04 Jan
Blog

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold Review: Dual-Screen Fever Dream

Lenovo Thinkpad x1 Fold Review Center

  • Innovative design

  • Feels robust

  • Nice OLED screen

  • Very portable

  • Tight keyboard and touchpad

  • Chunky performance

  • Accessories cost extra

This should be the year of the foldable dual screen laptop. With Microsoft Surface Neo in the pipeline and a specially developed version of Windows, we felt we were entering a new era of PC design innovation.

Then happened in 2020. Like many things we have been looking forward to, all of this has either been delayed or canceled entirely. Microsoft itself seems to be bowing out of the running.

Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Fold is still the only laptop that can be brought to market with a flexible screen. It's one of the most unique PCs ever made, and allows for some new experiences that feel really fresh. But is the ThinkPad X1 Fold, as a first-generation product, now with no competitors, too strange to look at by itself?

design

When everything is folded up, the ThinkPad X1 Fold resembles a Folio notebook. With its synthetic leather casing and small footprint, you'd never guess that it could fold into a full PC – including a keyboard and 13.3-inch screen. The professional aesthetic fits right into the ThinkPad X1 line, which was designed for a discerning and modern businessman.

All of the elements of the X1 Fold hold tightly together and it is possibly the most impressive design feature. The screen closes just as well with the keyboard as it does without. This is important because the $ 2499 base model doesn't include it.

You don't have to worry about space either. The ThinkPad X1 Fold is half the size of a standard 13-inch laptop and fits easily in a handbag or small pocket. This is the first perk of a bendable screen laptop that Lenovo uses many of them.

As a problem with many foldable devices, the ThinkPad X1 Fold cannot be as thin as other tablets or laptops when folded. It is 1.09 inches thick, closed and 0.45 inches open. Portability is the main selling point of this device and it weighs only 2.2 pounds. This makes it one of the lightest laptops you can buy.

The real magic, of course, is when you bend the screen back and see the design in all its glory. The X1 fold uses a silicone hinge and many layers of plastic to ensure that the screen can "fold" without damaging the glass. Using leather to cover the unsightly hinge on the back is awesome. The Galaxy Z Fold 2's aluminum hinge looks classy, ​​but the ThinkPad X1 Fold makes you forget it's there itself.

The foldable screen enables a number of different “modes” for using the ThinkPad X1 Fold. The first is like a Windows tablet. You can open it flat and use it as a large screen or, easily folded, as a book. This is probably the mode I have least preferred. Windows just isn't a great platform for app-driven touch-only experiences. A bendable screen won't change that. We'll have to wait for Windows 10X to support a more rugged tablet experience.

The device has a built-in leather stand that lets the screen stand on its own and offers some helpful angles for things like zoom and YouTube. I've found that I don't use it any differently than a Surface Pro or iPad, except that the ThinkPad X1 Fold can be folded in half. The kickstand still feels a bit weak, however, and the 720p webcam above isn't as good as the 1080p options found on many tablets.

All in all, Windows software limitations would be a deal killer if only tablet use were good for the ThinkPad X1 Fold. There's even more to the story thanks to the innovative keyboard implementation.

Keyboard, touchpad and pen

The keyboard is important in making the ThinkPad X1 Fold a working product. The implementation itself is pretty clever. First, it can be magnetized to fit in the bottom half of the foldable screen, mimicking a mini laptop. The magnets feel strong enough to hold the keyboard in place but loose enough to be easily removed. With just half a 13-inch screen, it comes as close to a netbook as any laptop that hit the market in the past 10 years.

The wireless keyboard connects easily via bluetooth and charges the keyboard while it is at the top of the screen. Once the keyboard is in place, the system will automatically darken half of the lower screen and resize the screen to the upper half. It's a pretty fluid transition, switching between the different modes and orientations. Lenovo also created a manual mode switch in Windows. However, if everything is working correctly, you shouldn't have to use it.

The keyboard layout is downright strange.

When developing the keyboard, it was clear that Lenovo was careful to keep the QWERTY distance known. My hands, of course, fell right on the size and shape of the keycaps, as opposed to some smaller layouts like the Surface Go 2 Type Cover. I am happy for that. The layout, however, has a major tradeoff.

