- A portion of this video is sponsored by Surfshark.
Sometimes the fastest way for me to review something
is to ask myself when the manufacturer takes this back,
am I going to miss it enough to feel compelled to buy it?
And thanks to a thrilling year of PC game releases
and a winter that looks like it's gonna be a long one,
the answer in this case is yeah.
(upbeat music)
This laptop from ASUS,
or if you prefer ASUS is called the Zephyrus Duo.
And just for fun, let's start with a duo of things
that it is not.
It's not terribly new, having launched back in June.
And it's also not a machine
that I would have expected to fall for.
I mean, most of my work happens on a MacBook Pro
and most of my play happens on my living room Xbox.
So this monster with its huge fans,
RGB lighting and the glowering Republic of Gamers eyeball
is kind of overkill for a guy like me.
But like a shot up star fighter,
I moved into this machine already weakened
by an earlier ASUS assault.
You subscribers will recall that my favorite windows laptop
of last year was this PC's
productivity prime to predecessor, the ZenBook Pro Duo.
I found that second screen so useful
that I ended up buying that machine for regular use.
And over the next year,
the only complaint that kept cropping up
was that the second screen was too flat,
often giving me too much glare.
But wouldn't you know,
I proposed a fix for this in my review video.
I almost wished there was a mechanism that made this pop up
when you open the laptop.
And lo and behold,
that's just what the Zephyrus Duo brings to the table.
Open the lid and two arms lift the second screen
to an angle of 13 degrees,
making it much easier to see
in all it's 4K anti-glare glory.
It also opens up a convenient air channel
for the cooling system,
with dual fans pulling in colder air from above,
instead of hot air from between the chassis and the desktop.
The second screen is still stylus ready and touch enabled,
but touch input is gone from the primary 15-inch display.
Instead, you get a choice of either a Full HD version
with gamer friendly 300 hertz refresh rate
or the 4K option for which I opted.
Which is beautiful, even if its IPS technology lacks
the deep blacks of my preferred OLED displays.
Really the only thing I'd change about these screens
is to boost the brightness, which doesn't get high enough
to overcome direct sunlight outdoors.
Though, keep in mind that this is of course,
kind of an indoor machine.
(gentle upbeat music)
Taking a spin around the sides,
we find another ZenBook flaw fixed,
the Zephyrus can charge via USB-C.
Now it's very slow, so you'll still wanna bring
that 240 watt brick if you're doing gaming or video editing,
but this at least gives you the option
of leaving that brick behind.
And even in extreme circumstances,
charging from a battery pack or a power station.
And while we're talking battery,
let's just get this out of the way.
As with most gaming and desktop replacement laptops,
this one really isn't meant
for long stretches away from the wall.
The best I managed was three hours of light office work.
(gentle upbeat music)
Alongside that single USB-C port,
you've got three USB-A connectors,
which will come in handy when we start gaming in a second,
full-size HDMI to add a third monitor, more plug into a TV,
separate headphone and mic jacks and an RJ45 port,
if WiFi 6 isn't enough connectivity for you.
Notably absent is an SD card slot, which is a shame,
but nowhere near as big an omission as the lack of a webcam.
I guess the reasoning goes that true streamers
will have their own high quality webcam
and I get that nobody could have seen 2020 coming,
but man, talk about a bad year
to take a knee on video calling.
(light melodic music)
Now the other hand, it was a great year
to lean into gaming laptops.
And I'm glad I held this review long enough
to try this machine with three
of 2020s most anticipated titles.
If you got episode three of Mr. Mobile Stays Home,
you'll know that I recently decided
to put my vintage joysticks back in storage
because I no longer need to rely on 90s era classics
like Tie Fighter for my PC gaming fix.
This year saw not just the release
of Tie Fighter spiritual successor, Star Wars Squadrons,
but also the first new edition
of Microsoft Flight Simulator in six years.
So in observance of that defacto holiday,
I took the opportunity to drop entirely too much money
on a new hands-on throttle and stick from Thrustmaster
and verbal controls,
allowing me to make quick use of those USB 3.2 ports.
I downloaded both titles from Steam,
barely feeling the 200 gig hit
to my two terabytes of storage.
Hit the performance mode button to toggle maximum cooling,
and I proceeded to try to push this machine.
First thing I did in Star Wars Squadrons
was max out every graphic setting I could find.
But with a suggested graphics card several tiers below,
the RTX 2080 super in this machine,
(chuckles)
I couldn't get Squadrons to so much as hiccup.
To my eye, this game runs perfectly.
With frame rates averaging around 45 to 50 FPS
at maximum settings.
And that second screen doesn't just sit there.
Between the throttle and stick, there are over 60 buttons
I can assign spacecraft functions to.
So I keep a cheat sheet down there
to remind me which controls are which.
And I love being able to switch the keyboard
from my usual full color spectrum cycle
to something a little less distracting,
for nighttime flying.
If I have a complaint, it's in the audio output.
For all the space in this chassis,
the speakers still can't get close to the richness
or fidelity of my MacBook Pro.
(objects crashing)
Otherwise the Zephyrus Duo is truly overkill
for a game like Squadrons.
Now, Microsoft Flight Simulator, that's another story.
It's one of the most taxing games
you can ask a PC to run today.
Then when I go into the settings
and put the balls to the wall,
an expression that comes to us
from the world of aviation by the way,
I can finally get this powerhouse to bog down a bit.
Everything's still rendered in gorgeous 4K.
From the private island where I washed dishes as a kid
to the Las Vegas strip,
I won't be visiting for CES this year.
But the more detail in the scenery,
the lower the frame rates.
