I love the Duo series from Asus. Have been using an older one for a few years and I honestly can't use a normal laptop anymore. I was wanting to get it last year but with the massive delays I thought to wait for this year. I've gone through THREE of these, all 3 of which have had issues. First one had a really awful screen flickering issue that won't resolve with any settings changed or windows resets. I returned it and exchanged it for another, thinking I got a lemon. The second one was working fine until it randomly crashed. I had upgraded the ram to 64gb, so I buy back the 32 that came with it with no luck. Many windows resets and updates later, with no luck. I went ahead and returned and exchanged that one and decided to give it one more shot. The third one had the same issues as the second, though it worked for a few days more. Even with a fresh install of windows with no installed programs (other than what comes with windows by default) the laptop would randomly crash when doing nothing with no programs open. I got so frustrated I returned it. The Duo 14 for this year has been released, and as tempting as it is, the power offered by this one is just so tempting. I've been reading comments on here and on reddit with similar issues to mine, so I am not sure what's going on. I think asus has some QC stuff to work on. A shame, I really wanted to love this thing, and I do! But three units that don't work is really not ok, especially for the price.

I have had my Zephyrus as reviewed for a couple of months now. I would say your assessment is spot on. My use case though is a bit different that the general lumping of Content Creators. You see I am a developer by trade. The CPU having all those core (16, with HT gives 32 full fat threads) Make development tasks run well on this platform. Think a couple of non trivial Virtual Machines for example as well as FULL FAT SQL SERVER running locally. The screen real estate is very useful in this scenario as well. TBH I have added to my memory (Bumping the 32 gigs to 64 gigs) I have also added a second 2TB NVME drive because full fat VMs are not small things. Its costly for sure but a MAC with similar Horsepower and threads for Virtualization and even having just 2TB on onboard storage would run you significantly more and frankly VMs on a Mac suck... No this is the one unit that gives that all to me and frankly I love it...

This kind of machine with the absolute latest H/W on this planet should come at least with option for an OLED screen. Speaking of screens, I'm baffled as much as I am with the insane peak performance temperatures you've demoed, that they would put such high gloss over the second angled touch display. I can't imagine the ambient lighting scenario other than dim, far behind the laptop lamp lighting that it would allow for undistorted view of the screen. Most of the daytime user would spend checking out the ceiling paint while squinting to see what's actually being displayed. As for the practicality of the idea, for gaming, this is only going to be a distraction, but if you're gaming and simultaneously managing your Twitch streaming, chats, I can imagine it is absolutely revolutionary. Same for the Adobe and alike suites of design apps, to have quality pen input at disposal is also equally phenomenal of an idea. To have a similar quality input, at such high resolution, you'd have to buy a separate, high-end tablet or similar drawing device and those are mad expensive and average for about a $1K. I sincerely hope the main display on this machine is mat. I think you've made a point of it. I think. Thanks for the video! 🍻🍻!!!

Have to say, been heavily disappointed with mine. The new panel in HDR mode, probably due to software issue, loses 25% nits brightness and looks pastel like compared with my 2022 model from work. Keyboard stops functioning occasionally to a point I had to uninstall the HID drivers several times and reboot to work. Also frequently freezes and mouse locks in MUX mode, even after 3 full Windows resets. Awaiting my RMA, but heavily recommend proceeding with caution, especially for the price.

Thanks so much for this video, I have searched the entire web and this is literally the only video that mentions any productive work being done on such a powerful laptop other than gaming and fps etc.., great to know about its colour calibration, and especially showing that drawing pen in action in Photoshop, very refreshing to see this great laptop is not expensive just for gaming. at such a price point, many people will rather use it to generate income

The poor battery life is not because of display! It's the simple fact that AMD's Dragon Range is not monolithic, it has a separate always active I/O die which basically doubles the idle power draw compared to AMD's previous gen or current gen (Pheonix range) monolithic CPUs.

As much as I wanted to love mine, it was really buggy. The fans are LOUD! After owning it for only 3 weeks, the screen started flickering. It would freeze in the middle of just web browsing. Battery drains in less than 2 hours. Even though it has a fast processor, it would be nice if it worked all the time.