For example, your right little finger lands on the Enter key instead of the semicolon. The colon, semicolon, apostrophe, and quotation mark are blocked by the P key, which requires many keystrokes. It took some getting used to, and I would have preferred a shortened Enter key instead. It is similar with the hyphen and the plus keys.

The biggest culprit is the question mark key. It no longer has its own key, which is very inconvenient and difficult to get used to. Again, I'd be happier with a shorter shift key.

Beyond the layout, the keyboard is surprisingly easy to type. The trip is very flat but it's about what I would expect from a device like this. After all, keeping it as thin as possible is of the utmost importance. It feels a bit thick to type as a laptop because the palm rests are almost non-existent. This also means that the touchpad is very small. That is unfortunate. It's going well enough, but it feels tight.

Fortunately, once you pull the keyboard away from the screen, the device thickness problem is resolved. This is my preferred way of using the ThinkPad X1 Fold. With the screen fully open and supported by the stand, you can sit back with the keyboard and use it however you want. This is an attitude that even the Surface Pro cannot replicate. I found it ideal for getting work done thanks to the 4: 3 13-inch screen.

Of course, you'll still face the limitations of the keyboard, but the freedom of movement is excellent. If only the ThinkPad X1 Fold could act as a secondary monitor! You can of course use one of the USB-C ports to connect to an external display while the other is used for charging.

The second problem with both the keyboard and the pen, however, is that none of them are included. As with other Windows 2-in-1 devices, I would be very disappointed if I only bought the ThinkPad X1 Fold without a keyboard. This is a bummer, especially when the keyboard feels like such an essential aspect of the device.

Adding both peripherals costs an additional $ 250. This is more than what Microsoft charges for the Surface Pen and Type Cover.

Display and speaker

The foldable OLED display is the star of the show. It's a 13.3-inch screen with a resolution of 2048 x 1536. This is an aspect ratio of 4: 3 and makes the screen so different from your standard 16: 9 or 16:10 laptop. The square shape makes for a better tablet and a wonderfully large work area. Lots of space to distribute apps and display the entire length of the web pages.

The screen has a pleasantly warm tint and the color accuracy is not the strength of this laptop. Thanks to the performance limitations, you shouldn't be doing much beyond basic photo editing here anyway. With the large color spaces (100% sRGB and 97% AdobeRGB) and the striking contrast of the OLED, the ThinkPad X1 Fold is a great device for watching videos and films on the go.

The folding aspect of the screen cannot be pulled off as seamlessly as on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2. In contrast to the single fold of this device, the ThinkPad X1 Fold has a double fold. This is especially noticeable when the brightness is lowered or when the touchscreen is used, similar to the Motorola Razr folding phone in this regard. Lenovo has got off to a good start with this technology, but the creases and the obvious layer of plastic on the screen feel a little cheap under your fingers. Samsung's implementation still feels higher quality. The ribs along the ThinkPad X1 Fold's bezels along the hinge don't help, and are highlighted by some of the thickest bezels you'll ever find on a product released in 2020.

But none of that takes away the cool factor of the ThinkPad X1 Fold. It feels futuristic every time you unfold this screen and it is sure to delight your friends. Do I wish Lenovo had cut off some fat and cleaned up the bezels? Sure. If we ever get a second generation of this, there is certainly room for improvement.

The speakers suck. They're labeled Dolby Atmos, but that doesn't mean much these days.

Many tablets have fantastic audio, like the iPad or the Pixel Slate. These benefit from the fact that the speakers are located at the front next to the display. The ThinkPad X1 Fold's speakers are on the sides, which is not ideal. In addition, they sound terribly thin. Unfortunately, you get richer audio with an iPhone.

performance

The ThinkPad X1 Fold is unique beyond its form factor. The processor inside is also an experiment. It is one of the first devices to run on Intel Lakefield chips. These are hybrid processors that combine elements from the mobile and desktop architecture. One “big” core for laptop-like performance and five “small” cores for tablet-like efficiency. The ThinkPad X1 Fold manages that, but in the end it feels more like a low-performance laptop.

Using PCMark 10 as a benchmark, the ThinkPad X1 Fold is about 25% slower than a standard laptop for basic tasks such as surfing the Internet and word processing. This has been tested on laptops like the HP Specter x360 and the Dell XPS 13, which are your standard class of Intel U-series Ultrabooks.

