CES 2021, the annual tech convention that celebrates avant-garde innovation, couldn't be a more fitting event for Asus. Its innovative Duo portfolio offers eye-catching, dual-display laptops for content creators, gamers and multitasking masters.
This year, Asus is introducing newly refreshed ZenBook Pro Duo 15 and ZenBook Duo 14 laptops. The pair attracted so much attention, they earned CES 2021 Innovation Honoree awards for their cutting-edge design.
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- Asus ZenBook Pro Duo review
- CES 2021: News on the latest laptops, tablets and more
CES 2021: Asus ZenBook Pro Duo 15
Asus didn't skimp on the ZenBook Pro Duo 15's gorgeous, ground-breaking displays.
The dual-screen laptop sports a stunning 15.6-inch, 4K-resolution display with slim bezels that provides a 93% screen-to-body ratio for maximum screen real estate. The OLED display delivers ultra-vivid colors and deep blacks, which is confirmed by its DisplayHDR True Black 500 certification.
Asus also boasts that the display has "superb color accuracy," which is supported by its Pantone Validated certification. The 15.6-inch display covers 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut.
Users who frequently spend hours staring at their laptops will be relieved to know that the ZenBook Pro Duo has TÜV Rheinland-certified eye care to ensure reduced blue-light levels.
Now let's talk about the 4K-resolution ScreenPad Plus. It's the ZenBook Pro Duo's secondary touchscreen that now offers a new auto-tilt feature for improved readability, cooling and seamless multitasking. The 14-inch ScreenPad Plus is also more brilliant than its predecessor, offering 400 nits of brightness.
The use cases for the ScreenPad Plus are endless. The secondary screen is particularly useful for video and photo editors who benefit from two screens for their workflows. For example, video editors can edit clips on Adobe Premiere Pro's timeline on the main display while using the ScreenPad Plus to preview videos and drag in source files.
The Asus ZenBook Pro Duo comes with up to a 10th Gen Intel Core i9 CPU, up to 32GB of RAM, up to a 1TB PCIe SSD and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 GPU. This graphics card is Nvidia's second-gen RTX architecture that offers GPU acceleration for AI, ray tracing and video encoding.
The ZenBook Pro Duo also offers excellent I/O capabilities, including two super-fast Thunderbolt 3 ports that let users connect two additional 4K displays or one 8K display. Asus' innovative laptop also provides Wi-Fi 6, which is three times faster than Wi-Fi 5.
This dual-screen beauty will be available this April.
CES 2021: Asus ZenBook Duo 14
The Asus ZenBook Duo 14 is a smaller, more compact version of the ZenBook Pro Duo. It's also less premium than the 4K-packed ZenBook Pro Duo with its 14-inch main display offering 1920 x 1080-pixel resolution. Its slim-bezel design provides a 92% screen-to-body ratio.
At 12.6 inches, the ZenBook Duo 14's ScreenPad Plus is slightly smaller than the Pro Duo's secondary touchscreen.
The ZenBook Duo 14 is powered by up to an 11th Gen Intel Core i7 CPU, up to 32GB of RAM for seamless cross-screen workflows, up to a 1TB PCIe SSD and up to an Nvidia GeForce MX450 GPU. Asus boasts that the ZenBook Duo 14 offers "silky-smooth visuals" and turbo-charged editing capabilities for content creators.
The ZenBook Duo 14 is more mobile than the ZenBook Pro Duo. The latter is 0.8 inches thick while the former is 0.6 inches thin. Asus was able to build a slimmer chassis due to its AAS Plus thermal system that optimizes cooling and reduces the need for extra internal cooling space.
Similar to the ZenBook Pro Duo, the ZenBook Duo 14 features two Thunderbolt 4 ports and Wi-Fi 6.
The ZenBook Duo 14 will be available this month.
Outlook
The most exciting aspect of Asus' updated dual-screen laptops is the ScreenPad Plus' new auto-tilt feature. You no longer need to peer over the secondary display to get a good look at what's on the screen. The auto-tilt gives better visuals of the ScreenPad Plus while diving into a cross-screen workflow.
It's no wonder that Asus sat on the top of our Best and Worst Laptop Brands ranking, thanks to the company's bold, innovative moves. We can't wait to experiment with Asus' newly updated Duo laptops. We're almost certain it will land on our 2021 best laptops list.
