ASUS ZenBook Pro 14 Duo OLED Review – Putting Power Into Creativity

The new ZenBook Pro 14 Duo from ASUS takes the ZenBook Duo 14 and pushes it to the next level—here’s our review on this new creator laptop. With its second, versatile screen and 12th Gen Intel® Core processor, and you’re looking at one of the best laptops for creators currently on the market.

Specifications

Design

Slim, black, cool and professional—ASUS didn’t change much from earlier ZenBook Duo designs, which is great because I love how it already looks. With the concentric finish emanating out of the ASUS logo at the top, the minimalistic look is just a joy to look at. 

Besides the good looks, the ZenBook Pro 14 Duo OLED also has a nice size and weight. Its thickness is 1.79 – 1.96 cm and its weight is 1.75 kg. While it is thicker and heavier compared to last year’s ZenBook Duo 14’s 1.69 – 1.73 cm thickness and 1.53 kg weight, the other improvements with the ZenBook Pro 14 Duo OLED more than make up for it.

Instead of the ErgoLift design which raises the laptop slightly, the ZenBook Pro 14 Duo OLED uses AAS Ultra technology, which raises the second screen slightly while keeping the laptop flat on whatever surface it’s on. It still has all the benefits of ASUS’s ErgoLift design, but I find AAS Ultra to be more comfortable when typing or using on my lap.

Displays

This is a 14.5-inch laptop with a whopping 2.8K resolution (2880 x 1800) 16:10 OLED screen for its main display. It’s almost double the usual resolution of 1080p. The first time I tried out the ZenBook Pro 14 Duo OLED for this review, I wondered why the mouse cursor travelled so slowly. This is simply because of the sheer number of pixels packed into an otherwise normal-sized laptop screen!

As a result, the visual quality is insane. Everything is so clear, I feel like I can see my future. In fact, the screen even makes my monitor look bad. Essentially, it’s pretty much 4K quality. I have absolutely no complaints about the main display. Top it off with its 120 Hz refresh rate and the screen is practically perfect for gaming.

The second display is the Screenpad Plus, a 12.7-inch, 32:10 OLED screen with 2880 x 864 resolution. It also has 120 Hz refresh rate, and it’s the main reason why ASUS is marketing the ZenBook Pro 14 Duo OLED as a laptop for creators. Since it’s touchscreen-enabled, you can draw, scroll, and even edit videos using the ScreenPad Plus. It’s perfect for graphic designers or illustrators as it’s basically a drawing tablet and a laptop fused into one. The laptop also comes with its own stylus, the ASUS pen 2.0, which is really easy to use.

Above the main display, you also have an IR webcam. Our review unit uses a 720p webcam, so while the quality may not be the best, it’s still very good to have since the laptop basically has you covered on everything.

Keyboard and Touchpad

Due to the existence of the Screenpad Plus, the keyboard area has less space. Despite that, ASUS managed to make things work with smaller keys and a more compact layout. It took some time for me to get used to, probably because my fingers are fat, but it’s surprisingly pretty comfortable to type on. The keys are very quiet and the backlight is only available in white.

To accommodate this layout, the touchpad is located on the right. Unfortunately for left-handed people, you may find this to be very annoying. I noticed that the touchpad can be a bit unresponsive sometimes, especially in games, but that’s why the mouse was invented.

I/O Ports

So here’s what the laptop is packing in terms of ports:

• 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A
• 2x Thunderbolt™ 4 supports display / power delivery
• 1x HDMI 2.1
• 1x 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack
• 1x DC-in
• SD Express 7.0 card reader

With only ONE Type A USB port which you’ll probably be using for a mouse, it feels very limited. Worse still for lefties, the USB port is located on the right side of the laptop. While the HDMI port and SD card reader are always nice to have, the lack of a USB-C port, which has become rather commonplace for many devices is very disheartening. A multiport USB hub is basically mandatory if you want this to be your work laptop.

Audio

The audio is really clear—a side effect of its amazing design. As AAS Ultra makes it so that there’s space between the ScreenPad Plus and the bottom of the laptop, sound travels a lot clearer. You can definitely tell the difference in audio quality between this and other laptops. If you want any better, then you need to use headphones.

Battery Performance

Battery-wise, the laptop is sadly below average in my opinion. As you can tell from the image above, I started using the laptop without it being plugged in at around 5.30 am. 3 hours later, it went from 100% to 6% through just general use (scrolling, reading, watching videos), nothing too intensive). Don’t expect to game on this laptop without being plugged in.

You can save battery by turning off the ScreenPad Plus, but even then, the battery life isn’t that much longer. At least the charging is decent. 1 hour of doing nothing and letting it charge takes it from 6% to 75%.

Gaming Performance

Our review ZenBook Pro 14 Duo OLED unit uses an i7-12700H CPU and RTX 3050 Ti GPU. Despite not being a gaming laptop, I figured it should run games fairly decently, and it did.

I first tested Ghostrunner on the laptop. On epic graphics setting, the game runs at over 30 FPS, only dropping to 15 FPS during more intense sections. With lower graphics settings, it should be able to play this fast-paced parkour action game without any problem.

Next, I tested Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. On high quality graphics, the game runs at 120 FPS on average, which is really good, especially since this isn’t a gaming laptop. 

Lastly, I tested Resident Evil: Village. The game automatically set the graphics to a recommended setting for me, and it stayed at 120 FPS, but as you can see that the graphics are quite pixelated. I switched to the “prioritise graphics” preset, and the game looked a lot better, on top of being able to run at around 90 FPS. However, don’t turn on ray tracing, because the game stays just above 20 FPS and becomes very hard to play.

Overall, for a non-gaming laptop, the ZenBook Pro 14 Duo OLED can run almost any game. For the extremely demanding games, you might need to lower the settings a bit, but it’s still a huge improvement compared to the ZenBook Duo 14, which runs Counter-Strike: Global Offensive at around 30 FPS.

In addition, during the entire time when I was testing the ZenBook Pro 14 Duo OLED for this review, it never got too hot. At most, it just goes over 70°C slightly, never burning me or causing me discomfort from the heat. This is likely due to the AAS Ultra design, since there’s a lot of space for ventilation.

Benchmarking

Comparing the score to the ZenBook Duo 14, and it’s clear that the ZenBook Pro 14 Duo OLED is miles better. 3DMark Time Spy gives it a score of 4,942, a gigantic improvement over ZenBook Duo 14’s score of 1,352.

On CineBench, the ZenBook Pro 14 Duo OLED scored 9,742 for multi core performance, and 1,733 for single core performance. Its single core performance is the highest-ranked result when compared to other laptops with identical specs.

Closing Thoughts

That’s pretty much it for this ZenBook Pro 14 Duo OLED review. If the ZenBook Duo 14 doesn’t have enough firepower for you, then the ZenBook Pro 14 Duo OLED definitely has what you need. Yes, the Pro is a lot more expensive than the ZenBook Duo 14 (RM 8,999 vs RM 5,999), but the better specs basically make this a mid-range gaming laptop with the utility of a creator laptop.

Its only major flaw is the lack of USB ports, which can be solved with a multiport USB hub. A more minor problem will be the low battery life, but as long as you’re near a plug point and can use the charger, it shouldn’t be an issue. Despite these problems, I still think the ZenBook Pro 14 Duo OLED is an excellent choice for people who do a lot of design work while wanting a laptop they can game on.

You can learn more about the ZenBook Pro 14 Duo OLED or buy one yourself over on the ASUS official website.

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