In Geekbench 5, it even loses to Core m3 laptops like Microsoft Surface Go 2 or Windows to ARM laptops like Lenovo Flex 5G. This applies to both single-core and multi-core processing. For a device valued at $ 2,499, that's not too promising.

The chunky performance was definitely felt when I used the ThinkPad X1 Fold for my daily work with web apps, multitasking, and productivity. Heavier tasks like 3D gaming or content creation are not allowed as this Lakefield chip does not benefit from Intel's improved Iris Xe graphics in 11th generation Tiger Lake.

The performance limitations seem reasonable when using the X1 Fold as a netbook or simple tablet. You probably don't want to do more than one task at a time with such a small screen. But when I was working with the keyboard unfolded, I wanted a faster processor.

My test unit came with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD storage, though you can upgrade that to 1TB for a whopping $ 3,099.

Battery life

The ThinkPad X1 Fold does not have a long battery life. Thanks to Android tablets and iPads, I always expect devices like the X1 Fold to have long-lasting batteries. You always disappoint.

It pales in comparison to an iPad, but also an average laptop. The ThinkPad X1 Fold lasted six hours and 13 minutes on a single charge when surfing the Internet very lightly – but with a full display and no keyboard. Get an hour and a half more in laptop mode. That's better, but still not quite as good as similar laptops or tablets.

The X1 Fold is used for a maximum of nine hours, which the device lasted for local video playback.

Our opinion

The ThinkPad X1 Fold is the kind of laptop I want to love. There were moments while using the device that I experienced the spark of innovation that makes it so unique. It remains one of the most exciting PCs to hit in 2020.

But between these exciting experiences lie moments of frustration, confusion and disappointment. Too many to make this one that can be recommended to everyone except the most adventurous early adopters.

Are there alternatives?

The ThinkPad X1 Fold is the first of its kind. However, the experience of using it is most similar to a 2-in-1 device like the Surface Pro 7, Surface Go, or even an iPad Pro. The ThinkPad X1 Fold is by far the most expensive of these devices – and the slowest.

But once you include its foldable screen, it stands alone. On the smartphone side, however, devices like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 or Motorola Razr could cause the same pliable screen scratch.

How long it will take?

Durability is an open question about the ThinkPad X1 Fold and not one that I can currently answer. You open and close it much less than on a smartphone, that's for sure. For what it's worth, the hinge feels sturdy enough for years to come.

The bigger problem is performance and software. The X1 Fold already feels chunky and that won't improve over time. With Microsoft's lighter Windows 10X operating system coming out next year, you might want to too

Should you buy it?

No. It's expensive, first-generation hardware that doesn't have the software support to be successful.

Editor's recommendations




22 Jun
Blog

Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 Review: Dual-Screen Gaming

Asus Rog Zephyrus Duo 15 Rating 05

Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 review: dual-screen gaming in your lap

"The Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo Pro 15 offers PC games with two screens like no other laptop."

  • Good performance

  • Intuitive secondary screen

  • Beautiful 4K screen

  • Relatively thin and light

  • Insanely expensive

  • Bad battery life

You have never seen a gaming laptop like the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15.

Of course there are other dual screen laptops like the HP Omen X 2S or the Asus ZenBook Pro Duo. The Zephyrus Duo 15 surpasses them all with its flip-up secondary screen, which is integrated directly into the housing.

The starting price of $ 3,700 will put off anyone who is not committed to the idea of ​​having a built-in second screen on their gaming laptop. But for those who are ready to do the dive, the ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 may be the most interesting gaming laptop ever made.

ScreenPad Plus

The secondary screen of this laptop, which Asus calls the ScreenPad Plus, is located under the primary screen and is automatically flipped up when the lid is opened. The frame of the screen looks a bit thin, but I was impressed with how stiff it was. Behind it is a back plate made of magnesium alloy for support. Everything is built into a hinge that enables seamless and stable opening.

The idea of ​​a tiltable secondary screen seems exaggerated – and maybe also. However, the inclination of the ScreenPad Plus has one purpose. The secondary screens of other laptops are all flat on the keyboard deck, which is not a good viewing angle. This is particularly noticeable when you have lights over you.

The Zephyrus Duo 15 solves the problem by supporting the screen in a more natural viewing angle. No more bending or angling. The angle that Asus has reached is not perfect, but far better on a flat surface. However, this angle cannot be adjusted, which is a shame.

