asus Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED

$1,849.00

$1946.99

Asus’ twin display screen Zenbook Duo laptops are like pandora’s bins for content material creators, providing a complete new productiveness expertise for these courageous sufficient to offer their distinctive two-display configurations a attempt. We’ve seen some good ones since they debuted at CES again in 2019, however none that fairly supply the stability of energy and ergonomics out there on this newly minted 14-inch Zenbook Duo mannequin.

It wins the day due to its highly effective new Twelfth-generation processor, a extra seen ScreenPad Plus, and a taller, brighter 120Hz OLED main show that provides superlative visuals from each angle. To cap it off, a spate of considerate software program upgrades optimizes the ScreenPad Plus operation, making workflow extra seamless than earlier than.

Asus Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED specs:

The Asus Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED is accessible in configurations as much as Intel Core i9-12900H and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GPU. Our overview unit has the next specs:

• CPU: Intel Core i7-12700H
• RAM: 16GB DDR5 / 4800 MHz
• GPU: Intel Iris Xe graphics and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti
• Displays: Primary: 14.5-inch, 2.8K (2880 x 1800) touch-sensitive OLED, 120 Hz refresh fee, 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut; Secondary: 12.7-inch (2880 x 864) touch-sensitive, IPS-level, 120Hz panel, 100% DCI-p3 colour gamut
• Storage: 1TB SSD PCIe Gen 4
• Ports: 2 x Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C), USB-A 3.2 Gen2, HDMI 2.1, 3.5mm audio port, microSD Express 7.0 reader
• Networking: Dual-band Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.2
• Dimensions: 12.74 x 8.85 x 0.70 inches
• Weight: 3.86 lbs (1.75kg)
• Color: Tech Black
• Battery capability: 76Wh
• Price: $2,000

Design and construct

The Asus Zenbook Pro 14 Duo, like final 12 months’s 14-inch Zenbook Duo options not one however two shows – a 14.5 main show and a 12.7-inch secondary (ScreenPad Plus) show that’s planted neatly above the keyboard. Measuring 12.74 x 8.85 x 0.70 inches, its proportions are fairly compact and skinny. That mentioned, its 0.70-inch-thick chassis and three.86 pound weight doesn’t fairly qualify it as an Ultrabook.

There are some year-on-year design upgrades which make the 2022 Zenbook Pro 14 Duo higher than its predecessor. The most evident is that the secondary show now tilts up at 12 levels from the laptop computer’s base as an alternative of simply 7 levels earlier than. Ergonomically, that makes it so much simpler to see, as you gained’t must crane your neck in an unnatural strategy to get work completed.

Such a tall tilt is achieved by changing the 2021 Zenbook Duo’s Ergolift hinges with new AAS Ultra hinge mechanisms – a course of that required a rejig of a number of the inside parts. Going to all that bother has supplied a thermal payoff too. Asus say, the inner {hardware} will get a 38 % elevated airflow – therefore the moniker, AAS, which stands for: Active Aerodynamic System.

Newly positioned air vents additionally work to chill the laptop computer. Gone are the vents that drive scorching air upwards onto the first show. They’re changed by a neat row that blow scorching air out the left-hand facet. Asus has camouflaged these to appear like USB-A ports, so except palms are positioned in entrance of them, they’ll go unnoticed.

There are upgrades to main show too. It advantages from a bigger 92 % screen-to-body ratio and a taller 16:10 side ratio, which replaces the 16:9 side ratio we noticed final 12 months. It’s additionally notably brighter and by all accounts seems very good from any angle you view it from.

For the fashion aware, this 12 months’s 14-inch Zenbook Duo makes a perfect work accent. It seems modern and complex it doesn’t matter what type of lighting you’re sitting below, and its Tech Black magnesium-aluminum alloy end blends it seamlessly into nearly any type of work atmosphere.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

Additionally, flipping the lid down reveals a easy however compelling Asus ‘A’ brand that displays nearly each colour again at you below vivid lights, so count on your Zenbook Duo to get loads of envious seems in boardroom conferences.

Keyboard and trackpad

Although as soon as once more fairly slim, the Zenbook Duo’s keyboard feels balanced and cozy. It does a good job of creating use of all of the out there area within the chassis. The keys additionally really feel massive, and so they have a beneficiant 18.5 mm pitch between them.

