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  • - [Video] Go to the playground

  • to play Pokemon with my friends,

  • and I would spend hours a day writing stories--

  • - So this, my friends, is the ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo.

  • It's not only one of the coolest

  • dual-screen laptops I've ever seen,

  • this is also a great segue to check out Storybooth.

  • I did a video all with them

  • talking about how I got started on YouTube,

  • so definitely be sure to go check that out.

  • Seriously, they did such a cool job with it.

  • Hey guys, this is Austin.

  • When Apple last refreshed the MacBook Pro,

  • they added the Touch Bar,

  • which is a small OLED screen

  • which does add some extra functionality,

  • but for the most part it hasn't lived up to the promise.

  • That of course brings us to today

  • with ASUS and the ZenBook Pro Duo.

  • I gotta say, this does the whole dual-screen laptop concept

  • just a little bit better.

  • So up top, you'll find a 15.6-inch full 4K OLED touchscreen,

  • and this is backed up by a secondary touchscreen

  • above the keyboard.

  • Put it together, and this is the first time

  • this actually is a properly useful setup, right?

  • I mean, with the Touch Bar, it was cool,

  • but it only worked for specific apps

  • that had to be specifically customized

  • for, like, a couple of buttons or something,

  • but as far as Windows is concerned,

  • this is just a secondary display that you have connected.

  • Everything works just as you would expect it to.

  • ASUS calls this the ScreenPad Plus,

  • but when you go into Windows,

  • all you see is a secondary 3840x1100 display

  • which is right below your main panel.

  • Now the cool part about this is that

  • you don't need any kind of specific app development

  • or anything like that.

  • Anything that supports dual monitors,

  • you can easily add to the bottom,

  • or importantly, they also have an option

  • where you can take a single window

  • and span across both of the displays.

  • So for example, something like this,

  • I can scroll, oh, I can't scroll.

  • (clears throat)

  • I'm not in Chrome.

  • I should close that, I didn't close that.

  • Thought I did.

  • There we go, see?

  • Why is nothing scrolling?

  • Terrible.

  • I'm panicking, man, I'm trying to load something.

  • Here, there we go.

  • See, I could scroll on the top screen,

  • scroll on the bottom screen, it all works together,

  • or I can just minimize it and take it into a single window.

  • I'm good at demos, guys.

  • To me, this is really what moves this from being a gimmick

  • to something that's legitimately useful.

  • So ASUS has built in some software

  • to better take advantage of it,

  • so there is a key so I can easily switch the apps

  • between my bottom screen and my top screen,

  • even though right now it takes a second to work.

  • But the nice part about this is that it is super-seamless,

  • and what I really, really love,

  • I can't emphasize this enough,

  • is that it does not require any developers

  • to do essentially any work.

  • If you support that dual-screen layout, awesome.

  • If you don't, whatever.

  • You can have one app on the bottom, one app on the top.

  • Literally, Windows just doesn't care,

  • and that to me makes it so much more usable.

  • The only thing I'm not a huge fan of

  • is that these are two very different-looking screens.

  • So up top you have the full 4K OLED panel.

  • It's glossy, it looks awesome.

  • On the bottom, we have a matte IPS panel.

  • Now they are roughly the same resolution.

  • The bottom one's just a half height,

  • so it's not quite as tall,

  • but it's the same sort of look.

  • The main difference is is that because it is matte,

  • I mean, if I kinda adjust it around,

  • you can definitely see some reflections here.

  • It would certainly be much worse if it was a glossy panel.

  • When you look at them side-by-side,

  • they don't quite match,

  • and nothing can really touch the inky blacks of that OLED.

  • All that being said, though, it's a fairly minor nitpick,

  • and I totally understand why they did this,

  • especially considering I don't want to know

  • how much this would be if it had two OLED screens

  • (laughing) instead of one.

  • Now we've seen a few OLED laptops show up here and there,

  • and thankfully this year they're actually becoming

  • much more common, but it is absolutely terrific to see

  • not only this level of contrast,

  • but also the level of accuracy,

  • and it gets properly bright, too.

  • Now I know, like, any other laptop,

  • this would be like the main feature,

  • but because this has so many other things going for it,

  • it's something that says, "Look, oh, yeah,

  • "it's got a 4K OLED, don't worry about it.

  • "There's, like, eight other things to talk about."

  • The ZenBook does take advantage of ASUS's ErgoLift tech,

  • which essentially means that the keyboard

  • is slightly elevated which gives you

  • a little bit better of a typing position,

  • although I'll talk more about that in a second.

  • But importantly, this also gives more room for cooling.

  • Since you have a screen right here,

  • it means that not only do you have

  • a couple of large vents on the side,

  • but it has to draw a lot of that air in from the bottom

  • and up through the top.

  • Now there's nothing really wrong with that,

  • but even with that advantage,

  • this is still a little bit of a thicc boi,

  • so if you put it side-by-side with a Razer Blade 15,

  • it's thicker, and especially when you put it beside

  • a 15-inch MacBook, it's almost twice as thick.

  • Now that's fine, I mean, obviously,

  • this has packed in a lot of performance,

  • but for that extra screen and that extra performance,

  • you are paying a pretty hefty penalty

  • as far as, well, size envy.

  • It's just a big laptop.

  • Now while the ErgoLift design is a solid move,

  • the touchpad as well as the keyboard

  • has been shifted down to make room

  • for the secondary display.

  • Now, ASUS does gives you a wrist rest, so you can add it.

  • It's not exactly the most portable thing in the world,

  • but the problem here is that

  • just like with the ROG Zephyrus line,

  • it makes it a little bit more uncomfortable.

  • Now especially with the touchpad on the right side,

  • it's actually not that harder to get used to,

  • but I never feel quite as confident

  • typing on something like this

  • as opposed to a standard keyboard and touchpad layout.

  • The Pro Duo needs a lot of cooling

  • because it is packing some serious components.

  • So inside you have either a six-core i7

  • or an eight-core i9 processor,

  • and that is backed up by up to 32 gigs of RAM,

  • one terabyte SSD as well as a standard RTX 2060 GPU.

  • And to top it all off,

  • this is one of the very few laptops,

  • or, well, devices in general that I've tried

  • that does have Wi-Fi 6 built in.

  • Now, yeah, sure, it's not going to be a hardcore gaming PC.

  • I mean, for that, you would want something like

  • an RTX 2070 or 2080,

  • but because this is focused more on

  • the content creation side of things,

  • a 2060 should be more than enough,

  • and that is really where you're going to see

  • the extra benefit of that full eight-core i9 processor.

  • Now I will mention that ASUS provided this for me

  • as a prototype, so yes, it will be coming out

  • a little bit later this year,

  • but right now they have not finished up

  • all of the performance tuning,

  • so I have run a few benchmarks,

  • but honestly, they're not really going to be indicative

  • of the final product because, well,

  • they don't even have, like,