While playing, you can easily slide a guide down or create an order, reducing the need to remove the Alt Tab key from a game.

This increased usability may sound easy, but it has inspired me to want to use the second screen more and more. Asus offers a number of proprietary applications and functions for the ScreenPad Plus. There is a handwriting app, a calculator and of course the Armory Crate settings app. Armory Crate is useful for monitoring your system, changing performance modes, and changing lighting settings.

However, the most useful feature of the ScreenPad Plus is a second screen. If you are working from home and do not have access to an external monitor, the ScreenPad Plus ingeniously replaces this. It is great to shutdown Spotify or YouTube while using the primary screen to write or edit photos. While playing, you can easily slide down a guide or build order, reducing the need to remove the Alt Tab key from a game.

Windows 10 already has excellent snap-in functions and lights up on the ScreenPad Plus. With a 20 cm diagonal, the ScreenPad Plus feels big enough to do these types of tasks with ease. The touchscreen function helps and only requires a short swipe to where your hands rest on the keyboard. The possibilities feel endless.

This does not mean that the ScreenPad Plus is a perfect implementation. It's still a little strange to see your cursor shrink down, and there's a slight shade of green on the second screen. I also wish that the distance between the screens was slightly smaller to create a more uniform field of view.

From a software perspective, there are still a few missed options. Windows is simply not well set up to support a second touchscreen. When you play a game, touching the ScreenPad Plus freezes your controls or pauses the game. This is a limitation of Windows, but it stands in the way of the full potential of this design.

performance

The angle of the ScreenPad Plus has a second advantage. According to Asus, there is also a performance gain. Other Zephyrus laptops have a ventilation opening that rises from below and supports the laptop at an angle. The angle of the ScreenPad Plus offers the same advantages for cooling. The fans are located under the gap in the screen and promote airflow and thermal throughout the system, while the bottom of the laptop stays flat.

This is important because some very hot components need to stay cool. The Zephyrus Duo 15 is available in two configurations – and both are extremely high quality. The model I checked is the 4K configuration that was created for content creation. The other is a game-oriented device with a 1080p 300Hz screen. Both cost $ 3,700 and only offer premium specs. You get an Intel Core i9-10980HK processor, an Nvidia RTX 2080 Super Max-Q, 32 GB RAM and 2 TB solid-state storage.

The processor gives you 8 cores and 16 threads to work with, resulting in powerful processor performance. This is also from the latest 10th generation Intel product line, which contains slightly faster boost clock speeds than the previous generation. The Zephyrus Duo 15 impresses in Cinebench R20 and Geekbench 5 with record values ​​for a laptop. The Asus ZenBook Duo Pro was another powerful Core i9 laptop with a second screen last year. The Zephyrus Duo 15 outperforms it in both single-core and multi-core performance. It also gains single-core performance against the Zephyrus G14, an AMD Ryzen 4000 laptop with the same number of cores and threads.

It has a trusted screen where professional color corrections and edits can be done.

I encoded a 4K handbrake video clip in H.265 to test the processor. It wasn't as consistent as I hoped. The first runs were incredibly fast and only lasted one minute and 38 seconds. From there, the runs slowed down 33% and stayed there for the next few tries. That's a solid speed for this processor, although some less expensive laptops like the Dell G5 SE can keep up.

However, the Zephyrus Duo 15 has a powerful CPU and GPU. To see how the system balances a heavy workload, I rendered a two-minute 4K clip in Premiere in ProRes 422. I was particularly interested in these results because Nvidia Dynamic Boost, a new function supported by the Zephyrus Duo 15, is managed by a unique thermal system. The power supply can be shared between the GPU and the CPU. In other words, if an application or game can use more of the GPU, it can run over 100 watts.

The Zephyrus Duo 15 completed the task in 7 minutes and 44 seconds. This is slightly faster than the Dell G5 SE and offers a big head start on the 9th generation Razer Blade that I tested in 2019. However, there are no other Core i9 options like the Dell XPS 15 or the Asus ZenBook Pro Duo. The ZenBook Pro Duo’s thicker casing seems to do more for its video rendering capabilities than Nvidia's Dynamic Boost for the Zephyrus Duo, which is disappointing.