Great stuff, as usual, Alex. Do you know if NBC will also start touching on some gaming accessories for reviews, like mice, keyboards, headsets, or even monitors?

I received mine 2 weeks ago and I'm happy with it excepted for these points: 1. It very rarely randomly crashes or freeze. Althgouh after playing with graphic drivers I do not see these issues anymore. It happened once in Ubuntu but I'm not sure if it's hardware related or software related. I believe it's software. 2. This one is a big one no one mention: The screen blooming is really annoying with HDR on, especially in the browser with a dark theme but also in games in some scenarios. Unfortunately I can't return it because of how I imported it in my country, it's a big hassle. If I bought it in the US I would prob have returned it tho given how expensive it was with a 4090.

I only have the older Zenbook duo 15 that came with an i9 and 3070ti, but it still kicks so much ass. At work all the Apple cultists around me look ridiculous compared to me. They are all jealous that my PC looks like and operates like its from the future and they are like little kids with crayons and Leapfrog laptops that dont even have 1 touchscreen. Meanwhile I have 2 and I can actually game on mine. Yes, this laptop will make you better than others.

I've been reading your website forever. Subbed!

Excellent as always...

Laptop Wallpaper name please

Great review, great laptop! I played for 20 minutes with Duo 15 2021 in a store once and hated it. While being an amazing laptop on paper if I wanted to game or type on it comfortably I had to move it further away due to keyboard being placed too close. That forces you either to sit with twisted back in an uncomfortable position or be content with screen being too far back. I've recieved Blade 16 2 days ago and absolutely love it! Thanks for helping me with the right choice, Alex!

My question is whether an adequately equipped repair shop could decouple or otherwise upgrade at least one USB-C to Gen 4. That would really help future proof it with eGPU compatibility. The 5090 is around the corner. I would bet the mobile version comes later, so the next Zephyrus Duo 16 would be in 2026 is my guess. Annoying to be stuck with 4090 mobile specs though it’s no slouch. The build quality gives me pause when Asus isn’t exactly known for customer service when things fail…

I own the Zephyrus duo 15 SE. I would consider this if the main display was also 4K like my current setup, as I edit a lot of 4K videos (and sometimes 5.2k -6k videos) and can't go back to a lower resolution. it's a shame as I would like the larger screen real estate the main screen has been increased to

I wonder if bios/firmware/driver updates will improve idle consumption, or it's an expected result of chiplet architecture

would be awsome if this had a Centered thinkpad keyboard and trackpoint. Battery should also be bigger, looks tiny in there.

Thanks! Amazing work. What a beast!!

Are you reviewing the 7940Hs laptops soon?😝 I really enjoy your reviews!

Very detailed explanation. Sadly the battery life is long for 2 hrs only🥲by the way, what is the name of the shooting game there?

Is the main panel glossy or matte? Great review!

Fantastic review! Is it safe and normal this laptop reaches CPU temperatures 95 - 100 celsius while gaming?

I plan to mine monero and other privacy tokens with this. Since I am now free to roam the earth I need a portable beast.

This is art

Can you turn of the smaller screen if needed?

Great review but how did you get it working with Adobe products? The panels appear on the touchpad, but the controls don’t do anything, for example in Lightroom clarity, contrast etc slide but have no impact on image

Hi, does it come with a stylus? If not, which stylus are you using or recommend? Thank you in advance :)

Some say Money can't buy happiness What i can buy with money:::

Manufactures seem 'unwilling to commit'? You do know that Intel signed 'exclusivity contracts' with some of those so that only the Intel chips are offered initially (?)

Hi I have exactly the same Zephyrus Duo as you but somehow screenpad only recognizes my fingers works as a kind of trackpad. I can not do photoshop editing like your finger and asus pen. Do you have any idea what settings I might have to change?

what is the best, alienware m18 or zephyrus duo 16 ?

Asus makes some of the best stuff on the market rn !

