a portion of this video is sponsored by
surf shark
you know my favorite thing about a good
idea and tech
if it makes enough sense it can be used
on products
for all kinds of people it was the
summer of 2019
but it feels a lot longer ago that i
bought my first dual screen laptop
the asus zenbook pro duo which was
focused on creative professionals
in 2020 asus improved its two screen
approach
and brought it over to the gaming world
with that absolute
monster called the zephyrus duo which i
reviewed in december
for 2021 the company is spreading those
improvements
all across its laptop lineup including
this
more affordable double display notebook
for those of us
who like to stay mobile
[Music]
angular chassis low-key blue casing
offset trackpad
yeah at first it doesn't seem like
there's much new here but
that all changes once you add some scale
to the mix
by shaving the bezels down to four
millimeters asus has squeezed a 14-inch
display into
what feels like a 13-inch bag don't get
me wrong
at almost 17 millimeters it's no macbook
air and at three and a half pounds it's
no
lg gram either but even so the zenbook
duo still doesn't seem
big enough to achieve what it does
squeezing in a whole
second screen above the keyboard plus
the new mechanism that props it up so
you can see it more clearly than on the
previous model
while seven degrees is only about half
the angle of the screen pad on the
zephyrus duo
it does help bring down the glare and
opens up a big enough gap to bring over
that machine's approach to cooling
dual fans pull in air from above instead
of below
for almost 50 percent more airflow
other productivity perks ported from
prior pcs include
ports the new zenbook duo features a
headphone jack
the microsd slot i missed on the
zephyrus the horrendously named usb 3.2
gen1 type a
full-size hdmi and two thunderbolt 4
ports
each of which can also take power from
the slim 65-watt brick that ships in the
box
the old zenbook keyboard comes over too
and that's great news
1.4 millimeter key travel switches with
just the right amount of click
and the slight incline of the deck make
for comfortable typing despite the
board's low position on the laptop
now remember there's no pro in the name
and that's for a good reason
this is made to be a more affordable
machine than its ancestors
starting at about thirteen hundred
dollars for the spec sheet you see on
the screen
so sacrifices had to be made for one
thing there's no magical numpad
hiding under the trackpad here for
another the speakers are fuzzy and thin
with bass so lacking as to sound almost
grading
it fails the one-handed opening test as
well as the fingerprint resistance test
on the lid
macmillan utility i mean mcafee security
is of course pre-installed
the touchscreens max out at full hd
instead of 4k
especially apparent on the screen pad
plus and the biggest compromise
is in how those pixels are pushed unlike
its performance pack predecessors with
their discrete graphics
the zenbook duo makes do with either
integrated intel xe
or nvidia mx450 gpus
now while that means this isn't the
machine to buy if you're going to be
playing cyberpunk or microsoft flight
simulator or
recording any video in other than ideal
lighting conditions on this webcam
my buddy david kogan at the unlocker has
demonstrated that not only does photo
editing work
fairly well but video editing
is also possible and even smooth with
what 8-bit 4k 8-bit not 10-bit but i
mean
integrated graphics right that's pretty
good wild times
i use final cut so what do i know
there's also a nice bonus if you use
adobe's creative suite
asus worked with adobe to make custom
controls for premiere
photoshop after effects and lightroom
classic that live
down here which you can see more of in
kogan's video
and even if you don't use those
applications there are upgrades to the
basic software that runs the screen pad
as well the layout is more logical it's
more responsive than before
and because this trackpad is pretty much
as cramped as it looks
a three-finger tap transforms this
entire touchscreen
into a giant trackpad these upgrades
aren't going to be trapped on this
machine by the way
asus tells me it's extending them to its
other dual screen laptops as well
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maybe you caught it on the spec sheet
the zenbook duo 14 is the first machine
i've used that's intel
evo certified powered by this 11th
generation core i7
now to get that evo sticker a pc has to
meet a bunch of criteria from
battery life to quick wakeups and my
results have been
mixed as usual the manufacturer
estimated battery life of 17
hours isn't just not in the same
ballpark as reality
it's not even the same city and when you
look at the fine print
on the testing you start to understand
why the tested model
among other things was the i5 version
the display was set to less than a third
of its max brightness of 400 nits
and that second display you know the
biggest reason to buy the machine in the
first place
it was turned off in my testing with an
average of 10 tabs running in microsoft
edge
the performance slider at three quarters
and the 75 brightness i find that i need
in a well-lit room
i got five to five and a half hours
between charges
now i generally consider anything over
four hours to be acceptable and i get
really excited when i'm able to get
anything over seven
so 5.5 hours is good and kind of becomes
really
good when you remember that the machine
has to power this whole second
screen and as for the one second wake
ups the intel evo certification calls
for
well sometimes yeah sometimes no
one place the manufacturer estimates are
right on the money is
quick charging 49 minutes on the charger
got me from dead battery to 62 percent
with a full charge taking about an hour
more than that
and this is the best windows laptop i've
ever used
ever in terms of standby drain
at one point over the weekend i closed
the lid came back 16 hours later
and found i'd only lost one percent of
battery
finally i'm a sucker for clever software
that solves
common problems and the noise canceling
that asus calls clear voice
is incredible listen to what happens
when i crank up some background noise
and then
try the different clear voice modes the
original machine had a base plate of
prefamilated amulet
surmounted by a malleable logarithmic
casing in such a way
that the two main spurbing bearings were
in a direct line with the panometric
fan the ladder consisted simply of six
hydrocoptic marshall veins
so fitted to the ambifacion lunar wing
shaft that side fumbling was
effectively prevented and this is a
system level
tool i mean you can use it with whatever
video conferencing or
conference call solution you use and
with so many of us on
constant conference calls these days
it's a very timely feature
that almost makes up for the very low
quality webcam
with machines of similar specs going for
between 750 and a thousand dollars
you've really got to be sure you want
that screen pad plus
if you're gonna splash the extra cash on
this one
but like i've said in every zen book and
zephyrus video
so far that second screen is no gimmick
it adds real value to every minute i
spend on this machine
and when i have to move back to a
similarly sized single screen notebook
i really do feel more confined and just
as important
asus has made so many improvements to
that dual display experience
in such a short time that i feel
confident recommending it
because the company seems genuinely
committed to the category for the long
haul
in short i'm a screen pad super fan
and i'm quite pleased to see it offered
and expanded on a more affordable
machine
i think most people who use one will
feel the same way
this review was produced following eight
days with a zenbook duo 14 review sample
on loan from asus
as always the company didn't have any
editorial input into my conclusions and
no compensation was requested or
provided in exchange for this coverage
asus is seeing it for the first time
right alongside you
remember to watch david cogan's real
world test of this machine at the
unlocker
and don't miss my review of its bigger
brawnier cousin the zephyrus duo
both linked below until next time thanks
for watching and remember to stay safe
and mask up
while you stay mobile my friends
you