Since my computer was the model for creating 4K content, these tests are critical. The 4K screen is beautiful in itself – a color-calibrated panel with precise colors, 96% AdobeRGB and a contrast ratio of 1,040: 1. The maximum brightness is 381 nits, although the matte surface of the display reduces reflections to a minimum. All of this ensures a trustworthy screen on which professional color corrections and edits can be performed.

Gaming performance

The Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 offers fantastic gaming performance. If smooth frame rates are your top priority, the 1080p 300Hz model is clearly the model you want. Thanks to the Nvidia RTX 2080 Super Max-Q and G-Sync panel, even the 4K option I tested is a functional gaming laptop.

Because the 4K panel is locked at a refresh rate of 60 Hz, much of the 1080p is wasted, so 4K resolution is a solid option in some games. Civilization VI is a good example. The Zephyrus Duo 15 averaged 70 FPS (frames per second) at 4K with settings at Ultra. The same was true for Battlefield V, where it achieved an average of 56 FPS for Medium in 4K. Sure, the over 90 FPS at 1080p are better, but if you're not connected to an external gaming monitor, those extra 40 FPS won't help.

G-Sync was a big help with gaming and made up for the lower refresh rate of the 4K display.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey was the exception. The Zephyrus Duo 15 mastered this difficult game with 1080p Ultra High with an average of 59 FPS quite well. At 4K, however, it was choppy.

Other gaming laptops that use the RTX 2080 Super Max-Q are slightly faster than the Acer Predator Triton 500. While the Zephyrus Duo 15 isn't the fastest gaming notebook I've tested, I was happy with how It balances warmth, size and performance.

G-Sync has been a great help throughout to compensate for the display's lower refresh rate. Remember that G-Sync is not enabled on the laptop by default. You need to go into the armory and restart the system to turn it on.

design

The Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 is a large laptop. Although Asus only had a 15-inch screen, it took up a lot of space to push in the ScreenPad Plus without crushing the keyboard. The result is a massive bottom bezel under the primary screen. It is absolutely huge and supports the screen higher than a normal 15-inch laptop.

Elsewhere, the Zephyrus Duo 15 does its best to stay in shape. It's only 0.78 inches thick and weighs only 5.3 pounds. The whole system uses a magnesium alloy to keep things light. Asus is right that the use of aluminum would have resulted in a heavy laptop, although the magnesium alloy leaves the slightest bend in the lid.

This is not the right laptop to take to a coffee shop.

This is not my favorite keyboard in the world. Because of this second screen, the keyboard and touchpad are pressed to the bottom of the keyboard deck. This is not the first time Asus has tried this design. Even the Zephyrus S used this design. There are disadvantages, such as the lack of wrist-rest. This makes using the Zephyrus Duo 15 on your lap pretty uncomfortable. On a flat surface, it can even be exhausting and requires a lot of additional space on a table. This isn't the right laptop to take to a coffee shop, but few gaming laptops fit that bill. However, Asus has a palm rest in the box, which is a nice addition.

The key drop feels a bit flat at 1.4 mm, although this is comparable to laptops like the Dell XPS 15 or the Razer Blade. The fast typing takes getting used to when I come from the Dell XPS 15, although I typed quickly after a few hours. The keyboard is equipped with RGB lighting per key, which can be fully adjusted in the settings of the armory.

The Zephyrus Duo 15 uses the same key layout as other Asus gaming laptops like the Zephyrus S. There are some special features, e.g. B. the print screen key between the Alt and Ctrl keys. The function bar (and above the touchpad) gives you quick access to helpful shortcuts such as deactivating the ScreenPad Plus or switching it off completely.

The thin touchpad is to the right of the keyboard, which will always be an afterthought in these designs. The tracking feels responsive, although the size isn't ideal, especially if you're left-handed.

Asus still does not have a built-in webcam for its gaming laptops. This makes the Zephyrus Duo 15 unsuitable for the home life that many of us are currently living. That's a shame for a laptop that can act as both a work machine and a gaming laptop. The laptop also lacks Windows Hello login support, either in the form of a fingerprint reader or an IR camera. Other high-end gaming laptops like the Razer Blade have taken this up in recent years.

