They call it the ‘Laptop of Tomorrow’. Released in India this week, the ASUS ZenBook Duo comes with a unique design. In this article, we are going to review this different type of beast. If you are thinking of Build, Display, Keyboard, performance and conclusion style review, well, this ain’t one. This is a little different type of review. There is a reason why we are not doing a conventional review. Read On!
When I opened the lid…
I was excited and at the same time, I had lot of doubts. I quickly finished the setup and the first thing I usually do after setup and first login is to see how comfortable the keyboard is. Five minutes later, I was on call with Giridhar, our in-house smartphone review expert and the call went a bit like this:
Me: What is this laptop da?
Giri: What happened?
Me: The ZenBook Duo keyboard is so cramped that it is almost useless.
Giri: Have you tried the bundled wrist/palm rest?
Me: No, I did not like the keyboard, I do not think this is a good laptop for content creators. Also, I cannot find a use case for this second display.
Giri: Yeah, I am also wondering what to say about the Pro too.
We are so used to conventional laptop that…
We think any thing that deviates from that design is hard to use or not useful. This laptop form factor and design is imprinted in our mind:
We are so used to this display on top and keyboard on base design. Well, there is nothing wrong with this. It worked well for so many decades. The same was the case with smartphone design. Physical keys on phones worked so well for so many years that when full touch phone was introduced, many wondered how we can type as fast as we used to using those physical keys. Now, we cannot even think of using a phone with physical keyboard.
I realized that…
Review of this laptop should not focus on how well it works as a conventional laptop and should focus on how well it works as a laptop of tomorrow. And so, I concentrated solely on those features that made it stand apart, the ScreenPad Plus.
ScreenPad Plus is…
Truly versatile, if you know how to customize it. Lets see some really useful functions of the ScreenPad Plus on ASUS ZenBook Duo.
Extended display: The ScreenPad Plus, unlike the TouchBar on Apple MacBook Pro, acts as a proper second screen. You can move apps that to the Screenpad Plus or you can also extent your application window into the ScreenPad Plus. For me, while I was working on adding images or editing images, I would do that on ScreenPad Plus while I write article on main display.
App switcher : You can easily move an application between main display and screen pad by just taking it to one corner. If you want all app on main display move to screenpad plus, you can do so by pressing all app switcher key on keyboard.
Application Launcher: You can add application shortcuts to ScreenPad Plus by simple dragging and dropping the app launch icons to ScreenPad Plus app launcher. This makes it easier to launch applications.
Stylus/Digitizer support: You can write on ScreenPad+ and that gets converted to text automatically. If you are an artist, you can make very good use of the bundled stylus.
Media Playback: This is one that is very useful for me. While I am working on primary display, I can play some movie on screen pad plus. Even better, if i want to learn something, it is easier if I play tutorial on ScreenPad Plus and I practice by using application/page on main window.
When I truly tried Screenpad Plus…
My perception of the ASUS ZenBook Duo has changed. Instead of looking at it like a laptop with bad keyboard, I started looking at it like a laptop that is going to take me to next generation of mobile computing. I used it to its full capability, well, almost. The only thing that I could not try is making art on the ScreenPad Plus as I am truly bad at drawing. I have used it to play videos, I had configured quick launch app shortcuts, I used it for writing, I had configured lot of application shortcuts.
Make no mistake, the future is…
Without keyboards. We will certainly move into an era of mobile computing where keyboards are obsolete. If you had noticed how much of appreciation Microsoft got for Surface Neo, you will know that that will be the form factor that future mobile computing devices will have.
ASUS ZenBook Duo is…
A bridge to that future. You get a secondary display on the base and on the same base, you have this traditional keyboard. Those who truly want to make full use of touch screen display will love this laptop. Those who want to use touch screen and yet need a keyboard will also love this laptop.
Those who want full size keyboard will hate this one. Well, eventually, this category will fall in line.
Five key areas that I fell for
Screenpad Plus : Well, you know why this is a key function by now.
Battery Life: ASUS ZenBook Duo has up to 22 hour battery life. I did not think that the battery life will be this good. After using the ZenBook from morning till evening, I looked at battery status bar and it showed that only half of battery was utilized. At first, I thought something was wrong. Then, when I used it more and more, I understood that this ZenBook has incredible battery life, even though it has dual displays.
Display Quality: The prime display is truly brilliant. The FullHD LED displays has really tiny bezels. More than the bezel size, the display is Pantone Validated. To my eyes, the color reproduction was really good, there was very less glare and brightness was very good.
Plethora of ports: You get all necessary ports that you use to connect external displays, microSD card etc. Also, good that there is a Type-C port and even the two USB Type-A ports are of USB 3.1.
Price: You may think that 85k-90k base price is a lot for this laptop. Think about it. There are two high quality displays, you get all day long battery life, you can opt for Core i5 or i7, there is Nvidia MX250 if you want to play games, the 14″ display is brilliant thanks to 100% sRGB coverage. there is Alexa built in, there is an IR webcam to login without any passphrase, yet it weighs under 1.5kgs. With such great specs, ASUS has placed the ZenBook Duo where it should be in terms of pricing.
Thank you ASUS and Microsoft for…
Taking the baton to take the mobile computing into a new era. Forget about the ZenBook Duo for a minute. Go through the internet and see how companies like ASUS and Microsoft are taking the laptop industry to next era of computing. You will see a pattern in the way ASUS and Microsoft is innovating. Microsoft, with Surface line up and ASUS with ZenBook lineup are launching revolutionary products that redefine computing. One need to have courage to do this. One need to look beyond profits and sales records to launch a ‘different’ product. It takes lot of effort to design a fururistic product and it takes even more effort to make it work in today’s world.
It is now up to us to respond and embrace these products and take personal computing to next era. An era where laptops are truly digital, where laptops help bring the best out of artists and creative minds, where laptops are not just meant for media consumption and MS-Office.
