4 months ago
The ASUS Zenbook Duo was easy 1 of my favourite laptops of 2024 arsenic it was nan first dual-screen notebook really worthy buying. But now astatine CES 2026, ASUS has fixed nan second-gen exemplary a complete revamp pinch practically each nan upgrades and tweaks I’ve been hoping for.
Like nan remainder of nan Zenbook line, nan 2026 Duo is getting ASUS’ Ceraluminum curen connected its lid, bottommost and kickstand, which not only looks awesome but it adds an other spot of durability and scratch resistance. There’s besides an improved magnetic latch strategy and Bluetooth relationship for its detachable keyboard to thief support it charged up and paired much reliably. However, nan biggest upgrade is ASUS’ all-new "hideaway" hinge. Not only does it let nan strategy to unfold level against a table, it besides massively shrinks nan spread betwixt nan laptop’s 2 3K 144Hz Lumina Pro OLED displays to conscionable 8.28 mm. That’s a simplification of 70 percent compared to nan erstwhile exemplary and it makes nan thought of utilizing a dual surface laptop conscionable that overmuch much seamless and appealing than before.
Another important upgrade is that contempt having a importantly larger 99Whr artillery (up from 75Whr connected its predecessor), nan wide footprint of nan second-gen Zenbook Duo is really 5 percent smaller than before. That makes it noticeably much compact without sacrificing connected weight aliases thinness, which is staying beautiful overmuch nan aforesaid astatine 3.6 pounds and 0.77 to 0.9 inches heavy (depending connected wherever you measure). Connectivity remains fantabulous arsenic well, pinch ASUS including Wi-Fi 7, 2 USB-C pinch Thunderbolt 4, a USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 connector and moreover a full-size HDMI 2.1 jack. And for each nan artists retired there, nan Zenbook Duo besides supports stylus input via nan ASUS Pen 3.0, truthful you tin easy detach nan wireless keyboard and usage either surface arsenic a built-in drafting tablet. That said, it’s presently unclear if nan stylus comes included aliases not.
Meanwhile connected nan inside, nan Zenbook Duo features either an Intel Core Ultra 7 355 aliases Ultra 9 386H spot pinch up to 32GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. On apical of that, ASUS accrued nan Duo’s TDP to 45 watts, which is different notable bump up complete nan original. So not only does it person a larger battery, its capacity is getting a large boost arsenic well, particularly erstwhile mixed pinch nan overmuch improved onboard graphics from Intel’s latest integrated Arc GPU.
Here's really nan caller 2026 ASUS Zenbook duo (right) stacks up against nan outgoing exemplary (left). (Sam Rutherford for Engadget)
I cognize a batch of group retired location still aren’t convinced that dual surface laptops request to beryllium a thing, and that’s wholly OK. But arsenic nan benignant of personification who feels for illustration they are missing a limb erstwhile I’m walking and distant from my 2 monitors astatine home, nan second-gen Zenbook Duo feels for illustration a awesome refinement of an already awesome idea. It’s sewage a bigger battery, faster capacity and a hugely streamlined creation without gaining immoderate bulkiness aliases weight. Out of each of nan laptops I’ve seen astatine CES 2026, this is nan 1 I astir wish I could drawback and commencement utilizing correct away.
The 1 imaginable interest is that ASUS has yet to merchandise pricing for nan caller Zenbook Duo aliases opportunity erstwhile it will spell connected sale. So here’s hoping it won’t break nan slope erstwhile it arrives sometime later this year.