The port selection is fantastic and offers a solid mix of gaming must-haves and future security. On the sides of the case there are two USB-A ports, a USB-C Thunderbolt 3 port, a headphone jack, a microphone input and your barrel-shaped power plug. Thanks to the Thunderbolt 3 connector, you don't have to constantly lug around the power adapter to keep the laptop charged during occasional use. For full performance, you should of course use the cylinder plug.

On the back, Asus adds HDMI 2.0, an Ethernet socket and an additional USB-A port. The location of these rear ports is convenient and ensures a cleaner desk configuration when fully docked.

Battery life

The battery life of the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 is not a highlight. I assumed that this was based on the 4K screen alone. Throw in a second screen and a powerful GPU – and you can't expect much.

The Zephyrus Duo 15 is a G-Sync laptop that blocks GPU usage on the Nvidia card and usually results in terrible battery life. Asus offers the option to switch to Nvidia Optimus mode, which allows the system to automatically switch between graphics. That didn't seem to help – at least not enough.

Without the secondary screen on, the laptop only lasted about two hours. With the screen on, this was reduced to just one hour. Yikes. According to Asus, there were some issues with turning on the Nvidia GPU when it wasn't. During local video playback or surfing in Google Chrome, the system occasionally taxed the graphics card.

That would explain the bad battery life, but it's not a good excuse. Regardless of whether Dynamic Boost or Optimus is the culprit, I expected at least a few more hours from the Zephyrus Duo 15. Despite a large 90 watt hour battery, you should leave this battery connected most of the time.

Our opinion

The Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 is based on a great idea. I like it when experimental designs like this leave the prototyping stage. The second screen is great, but the Zephyrus Duo 15 is more than just a one-trick pony – it offers both the performance and usability of its second screen. However, $ 3,700 is a high price. That's $ 400 more than a comparable Razer Blade, which was already one of the most expensive gaming laptops you could buy.

This is not the final form of Asus' vision for second-screen computing, but it is the best there has been.

Are there alternatives?

If you are only interested in the second screen, Asus offers the ZenBook Duo. It's not a gaming laptop, but it does offer a similar second screen – except without the raised angle.

Apart from that, no other laptop can reproduce the functions of the Zephyrus Duo 15 on the second screen. There are many gaming laptops that offer excellent performance at a much cheaper price.

How long it will take?

The Zephyrus Duo 15 is robust and well built. The gap under the ScreenPad Plus is worrying. It is not difficult to imagine that things get stuck inside, whether they are small objects or just dust.

Should you buy it

Yes. Not everyone is willing to pay the bill for a second screen bonus, but it's undoubtedly one of the most interesting gaming laptops ever made.

Editor's recommendations




15 May
Blog

Asus ZenBook Duo Review: A Dual-Screen Laptop You Can Afford

Asus Zenbook Duo review 01

"The second screen of the Asus ZenBook Duo is a great addition."

  • Solid productivity performance

  • Good battery life

  • Secondary screen is useful

  • Attractive design

  • Tight keyboard and touchpad

  • The chassis is a bit chunky

Microsoft is on its way to a future with two screens. Asus started experimenting with its own dual-screen laptops in 2019. Regardless of whether the touchpad is replaced by a second screen or a second 4K screen is installed directly on the keyboard deck, Asus is a leader in the innovation of dual screens that you can buy today.

The ZenBook Duo is the latest attempt to make this technology accessible to the masses. It is a more portable and affordable version of the ZenBook Pro Duo with a 14-inch 1080p screen and a quad-core processor. However, a premium is required at $ 1,500.

Is the second screen a must? Let's take a look.

ScreenPad 2.0

The standout feature of the ZenBook Duo is clearly its second screen, a 12.6-inch IPS panel that is as wide as the primary display and about a third as high. That is what makes the ZenBook Duo so special.

The so-called ScreenPad 2.0 can be touched and touched. You can drag apps and app windows – such as the control panel for a photo editing app – onto the ScreenPad and treat them like any "external" display.

It's handy if you watch Netflix at work (as I've done more than once) or open a second browser instance for multitasking. I opened a Firefox tab with the specifications of this laptop on the ScreenPad 2.0 and made checking facts and figures child's play.

Asus has numerous proprietary utilities and features that make the ScreenPad more useful. You can launch a numeric keypad to make data entry easier, and you can use the launcher to access various apps on the ScreenPad. You can also expand your main display to the ScreenPad, giving you (strangely angled) access to more information in a productivity app.

