1
00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:08,440
it looks perfectly normal but watch this there's a little kickstand under here

2
00:00:05,480 --> 00:00:14,839
then okay I can take the keyboard off and boom second display that's right

3
00:00:12,639 --> 00:00:20,880
guys ASUS sponsored this video and brought CES 20124 here to our studio to

4
00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:22,480
show off the brand new Zenbook Duo that

5
00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:26,599
considering the dual screen laptops we've seen in the past has had a

6
00:00:24,320 --> 00:00:30,039
shocking amount of thought put into it I guess it kind of makes sense though this

7
00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:33,960
is far from ASUS's first run at this concept first they put a screen in a

8
00:00:31,840 --> 00:00:38,079
trackpad which was of questionable utility then they moved the keyboard

9
00:00:35,960 --> 00:00:43,160
down and put a screen above it which was pretty sweet for video editors and only

10
00:00:40,760 --> 00:00:49,840
video editors then last year they released the Zenbook 17 fold which was

11
00:00:46,079 --> 00:00:52,239
pretty cool but had an eyew watering

12
00:00:49,840 --> 00:00:57,719
$3500 reserved purely for those with more money than brains well that's where

13
00:00:54,640 --> 00:00:59,920
the new Zenbook Duo comes in by issuing

14
00:00:57,719 --> 00:01:05,960
sci-fi screen technology and instead going for a simple hinge ASUS was able

15
00:01:02,239 --> 00:01:07,479
to fold the starting price in half

16
00:01:05,960 --> 00:01:12,200
putting this thing in reach of middle managers rather than just those in the

17
00:01:09,439 --> 00:01:16,560
sea suite and ASUS actually identified this need when their own marketing

18
00:01:14,280 --> 00:01:20,680
department asked for it this is what I'm talking about laptops have gotten so

19
00:01:18,560 --> 00:01:25,400
powerful that many companies just don't bother issuing desktops anymore and this

20
00:01:23,560 --> 00:01:30,280
is the weapon of choice for many staffers at isus and actually here for

21
00:01:27,880 --> 00:01:35,360
that matter it's pretty solid you drag your reference materials up here work on

22
00:01:32,439 --> 00:01:40,600
your presentation down here but then shoot it's time to run to a meeting and

23
00:01:38,280 --> 00:01:44,600
well I hope you didn't need your second screen meanwhile with the duo you can

24
00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:48,680
pack the whole thing up and take it with you in exactly that amount of time

25
00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:52,960
arrive at the meeting set up your battle station and uh God willing get some

26
00:01:51,159 --> 00:01:56,439
actual work done while other people talk about stuff that has nothing to do with

27
00:01:54,560 --> 00:02:00,680
your kpis for the panels on these machines you get either dual full HD

28
00:01:58,520 --> 00:02:06,520
oleds on the base model or on the premium ones you can get dual 3K oleds

29
00:02:03,200 --> 00:02:08,200
running at 120 HZ and isus advertises

30
00:02:06,520 --> 00:02:14,319
four different operating modes for the machine laptop mode desktop mode sharing

31
00:02:11,720 --> 00:02:18,360
mode or dual screen mode though I suspect most people are primarily going

32
00:02:16,200 --> 00:02:22,440
to be switching between laptop and dual screen modes which worked surprisingly

33
00:02:20,800 --> 00:02:27,519
well especially given that this is pre-production hardware like just look

34
00:02:24,519 --> 00:02:30,800
at this boom laptop mode Let's

35
00:02:27,519 --> 00:02:32,680
go like that that's pretty darn seamless

36
00:02:30,800 --> 00:02:37,640
one mode I was hoping for that we didn't get is Battleship mode which I guess

37
00:02:35,400 --> 00:02:42,760
you'd normally call tent mode on a flip laptop uh yeah that's as far as it goes

38
00:02:40,800 --> 00:02:48,080
as Su said that they decided against it because a hinge that goes more than 180°

39
00:02:45,640 --> 00:02:53,519
that also is large enough to accommodate the keyboard in the middle would have

40
00:02:49,560 --> 00:02:55,000
been expensive and very heavy as it is

41
00:02:53,519 --> 00:03:00,840
without the keyboard the Zenbook Duo comes in at just 1.35 kilos and with the

42
00:02:57,920 --> 00:03:06,360
keyboard 1.65 k kilos with most of that weight being the displays themselves

