Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 Review: Performance meets innovation in the best 2020 has on offer

Asus launched the first rendition of its dual-screen notebook last year, in the form of the ZenBook Pro Duo. While the ZenBook Pro Duo was not perfect, it was just about the best dual-screen laptop on the market. With this year's Zephyrus Duo 15, Asus has addressed the main shortcoming of the ZenBook Pro Duo, which was the angle of the second screen. But there's more to the Asus Zephyrus Pro Duo 15 than meets the eye, so stick around and let's take an in-depth look at Asus first dual-screen gaming laptop.

Design and Build

The Asus Zephyrus Duo 15 seems slightly slimmer and lighter than the Pro Duo, although it's pretty hard to tell the difference between the two in terms of weight. Despite the addition of a second screen, the Zephyrus Duo 15 weighs the same as the Zephyrus S15. The Duo 15 features a premium aluminium build quality and an elegant yet minimalist finish. I liked the semi-glossy line diagonally cutting across the aluminium lid.

The Zephyrus Duo 15 weighs around 2.4 kg and is around 20mm thick. Not too bad considering the spec sheet and dual screens. The laptop also has six strategically placed feet and vents. Overall, the Zephyrus Duo 15 has a solid build and certainly looks and feels like a premium laptop. The gaming aesthetic has been watered down to give you a nice balance of 'Professional' and 'Gamer'.

Keyboard

As with all top-end Zephyrus notebooks, the keyboard on the Duo 15 has been shifted to the bottom. The keyboard positioning makes using it uncomfortable over prolonged periods, but the included palm rest really helps here. The keys travel felt quite satisfying, offering a tactile feel while typing and gaming. Additionally, the spacing between the keys was just about right. The Zephyrus Duo 15 also features per-key RGB lighting as opposed to the zonal lighting.

The trackpad is shifted to the right of the keyboard and doubles as a number pad. The trackpad takes a little getting used to but works quite well. And let's not forget that you do get a gaming mouse in the box, so no complaints here. I did like the keyboard and really didn't bother switching to an external one, even while working for several hours. However, using the keyboard on the lap felt like a nightmare and I recommend sticking to a desk with this one.

Ports

Port selection on the Zephyrus Duo was pretty strong. The power connector, microphone jack, and headphone jack sit on the left. On the right, you get two USB 3.1 ports and a USB-C port. Finally, the rest of the ports are located on the back. These include an HDMI port, an Ethernet port, and another USB 3.1 port. While Asus has included a webcam in the box, using it will mean losing out on one of the three ports.

ScreenPad Plus

Before we get to the main display, let's start off with the second screen, titled the ScreenPad Plus. This is the second iteration of Asus' ScreenPad Plus technology, and it goes without saying that things have gotten much better. But the biggest and most important change here is that the second screen is now elevated, which massively increases its utility over the previous version. When you turn on the laptop, you are treated to a blueprint of futuristic flying city on the secondary display.

ScreenPad Plus allows you to open up to three applications simultaneously. Apps are easy to drag and drop in the second screen, while you can easily switch apps between the two panels with the push of a button. The second screen could also be used as a sort of reference material, which I found particularly useful while writing and gaming. There were times where I could simply complete tasks in Raid: Shadow Legends on the second screen while playing Call of Duty on the main screen.

However, the utility of ScreenPad Plus may very-well benefit content creators and professional or regular game streamers. Not much has changed from the ScreenPad Plus on the ZenBook Pro Duo, although apart from 'elevation' not much needed changing. There's no doubt that the addition of the second screen is more gimmicky than anything else, but I wouldn't say it's a bad thing. When it comes to innovation in gaming Asus has definitely been one of the front runners, with the likes of the Mothership. The second screen on the Pro Duo 15 is really cool, and there are several scenarios where it would offer excellent utility, so there's no reason to write it off just yet.

Display    

For the main display, you can opt for a high refresh rate or high-resolution IPS-grade panel. The two options include a 15.6-inch Full HD (1080p) IPS panel with a 300Hz refresh rate and a 4K variant. However, this time out Asus has opted for an IPS panel as opposed to the 4K OLED option on the ZenBook Pro Duo. The 4K panel is not ideal for gaming because of its low refresh rate, although it is excellent for content creation. Both the panels support G-Sync and are factory calibrated by Pantone. It is worth noting that the secondary display features a 4K resolution on all models. No compromise there!

Performance

In terms of performance, Asus offers the ROG Zephyrus Duo in a Core i9-10980H and Core i7-10875H processor options; our unit arrived in the former. Graphics options, including an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q or RTX 2070 Super Max-Q. The laptop can be configured with up to 48GB of RAM, although ours arrived with 32GB of RAM. Asus has equipped the Zephyrus Duo 15 with two 1-TB NVMe SSDs (M.2 2280) from Samsung.

So, let's take a look at how the Zephyrus Duo 15 fares in real-world gaming scenarios. Before we get into the numbers, it is worth mentioning that every game tested on the machine ran without a hitch. The games we tested, included Apex Legends, Battlefield V, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Overwatch, Far Cry New Dawn, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Grand Theft Auto V.

Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 #GearsofWar Gameplay#NoobGoingPro @ASUS_ROG @ASUS_ROG_IN #GamingSetup #TwoScreenAreBetterThanOnehttps://t.co/yM5T3gMzdZ pic.twitter.com/nZhA7g0zaO

— Carlsen Martin (@Carlsen0491) December 7, 2020

Far Cry New Dawn ran on 90fps on average on ultra settings at 1080p. Shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested on the highest setting, managing an average of 85 fps in 1080p resolution and 35fps on 4K resolution. Call of Duty just managed to cross the 90-fps threshold on average on its highest settings, while defaulting to 4K resolution gave us less than 40fps on average. Battlefield V, on the other hand, delivered an average of 80fps on 1080p resolution. Grand Theft Auto V ran on 82 fps on average on 1080p resolution. The last two games, Apex Legends and Overwatch regularly delivered an average of over 100fps with the latter going as high as 150-plus fps on high settings.

Gaming on the Zephyrus Duo 15, like a noob!! #BattlefieldV #NoobGamer @ASUSIndia @ASUS_ROG_IN @ASUS_ROG

Check Review Here https://t.co/yM5T3gMzdZ pic.twitter.com/IR7kugOUuk

— Carlsen Martin (@Carlsen0491) December 7, 2020

Now, let's take a look at a few benchmarking scores. Geekbench 4.3's overall performance test saw the Duo 15 score 32,121. Maxon's CPU-crunching Cinebench R15's multi-core test saw the ROG Duo 15 score 1,850 points, while the single-core test saw the laptop score 229 points. Overall, the ROG Zephyrus Duo manages to crush the category average in gaming as well as benchmarking test, at least as far as Intel gaming laptops are concerned. It is worth noting that only older titles like Counter Strike: Global Offensive will likely get close to the 300 fps mark to fully utilise the 300Hz refresh rate panel option.

The Asus Zephyrus Duo 15 features the company's new Active Aerodynamic System (AAS), which features a 28.5mm vent behind the ScreenPad, four heatsinks, five heat pipes, Liquid Metal thermal solution, and an anti-dust channel that prevents dust from accumulating on the fins of the fan. Since the cooling system sits right under the second display, very little heat leaks into the keyboard area. The top part of the keyboard did get slightly warm at times but it never caused me that much inconvenience.

Battery Life

For a gaming laptop with two screens, the Zephyrus Duo 15 stands up quite well to scrutiny. We got a little over three hours while multitasking with the second screen turned on. If you make some battery-saving tweaks, like running the laptop in battery saving mode, turning the second screen off, and switching to Nvidia Optimus, you should get around four and a half hours of battery life while watching content. You would think the dual 4K displays would eat up battery life, but that didn't seem to be the case. Battery life here is definitely not the best but quite decent.

What’s in the Box?

Before we get into the verdict, we'd like to address few of the caveats beforehand. First, the placement of the keyboard and mouse can be highly inconvenient. However, Asus has addressed both these issues. The included palm rest makes prolonged gaming or typing sessions a lot more comfortable, while the bundled gaming mouse, ensures you don't have to use the trackpad if you don't want to. Yes, Asus has opted to give buyers a full-fledged gaming mouse with the Zephyrus Duo 15.

One of the most noticeable absentees on the Duo 15 is the lack of a webcam. However, Asus has managed to turn this weakness into a strength, with the addition of a very-capable webcam in the box, which is pretty easy to clip on and use. The Zephyrus Duo 15 features powerful bottom-firing speakers, which are quite loud for a laptop. But if you aren't satisfied with the audio on the laptop, you'll be pleased to know that Asus has bundled a pair of gaming headphones in the box. And yes, both the gaming mouse and headphones feature customisable RGB lighting. Lastly, Asus also provides a quality backpack to carry the laptop around.

Verdict

The Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15's price in India starts from Rs 2,79,999, with our model falling at little over 3.5 lakh. Now, that's a hefty price to pay for a gaming laptop, but I believe it's worth it. To recall, the top-end Zephyrus S notebooks are priced close to the Rs 2.8 lakh mark. This means you are left with the choice of opting for the best Zephyrus S15 or S17 or the entry-level Duo 15 with two screens. And that's a pretty tough choice considering how capable the base Duo 15 model is.

The Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 has everything you need in a high-end gaming laptop, including a powerful CPU and GPU, an excellent cooling system, and a high-refresh-rate screen. But beyond the key drivers that make up for a gaming laptop, the Duo 15 also features the best incorporation of the second screen we've seen on a laptop, gaming or otherwise. This is definitely a big step up from last year's ZenBook Pro Duo.

The Zephyrus Duo 15 also features decent battery life, considering two screens and that powerful hardware. And let's not forget the slim form factor here. Additionally, Asus has also taken steps in the right direction to address caveats on this laptop with the bundled accessories. The ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 is one of the first evolutions of the gaming laptop, and I cannot foresee a scenario in which this machine doesn't earn a recommendation because of the sheer no-compromise approach to innovation.