The Zenbook Duo series is not only the pinnacle of ASUS’ notebook line-up but also one of the most iconic laptops of the recent years, thanks to its unique dual-screen implementation. For 2023, we’re taking things up a notch across the board, taking our beloved Zenbook Duo to a league of its own and making it one of the most capable and productive machines for creators!
From being a thin and light notebook in 2019, the new ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED (2023) is a perfectly well-rounded powerhouse that is far more capable and robust while retaining the form factor of its non-Pro forefather.
The list of upgrades starts with the new AAS Ultra mechanism, which opens the chassis to allow for significantly higher airflow and cooling while also raising the ScreenPad Plus secondary screen to make the viewing experience more seamless and immersive.
The improved cooling system meant we could offer way more powerful internals in this compact size. Specifications include up to a 13th Gen Intel Core i9 CPU, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 graphics, 32GB of memory and much more. It really is an engineering marvel. Did we mention that it has a bigger battery and more ports too? While raising the bar so high, the ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED manages to be extremely portable: a sleek 17.9mm chassis and 1.75kg weight. Never was it possible to get so much done from such a small machine!
As with most ASUS notebooks, the Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED also offers a best-in-class display experience: 14.5” 2.8K OLED with 120Hz, high brightness and perfect colour accuracy. The good stuff continues to the ScreenPad Plus too, with a bigger and sharper 12.7” 120Hz touchscreen with 100% DCI-P3 colour — better than the primary panels of most other laptops!
Some other upgrades over its 2022 namesake include industry’s strictest military-grade MIL-STD 810H durability, Antimicrobial Guard, environmentally-friendly EPEAT Silver rating, higher performance and improved reflection control on the ScreenPad Plus.
It’s also more complete now with a slew of features that make multi-tasking easier and more user-friendly. It won’t take you more than a few minutes to be wowed by everything it can do.
All things considered, it’s not difficult to understand why the ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED is a fitting crown jewel of our notebook line up for the year.
Design
The ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED is an evolution of the stunningly classy Zenbook industrial design. The entire internal layout was redesigned to enable a form factor that can offer much more in a compact body. The main reason to do this was to incorporate the exclusive AAS Ultra (Active Aerodynamic System Ultra) mechanism, which not only raises both the screens to a more ergonomic angle but also improves thermal performance.
As the laptop opens, the secondary display rises by up to 12° for a better view and a more seamless flow from one screen to another. The biggest advantage is the massive opening for air intake, achieving up to 38% higher airflow for better sustained performance to improve a user’s light content creation and gaming experience.
Even with this transforming design, beefy internals and a large battery, the ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED is still just 17.9mm thin. Moreover, its weight is a meagre 1.75kgs, thanks to an exquisitely crafted Magnesium-Aluminium alloy body, which is far more durable yet lightweight compared to conventional all-metal laptops.
All of these combines to make the ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED the best tool for productivity while being extremely portable. We’ve also ensured that the redesign further improves the ergonomics of typing and viewing and interacting with the screens.
The outer design continues to be minimal like in the years before, with a discreet Tech Black colourway along with our iconic brushed metal in concentric circles finish, with an anti-fingerprint coating on top.
Display
While ASUS has been using OLED panels on its notebooks for a few years now and is the market leader, the Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED takes it even farther with the world’s first 120Hz OLED panel. This best-in-class panel spans 14.5” and has a dense 2.8K resolution (2880 x 1800). It has a smooth 120Hz refresh rate and a response time of just 0.2ms — figures that even many gaming laptops struggle to match!
To further assist our creation-focussed userbase, we’ve ensured that the screen is very colour accurate and calibrated out-of-the-box. It covers 100% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut and is also Pantone-validated, so you know that the colours you get are exactly how they are intended to be.
The OLED panel has an incredible brightness of 550nits, so outdoor legibility will not be an issue. It also allows the screen to be compliant with Dolby Vision and VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500 standards.
The second screen gets massive upgrades as well, spanning 12.7” now with a 32:10 aspect ratio (2880 x 864), exactly half of the main screen. It has a special antiglare etching on the surface which scatters light more evenly, so overhead lights will not create unwanted reflections.
