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ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 16

This laptop is a gaming powerhouse, and even comes with two screens for multitaskers.

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Sometimes, a piece of tech lands in my lap that instantly wows me. It happens rather infrequently, but when it does, I know I'm in for a treat pretty much right off the bat. This is precisely the feeling and impression that the ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 gave me when I unpacked it and flipped open the laptop for the first time, and this is because this is not just a regular gaming laptop. No. This is a beautifully designed product that happens to double-up its efforts when it comes to working displays.

The Zephyrus Duo gets its name from the dual-monitor display serving that it offers. This isn't dual-monitor in the sense that you have two screens side-by-side, rather you have a traditional laptop screen that is 16-inches in size that can serve up visuals at QHD (2K) quality and at up to 165Hz, and this is matched up with a smaller touchscreen enabled display that sits below the main display and above the keyboard at an angled position. This screen, known as the Screenpad, can be used to operate apps and other features by using your fingers or by using the cursor within its boundaries. It's a really interesting concept, one that will catch your eye instantly and leave you intoxicated by its design, even if actually using the Screenpad makes for a different story. And I say this, as I've come to realise over my testing of this laptop, that the Screenpad is more a novelty than an actually useful feature. But, that's not to say it isn't pretty cool all the same.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 16
ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 16ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 16

Since the Zephyrus Duo is a gaming laptop, you're probably not exactly all too concerned about the interesting novelties that it offers, and more interested in how it you know... actually plays video games. I'm happy to say that this laptop is an absolute monster when it comes to this, although that is taking into account the hardware that powers the review unit I've been testing. Under the hood, this Zephyrus Duo has an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX CPU, alongside an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, and 64GBs of DDR6 RAM. Essentially, you'll be able to play most games on the market today at the highest possible graphical settings and still get frame rates of over 80, even when talking about the most demanding of titles.

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I know this as I've tested Forza Horizon 5, Psychonauts 2, Life is Strange: True Colors, and more, and each game has been able to serve up fantastic visuals that truly utilise the strengths of the QHD display, and yet still run incredibly smoothly and without any drops in frame rate or performance, even when during tasking situations. Whether you're racing down the golden coastline of Baja California in Forza, in the weirdest and most colourful depths of someone's mind in Psychonauts, or rather exploring the vibrant town of Haven Springs in Life is Strange, the Zephyrus Duo is truly a laptop that can do it all.

Where some laptops can offer up similar performance at the cost of generating tons of noise and heat, the Zephyrus Duo also manages to work around this problem rather well. Yes, the fans aren't as quiet as the impressive cooling system in the Strix Scar 17, and likewise, you don't get a device that remains as icy cool as that larger-profiled gadget. But as you can tell by that phrasing, the Zephyrus Duo isn't as large and isn't as thick as the Strix Scar 17, so you can't expect a similar level of performance here. That's not to say it's poor at keeping cool and quiet though, because it really isn't.

Similarly, the battery does take a bit of a beating when playing games at high qualities, meaning you'll need to be plugged into the mains if you want to have a lengthy gaming session. For simple word processing, browsing the web, or other typical laptop tasks, the battery is far more competent and will last a considerable amount of time without needing to juice it up.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 16ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 16
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With all the hardware and features that the Zephyrus Duo offers in mind, you should be aware that this is quite a heavy laptop, even if it has quite slim proportions when considering other gaming laptops on the market. Likewise, I might just be me being picky, but I'm not a huge fan of the placement of the keyboard and mouse pad, which are placed right at the edges of the Zephyrus Duo due to the fact that this laptop has very little unused space on its body. You could say that the lack of negative space on the body is a positive factor, but I like having a bit of room to rest my palm when using a trackpad, which is not on offer with this device. The trackpad is also very small, and doesn't allow you much room to move around on it.

But even though I have a few minor issues with the Zephyrus Duo 16, for the most part, the quality and fantastic performance of this laptop shine through. This is a truly brilliant gadget, one that is powerful, efficient, and designed in such a way that it's appearance makes other gaming laptops look subpar. The catch with having such impressive positives is that it will cost you an arm and a leg to buy one, but if you have the cash to splash and don't want to skimp on quality, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this device.

09 Gamereactor UK
9 / 10
overall score
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ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 16

ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 16

HARDWARE. Written by Ben Lyons

This laptop is a gaming powerhouse, and even comes with two screens for multitaskers.



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