The ScreenPad is far more useful than the touch bar on the MacBook.

The ScreenPad supports the active Asus pen and offers the same responsiveness and accuracy as the main display. It's a blessing to be able to tap and ink on both displays and switch seamlessly from one to the other depending on how it fits your creative workflow. There's even a working handwriting app that reads my sketches pretty closely. A second display for writing was an advantage.

Overall, I was impressed with the ScreenPad. It's an unusual feature outside of the ZenBook Pro Duo and far more useful than Apple's Touch Bar on the MacBook Pro, for example. The additional screen size makes the ScreenPad a really useful addition to the ZenBook Duo and is of particular interest to anyone who can benefit from access to controls or additional apps while working. If you are a creative professional or do multiple tasks regularly, the ScreenPad is probably a real asset. It is much more than just a party trick.

design

The aesthetics of the laptop is obviously Asus, for better and for worse. It's a refinement of ZenBook design that's both recognizable and striking in the line. You'll enjoy the ZenBook's usual concentric swirls on the lid, which is perhaps the most iconic Asus design feature. Here the eddies are not centered, but asymmetrical, a noticeable change. There is also a new Celestial Blue color that offers a touch of elegance.

Overall, the ZenBook Duo is an attractive laptop that manages to cross the line between fancy and conservative, but I wouldn't say it stands out.

Connectivity is acceptable, with one USB-C 3.1 port, two USB-A 3.1 ports (one Gen 1 and one Gen 2), a full-size HDMI port, and a microSD card reader. Unfortunately Asus skipped Thunderbolt 3 support again, just like with other current ZenBooks. To be honest, that's unforgivable for a $ 1,500 laptop. Thunderbolt 3 offers the best connectivity performance, including the ability to connect to an external GPU chassis. This would be a blessing for the creative types who might be interested in the ZenBook Duo.

Keyboard and touchpad

The most noticeable victim forced by the second ad is right below. While the keyboard has snappy keys with a fixed mechanism and a lot of travel, I found it too small for comfortable typing. The keys are small and the keyboard layout felt tight, which made typing a challenge. It cannot be compared to the excellent keyboards of the latest Apple MacBooks and the HP Specter x360 13. There's also no wrist, so your palms hover just behind it. It is a recipe for fatigue.

This Asus has an ErgoLift hinge with which the props are attached at an angle to the back of the laptop. This helps in the absence of a palm rest and improves airflow for better performance. On the other hand, the laptop gets thicker when placed on your lap or desk.

The touchpad is small, but it responds, and it's on the right of the keyboard. It has the same lack of a palm rest as the keyboard, and it's almost impossible to use left-handed. You want to take a mouse with you for use with the ZenBook Duo because the touchpad becomes a real task.

I liked the infrared camera that Windows 10 Hello supports without a password. It worked fine during my tests, and although I prefer to have a fingerprint reader (either in addition to or instead of face recognition), I appreciated its presence.

Display quality

The ScreenPad 2.0 is characterized by its additional utility. The 14-inch full HD main display remains important. I prefer 4K displays, but I also like displays with wide and precise colors, great brightness and a lot of contrast.

Unfortunately Asus has equipped the ZenBook Duo with a mediocre display. The color gamut is not wide at only 70% of AdobeRGB and 94% of sRGB, although its color accuracy is reasonable at an average DeltaE of 1.45 (less than 1.0 is considered excellent). The display only reaches 251 nits, far below our preferred 300 nits, and the contrast is low at 730: 1 (we want laptops to reach 1000: 1 or more).

The display quality prevents it from being ideal for content creation.

Subjectively, this is a pleasant indicator of productivity work and watching Netflix videos. However, creatives won't like the narrow range of colors, especially if you can buy great displays on other laptops, including the HP Specter x360 13 AMOLED panel, which has spectacular colors (100% of sRGB and 98% of AdobeRGB) and brightness (405 nits) offers) and contrast.

The ZenBook Pro Duo’s AMOLED display is just as great, which makes the ZenBook Duo’s main screen a little disappointing. I would have preferred to see a brighter display with better colors and contrast on a laptop designed for creative types. Ultimately, the display quality prevents it from being ideal for content creation.

performance

While the larger ZenBook Pro Duo has an eight-core Core i9 H series for serious performance, the ZenBook Duo is in the middle of the road. It uses a quad-core Comet Lake Core i7-10510U CPU that is good enough for productivity tasks, but not particularly suitable for demanding creative workflows. Overall, the ZenBook Duo is fast compared to other 14-inch laptops, but cannot compete with more powerful creative platforms.