Along with the resolution, the ScreenPad Plus matches the primary screen in other aspects as well: 100% DCI-P3 colour, 120Hz refresh rate and 500nits of peak brightness. Both the screens on the ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED also support stylus input with 4,096-level pressure sensitivity.
The angle of the hinge has been increased to 12° for a larger 20mm air intake as well as a smaller gap between the screens for better immersion.
Lastly, the software suite to control the interaction between both the screens has been improved with better stability, more features and use cases. To find out more, launch the ScreenXpert 3 application.
Performance
UX8402 internal image
The primary reason to develop the intricate AAS Ultra mechanism is to allow for copious amounts of ait intake to keep the internals cool. As a result, we are able to offer 38% increased airflow, which means the laptop can remain cooler and be more powerful. Surface temperatures are also 4°C lower.
In addition to AAS Ultra, the ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED also features dual 12V fans with 97 blades and 93 blades and two Ø8 heat pipes to further enhance heat dissipation efficiency and operates at up to 85W combined TDP (CPU+GPU) nonstop.
As a result, while retaining the dimensions of its predecessor, the 2023 ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED is way more powerful. The combination of Intel’s 13th Gen i9 H series CPUs which can operate at up to 5.4GHz, and Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4050 is a force to be reckoned with. You’ll be able to breeze through heavy creative tasks or light games with ease.
Another feature that creators will appreciate is the choice of Nvidia Studio drivers. Unlike the conventional gaming-centric drivers that accompany RTX GPUs, Studio drivers are meant for creative applications, with an emphasis on compatibility, stability and performance.
And if you want more power, just head to MyASUS > Customization > Performance, and tune the CPU and fan profiles to your liking. For instance, if you need a burst of power while rendering a video, switch to the Performance mode. On the other hand, if you’re just doing light work and will be on the go, move to the Whisper mode for best battery life.
Furthermore, the laptop comes with up to 32GB of LPDDR5 (4800MHz) RAM and 1TB of PCIe Gen 4 x4 Performance SSD (6.5 GB/s) storage, ensuring that there will be bottlenecks.
User Experience
ScreenPad Plus: the upgraded secondary screen now comes with more features for ease of use. These not only increase your productivity but also allow for way more shortcuts to be used, better multi-tasking, multiple workflows and more. It can even be used as a giant touchpad or drawing tablet, so you won’t have to resort to additional accessories to do your work while on the go. We have also added utilities such as handwriting recognition, custom hot keys, numpad and personalized Control panel.
|
Brightness
A brightness slider enables easy brightness adjustments. |
|
All apps
Launch any app on the ScreenPad Plus via this shortcut. |
|
App switcher
Drag an app onto the App Switcher icon to launch the app on ScreenPad Plus. You can also choose how much of the screen an app should occupy. |
|
App navigator
Tap the App Navigator icon to view all open apps on the main screen and ScreenPad Plus. |
|
ViewMax
Maximize your viewing experience by dragging an app onto the ViewMax icon to view it on the main display and ScreenPad Plus. |
|
Touchpad Mode
A three-finger tap temporarily turns ScreenPad Plus into a large full-width touchpad. You can turn this feature on or off in Settings. |
|
Task group
Customize app groups and use the Task Group icon to open multiple apps with one tap. |
|
Windows Flick
To move apps between the two screens, simply flick the top of an app to send it instantly to the other screen. |
|
Link to MyASUS
Link to MyASUS in ScreenPad Plus gives you easy access to your phone, so you can make or receive calls seamlessly. |
|
Control Panel
ASUS Control Panel gives you precise and intuitive creative controls for compatible apps on the main screen. |
Exhaustive connectivity: While compact, the ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED offers a host of ports. These include 2 x Thunderbolt 4 ports (for 40Gb/s data, 100W power and external 4K displays), USB 3.2 Gen 2 (Type-A), HDMI 2.1 FRL (up to 8K 60Hz or 4K 120Hz output), micro–SD Express 7.1, 3.5mm combo audio jack. Ports which are unlikely to be accessed frequently, including the DC power point, are located on the back.
Large battery and fast charging: the ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED has a large 76WHrs battery with support for 180W fast charging. You can also use either of the Thunderbolt 4 ports for charging at up to 100W via Type-C.
