Asus has been working on this dual-screen form factor, and some of the ZenBook Pro Duo 14 OLED, which costs $1,999.99 and above, is something we've never seen before. As with previous models in the Duo series, there is a large 14.5-inch screen on the top and a smaller 12.7-inch screen on the back of the ScreenPad Plus. Below that screen is the keyboard (which extends all the way to the front of the deck to which it belongs), and the right side is crammed with a tiny touchpad.
ZENBOOK PRO DUO 14 OLED
merit
- The second screen is nice
- Customizable control center
- ScreenPad can be turned into a trackpad
- Reliable port
shortcoming
- Battery life is not amazing
- The keyboard is still uncomfortable
- No stylus
Last year's 14-inch Zenbook Duo only tilted the secondary screen up 7 degrees. The 2020 model is even flatter. In both cases, whenever I need to see anything on the second screen, I keep stretching my neck and leaning over.
Increasing to 12 degrees doesn't seem like much on paper, but it finally—finally—makes the screen high enough that I don't need a crane anymore. Now, as I type, I lean back in my office chair. I was actually tilting slightly. I can see the pro duo's home screen, and I can also see the contents of the second screen. In this tilted state, I can read the text on the secondary screen.
New logo, concentric circle design.
It also has a higher resolution (2880 x 864). There's also a new "anti-glare etching" that prevents it from reflecting ceiling lights, which has been a hassle in the past.
The second screen is useful. In the previous model, it was just a distraction for things like Slack and Twitter, and my real work happened in the first half. Now I can put references there so I can browse and read them while I'm working. But we're just favoring the keyboard position right now. Asus has basically fixed all the other issues.
If you can't imagine a deck layout, look here.
The Duo 14 trackpad is very small and basically useless. On previous models, I just used a stylus in every possible situation. That's what I did here – until I found out the pattern of the touchpad.
Touchpad mode allows you to turn your ScreenPad into a giant touchpad. All you have to do is tap on it with three fingers. To change it back to ScreenPad, tap the X in the upper-right corner. The touchpad works well and responds to all kinds of gestures the same as regular gestures. Of course, there are drawbacks. On the one hand, there is no click mechanism (but click-and-click works well).
There are two USB-C and one USB-A on the right. (There are also ports on the back.) ）
Yu ASUS's new cooling system (called "IceCool Plus") consists of two 12-volt fans with 97 and 93 blades, respectively. Asus claims that the device stays below 28 decibels when using the whisper mode cooling profile, which, as far as I know, seems accurate. Even though I'm not in whisper mode, I barely hear from my fans.
Battery life is even more mixed. On two screens of moderate brightness, the average work is about five hours in a row. Because the device runs two high-resolution screens. The original Pro Duo lasted just over two and a half hours, while the game-oriented zephyrus Duo 15, which was more expensive for games, lasted 1 hour and 48 minutes under the same workload.
These are vents, not ports – the cunning Asus!
ASUS went to great lengths to create a good, practical, and usable dual-screen system. I legitimately think that most of the problems that can be solved have been solved. In our fairly rigorous review of the first-generation Zenbook Duo, Chaim Gartenberg writes, "There's a great laptop buried in unprocessed clay.