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 9iRazer'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.

Source: Asus

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  • ajp_anton - Friday, January 12, 2024 - link

    Why does this not support Thunderbolt 5? I thought that was supposed to be supported specifically in Meteor Lake.
  • Ryan Smith - Friday, January 12, 2024 - link

    Thunderbolt 5 is not a Meteor Lake feature. The SoC only features an integrated Thunderbolt 4 controller. (MTL was too early for TB5 integration; Intel only started shipping their discrete controller last quarter)
  • skavi - Friday, January 12, 2024 - link

    how’d they fit a 75 Wh battery in there? hopefully they didn’t skimp on the thermal side.
  • meacupla - Friday, January 12, 2024 - link

    It's a lot thicker and heavier than a thin and light laptop.
    They did not skimp on cooling, because the OLED panel is heat sensitive.

    One of the LTT channels did a tear down of it.
    The main problem it has is that the heatsink and NVMe slot are sandwiched between the mobo and second screen. Swapping SSDs and cleaning out dust is going to be a pain.
  • wr3zzz - Saturday, January 13, 2024 - link

    No one is ever going to use this thing as a tablet because of the weight and because it's Windows. Lenovo and Huawei are doing it right by making regular Android tablets that can be use as portable Windows display, except both are proprietary.
  • Tamerlin42 - Sunday, January 14, 2024 - link

    I'm hoping for a Zen4 version with Thunderbolt, at least two ports. Preferably more.
  • 10basetom - Tuesday, January 16, 2024 - link

    Surprising not to see WiFi 7.
  • HaninAT - Wednesday, January 17, 2024 - link

    Those asking for Thunderbolt support... What do you use it for?
  • TMDDX - Thursday, February 1, 2024 - link

    That over/under on a precarious center stand configuration looks like an express ticket to cracked screen town.

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