In our real handbrake test, which converts a 420 MB file to H.265, the ZenBook Duo lasted exactly three and a half minutes. This is solid for a quad-core Intel Core i7. However, the ZenBook Pro Duo completed the same test in one minute and 16 seconds, while the Dell XPS 15 finished in one minute and 42 seconds – but still significantly faster than the ZenBook Duo. The Dell XPS 13 completed the test in three minutes and 13 seconds.

In terms of graphics performance, the ZenBook Duo is again far behind the larger ZenBook Pro Duo. The latter has a very fast Nvidia GeForce GTX 2060, which makes it a powerful tool for creative apps that support the GPU. The ZenBook Duo is limited to the Nvidia GeForce MX250. It's faster than built-in Intel graphics (and about as powerful as the new Intel Iris Plus graphics), but doesn't make much of a difference when rendering videos.

You will also find that the ZenBook Duo is a bit challenging to play with. Fortnite runs at just over 30 frames per second (fps) at 1080p and Epic settings and shifts down towards 60 fps with details. However, it is difficult for you to run more demanding titles with the same resolution and the same graphic details.

The ZenBook Duo is only available in the United States in a configuration that includes 16 GB of RAM and is sufficient for the vast majority of productivity users. It also has plenty of 1 TB of SSD storage.

Portability and battery life

Portability is also compromised on the Altar of the ScreenPad – the ZenBook Duo is pretty bulky at 0.78 inches thick. Thanks to the relatively small display bezels, it's not too big in width and depth, but at 3.3 pounds it's pretty heavy. Other 14-inch laptops are smaller than this, including the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon and the ZenBook 14 from Asus.

However, the battery life is solid. When the ScreenPad was turned on, the battery capacity of 70 watt hours kept the ZenBook Duo for a surprisingly long time, considering that the batteries supply two displays with power. In our web browser test, nine hours passed, which is good, if less than the 11.5 hours of the Dell XPS 13.

The ZenBook Duo looped our test video for almost 12 hours, again a good score, but less than the XPS 13 at 14.5 hours. And in our demanding Basemark test, the Asus managed almost five hours less than the XPS 13 with 10 minutes less.

Our opinion

At $ 1,500, the ZenBook Duo is more expensive than comparable laptops. That hurts when you look at the less-than-great screen, the chunkier design, and the lack of Thunderbolt 3.

The ScreenPad 2.0 is the salvation of this laptop. It goes beyond the cool factor (although it also has a lot of it). Even with compromises on the keyboard and touchpad, extreme multitaskers will be happy to access another panel directly on the device.

Are there alternatives?

You will find a variety of 14-inch (and 13.3-inch) laptops that can easily compete with the ZenBook Duo. None of them offer the second display, but all are thinner and lighter. Some of them offer better performance and durability, and most offer much better keyboards and touchpads.

One example is the Dell XPS 13 with an aspect ratio of 16:10, which has a positive impact on productivity and makes the display about as tall as the ZenBook Duo, if not as wide. The XPS 13 is significantly faster than the ZenBook Duo, even in terms of video editing, where the ZenBook Duo itself works fairly quickly. Depending on the configuration, you can spend less on the XPS 13 or a lot more, but it is a good alternative for anyone who is not interested in the ScreenPad 2.0.

Asus also makes several 14-inch models that deliver solid value. They lack the ScreenPad 2.0, which cuts hundreds off the price. This is the obvious step if you don't find ScreenPad attractive.

How long it will take?

The ZenBook Duo is well built and promises years of productive performance thanks to its modern components. You'll miss Thunderbolt 3, however, and the ultimate usefulness of ScreenPad 2.0 depends on developer support. The one-year warranty is industry standard and is shorter than desired. However, Asus offers one year of accident protection if you drop your ZenBook Duo or spill a cup of coffee on the keyboard.

Should you buy it

Yes. There is no other laptop like the ZenBook Duo except the larger and more expensive ZenBook Pro Duo, which makes this a uniquely useful option.

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