The ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED is a premium laptop with a high price tag, but it offers a range of features and performance capabilities that make it well worth the investment. At the time of writing, the Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED is priced at around $2,000, which puts it in the higher price range for laptops. One of the factors that contribute to the Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED's higher price point is its OLED display, which is a premium technology that delivers rich, vibrant colours and deep blacks. OLED displays are generally more expensive than traditional LCDs, but they offer superior image quality that is well worth the additional cost. Additionally, the Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED comes with an innovative ScreenPad Plus, which adds another layer of functionality to the laptop, and this feature also contributes to the overall price.
Another factor that justifies the higher price of the Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED is its high-end components, including a powerful Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. These components ensure that the laptop delivers exceptional performance for demanding applications, such as video editing, graphic design, and gaming. Overall, while the ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED may be more expensive than some other laptops on the market, its unique features and high-end components make it an excellent investment for those who need a high-performance device that can handle a wide range of tasks. For professionals and creatives who rely on their laptops for their work, the Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED's price is well justified by its capabilities and functionality.
Design and Build quality:
Similar to the 14-inch Zenbook Duo from the previous year, the Asus Zenbook Pro 14 Duo has not one, but two displays: a 14.5-inch main display and a 12.7-inch secondary (ScreenPad Plus) display that's positioned perfectly above the keyboard. Its dimensions, 12.74 x 8.85 x 0.70 inches, are fairly small and slender. But, it's 3.86-pound weight and 0.70-inch thickness prevent it from being considered an Ultrabook. The 2022 Zenbook Pro 14 Duo has some year-over-year design improvements that elevate it above the model it replaces. The primary difference is that the secondary display now rises at a 12-degree angle from the laptop's base as opposed to the previous 7-degree angle. That makes it much easier to view ergonomically because you won't have to crane your neck uncomfortably to see what needs to be done.
The 2021 Zenbook Duo's Ergolift hinges were swapped out for new AAS Ultra hinge mechanisms, which necessitated rearranging some of the internal parts. All that effort has also yielded a thermal benefit. According to Asus, the airflow to the internal hardware is enhanced by 38%, hence the name Active Aerodynamic System (AAS). The laptop is cooled by recently installed air vents as well. The vents that pushed hot air onto the main display upward have been removed. A clean row that blows heated air out of the left side takes its place. They have been disguised by Asus to resemble USB-A ports, so unless hands are in front of them, they will go undiscovered.
The primary display has also received improvements. The 16:10 aspect ratio, which replaces the 16:9 aspect ratio we saw last year, benefits from a higher screen-to-body ratio of 92 per cent. Also, it is noticeably brighter and appears fantastic from any angle.
The 14-inch Zenbook Duo from this year is the perfect office accessory for fashion-conscious people. No matter what type of lighting you're seated in, it looks classy and elegant, and its Tech Black magnesium-aluminium alloy finish allows it to blend in with virtually any office setting. Also, flipping the lid down shows an understated but striking Asus 'A' logo that, in bright light, reflects nearly every hue at you. As a result, your Zenbook Duo will undoubtedly draw envy in business meetings.
Display:
Although weirdly specific and hardly groundbreaking, Asus says that the main panel of the ZenBook Pro 14 Duo OLED is the first 2.8K 120Hz OLED touchscreen display on a laptop in the world. That being said, those specs are impressive, especially the OLED screen technology. Because of the OLED panel, this laptop can display perfect blacks, which makes images like a night sky or a dark cave look far more realistic than they would on a computer with a more traditional LCD panel. Producing such intense blacks enhances contrast and makes brighter colours stand out in contrast. Personally, I believe that switching to OLED makes for a considerably more substantial difference than an increase in resolution; it's well worth the money if you want the highest picture quality. Only a few OLED laptops are currently on the market, but my favourites are the Dell XPS 13 OLED and the HP Spectre x360 13.
Asus could have easily relied solely on OLED to draw customers, but it also increased the resolution to 2.8K, allowing for 1440p video playback. Pictures appear sharper and more detailed, with less noticeable rough edges. It's not nearly 4K, but I wouldn't suggest choosing such a high resolution because it can shorten battery life. To check whether the results corroborated my observations, I put the ZenBook Pro 14 Duo through a calorimeter test. Although I've examined many laptops that can go much brighter, the maximum brightness was measured at 355 nits, which is slightly above average. The statistics for colour coverage were the most striking of all. For sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3, the Pro 14 Duo OLED achieved 100%, 96%, and 97%, respectively. Such results, which are almost unheard of outside of Apple's MacBooks, demonstrate the Asus laptop's ability to produce nearly flawless colours, guaranteeing that images and movies have the most authentic appearance imaginable.
This makes the ZenBook Pro 14 Duo a fantastic choice for professional work that requires colour sensitivity. Not to mention the second screen. It's not ideal that video appears in a small square exactly in the centre of the 12.7-inch touchscreen's rectangle shape, but Asus would have been hard-pressed to offer it a more conventional 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratio. Over the years, Asus has made significant improvements to the ScreenPad Plus. Any application or browser window can be easily moved to the second display, and there are also convenient shortcut keys that allow you to quickly transition from the main screen to the ScreenPad.
