The new ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 to which we are going to dedicate this article picks up the witness of that laptop that we liked so much in 2020, and it does so by updating all the components that two years later it is necessary to update and refining those sections that had room for improvement. Gets better. We have tried it, and, as you are about to discover, our feelings during this first contact are very positive.
Before we go any further, it’s worth pausing to look at the review setup we’ve seen in action. Its processor is an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX with eight cores capable of simultaneously processing 16 execution threads.
Wrapping it up is 32 GB DDR5-4800, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics processor (the laptop version) and two 2 TB SSDs, each with a PCIe 4.0 interface and configured in RAID 0 (striping). There is no doubt that these are top-tier specifications that, as we will see later, have an undeniable impact on the price of this laptop.
The keyboard and the touchpad
In the following photograph, we can see that the laptop’s touchpad’s location is unusual. And is that instead of being housed just below the keyboard and in the center of the computer, it is placed on the right margin.
Some users will likely get used to handling it in this position. Still, once you’ve had a short adaptation period, everything should go smoothly (it took me just a few minutes to internalize that the touchpad is not housed in its usual location).
The absence of transverse oscillation reduces mechanical fatigue on the joints of our hands.
To a large extent, the experience that a laptop offers us is conditioned by the quality of its keyboard, and the one that ASUS gives us together with this equipment is of high quality. The touch of the keys is pleasant; its route is correct (1.7 mm); the distance that separates one from the other helps us to minimize failed presses, and, in addition, they hardly suffer from transverse oscillation.
This last quality is essential because the absence of oscillation reduces mechanical stress on the joints of our hands (especially our wrists).
The following detailed photograph reveals an exciting feature of the touchpad: at any time, we can transform it into a tactile numeric keyboard that, now, is placed in its traditional location (more or less).
This way of implementing the numeric keypad has an obvious advantage: it allows us to have it when we need it, but it does not take up space because it is integrated into the touchpad. Given the limited space available on laptops, I find this solution ingenious and appealing.
The second screen aims to improve our experience
Before delving into the features and experience offered by the second screen, I suggest we look at the laptop’s main screen. It incorporates a 16-inch IPS LCD panel with WQXGA resolution (2560 x 1600 points) and a mini-LED backlight. Its maximum refresh rate is 165 Hz, it has a response time of 3 ms, it is compatible with Dolby Vision content, and, according to ASUS, it can restore 100% of the colour volume of the DCI-P3 space.
Photolithography is the real bottleneck in the chip industry. And it’s in very few hands
As you can see, on paper its characteristics look very good. During this first contact, we have not had the opportunity to analyze its image quality in detail. Still, if I have to stay with what initially caught my attention, I would choose without hesitation the richness with which it reproduces the colour and the precision with which it acts as the algorithm responsible for the local dimming of the backlight.
Let’s go with the second screen. Like the main one, it uses an IPS-type LCD panel, although its pixel density per inch is higher than that of the matrix it complements (it has a resolution of 3840 x 1100 points). These figures reflect the peculiar aspect ratio that this 14-inch secondary screen offers, which, as we can guess, is tactile.
Once we have reached this point, it is natural to ask ourselves what this dry screen is for. Aundrea and what it brings us. We can use it for many things: to run applications specifically developed to take advantage of it; to keep some tasks running in the background visible; to act on a chat or streaming tool while running a game on the main screen, etc.
ASUS defines its features in an ideal way: it calls it advanced multitasking. Its possibilities are vast, but, as is logical, developers must make an effort to get the most out of it.
It’s good and pretty, but not cheap.
This first contact with this laptop has left a great taste in my mouth. It is robust and impeccably finished, it has desirable specifications both for creating content and for enjoying any latest game, and, in addition, the second screen can have a profound impact on our experience if we get hold of it and integrate it into our workflow or leisure.
It is a great team, but the 5,000 euros ASUS asks us for places is hopelessly out of reach for most users.
I trust that we will have the opportunity to test it thoroughly to offer you a more in-depth analysis. Still, until that moment comes, I can only put one downside: the 5,000 euros that ASUS asks us for places it hopelessly beyond the reach of the majority. Of the users. And it’s a shame because it’s a real team.