Modern higher-end 14 and 16-inch-class notebooks offer performance that is enough for the vast majority of productivity and even content creation workloads. As a result, the main limitation of notebook's capabilities in many cases is their insufficient screen real estate. Over the past few years, several leading PC makers have made numerous attempts to fix this (e.g., Lenovo's Yoga Book 9i, Razer's Valerie, and Apple's Sidecar). Now, it is time for Asus to demonstrate its vision.
The Asus Zenbook Duo (UX8406) is a dual-screen 14-inch-class laptop with a detachable keyboard that works as a classic notebook with one display, a machine with two touchscreens, a laptop with two monitors, or a desktop mode. The notebook takes some pages from Lenovo's Yoga Book 9i, but Asus certainly wanted it to be more appealing to those used to classic notebooks but who dare to try something new, not the other way around.
The Asus Zenbook Duo has a thickness of 1.9 cm (0.75 inches) and weighs 1.4 kilograms (3.09 lbs), thinner and lighter than Apple's MacBook Pro 14. The premium version of the machine comes with two 3K 120Hz OLED 120Hz screens (with VESA's True Black 500 badge) and a kickstand to make it possible to use two screens in vertical mode. By contrast, an affordable version of the laptop is equipped with two 2K 60Hz OLED screens.
On the performance side of matters, the Asus Zenbook Duo (UX8406) is based on up to Intel's Core Ultra 9 185H 'Meteor Lake' processor (16 cores, 22 threads) with integrated Arc graphics that can be paired with up to 32 GB of LPDDR5X memory, and up to 1 TB of SSD storage with a PCIe 4.0 interface.
As for connectivity, the Asus Zenbook Duo (UX8406) features a Wi-Fi 6E + Bluetooth adapter, two Thunderbolt 4 connectors, an HDMI 2.1 display output, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port, and a 3.5-mm audio jack for headsets.
To ensure long battery life (up to 13.5 hours with one screen and up to 10.5 hours on two screens of video playback), Asus equipped its Zenbook Duo with a rather massive 75Wh battery.
For now, Asus does not disclose the pricing of its Zenbook Duo (UX8406) or when it is set to be available. Meanwhile, since the company has disclosed all the specifications, we have every reason to believe the notebook will be available sooner rather than later. As for the price, this is an innovative premium notebook so that it will be priced accordingly. Interestingly, to add value to the laptop, Asus plans to include a backpack and stylus in some countries' product bundles.
