ASUS has announced its ZenBook Duo lineup, a new range of high-end laptops with a built-in secondary touchscreen display on the main body of the computer.
The secondary display is called ScreenPad Plus, its name being derived from the “ScreenPad” touch pad that ASUS introduced last year.
Unlike last year’s ZenBook Pro laptops, the new ZenBook Pro Duo has a separate track pad which doubles as a numeric keypad and is located to the right of its keyboard.
ASUS said it opted to leave room for a physical keyboard rather than making the whole bottom half of the laptop a touch screen, because a real keyboard is important for productivity.
Display features
Users can run up to three applications side-by-side on the secondary screen, ASUS said, and you can extend a full screen application from your primary screen onto the secondary screen.
It is also possible to save these various window configurations in a Task Group, and restore them from a shortcut bar located on the ScreenPad Plus.
The main screen on the ZenBook Pro Duo is an ultra-high definition OLED touch screen which offers 89% screen-to-body ratio, ASUS said. It offers 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 colour space and high dynamic range (HDR).
“The DCI-P3 colour space — widely used in the motion picture industry — is increasingly the preferred choice of creative professionals for its increased range of possible colours, and makes images on ZenBook Pro Duo look simply stunning,” ASUS said.
Pricing
ASUS South Africa has said that will be bringing the ZenBook Pro Duo (UX581) to South Africa in August, starting from R39,999. It comes with a palm rest for those who prefer the extra support under their hands while typing.
Currently, ASUS does not plan to bring the more affordable and ZenBook Duo (UX481) to South Africa. It also will not be bundling its stylus with the ZenBook Pro Duo in South Africa.
The specifications of the ZenBook Pro Duo are listed in the table below.
Specifications
| ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo (UX581) | |
|---|---|
| Processor | Intel Core i9-9980HK or Intel Core i7-9750H |
| Display | 15.6-inch 3,840 x 2,160 OLED, 14-inch 4K LCD |
| Operating System | Microsoft Windows 10 |
| Graphics | Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 |
| Memory | Up to 32GB DDR4 2666MHz |
| Storage | Up to 1TB SSD |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 6 with Gig+ (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.0 |
| Interfaces | 1 x Thunderbolt 3 USB-C, 2 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A, 1 x Standard HDMI, 1 x Audio combo jack, 1 x DC-in |
| Battery | 71Wh 4-cell lithium-polymer |
| Dimensions | 359 x 246 x 24 mm |
| Weight | 2.5kg |
Jan Vermeulen is a guest of ASUS at Computex 2019.
