It’s been 2 years since the laptop was released ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo, which boasted a large 4K ScreenPad, flanked by a keyboard in the same plane on the base of the device. During this time, users have appreciated the convenience of the additional display for both work and play. After all, it is not without reason that he migrated to the family of gaming laptops of the line ROG with the release of the series ROG Zephyrus Duo and has even been improved by creating a special hinge that lifts it up and makes it even more convenient to use, and the cooling system underneath is more efficient.
On the CES 2023 ASUS presented an updated model ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo with versions for 14 and 15 inches, built on the 10th generation of processors Intel Core and equipped with a graphics accelerator from NVIDIA on architecture Ampere… We recently received a top-end configuration for review. ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo 15, tested it and are ready to tell you about it.
PACKAGING AND COMPLETE SET
Considering the high cost, you expect a premium level from the packaging and configuration of the device with the Pro prefix. And here ASUS doesn’t disappoint.
A thick black box with a convenient plastic carrying handle hides inside not only a laptop in a pile of foam, but also much more interesting.
Inside, all the contents are packed in a couple more boxes – a thick rectangular and gray box made of very dense cardboard with an unusual lid. Both boxes have a nice blue-gray color. In the first one you will find a neatly arranged large and powerful 240W PSU and a power cable for connecting the power. The box with the ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo itself is also protected along the edges by two pieces of polyethylene foam, and when opened, it lifts the laptop, hidden in a transparent plastic envelope. Below is a package containing a user manual, a warranty card, and a MyASUS app booklet with information on service and software troubleshooting.
Next, you’ll find a stylus that can be used in conjunction with laptop screens. It already contains an AAAA battery, the power supply of which is blocked by a small plastic plug. The accessory is equipped with a rocker that squeezes along the edges for erasing and simulating a mouse click. The stylus recognizes 4096 pressure levels.
In addition, in the adjacent hidden compartment of the box, you will find a wrist rest that fits in front of the laptop for comfortable keyboard use. The stand is made of plastic in the color of the ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo case and has anti-slip rubber bands along the entire length of the bottom. The top is covered with a material that visually resembles artificial leather. There is also a small trim in the form of a thin and branded mirrored line and the “Zenbook Series” lettering on the right edge. A small transparent window in the center of the top and back of the stand projects the backlight from the front of the laptop.
In addition, we found a soft case in black eco-leather with a raw aluminum texture, neat gold stitching around the edges and a fleece lining inside. The case looks very high quality, and inside there is a special pass-through pocket for the stylus.
APPEARANCE, FUNCTIONALITY, SCREENS AND SOUND
In terms of looks, the new ZenBook Pro Duo is reminiscent of its predecessor. The body is made of magnesium-aluminum alloy and gray-blue tint and has an angular design with neat curves. The lid has a nice circular engraving that originates from the mirrored ASUS logo. The cover is easily soiled that it collects fingerprints very quickly when touched. The bottom of the laptop is less easily soiled, which is less important, since it will be seen much less often than on the lid. There are also some cooling vents on the bottom.
The dimensions of the case have changed only slightly. The ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo is 35.9 cm long and 24.9 cm wide. The laptop is 2.5mm thinner, and with the legs it is now 21.5mm tall, but that didn’t make it that much thinner. Considering the powerful hardware inside and the second screen, this is not surprising. The weight is also at the level of gaming laptops – 2.4 kg (the exact weight of the test configuration is 2403 grams).
In terms of connectors and holes, there are changes compared to the previous generation – both in terms of location and more modern design.
On the left side, the manufacturer placed a power connector for connecting a 240 W unit, an HDMI 2.1 port, a 3.5 mm audio output for connecting headsets / microphones / headphones, as well as LEDs for laptop operation and charging status. The latter glow rather dimly and during the day they are practically invisible, so you have to cover with your hand from the light in order to see something on them. But at night they will not blind you. On the right, ASUS has reserved space only for USB ports and ventilation holes. Closer to the rear, there is one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port instead of two full USB 3.1, which were previously located on different sides of the device. But now the laptop has two USB Type-C ports, equipped with Thunderbolt 3 support, instead of one.
The LED on the front end changes color depending on the state of the laptop. For example, it glows with a red-to-yellow gradient when it is charging, and green when it is fully charged. The LED briefly turns blue when the performance mode is activated.
The laptop lid opens with little effort due to its functional hinge. When opened, it acts as a laptop foot that lifts the back and creates additional space under the device for more efficient cooling. The lid opens approximately 120 degrees. The main design innovation was the addition of a hinge for an additional touchscreen ScreenPad Plus, which now, like in the ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo, raises it 15 degrees for more comfortable use.