ErgoSense keyboard: with the aim of offering a typing experience similar to bigger laptops and keyboards, the Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED has an ASUS ErgoSense keyboard. Its key characteristics include 18.5mm key pitch, 1.4mm key travel and 0.2mm concave curvature. The utility of the keyboard is further expanded by the inclusion of general F1 – F12 keys, independent function keys, quick hotkeys and additional ScreenPad Plus-centric keys.
Immersive audio: along with an excellent display, the ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED also offers a great audio experience. The audio system has been carefully tuned by experts from the ASUS Golden Ear team and certified by audio specialists Harman Kardon to ensure the very best sound for all kinds of content. It outputs louder volumes, richer depth and better surround-sound effects compared to other laptops of a similar size. There’s also Dolby Atmos support for higher clarity and better spatial separation.
The audio system of the ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED is also driven by a smart amplifier that is a powerful DSP chip that can enhance the maximum volume up to 350% with clearer sound at all frequencies while preventing long-term damage to the sensitive speaker voice coils. Creating or listening to audio in your videos, movies, music, or games has never sounded better!
The laptop also features the new AI Noise cancelling technology for two-way noise reduction during calls and meetings.
HD webcam with IR and depth sensors: the top bezel houses a 5MP HD webcam with infrared sensor array for presence detection (Intel AdaptiveLock). A new colour sensor also makes the cut, which can measure the brightness and temperature of the surroundings and adjust the display accordingly.
ProArt Creator Hub: The ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED also features the ProArt Creator Hub software that is a tool designed to help professionals optimize system settings, calibrate connected monitors, and quickly access vital apps. Enjoy better laptop performance, better colour accuracy, and improved workflows with ProArt Creator Hub.
Users can not only quickly check the hardware status of the laptop on the dashboard page of the ProArt Creator Hub, but also can customize the Fan profile based on their preferences between Whisper, Standard, Performance, and Full-speed modes.
Colour accuracy of any display will usually shift over time. ProArt Creator Hub allows creators to easily recalibrate the display. When calibration is finished, a colour report is provided so creators can quickly review the new colour parameters.
When the colour calibration function is turned on, a calibration window will appear in the centre of the screen. To begin the calibration process, the user needs to align the lens of the colour calibrator with the colour calibration window and press the Start key.
When colour calibration completed, a window will open that allows users to compare examples of colours before and after calibration. The software also automatically generates a colour calibration report that shows brightness, contrast, and colour Delta E.
Creators often use multiple software tools when working. To help creators work efficiently, ProArt Creator Hub provides a Work Smart function that lets users create task groups that make it possible to open multiple applications simultaneously with just one click.
The Work Smart function allows users to create and name eight task groups, allowing creators to build task groups that suit various types of projects.
The Performance Optimization page has Resource Monitor, App Power Priority, and Clean File new functions. On the Resource Monitor page, users can easily check the CPU and memory usage of each application and can quickly release the memory occupied by idle software via the Free up memory button for keeping the laptop operating smoothly.
On the App Power Priority page, users can set the key application as high priority, then the system will allocate more performance resources to the key application, helping users to finish work faster.
On the Clean File page, users can quickly find temporary files via the Scan button and delete those files to release the disk space of the laptop.
EPEAT Silver rating: one of our objectives at ASUS for the year is to take steps towards sustainability in terms of product design. With that in mind, our laptops are rethought in a way that all materials being used are ethically sourced and their usable life is extended as much as possible. This mission has helped us achieve EPEAT Silver rating for the Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED, making our strive for eco-friendliness official.
Military-grade durability: the ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED, even with this unique design and chassis, is one of the most durable and safe laptops available in the market right now, with the industry’s strictest military-grade MIL-STD 810H certification, with 8 rigorous tests and 21 punishing procedures.
ASUS Antimicrobial Guard: The Covid years have highlighted the importance of health and hygiene. To assist in that, we have equipped the laptop with a proprietary Antimicrobial Guard on the keyboard deck (entire C panel) that not only inhibits bacterial growth but also kills them over a period, keeping the machine pristine.
HP OMEN 