And maximum settings over a dense city,
it's not uncommon to dip into 10
or even single digit frames per second.
Now I eventually ended up walking back
that scenery a little bit
so I could have a smoother flight experience,
which was also helped along by new joysticks.
(gentle upbeat music)
You see, it just doesn't feel right
to pilot civilian aircraft with military controls,
at least not to me.
So Thrustmaster was kind enough to send over
its new TCA Officer Pack with a throttle and stick
that replicate those of the Airbus A320.
Now this isn't a sponsor spot,
I am evaluating these as a reviewer,
once I've had some more time with them.
And my early impression,
well, I've come to know Thrustmaster
as the company that makes big, heavy,
satisfying flight controls out of metal.
And this Hotas is not that.
The lightweight base is combined with hollow thin plastic
to make this particular Officer Pack feel rather flimsy.
But their visual accuracy is very convincing.
They're comfortable and easy to set up,
thanks to plug-and-play compatibility with Flight Simulator
and more to the point, they're much cheaper.
With pre-order pricing at the first website I found
set at about 160, compared with the $600
the full Warthog Hotas costs at press time.
(gentle upbeat music)
Like I said, more to come on those
after I log some more flight hours over the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, let's head back to the computer
for the final and most recent test title Cyberpunk 2077.
(gentle upbeat music)
Depending on where your priorities lie,
this game is either the buggiest mess since Windows Me
or the most unfairly maligned masterpiece
since the series finale of "Lost".
Either way games like this,
I prefer to play with an Xbox controller,
which means I got to put that HDMI port to use,
throwing those glorious 4K graphics onto my living room TV.
And even though the computers fans spooled up so high,
I thought it might lift off the tabletop,
the game ran at a respectable, if not ideal 30 FPS.
Again, a wildly demanding title,
probably slotting somewhere
between Flight Simulator and Squadrons
and the computer handled it with no problem at all.
(gentle upbeat music)
Bag friendliness, bugs and why I'd choose this
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The Zephyrus Duo is like most gaming laptops
in that it's not the most portable machine,
but even here, ASUS exceeded my expectations.
At 0.8 inches, it's not even 1/4 inch thicker
than my MacBook Pro and it's just a pound heavier too.
So it fits better in my backpack
than the old ZenBook Pro Puo did,
which I was happy to see.
Still, you do have to get used to all the same things
that gave that older ZenBook its learning curve.
The keyboard is very low on the deck,
which takes a bit of getting used to
and makes genuine laptop sessions a little more challenging.
The same goes for the side mounted track pad,
which I can really only say I tolerate,
since it's both crammed and oddly proportioned to fit,
though I love its parlor trick
of doubling as a touch sensitive num pad.
And the ScreenPad Plus is treated by Windows
just like any secondary monitor,
meaning that when you're doing something up
on the main display,
more often than not the app you're using down below
will fall out of focus.
Flight Simulator offers a particularly irritating example
of the reverse.
If you tap your mapper radio controls down there,
your flight controls stop working until you click back
on the main screen again.
And on top of that,
some apps like telegram have scaling issues,
depending on how large you run them.
You see, you kind of have to feel it out
on a per program basis.
And I just wish ASUS and Microsoft
would work together more closely
to really flesh out the dual screen experience,
which Microsoft has obviously
been thinking a lot about recently.
But these are compromises I'm more than happy to endure,
given all the added utility that second screen offers.
And remember, it's not just about gaming.
I'm talking about using that extra area
to keep an eye on Slack or Telegram or Evernote
or all three at once,
all without interrupting what I'm doing up top.
And for copying data between documents
or consulting an email while filling out a form,
this computer makes me feel actually a lot
like my Galaxy Z Fold 2 does.
In a sea of products that claim to make you more productive,
this one actually does.
And while it hasn't completely spoiled me for other laptops,
other notebooks now do feel at least less than.
(plane roars)
As for the final question,
why not just buy a cheaper desktop?
Well, the answer is as stupidly simple as you might expect.
So I can stay mobile.
Several times this summer,
I was able to bring the Zephyrus Duo out to my dad's house,
so I could let him try Flight Simulator.
And the fact that I only had time to take one rushed
and terribly lit photo will attest
to just how fun those flights were.
Desktops are great, but they're cheaper for a reason.
You can't easily take them on a road trip
nor can you easily move them from room to room
in a household where other people
need the dining room table,
or you just need to get away from everyone for a few hours.
Laptops allow for that.
And this laptop excels at it.
So yes, the Zephyrus Duo 15 is outrageously expensive,
but so are similar offerings
from competitors like Dell and Razor.
The question to my mind is if you have that kind of money,
is it worth what ASUS is asking?
And to me, that answer is absolutely.
(gentle upbeat music)
While cheaper single screen alternatives with similar power
can be found from brands like MSI,
this is, well, a duo,
a productivity powerhouse and gaming Goliath
in one improbably portable casing.
It's a machine that just a few years ago,
I might've dismissed as a fanciful prototype,
too ambitious ever to make it to production.
In other words, it's a little slice of the future
that you can buy today.
And something like that is always gonna cost you.
(upbeat music)
Disclosure time.
This review was produced following four months
with an ROG Zephyrus Duo review sample provided by ASUS.
The company did not provide compensation
for this coverage though,
and I never give a manufacturer a copy approval
or an early preview of my reviews.
That means ASUS is seeing this video
for the first time, right alongside you.
Please subscribe to the Mr. Mobile on YouTube
for more reviews of laptops, wearables
and every folding screen in between.
Until next time.
Thanks for watching, happy gaming
and remember to stay safe and mask up
while you stay mobile, my friends.