They have handy dish-shaped depressions to stop your fingertips slipping off. The dish-shaped depressions plus the 1.4 mm vertical journey allowed me to attain a excessive degree of accuracy whereas writing my evaluations.

The standout keys are within the very prime row. These embrace the Fn keys and a few additional productiveness shortcuts. Useful examples embrace a key to show the ScreenPad Plus on and off, one to take on the spot screenshots and one other to modify the webcam on or off.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

I discovered the ErgoSense trackpad wasn’t as consumer pleasant because the keyboard. It felt a little bit cramped, being only a small rectangle to work on. Its proper hand-side positioning additionally makes it awkward for lefties.

On the opposite hand, its floor felt comfy, due to a easy hydrophobic PVD coating. The trackpad additionally helps multitouch gesturing in Windows, which was helpful for accessing my desktop via the piles of home windows that I all the time have open.

Primary show

As effectively as being taller and brighter (I measured 547-nits brightness by my Lux meter) than earlier than, the first 14.5-inch OLED HDR touchscreen produces vibrant, richly saturated colour photos, and deep blacks that seemingly sink into the show. That’s due to the panel’s 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut and VESA DisplayHDR True Black score that permits a 1 million to 1 distinction ratio.

I used to be notably impressed by the colour accuracy in images I clicked on. Incidentally, Asus say the OLED panel is Pantone validated, which is a giant win for designers and graphic artists that want that deep degree colour accuracy.

As a brand new addition this 12 months, you can too customise the colour gamut for various duties through the Splendid web page within the MyASUS software program app. The varied colour modes embrace, an sRGB mode for creating net content material and searching, a DCI-P3 mode for cinema content material and a Display P3 mode for film grade colour. However, switching between them didn’t present up that a lot distinction.

More apparent was how manifestly easy the 120Hz OLED panel appeared whereas enjoying movies. Micro stuttering was absent. Frames have been additionally extremely sharp when in comparison with various new launch gaming laptops within the workplace. Consequently, when you’re questioning whether or not this laptop computer’s main show is superior to a 165 Hz IPS-level panel with a comparative decision, the reply is a powerful sure.

Connectivity

The addition of the AAS hinges has allowed the facility enter, HDMI and MicroSD card reader to be moved to the again facet this 12 months – a placement that does require you to uncomfortably lean over the laptop computer at occasions. The I/O choices are top-notch, nevertheless. In addition to the above, you additionally get two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a USB-A 3.2 Gen2 port and a 3.5 mm audio port.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

Power customers that need to velocity up productiveness will undoubtedly put the Thunderbolt 4 ports to good use. Each port permits you to switch recordsdata at as much as 40Gb/s, or to supply output to as much as two 4K shows or a single 8K show.

The Zenbook Duo additionally sports activities Bluetooth 5.2, and twin band Wi-Fi 6E. The latter is made even higher by just a few sweetener applied sciences – Wi-Fi Stabilizer acts to stop electromagnetic sign interference, whereas a know-how known as SmartConnect works to supply the very best Wi-Fi sign in your atmosphere.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

Although troublesome to qualitatively measure, simply anecdotally my wi-fi sign appeared a little bit extra dependable than my work laptop computer, so kudos to Asus for including these additional wi-fi enhancements.

Webcam and audio

The Zenbook Duo packs a HD Webcam with Windows Hello compatibility. Testing it out revealed fairly crisp photos, however sometimes the AI did are likely to overcook faces, which appeared a little bit plastic. On the plus facet, footage look exceptionally vivid in low mild situations, which saves you the trouble of all the time having to activate overhead lights.

The laptop computer’s twin audio system with Dolby Atmos assist do a good job of protecting the audio sounding clear and crisp and noticeably louder than some laptops of the same dimension. I used to be additionally impressed by how little distortion they produced on the laptop computer’s larger quantity ranges.

Performance

Considering my overview unit’s Intel Core-i7-12700H CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GPU configuration, I pulled comparisons from the PCWorld steady of productiveness laptops as effectively our listing of gaming rigs. One pocket book specifically, the MSI Katana GF76, featured the identical GPU/CPU mixture as my overview unit.

