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




30 Mar
Blog

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 Review: AMD Drops the Mic

Asus Rog Zephyrus G14 Rating 07

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 review: AMD drops the microphone

"With an eight-core processor and a shockingly small chassis, the Zephyrus G14 is in a class of its own."

  • Excellent slot machine

  • Thin, small and light

  • Game-changing CPU performance

  • Responsive touchpad

  • Unique lid design

  • Noisy at idle

  • Mushy keyboard

  • No webcam

The ROG Zephyrus G14 is unlike any gaming notebook you have ever owned. Although it contains an Nvidia RTX 2060, it only weighs 3.5 pounds. It's not much bigger than a 14-inch laptop that you would see at work.

How is that possible? A very special component is the heart of the G14: the AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS. The magic lies in this chip with eight cores and sixteen threads.

The Zephyrus G14 has developed a new class of gaming laptops and is already priced at $ 1,050. But is this new generation of gaming laptops what people want?

Size and portability

Asus and AMD want the G14 to be a laptop that's as portable as any other laptop – a laptop that you can take to school, take to work, and play anywhere in between.

Laptops like the Razer Blade and the MSI GS65 have tried to reduce the thickness of their machines, but they have kept a large screen size – 15 and 17 inches, respectively. Here the G14 deviates.

With a 14.0-inch display and thin bezels on the top and on the sides, a considerable amount is cut directly out of the laptop's housing. That means the G14 is smaller than most gaming laptops in almost every way, including weight. At 3.5 pounds, it's 19% lighter than the 16-inch MacBook Pro and 24% lighter than the Razer Blade 15. The small size helps with weight, as does the magnesium alloy case, which is much lighter than full aluminum.

As someone who mainly uses a 13-inch laptop every day, I was shocked by the space requirements of the G14 when I opened the box. At just 12.8 x 8.7 inches, its footprint is about 5% smaller than that of a 13-inch MacBook Pro.

It's also thin, though it matches the current Razer Blade at 0.70 inches. When open, the G14 feels thicker than it should due to the raised hinge, which adds an additional 0.6 inches and improved airflow.

The only gaming laptop that can keep up with the size of the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is Razers Blade Stealth, a 13-inch laptop with up to a GTX 1650 GPU. It's significantly smaller, but the graphics and CPU options are also much more limited. The Zephyrus G14 is in a class of its own.

Processor power

The device I've tested costs $ 1,450 and is right in the middle of the configuration stack. The Zephyrus G14 is the launch vehicle for AMD's Ryzen 4000 chips. In particular, the eight-core chips of the Ryzen 9 H series are intended for powerful laptops and gaming machines.

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 does not use the standard 45 watt CPU, but a special 35 watt variant called Ryzen 9 4900HS with 16 GB RAM (configurable up to 32 GB). The "S" stands for slim and can therefore be cooled in the small chassis of the Zephyrus G14.

Do not worry. This does not mean that performance is affected. This Ryzen processor is incredibly fast, especially if you give it a task that can use its eight cores and 16 threads. This includes the creation of content, regardless of whether it is 3D modeling or video editing.

For this type of workload, it's hardly worth comparing it to other gaming laptops, most of which use an Intel Core i7-9750H with six cores. You just can't keep up. The 8-core i9-9880HK is a better competitor, although it's mainly reserved for laptops designed to create high-end content like Dell XPS 15, MacBook Pro 16-inch or ThinkPad X1 Extreme.

For such a small and light laptop, the G14 offers record performance.

But here's the crazy thing. Whether in benchmarking or in real tests – the Asus G14 still convinces laptops with an Intel Core i9-9880HK processor. It surpasses the 16-inch MacBook Pro in Cinebench R20 Multi-Core by a whopping 25%. It even encrypted a 4K file in Handbrake 11% faster, which is equivalent to the performance of the Dell XPS 15.

With the Core i9, you will find more power in thicker workstation machines, but the G14 is a record-breaker for such a small and light laptop.

However, there is a reason why companies don't put expensive, sultry Core i9s in any old laptop. First, all eight cores cannot be used efficiently by most games, so you are not doing much good. Then there is an obvious thermal problem that Asus and AMD have not properly addressed. The Zephyrus G14 is a loud little notebook. Playing games or running heavy applications will distract you. But this is forgivable.

My problem is that fans of the Zephyrus G14 keep whirring even when idling (and in silent mode). The result is an irritating coil whine that never goes away. This reduces my desire to use the G14 as a laptop that I want to use every day.

Gaming performance

My Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 review device has an Nvidia RTX 2060 for graphics with options for the GTX 1660 Ti and GTX 1650 in cheaper configurations. The G14 is the smallest laptop with an RTX 2060, a graphics card that is roughly as powerful as a GTX 1070 desktop graphics card. The result is smooth, responsive gaming in almost every title I've tried.

Battlefield V, Fortnite and Civilization VI were all played at well over 60 frames per second (FPS) in 1080p at maximum setting. This is comparable to laptops like the Dell G7 15, which is 2 pounds heavier. It beat the same RTX 2060 in the ROG Zephyrus M in every game, although it was lighter and smaller in almost every way.

If you decrease the settings a bit, the performance really lights up. Fortnite landed at 118 FPS while Civilization VI reached 132. There is a constant 10 FPS behind the Razer Blade, which we tested with a more powerful GPU, the RTX 2070 Max-Q.

