Asus Zenbook Pro Duo (UX581): The best dual screen laptop yet?

Everything today is fast, fast and adaptable. Fast charge, fast response rate, for a device this powerful and fast and ASUS took their time to integrate key features seamlessly.

Asus recently rolled out the new ProArt StudioBook series of laptops.

Designed for graphics professionals, digital artists, animators, architects, and programmers, the flagship of the series is the 15-inch ProArt StudioBook One (W590) — StudioBook One (W590) — the first creative laptop powered by NVIDIA® Quadro RTX™ 6000 graphics and an Intel® Core™ i9 processor.

The laptop boasts of a couple of features:

CPU: 2.4GHz Intel Core i9-9980HK (octa-core, 16MB cache, up to 5GHz)

Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060

RAM: 32GB DDR4

Screen: 15.6-inch, OLED Ultra HD (3,840 x 2,160), 14-inch Ultra HD (3,840 x 1,110) touch display

Storage: 1TB SSD

Ports: 1 x Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C), 2 x USB-C 3.1, HDMI 2.0, headset jack

Connectivity: Intel Wi-Fi 6 with Gig+ performance (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5

Camera: IR webcam with Windows Hello support

Speakers: Audio tuned by Harman/Kardon

• Design and Build

The Pro Duo has a unique design- sleek and it is quite chunky encased in an all aluminium cover giving off a premium look. Once the lid is lifted- ergo hinge is displayed, raising to a screenpad+, full size keyboard and a numerical keyboard/ touchpad to the extreme right. The laptops slim bezels give off an almost absent frame, a wide 15.6 inch screen for comfortable typing and viewing experience.

The Screen Display is 4K UHD OLED showing off distinct colours, deep blacks and eye sore clarity at 3480 * 2160 dpi. A visual made in match haven, superb for professional work & entertainment.

• Keyboard

The full size keyboard is RGB backlit, that lights when the laptop is switched on. The Numerical Keyboard is separately lit as well, with an option of customizing the light -dim or bright , depending on your environment. The numerical keyboard is multifunctional - moonlighting as a touchpad when need be.

The palm rest on the keyboard seems to be consumed by the Screenpad+ , tending to be quite uncomfortable when typing for long hours. However, the laptop comes with an arm- rest that balances your palms perfectly when typing.

• Screenpad+: Productivity Evolved

Above the keyboard, sits the screenpad+ , an extra screen at A 3840 * 1160 dpi,4K display. The panel offers sharper detail and vivid colour, with a matte finish eliminating severe light reflections.
The screenpad is an alternative multi-tasking solution- especially if you are a professional who uses many tabs at a go, an extended monitor, or a designer who sketches a lot.

The fun starts once you tap the small arrow icon on the left of the panel, which reveals a small menu and navigation bar.

The ScreenPad Plus acts as an app launcher. Out of the box, it features MyAsus and Spotify along with utilities like Number Key, Handwriting mode and Quick Key, which allows you to quickly access Windows shortcuts like cut, paste and copy via large buttons. It allows one to create their own Quick Keys by recording keystrokes.

Task Group is another favourable utility. It enables custom app groups that will launch at the touch of a button. It lets you group up to five apps (two main screen, three ScreenPad plus). Every time the tasks are launched, they show up in that order. This is a great feature for multitaskers. Screenpad allows switching screens by hitting the Task Swap button on the keyboard to invert windows.

ViewMax expands whatever is on at on the main screen down to the ScreenPad. This gives a lot more real estate which comes in handy when scrolling through all the data- when going through a huge spreadsheet/ document.

Duplicate screens is a feature that enables sharing the screen on more than one device. Another Laptop or a Smart TV, eliminating the need for cables or a casting device.
Two screens are definitely better than one -- especially if it is possible to snap three distinct windows into one.

• Stylus Pen

Both monitors being touch- interactive, ASUS bundles a pen on this one. The stylus imitates a writing perfectly. Running on AAAA battery, the pen lasts on a 10 hour charge.

• Alexa- yes, Alexa.

Alexa makes your day easier- reading the news, playing music or telling the weather. The pro- duo Alexa is built in with a light bar, that illuminates when spoken to and Alexa will respond immediately.

• Battery & Performance

Setting aside the display and screen, the laptop is packed with wholesome features. The Pro- Duo Intel Core i9 processor (9th generation), Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card, 32GB of RAM and ITB of SSD , ASUS bundles a pen on this one.

The stylus imitates a writing perfectly. Running on AAAA battery, the pen lasts on a 10 hour . Expect nothing but the best performance with these. It can easily edit videos on Premiere Pro without a fuss and rendering the same video taking a few minutes. The Pro Duo runs on an efficient cooling system. Once opened, laptop allows smooth flow of air through its large vents ensuring that it's at optimum performance, even when playing a game.

The machine is powered by a massive battery, and is backed up by a 230W charger. On a full battery, the laptop will give a 6-7 hours lifetime without a recharge and when playing movies /games the consumption goes down to 4.7-5.5hours of use.

Conclusion

ASUS has definitely set the pace for the future of laptops, being able to integrate all those features on a single laptop. It's opulent, indulgent and surprisingly useful once you get the hang of it. Having the ability to quickly access hot keys, launch several programs at once and still have ample screen real estate is a big boon.

It's the perfect investment for a professional in the creative industry, bearing in mind that this laptop out performs in graphics, gaming and running resource-intensive apps without lagging.

However, it lacks an SD card port for importing photos and it's quite chunky- portable unfriendly considering that the charger needs to be carried around as well