Above the main screen of the laptop is a built-in WEB-camera and several infrared sensors designed to protect your data from unauthorized access by supporting Windows Hello face recognition. Face recognition works quickly and clearly even in low light conditions. The camera module itself will hardly surprise anyone, since this is an ordinary WEB-camera with 720p resolution and quality, which is enough for video conferencing. The microphone array is located at the end of the lid just above the camera.
ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo received the main OLED display from Samsung with a resolution of 4K (3840 by 2160 pixels), a refresh rate of 60 Hz and with 100% DCI-P3 color gamut. The advantage of this panel is excellent contrast performance and deep blacks, on which there is no glare. However, like all OLED panels, PWM is present here. Ripple appears at about 80% or less. This can be uncomfortable for users with sensitive vision. Also, these displays are susceptible to fading with a long static picture. To prevent this, the manufacturer has equipped the laptop with the OLED Care application, which uses various techniques, such as shifting pixels, hiding the taskbar, and even activating the screen server when the system is idle. The maximum brightness is 440 nits. Ripple appears at about 80% or less.
The screen is touch-sensitive and supports up to 10 simultaneous touches, as well as a stylus. The surface of the screen is glossy, and because of this, glare is present in natural light. Although these panels have good contrast ratios, they still allow you to work at a certain angle, even in the sun. The screen is also worth praising for its excellent response rates, which are 2ms here – a positive moment for competitive and multiplayer projects.
The optional ScreenPad Plus display is exactly the same as in the previous model and also in the ROG Zephyrus Duo series. This is a 14.1-inch IPS panel from BOE with 100% sRGB color gamut, 3840 x 1100 resolution, 60 Hz refresh rate and 300 nits brightness. On black, we found a couple of microscopic highlights on the bottom edge of the display, but they are not striking. For ease of use, the screen is equipped with a special virtual control panel. It allows you to quickly manage open windows and customize the desktop for your needs. For example, there is support for professional applications from Adobe, such as Premier and Photoshop, which allow you to display an additional control panel on ScreenPad Plus with the ability to customize it. In general, this screen is well suited not only for solving professional tasks, such as programming, video editing and 3D animation, but also for streaming, as it allows you to transfer the window with the broadcast to it and use it without interrupting the gameplay.
The keyboard unit and small touchpad take up the rest of the interior of the base. The power button is located in the upper right corner above the touchpad. When activated, a small LED glows white in the corner of the key. You can’t turn it off, but it doesn’t bother you in the dark. The rest of the keyboard is also equipped with a white 3-level backlight, the brightness and shutdown of which can be adjusted by alternately pressing the F7 button.
As for the comfort of the keyboard, it is very convenient for typing texts, the key travel is 1.4 mm. Keystrokes are quiet enough. Convenience is added by the presence of a wrist rest in the kit. The F1-F12 buttons are used as usual to use convenient functions such as turning off the camera and touchpad, locking the system and activating the scissor function. In addition, above the touchpad there is a button for quickly hiding and disabling the ScreenPad Plus, controlling the operating modes of the laptop, as well as a key for quickly transferring the active window to the secondary display and back.
Due to the maximum use of the base space, the manufacturer has installed a small touchpad – 62 x 81 mm. The edges at the bottom of the touchpad are scalloped to simulate the functionality of the left and right mouse buttons. Although support for gestures has not gone anywhere either. In the upper left corner there is a touch-sensitive button built into the touchpad to activate the digital block on it. However, as practice has shown, it does not add much ease of use. Better to bring up a special calculator available in the ScreenPad Plus app drawer.
The ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo 15 has two stereo speakers at the bottom, which, judging by the engraved logo under the ScreenPad Plus on the right, were configured by specialists from Harman Kardon. Sound quality is good without any distortion. The speakers only slightly lack the expression of low frequencies due to the lack of additional low-frequency drivers for this, which we saw in the ROG Zephyrus Duo. The laptop supports DTS surround sound technology, which is adjustable through the preinstalled DTS Audio Processing application, which allows you to customize the sound for a variety of content. In general, these speakers are enough for both games and watching movies, as well as listening to music in the background while working.
FILLING, BATTERY, OPERATION AND TESTS
The tested configuration of ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo 15 UX582H is based on a 14nm Intel Core i9-10980HK processor operating at a base frequency of 2.4 GHz. The processor is 8-core and runs in 16 threads, has 16 MB of Intel smart cache, and the maximum frequency is 5300 MHz. TDP of the central processor – 45 W.
There are two video accelerators in the laptop. The first is Intel UHD Graphics, which is built into the CPU. The second is a discrete NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop card with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory. It is worth noting that the TDP of this GPU is 90 W, which can go up to 110 W under favorable conditions for using the NVIDIA Max-Q Dynamic Boost technology, which redistributes the TDP between the processor and the graphics accelerator.