I started by operating the PCMark 10 Overall benchmark, which is nice indicator of a laptop computer’s suitability for the fashionable workplace atmosphere; because it runs this benchmark simulates a spread of duties like phrase processing and video chats after which calculates an total rating primarily based on the outcomes. Here, two AMD Ryzen powered productiveness laptops had a slight edge on the Zenbook Duo that was in any other case a powerful performer on this check.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

Next, I examined the competency of the laptop computer’s CPU with Maxon’s Cinebench R20 Single-Threaded benchmark that targets only a single Core of our laptop computer’s CPU. In this benchmark the Zenbook Duo excelled, hitting a excessive rating of 692. This proves it has ample energy for on a regular basis duties like operating apps and applications.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

Still in Maxon’s Cinebench R20 app, I ran the Multi-Threaded benchmark, which flexes all cores of a laptop computer’s processor. Again, the Zenbook Duo topped our listing of comparisons, fielding a rating of 5,585. CPU-intensive duties like video enhancing and encoding require a laptop computer to make the most of a number of CPU cores, subsequently this consequence exhibits the Zenbook Duo is effectively suited to those duties.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

In the free HandBrake utility, I set the Zenbook Duo to encode a 30GB MKV file to MP4 utilizing the Android Tablet preset. This check measured its potential to carry out a CPU-intensive job earlier than it turned too scorching and needed to throttle efficiency. In the outcomes, notice how the Asus Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED finishes faster than the MSI Katana GF76.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

What do all these outcomes imply? Looking them over, it’s clear that the Asus Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED supplies satisfactory processing energy for content material creators working in applications like Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Photoshop. Its higher finish rating in PCMark 10 Overall additionally means will probably be fast and snappy in productiveness apps like Microsoft Excel and Word.

The HandBrake consequence, nevertheless, is especially encouraging. This suggests the Zenbook Duo’s innovate AAS facilitated aerodynamic design may in actual fact present thermal benefits over some bigger laptops with comparable Intel or Ryzen processors, just like the MSI Katana GF76, in CPU-intensive duties. That makes it a rarity amongst 14-inch productiveness laptops.

3D efficiency

Since their launch, Asus’s Zenbook Duo laptops have occupied a center floor for graphics efficiency, carving out a distinct segment above most productiveness laptops, however barely beneath high-end gaming laptops. That feels about the place the newest mannequin sits too, primarily based on the outcomes of my benchmarking.

Regardless, the outcomes that play out beneath present that the Zenbook Duo is supplied with sufficient grunt to carry out capably in purposes that contain 3D rendering, and though not a gaming laptop computer, it could even produce respectable body charges in reasonably demanding 3D video games.

To gauge the overall graphics efficiency of my Zenbook’s RTX 3050 Ti GPU I used the 3DMark Time Spy benchmark. As you possibly can see within the graph beneath, the Zenbook Duo positioned second solely to the MSI Katana GF76, outperforming most comparisons, together with some with RTX 3050 Ti discrete graphics playing cards.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

For the Rise of the Tomb Raider recreation benchmark comparability chart, I selected to pit the Zenbook Duo towards gaming laptops. It proved solely barely off the tempo of that comparability listing.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

Battery life

While the Zenbook Duo’s {hardware} and graphics efficiency extra carefully resembles a gaming laptop computer than a productiveness laptop computer, so too does its battery life, which proved to be considerably missing.

To check the battery life, I ran the laptop computer down from 100% cost to standby by enjoying a 4K Hollywood film on repeat. In this check, I generally discover productiveness laptops with 76Wh batteries can final between 9 to 13 hours, however the Zenbook Duo solely lasted seven hours, which implies you possibly can solely count on it to final roughly 4 hours for battery-taxing duties like 3D rendering or gaming.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

Consequently, you’ll need to be round an outlet after your morning espresso break if you wish to hold it powered up for a full working day.

Should you purchase it?

The Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED is a well-tuned instrument for content material creators, excelling at a spread of normal workplace duties in addition to duties that require a little bit extra grunt like encoding and 3D rendering. The huge attraction is the laptop computer’s twin shows. They’re the perfect ones we’ve utilized in an Asus Zenbook Duo laptop computer thus far with a spate of year-on-year enhancements that make the visuals extra placing and the cross-screen integration simpler than ever earlier than.