Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 Review

Asus has undoubtedly some excellent gaming laptops to offer, which are categorized as some of the feature-rich and best-looking devices in the market. One such laptop is the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16, which has a dual-screen design and a sleek external chassis. Plus, its hardware is so powerful that it could actually put some desktop PCs to shame. It is quite expensive at a price of $3,999, but it is so because of the power it packs.

Design and features

If there was ever a flagship gaming laptop, it would be Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 and it is available in two configurations. The expensive model is GX650PY, which comes with RTX 4090, 12GB video memory and 2TB SSD. From the outside, the Duo 16 looks like any other gaming laptop, but once you open it up, the story changes.

Rather than the usual keyboard and trackpad, it comes with a second screen running edge-to-edge and about 4.9 inches tall. It angles to 13 degrees, which brings it in line with the main display. It has a bright and vibrant screen with a resolution of 3840×1440. Since it is touch sensitive, it is possible to tap in commands, but it is fingerprint and scratch resistant thanks to the use of Gorilla Glass DXC.

The second screen has been named the ROG ScreenPad Plus and it functions as a control center as well as for monitoring multiple windows. The usefulness of the screen depends on whether you need a second monitor or not. The design of the keyboard has been changed due to the addition of the second screen.

The keys have RGB backlighting and have been pushed down to the bottom edge, while the touchpad is on the right. Even though the size is smaller, the keyboard has a complete function row and it is still easy to use.

The components

The main display has a 16:10 aspect ratio and is a 16-inch Mini LED panel, which is downright stunning. Since it has 1440 resolution, you will see vibrant and crisp images. As far as the internal components are concerned, the Duo 16 is loaded with AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX process, which is extremely powerful. It has 32 threads and 16 cores, which makes it great for gaming.

The use of the NvidiaRTX 4090 graphics card is also an excellent addition where gaming is concerned. There is 32GB of DDR5 memory available and 2TB of NVMe storage, which is enough for running any game you want and still leave you memory to spare.

There are six speakers in the laptop and it has also two-way noise cancelling microphones. They are not grating and thin like most gaming laptops and are actually spacious and full-bodied. The webcam has also been upgraded and comes with a 1080p resolution, but it is nothing special.

Battery Life

Since it uses a lot of power, the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 comes with a huge 330-watt power brick because the internal battery barely lasts for five hours.