The laptop has 32 GB of DDR4 memory with a frequency of 2933 MHz, working in dual channel mode. The memory is soldered on the motherboard and there is no additional slot to increase its amount in the ZenBook Pro Duo 15. The internal storage in the test sample is played by a 1TB NVMe SSD from Samsung. There are no additional slots for SSD in this device, but if necessary, you can replace the one that is.
The disk speed in Crystal Disk Mark was 2359 MB / s for reading and 2976 MB / s for writing. The AS SDD test, as usual, shows results much faster – 2075 MB / s for reading and 1308 MB / s for writing. The performance of the disk is not impressive, but under loads it did not heat up above 54 degrees.
Wireless communication is provided by the Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 module soldered on the board, which also supports Bluetooth version 5.1.
The laptop comes with an 8-cell, 92Wh Li-ion battery. A full charge will last for 6-8 hours of normal use (at 50% screen brightness), such as surfing the Internet, working with documents, watching videos and listening to music. In “High Performance” mode, the laptop runs for about 60-70 minutes.
In standard mode, when idle, NWiNFO64 shows the following temperature levels on average:
- CPU – 57 ° C
- GPU core – 56 ° C
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop – 56 ° C
- SAMSUNG MZVLB1T0HBL-00000 – 45 ° C
Under long maximum load (high performance mode) in benchmarks, the laptop CPU heats up to 95 degrees. In the multi-threaded test Cinebench R23, the processor was able to score 10,056 points. For most of the test, the cores were clocked at 3.6 to 4.8 GHz. In a single-threaded CPU, it was able to earn 1266 points at an average frequency of 4.1 GHz.
In graphics tests and games, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop performs well enough. All tests were run in high performance mode with power on:
In the Superposition benchmark test on the Unigine 2 engine in 1080p mode at extreme settings, the system showed 34 to 57 frames, while in the optimized mode in 4K the GPU was able to show 48 to 67 frames.
In the Chinese 4K ray-traced Boundary benchmark, the laptop was able to reach an average frame rate of 48.3 fps with DLSS in ultra performance mode. In DLSS quality mode with the same settings, the average FPS was 18.2 FPS.
In the Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition benchmark, the laptop at high settings at 1440p was able to score 6235 points and a score of “High”, and in 4K – 3951 points and “Standard”.
As usual, we also tested the ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo on three in-game tests – 1080p, 1440p, and 2160p.
- In the Forza Horizon 4 race from Playground Games at maximum graphics settings, the laptop was able to produce an average of 51 frames per second in 4K, 66 FPS in 2K and 85 FPS in Full HD.
- Gears 5 with ultra settings, maximum GI beams and ultra texture pack installed, averaged 26 FPS at 2160p, 50 FPS at 1440p and 64 FPS at 1080p.
- The in-game gaming benchmark RDR2 was launched on ultra settings (without activating additional settings) with TAA anti-aliasing (without activating additional settings) and as a result showed an average value of 32 FPS in 4K, 48 FPS in 2K and 63 FPS in Full HD.
Next, we tested the laptop at 1080p at maximum graphics settings directly during gameplay:
- We first launched last year’s Doom Eternal in Full HD resolution and Hellish Nightmare graphics settings. On average, the frame rate in this fast-paced first-level shooter Hell on Earth averaged 130 frames per second.
- The second project that we tested in gameplay was Control by Remedy, which supports DLSS 2.0 ray tracing and anti-aliasing technologies that we are interested in. We ran the project in 1080p resolution with maximum graphics settings with RTX and DLSS with 720p rendering resolution. At these settings, the picture on the laptop screen looked very clear and beautiful, and the average frame rate in complex battle scenes was kept at around 60 frames.
- The last graphics test was Cyberpunk 2077. We tested the project at maximum settings at 1080p with RTX and DLSS in quality mode and received an average of 50 frames in dynamic scenes during battles in closed locations, as well as 45 frames in the city.
As for the noise indicators, in idle time the laptop is not audible (the noise level in the room is up to 30 dB), since it simply does not turn its fans at this moment. At light load, the noise level rises to 38-40 dB. Under heavy loads, powerful cooling starts to work, and the device becomes noisy up to 46-48 dB, which is normal for a powerful laptop in a compact body.
TOTAL
ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo 15 is a serious work laptop for creative people who need powerful hardware, a high-quality screen and the ability to work with a stylus to get things done. Added to this is the extra space in the form of a second screen, which is always at hand, good sound and good autonomy for everyday tasks. Of course, these laptops are not cheap, but if you need a device for serious tasks with which you need to move from time to time, then the ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo is a good option. And for games in Full HD at maximum graphics settings with RTX, it is also suitable.
Author: Sergey Dyakonenko (Madnfs)
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