Asus ZenBook Duo

A novel concept for a laptop that unfortunately can’t quite pull off its grand ideas

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While the idea of dual-screened devices is still interesting, it’s a far cry from being original. Apple’s recent foray into slim Touch Bars on MacBooks is fundamentally a very selectively implemented second screen; Microsoft’s promised Surface Neo is the final extent of the concept. With that in mind, we tried to repress our childlike wonder when Asus revealed the Zenbook Duo. Maybe we shouldn’t give bonus points for doing what Nintendo did in 2004, but when something looks this cool, it’s hard not to get swept up.

But while using the Zenbook Duo does prove it to be an exciting prospect, in practice the idea of a dual-screened laptop hasn’t fully formed yet. The Duo is a surprisingly chunky beast for a 14-inch laptop, weighing 1.5kg. Most of this is due to the secondary screen, a 12.9-inch touch-controlled rectangle that acts as an extension to the main display itself. A full touchscreen pressed on top of a processor and a discrete graphics card means there’s a lot of heat to be dispelled, so the Duo has to be thick enough for sufficient cooling. Despite this, heat management inside the chassis is handled by two tiny fans and a single metal heat spreader, so the Duo can get pretty hot at times. If you’re using it for extended periods, heat buildup is ​inevitable, particularly if you’re using demanding software. In our tests, the processor’s heat often spiked.