Fast shooters like Battlefield V go well with the Zephyrus G14, which has a fast 120 Hz refresh rate. And 98 FPS on medium and 70 at Ultra in Battlefield V don't look bad. The G14 even makes a tough game like Assassins Creed: Odyssey playable and manages 64 FPS at high settings.

The importance of this for AMD cannot be overstated. The company isn't often represented in such powerful or ambitious laptops.

Design and display

Asus ROG Zephyrus laptops of recent years share one look. They are black and chunky and loaded with a hint of RGB throughout.

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 stands out. At CES 2020, the laptop made headlines with its AniMe Matrix display design on the cover, where LEDs illuminate the display lid of the laptop with patterns and designs. You can even customize it to display text, animations, or logos of your choice.

It's a cool feature that costs you an additional $ 500 and my test unit didn't include it. But the white standard version without the AniMe Matrix Display is also beautiful. The dot matrix adds a touch of interest, and the white color is still unique in itself.

However, the design of the G14 doesn't feel coherent. The lid is white, the keyboard cover and the housing are gray and the frames around the display are black. It feels like parts of a couple of different laptops put together into one device. The completely gray option is a little better.

The speakers could have used a little more enthusiasm.

The display is an IPS panel with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080. It's nothing special in terms of contrast brightness, but it doesn't have any major weaknesses either. Following the trend we've seen recently, it offers accurate colors and a decent range of colors that show 77% of the AdobeRGB color space.

However, the speakers could use a little more enthusiasm. I had high hopes because the G14 includes a pair of upward tweeters and two woofers on the hinge. They are loud enough, but a modern iPhone sounds better. Between the speakers and the whine of the coil, you should pair the G14 with decent headphones.

Keyboard and touchpad

The inputs are a mixed bag. Let's start with the good things. The touchpad is excellent, which surprised me. Such a good touchpad in a gaming laptop is difficult to find, as many manufacturers assume that you are using an external mouse. Not here. This is a good call because the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is small enough to be used as an everyday laptop.

Typing on the Zephyrus is not a problem, but there is room for improvement.

The keyboard is also spacious and offers the typical ROG layout. Keys such as the volume control are located above the function line. Larger ROG laptops have additional keys on the right side, but have been omitted here. This is wise because I prefer a comfortable layout rather than a button to scroll up and down.

While typing is not a slog, there is definitely room for improvement. Key presses have a lot of leeway, but the bottom-out action is mushy. This creates an inaccurate typing experience that gets tired over time. The keyboard backlight is also limited. It's a single zone that's not customizable, which is rare in a gaming laptop these days. The backlight is uneven and illuminates some keys better than others.

The power switch is located above the standard layout and has an integrated fingerprint reader. This is important because, strangely, the Zephyrus G14 does not have a built-in webcam. That means no Windows Hello face detection and no zoom calls. I have the idea – this is not a laptop for video calls. Still, given the potential crossover appeal as content creation and business laptop, it's a strange thing to omit this.

Battery life

Gaming laptops are not known for their battery life, even when you are not playing. The Zephyrus G14 doesn't change this, even though it lasts longer than other gaming laptops. The G14 managed almost 6 hours under a light load from surfing the Internet. This is not a good comparison with a modern ultrabook like the XPS 13 or HP Specter x360, which can take up to 10 hours with the same test.

However, it is one of the best in its class for a gaming laptop. It's half an hour longer than the Dell G7 gaming laptop and Razer Blade, and hours before laptops with G-Sync like Zephyrus M and Alienware M15.

The Zephyrus G14 performs even better in CPU-intensive tests. The Basemark battery test lasted 4 hours. It provides an overview of battery life in heavier applications. Adding 10 hours of local video playback on one charge gives you the best battery life you can get with a gaming laptop.

Our opinion

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 challenges other thin gaming laptops like the Razer Blade. The G14 offers more than enough performance for most PC gamers. In addition, thanks to its 8-core processor, it is one of the best content creation and editing laptops you can buy at this price.

Does it also work as a standalone laptop? The constant hum of the fans and the lack of a webcam are not ideal for everyday laptop use. However, the sufficient battery life and the display of the G14 make it a good choice for work and travel.

Are there alternatives?

No gaming laptop is as small and powerful as the Zephyrus G14. As you become less powerful and even smaller, you can opt for something like the Razer Blade Stealth.

When you step into the world of 15-inch laptops, your options expand quickly. The Razer Blade 15 and MSI GS65 are as thin as the G14, although it's heavier and bigger. They are also significantly more powerful and offer graphics options up to the RTX 2080 Max-Q. The closest price alternative is that Predator Helios 300, which offers a similar configuration, but with fewer processor cores and a much larger housing.

If you need a 15-inch content creation laptop that can be played on the side, I recommend the Dell XPS 15. It's not as powerful a slot machine as the G14, but it's a more balanced content creation option.

How long it will take?

The G14 should have at least three or four years of gaming performance before showing its age. It is well built, current and powerful. Unfortunately, Asus only offers a one-year warranty to cover defects, including the battery. After that you are alone.

Should you buy it

Yes. It is an extremely powerful laptop in a surprisingly small design.

Editor's recommendations