The ScreenPad Plus can be useful in a variety of situations. For instance, you might use it to maintain a Discord video chat displayed while you play a video game or the toolbar or video timeline when using Adobe Premiere Pro. Even for general productivity, I've found it helpful: I frequently shift Spotify down to monitor my playlist or even to keep Slack open so I don't miss a crucial message from my boss. Despite that, I didn't enjoy it nearly enough to warrant the compromise made in the keyboard's placement. It's conceivable that other individuals, in particular professional content creators, will use it far more, but I do believe it's a divisive feature.
Performance:
About the Intel Core-i7-12700H CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GPU configuration of my review unit, I compared it to both our list of gaming rigs and our stable of work laptops from PCWorld. The MSI Katana GF76 notebook in particular has the same GPU/CPU configuration as my test unit. I started by running the PCMark 10 Overall benchmark, which is an excellent indicator of a laptop's suitability for the contemporary office environment. As it runs, this benchmark simulates a variety of tasks like word processing and video chats and then calculates an overall score based on the results. Here, two productivity laptops with AMD Ryzen processors outperformed the Zenbook Duo, which was otherwise a top performer in this test.
Then, using Maxon's Cinebench R20 Single-Threaded benchmark, which focuses only on a single Core of our laptop's CPU, I evaluated the laptop's CPU performance. The Zenbook Duo performed exceptionally well on this benchmark, scoring a high of 692. This demonstrates that it has enough power for routine tasks like running applications and apps. I did the Multi-Threaded benchmark, which makes use of all the cores in a laptop's processor, while still in Maxon's Cinebench R20 application. With a score of 5,585, the Zenbook Duo once more placed first in our list of comparisons. This result demonstrates that the Zenbook Duo is well suited to these CPU-intensive workloads, which call for a laptop to employ several CPU cores for operations like video editing and transcoding.
I configured the Zenbook Duo to convert a 30GB MKV file to MP4 using the Android Tablet setting in the free HandBrake tool. This test determined how long it could do a CPU-intensive task before getting too hot and having to restrict operation. See how the Asus Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED outperforms the MSI Katana GF76 in the findings. What does each of these findings mean? Upon examination, it becomes evident that the Asus Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED has sufficient processing power for multimedia producers using applications like Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Photoshop. Due to its high PCMark 10 Overall score, productivity programmes like Microsoft Word and Excel will run smoothly and quickly on it.
But, the HandBrake finding is positive. In CPU-intensive workloads, the innovative AAS-facilitated aerodynamic design of the Zenbook Duo may offer thermal advantages over certain bigger laptops with comparable Intel or Ryzen processors, like the MSI Katana GF76. It's unusual among 14-inch productivity laptops because of this.
Battery life:
A laptop's design is very much a balancing act; if you pack it full of premium features, there will inevitably be trade-offs. Asus has made battery life concessions for the ZenBook Pro 14 Duo. In our PCMark 10 battery benchmark testing, the ZenBook Pro 14 Duo barely lasted 4 hours, and 29 minutes, compared to the majority of laptops, which can last over 10 hours on a single charge.
The H-Series processor, the high screen resolution, and the secondary display are probably to blame for this. On the second test, I chose to switch off the ScreenPad Plus, which increased the battery life to 6 hours and 32 minutes, which is still far less than its competitors' offerings. In the same test, the Dell XPS 13 OLED managed 7 hours and 22 minutes, whereas the MacBook Pro consistently exceeded the 10-hour threshold.
It's also important to note that choosing the RTX 3050 Ti configuration will probably result in a significant decrease in battery life for the ZenBook Pro 14 Duo because GPUs are notorious power hogs. The ZenBook laptop's performance is underwhelming, but you pay a price for having a high-end OLED screen with a high resolution and refresh rate. Of course, if you're working close to a plug outlet, this won't be a major problem.
Should you buy it:
A highly-tuned tool for multimedia creators, the Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED excels at a variety of standard office jobs as well as more demanding ones like transcoding and 3D rendering. The two monitors on the laptop are its main draw. With several year-over-year upgrades that make the visuals more stunning and the cross-screen integration simpler than ever before, they're the best ones we've used in an Asus Zenbook Duo laptop to date.
Final Thoughts:
Rarely have I seen a laptop with as many features as this one. The OLED screen is stunning for both photographs and videos, the H-Series Intel chip is great for demanding workloads, and the secondary screen has so many uses that multitasking is made easier. But to pack in so many features, Asus had to make a lot of compromises. Long essays shouldn't be typed on a cramped keyboard because of the limited battery life, which effectively ties you to a plug outlet for a full day's work.
The Asus ZenBook Pro 14 Duo is undoubtedly not for everyone, but if you believe that the addition of a second screen could revolutionise your use of software like Premiere Pro and Photoshop, the high price is well worth it.