43
00:03:03,480 --> 00:03:12,360
which doesn't really surprise me like this thing feels flipping dense to help

44
00:03:10,720 --> 00:03:16,239
counteract some of that the entire chassis is made out of magnesium alloy

45
00:03:14,879 --> 00:03:23,120
uh side note by the way if you're wondering about the durability of the hinge ASUS says that with the keyboard

46
00:03:19,640 --> 00:03:24,959
removed you can put up to 25 kg on top

47
00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:29,480
of a closed shell before things start to go bad oh yeah that's ooh that would be

48
00:03:27,560 --> 00:03:34,560
really important to know should I be doing this on the pre-production one

49
00:03:31,599 --> 00:03:38,720
yeah you can sit on it on that note another advantage of the approach ASUS

50
00:03:36,280 --> 00:03:43,439
took with this device is durability foldables super cool and I'm on the

51
00:03:41,120 --> 00:03:48,239
record kind of loving them but they can't use Gorilla Glass and in a device

52
00:03:45,599 --> 00:03:53,439
that's going to have stuff on top of the screen all the time by Design there's a

53
00:03:51,720 --> 00:03:58,920
lot to be said for using a scratch resistant glass but the real Special

54
00:03:56,120 --> 00:04:04,239
Sauce here isn't the displays it's actually the keyboard isus told us that

55
00:04:01,519 --> 00:04:08,400
it was incredibly difficult to develop a keyboard controller that's able to

56
00:04:06,120 --> 00:04:12,640
seamlessly handle going between a wired connection through these Pogo pins down

57
00:04:10,239 --> 00:04:17,280
here and a Bluetooth one and then when you attach the keyboard it uses 14

58
00:04:15,640 --> 00:04:22,160
magnets that ensure proper alignment with the Pogo pins and boom now it's

59
00:04:20,120 --> 00:04:28,080
using a wired connection the other Big Challenge was building something this

60
00:04:24,160 --> 00:04:31,199
thin that still manages to feel pretty

61
00:04:28,080 --> 00:04:32,880
decent that's 14 magnets for you it

62
00:04:31,199 --> 00:04:37,880
really does feel pretty decent doesn't it it's kind of like if you didn't have

63
00:04:35,120 --> 00:04:42,240
a keyboard at all and there was just a keyboard embedded in the surface of the

64
00:04:39,600 --> 00:04:47,880
table in front of you it's uh pretty cool 1.4 mm of travel

65
00:04:45,320 --> 00:04:52,039
which how much of the entire thickness of this thing is that we can check yeah

66
00:04:50,240 --> 00:04:56,840
we should check I love that Alex keeps a pair of calipers in his backpack 3 and

67
00:04:53,919 --> 00:05:02,600
1/2 4 mm thick something like that so then that's about a third of it is key

68
00:05:00,479 --> 00:05:07,199
travel wow and we haven't even talked about the possibility of still using a

69
00:05:04,880 --> 00:05:11,759
third Monitor and then just moving this to wherever is most ergonomic for you

70
00:05:08,960 --> 00:05:15,840
now you got three displays the overall concept of this machine is similar to a

71
00:05:13,880 --> 00:05:20,199
folding one that I've been daily driving recently you know seamlessly switching

72
00:05:18,039 --> 00:05:26,240
between I've just got to type a couple of emails mode and productivity monster

73
00:05:23,639 --> 00:05:30,400
mode but something that I have sorely missed on my machine is decent IO and

74
00:05:29,160 --> 00:05:38,520
this this is a big Improvement I've got a

75
00:05:33,800 --> 00:05:41,240
usba a dual Thunderbolt ports HDMI and a

76
00:05:38,520 --> 00:05:45,520
32 mm audio jack I mean it's not the same as a gaming PC but it is more than

77
00:05:43,680 --> 00:05:49,039
enough for the typical Road Warrior these are Thunderbolt 4 too which I

78
00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:55,319
guess makes sense this is running on the latest core Ultra 9 185h processor has

79
00:05:52,319 --> 00:05:59,600
up to 32 gigs of lpddr 5x memory at a

80
00:05:55,319 --> 00:06:01,479
wild 7467 megatrans per second this is

81
00:05:59,600 --> 00:06:07,000
thanks to how close the RAM is to the CPU something ASUS worked on with Intel

