It was back in 2019 when Asus first introduced its ZenBook Duo series – a laptop featuring two screens. Yes, you read that right: two. Now there's a new model in town for 2022: the Asus ZenBook Pro 14 Duo OLED. But why does it even have two screens and what's that layout all about?
As the product name makes clear, this Zenbook Duo goes all-in on OLED, promising inky, rich black and bright peak whites superior to LCD. It's not the first time we've seen OLED in the series, but it is the first time Asus' 14-inch model has gone with the display technology (this being the UX8402 model).
Asus Zenbook Pro 14 Duo: Are two screens better than one?
The reason for two displays is simple enough: the main one you can keep clean and clear, while the secondary touch-panel, which sits above the keyboard and below the main screen, is adaptive for creators' needs. It certainly looks cool, but it does create a highly unusual laptop layout with edge-to-edge keyboard, small right-aligned trackpad, and a rather different way of working.
The main OLED panel is a 14.5-inch display featuring a 2.8K resolution (that's 2880 x 1800 pixels), 120Hz refresh rate, and can deliver 100 percent of the DCI-P3 colour gamut, again making this one for creators. Not one to be outshone by that, the secondary panel is a 12.7-inch one (a 32:10 aspect ratio), but instead is IPS LCD (so not OLED).
Asus Zenbook Pro 14 Duo: Headline spec
Obviously being a laptop for creative types, the Asus Zenbook Pro 14 Duo is no slouch when it comes to specification: there's up to Intel Core i9 processors and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti discrete graphics available to ensure those major projects will fly along at great speed.
Ports handle the latest speeds, too, with two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C slots, an HDMI 2.1 out, SD Express 7.0 (super-fast, at 985MB/s), and one more traditional USB-A 3.2 Gen 2. So you won't come short for all the major needs, Ethernet excluded of course.
All that will tot up to rather a lot of cash though: the previous generation 15-inch Duo OLED cost £2,499. So while there's no price tag at the time of writing for the Asus Zenbook Pro 14 Duo (UX8402), we'd wager it'll be in a similar ballpark. Worth it for those looking for a screen-prominent creative experience though? If you can get used to the quirky design and layout we're sure it'll pay back in bucketloads.
