Stands out from the crowd

Asus ZenBook Pro Duo laptops are the company’s premium offering with dual screens. The first-generation Asus ZenBook Pro Duo laptop was launched in 2019. And, now the company is back with the latest-generation ZenBook Pro Duo 15. The laptop was announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2021. We used the device for some time and here’s our review

Asus ZenBook Pro Duo UX582: Design and display

Once you take the laptop out of the box and open it, you will notice the dual-display setup. It has a 15.6-inch primary screen with thinner bezels on the sides. The secondary display is placed on the other half of the laptop’s body at the top edge.

In terms of design, Asus ZenBook Pro Duo UX582 features Asus’s Ergolift design. The secondary screen is lifted by a 9.5-degree angle to allow better airflow. The hinge slightly pushes up the display which offers a better viewing experience for the user and also separates the two displays. It also reduces glares and reflections for better reading on the secondary display. The hinge mechanism is sturdy and not easily breakable. But we would still recommend practising caution.

Below the ScreenPad Plus or the secondary screen is the keyboard-touchpad setup. The touchpad is moved towards the right side, while the keyboard looks compact. There is a dedicated key on the laptop to enable/disable the ScreenPad Plus.

On the right side are two USB Type-C ports and a single USB-A USB 3.1 Gen 2 port. While on the left side, one will find a 3.5mm headphone jack, HDMI 2.1 port, and the charging port.

Asus ZenBook Pro Duo UX582 is a thick and heavy laptop. The laptop measures 359 x 249 x 21.5 mm and weighs 2.34 kg. This means you can not simply push the device in your backpack and head outside. But most performance-heavy laptops are this much bulky. So, ZenBook Pro Duo UX582 is no exception.

Now, let’s dig deeper into the display aspect of the laptop. Beginning with the primary screen, it is an OLED display with 4K UHD NanoEdge technology. The display is touch-enabled and offers 178-degree viewing angles. It offers peak brightness levels 440 nits and has 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut coverage.

Asus says that it has a response time of 0.2ms which makes it ideal for creators and gamers. The display is Pantone validated. So you may not have to worry much about colour accuracy here. It comes with TUV Rheinland certification as well, suggesting low-Blue light emissions. This means the laptop can be used for long sessions without much strain on the eyes.

The ScreePad Plus has a 14.1-inch 4K colour calibrated display with a resolution of 3840×1100 pixels. It has an IPS panel screen and offers a maximum brightness level of 400 nits. The display offers accurate colour reproduction with enough contrast and vividness. The secondary screen is not just a fancy add-on, but it is functional too in many ways. Like one can drag a window from the main screen to the ScreenPad Plus. One can also choose to span a single window on both the screens.

Users can also customise toggles on the secondary screen for quicker access. There is also a quick Settings option to offer control like brightness, access to Control Centre and more. It also comes with support for Adobe apps like Photoshop, Premiere, After Effects, and Lightroom Classic.

Both screens come with support for Stylus Pen.

Asus ZenBook Pro Duo UX582: Keyboard and trackpad

To adjust the secondary display, there are changes in the size and placing of the keyboard and the trackpad. Both keyboard, as well as a trackpad, are compact, compared to other Asus laptops. It takes a day or more to get used to the compact design. Once you overcome this hurdle (if it can be considered one), you will end up loving how effortless and smooth the functioning is.

Key travel on the Asus ZenBook Pro Duo UX582 is satisfying. The keys are very clicky and fast. The keyboard offers one-click access to features like Touchpad enable/disable, projecting the screen or turning on/off the keyboard backlight.

In addition, the laptop has dedicated keys for screen snip, fan speed toggle button and ScreenPad Plus disable/enable button. With the fan toggle, users can choose between the Standard and Performance modes. Beside it is placed the key that allows one to switch screen from primary to secondary and vice-versa. These keys come in handy and are very useful.

