When ASUS showed the world the concept of Project Precog in Computex 2018, I wasn’t that big of a fan of that design. Then, after nearly 6 years, we have the ASUS Zenbook Duo UX8406. Yes, the Zenbook Duo has evolved into this.
It looks similar to the Project Precog but I think it is much more functional and practical.
So, this laptop looks like any other Zenbooks. It’s a 14-inch laptop, has the unique ASUS 30th anniversary logo, and has a minimalist look. But it’s not as thin as other Zenbooks for obvious reasons.
It is also powered by the latest Intel Core Ultra 7 155H chipset with 32GB of RAM too – which I think is necessary for this laptop. There is also another Intel Core Ultra 9 185H version that is coming later too.
Once we open up the lid, it still looks like any other laptop – but the laptop keyboard – can be taken out. And that reveals a second screen that is identical to the first screen.
Both these screens are the same 14-inch OLED screen with 2880×1800 pixels in resolution and up to 120Hz refresh rate. The colors and brightness are a bit different from each other – but both screens can cover around 100% of sRGB and DCI-P3 and around 95% of Adobe RGB color gamuts.
The ΔE numbers are also very similar – and that’s great. Even their brightness is also at around 370 nits each. I’m just impressed that these two screens are so similar to each other. Great job in the quality control department from the ASUS Lumina OLED department.
Oh – both the screens are also compatible with the ASUS Pen 2.0. We can draw on both screens – and I just want to point that out.
We can prop up the entire laptop in such a manner thanks to the new super-sturdy kickstand behind this laptop. It’s actually very adjustable and I love this hinge so much compared to the Zenbook Fold that we reviewed previously. Actually, speaking of the Zenbook Fold, I think by just having two separate screens, the way we interact with the laptop is completely different.
Case in point – I’ve been exploring a new tool called Milanote to do some research and scripting – and I can do that so easily with this setup. The top half is used for searching while the bottom screen is used to lay out all the points in a single view. I find this to be much more ergonomic to use since the top screen is at my eye level and I don’t have to look down and strain my neck like other laptops do.
If I ever want to move things between the screen, then the new ScreenXpert is here to help. We can move those windows between screens without dragging them all the way from screen to screen. This is exceptionally useful but it does take some muscle memory to remember how to use this new feature.
We can even click on the ScreenXpert icon and do a lot more things like setting a group of apps to be launched when we click on it – but I personally don’t use this feature.
We can also check the keyboard’s battery life using the ScreenXpert too. However, I think it would be better to have the battery percentage displayed on the ScreenXpert icon itself, or at the taskbar.
That’s because I did get battery anxiety when I’m using this keyboard as the battery life is… rather short. If I don’t type much then the keyboard can last for a very long time – but if I’m playing a game while using the keyboard wirelessly, then it’ll only last for about an hour or so.
How I countered this is by plugging in the laptop and the keyboard to a charger. However, the included charger only has a single port – so I used my own Ugreen charger instead.
And speaking of the included charger, it’s tiny and also has a detachable plug. If we can buy other plugs, then we can make it become a truly universal charger that can be used in other countries too.
Now, since we can use the device in so many different ways, we can actually make it steeper or flatter to fight against glare or reflection. Or maybe if you think the bottom display should be brighter than the top display, then we can use the MyASUS utility to adjust the brightness of each individual display. It’s not actually “adjusting the brightness” per se, but more like setting an offset.
For example, if I see the top display to 100% but the bottom display is at 50% in the MyASUS app, I can then readjust the overall brightness of both displays using either Windows 11 or the keyboard shortcut – and both displays will change at the same time. It’s just that the bottom display will always be half the brightness of the top display. So, take some time and fine-tune it however you want.
But of course, using the laptop this way is going to take up quite a lot of space. We can convert it back to a standard laptop by just snapping the keyboard back onto the laptop. Then, the keyboard connects to the laptop via these pogo pins and also charges the keyboard’s battery, even if the laptop is turned off. Brilliant.
This piece of keyboard and trackpad though, in terms of functionality, there are two things that I think ASUS can improve on. The keyboard portion is surprisingly good to type on despite being so thin, and the travel distance for each key is also good. But that trackpad is what bothers me a lot as its palm rejection is rather horrible.
The second issue I have with this piece is how slippery it is. When I detach the whole thing from the laptop, it just slides around a lot. There is no friction and I think that’s quite a problem.
Okay, so what other things can we do with this dual-screen laptop other than work? Gaming, of course.
I was playing Palworld and I just used one screen for the game, and another to refer to a guide. The same goes for Genshin Impact when I was hunting for some treasure and this dual-screen setup made it superbly easy for me to track everything down.
Now, even though this laptop comes with some seriously good specs, what if I want to swap out the SSD or replace the battery? Well… I tried opening up this laptop but it’s rather difficult and I don’t want to flex the laptop so much, so I gave up opening.
There is a tiny door behind the kickstand that I thought had direct access to the SSD, but turns out it leads to a bunch of connectors. The SSD is out of reach.
Since we can’t open the backplate easily, cleaning the fans will also be a problem. I mean, it’s a necessary thing to do since those fans are working really hard. Usually, for a standard laptop, the fans can breathe through the keyboard but with this second screen here – the laptop can only suck in air from the bottom and exhaust them to the sides. The sides of this laptop can get pretty warm too.
But I don’t see any other ways ASUS can solve this issue, so this is the best that we have. Perhaps things will change when ASUS starts to adopt those microelectromechanical fans from Frore.
Conclusion
So, if you’re interested in getting this laptop for yourself, then the price is at RM9,999. This unconventional laptop is surprisingly functional and I actually like how everything works. It’s a great experience and yet this laptop isn’t bulky or heavy either.
I mean, I personally prefer having this sort of integrated dual-screen laptop design rather than having to carry an external portable monitor.
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