82
00:06:03,680 --> 00:06:09,599
last year it's got one SSD slot which

83
00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:13,639
it's technically upgradeable but is underneath the main board so accessing

84
00:06:11,680 --> 00:06:17,840
it won't be for the faint of heart only those in possession of the upcoming

85
00:06:15,199 --> 00:06:22,240
Precision Screwdriver from LTT Store.com and it has a

86
00:06:19,160 --> 00:06:23,680
75w battery that's a lot considering its

87
00:06:22,240 --> 00:06:28,360
size and they're expecting it to be enough for 13 1/2 hours on one screen 10

88
00:06:26,360 --> 00:06:32,120
hours on two screens though that isn't Final in designing the the cooling

89
00:06:29,919 --> 00:06:35,240
solution ASUS said the difficult part wasn't keeping the processor cooled

90
00:06:33,800 --> 00:06:40,880
they've done that hundreds of times at this point the hard part was keeping the

91
00:06:37,520 --> 00:06:43,199
screen cool because OLED really doesn't

92
00:06:40,880 --> 00:06:47,919
like high heat so they had to put a heat spreader behind the OLED panel maintain

93
00:06:45,639 --> 00:06:52,240
a slim air gap between the CPU and the display and put a graphite sheet on the

94
00:06:50,560 --> 00:06:57,199
bottom cover to ensure the display is always under 45° another way to manage

95
00:06:55,080 --> 00:07:03,440
heat is running the displays dimmer and ASUS's solution to that is surprisingly

96
00:07:00,599 --> 00:07:08,879
flexible screen expert allows you to not only adjust the displays but decouple

97
00:07:06,520 --> 00:07:12,919
them if you've got a background noise when show running on one of them and you

98
00:07:11,080 --> 00:07:16,960
want to save some battery on that screen but want to see what you're doing on the

99
00:07:14,199 --> 00:07:20,560
other one you can share a flipped image between them you can lock in rotation

100
00:07:19,400 --> 00:07:25,840
there's a bunch of other cool stuff in screen expert but my personal favorite

101
00:07:22,800 --> 00:07:28,599
is the task groups task groups allow you

102
00:07:25,840 --> 00:07:33,000
to position all of your applications exactly how you want across both

103
00:07:30,240 --> 00:07:36,199
displays and then just click to open them all at once to the exact locations

104
00:07:34,759 --> 00:07:41,000
you want I don't know about you guys but I hate arriving at work to find my

105
00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:45,639
computer restarted overnight and all my Windows are messed up and I just have to

106
00:07:43,120 --> 00:07:49,039
move them all around hey this is the solution I mean if you don't feel like

107
00:07:47,199 --> 00:07:52,680
using power toys which is also a solution to that which brings us to the

108
00:07:50,720 --> 00:07:56,919
end of the really cool stuff about this laptop and the beginning of the stuff

109
00:07:54,440 --> 00:08:02,080
that I reluctantly talk about because ASUS really wants us too like the a

110
00:07:59,520 --> 00:08:02,080
virtual

111
00:08:04,080 --> 00:08:13,280
keyboard it's supposed to be six right six fingers

112
00:08:08,560 --> 00:08:15,680
yeah nice oh did it nice it works really

113
00:08:13,280 --> 00:08:20,159
well really good feature there it is everything else

114
00:08:18,360 --> 00:08:27,720
about this machine is really cool and appears to solve real world problems

115
00:08:23,840 --> 00:08:30,639
this is horrible but I mean I don't know

116
00:08:27,720 --> 00:08:34,760
okay what if I forgot my keyboard and every other keyboard was consumed by the

117
00:08:32,680 --> 00:08:40,640
great keyboard fire

118
00:08:37,039 --> 00:08:43,159
yeah maybe pricing is expected to start

119
00:08:40,640 --> 00:08:47,720
at around $1,500 and depending on your region it could come with a pen oh we

120
00:08:45,040 --> 00:08:57,440
have those we have those we have them oh oh okay wow thanks

121
00:08:52,120 --> 00:09:00,680
Alex pen wow carrying case wow backpack

122
00:08:57,440 --> 00:09:03,120
neat and you might get them or you might

123
00:09:00,680 --> 00:09:06,920
not if you guys enjoyed this video maybe check out our other asuc CES coverage

124
00:09:05,320 --> 00:09:14,120
where we looked at they updated gaming machines okay

125
00:09:10,480 --> 00:09:14,120
they look pretty sick