Talking about the touchpad, it is slightly narrower and taller than those on other laptops. The performance is smooth and responsive and gives no reason to complain about it. You can turn on/off the number pad right from the touchpad. Tap on the icon at the top-left corner of the touchpad allows one to choose from two brightness levels.

Asus ZenBook Pro Duo UX582: Performance

The review unit we got was the top-end configuration of Asus ZenBook Pro Duo UX582. It is equipped with 10th Generation Intel Core i9-10980HK processor with 32 GB MHz DDR4 RAM onboard. The dual-screen laptop has 1TB M.2 NVME PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD storage. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 with 8GB GDDR6 comes built-in to take care of the graphics. These specs become important, considering the machine is required to handle heavy-editing jobs without compromising on performance.

It offers an impressive performance speed. It is capable of handling basic functions really well without much worry. For editors, the laptop delivers a smooth experience. Editing tools like Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Pro work like a breeze on this device.

Thanks to the PCIe SSD storage. The laptop delivers faster boot times and quick app loads. It also ensures faster data transfer speed on the device.

Asus ZenBook Pro Duo UX582 comes with the latest ScreenPad Plus with the new ScreenXpert 2 software. It improves the productivity on the laptop with built-in apps like the Control Panel app to change brush size, saturation and adjusts layer opacity. These features can come in handy for video editors and graphic designers. As we said before, the secondary display now works with Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, Premiere Pro and After Effects. Additionally, the ScreenXper app on the Asus ZenBook Pro Duo UX582 is now available for third-party applications. Asus says that more compatible apps will also be released in the future.

It is obvious for a performance-based machine to heat up and that is the case with Asus ZenBook Pro Duo UX582. But what is important is that the heating should not impact the workflow. The laptop features a dual-fan setup with an Ergolift hinge and tilting ScreenPad Plus to regulate the airflow. The hinge mechanism works really well. The Active Aerodynamic System Plus system also takes care to maintain temperature under control. Fans are quieter for standard performance. Though they tend to become noisy as the increases.

Coming to the audio part on the Asus ZenBook Pro Duo UX582, the speaker grille is placed on the underbelly. They come certified by Harman Kardon. But, the audio levels are average and the sound quality too is not one of the best.

The laptop comes with an AI-Noise cancelling microphone placed at the top of the screen. The webcam is also placed at the top-front. Finally, the laptop offers Wi-Fi 6 for wireless connectivity.

Asus ZenBook Pro Duo UX582: Battery

The laptop houses a huge 92-watt lithium-polymer battery. It comes with a 240watt power brick to charge the laptop. There is no USB Type-C charging though. The performance of the laptop in terms of battery life will vary from case to case. For day-to-day functions like internet browsing, regular office work, the laptop can easily last more than 5 hours with Battery Saver mode on. Anything heavy like video-editing or gaming impacts the battery life to a considerable amount. And in case you are working on both the displays, the laptop struggles to last up to 3 hours.

Having said that, we would like to add that the laptop is not suited for those on the go or for those leisurely working from the sofa/couch/bed these days. These users generally tend to charge their device once or maximum twice so that it easily lasts a couple of hours before the next charge. In most cases, the laptop’s end user will be a video editor, a creator or a graphic designer. They would not be in need to manoeuvre their device (considering the laptop’s weight is 2.34 kg). Instead, it will be placed somewhere on a desk near the power point. So that it can be plugged in easily when needed.

Verdict

Asus ZenBook Pro Duo UX582 is not one of those regular, average laptops. It’s a power-packed workstation with top-notch specs on paper as well as in terms of performance. Despite coming with dual-displays, Asus has not compromised with the overall design of the laptop. Instead, it has made noticeable improvements like the hinge mechanism that is both practical and useful. The secondary display is definitely an improvement over the previous generation. With these features and a price tag of Rs 2,79,990, Asus ZenBook Pro Duo UX582 does stand out from others. The price surely sounds hefty, but there is no going back once you start using the laptop. Creators will know it better.

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