Does it seem like the keyboard is hard to replace? I hate how much keyboards wear over time and how they get oil stains permanently on them.

which nvidia driver do you use on this laptop, the one preinstalled by asus. or one directly from nvidia?

Not having Thunderbolt 4 is my biggest gripe with this laptop, but everything else is excellent.

Where'd you get that shirt Alex? It looks good

It's not only the panzer, but also the true beast of ROG series. Scar 18 Plus SE may lose the No.1 title of ROG. The drawback of this year mode is DDR5-4800 instead of 5600, but the price is ridiculously unfriendly, even more expensive than Razer and Alienware.😃

Offtopic question: are you battle(non)sense?

I think they went with white to help distinguish it from the steam deck. I also would prefer black, but I get why they did that. You could argue playstation did the same against the xbox.

how many year does it last because i am scared or worried that this my 1st time purchase a laptop powered with amd ?

Is this the best laptop to buy? or is it alienware x16 or g14 4090

Can u guys review 2023 Asus G14? Thanks!

what is the best? Alienware m18 or Zephyrus duo 16 ?

Not adding USB4 when the CPU supports it is a crime.

Anyone happen to know what is the length and width of the screen pad plus?

Waiting for the predator helios 18 review

Is bad to leave the charger in for too long or all the time?

Does HDR on Mini-LED laptops only work when their are plugged in? That's the case with my Blade 16 and last year's Asus X16.

Mine died after six months, needed new mother board, £4,000, fantastic!

The bits using a pen and photoshop really highlight what a crazy good package this is for anyone doing that sort of content creation. I think the reason the touchscreen is glossy instead of matte is to enhance perceived brightness and crispness, as the new mini-LED screen might just make the older touchscreen a tad too bland as they stand side-by-side. The Duos are, I think, ASUS' flagship devices. Their previous models always packed more performance in nearly every metric on a compact chassis than damn near anything else. This one would seem to hit the mark, if not for the battery life. That is honestly baffling, last year's Duo had some of the best battery life of any windows machine, and certainly so for any windows machine with close to that performance, and the Zen 4 chip should be more efficient than the Zen 3+ one in last year's model. I'm hoping that's fixable with a firmware update to better manage it, as right now, I'm guessing the HX chip is guzzling power for simple tasks. Apple has shown mini-LED can coexist with outstanding battery life, but maybe they haven't nailed this one down. Maybe it's both. I can see the appeal for this if you are into photography, digital art, architecture, or really anything that the conveniently placed and tilted built-in touch-screen helps with. In that, it's not even close, as the competition all require an additional drawing table to compete. But for anyone else, it becomes a matter of deeper consideration. ... Also, real nice shirt. Got a link for that?

Is the rtx 4070 model SKU available in any market ?

temps?

I cannot even buy this in my dreams 😅 It says insufficent account balance

Realistically how hard is this to use on your lap ? Like not at all possible or maybe get used to it in some time once you get comfortable with it ? Also is it really heavy ? Can you carry it around and use it while standing and stuff like the m16 ? Dimensions seems off.. does it fit in a regular 15in sleeve ? Considering 16in laptops these days are the same footprint as 15in onces And one more thing, why wasn't any GPU benchmarks done in manual mode at 175w ? Is there a throttling issue or something?

I would rather prefered to have GPU and CPU (i9) from Intel on the Zephyrus Duo 16…😢 Why can ASUS do this on the ROG Flow Z13 and not with the Zephyrus????

Not a fan of the design and the portability. The price is the final nail in the coffin. If you have high disposable income and have some niche use for the extra display, it may add value. But the keyboard, trackpad, weight, poor battery life, and price make this a tough buy for a tiny demographic.

Paradise of creators

Just got it this month and to be honest, I have a lot of driver issues this past few days from display not responding to restarting by itself 😢 Must admit, it would be a great laptop if Asus fixes their drivers especially the “Armoury Create”

Pointless specs for gaming when all recent games run so terribly on even the most powerful PC rigs.

Does anyone have an issue with keyboard lighting up, but not the display. It's brand new 1st boot up

i like it

잘생겼다!!

It has been a long time since I bothered to check out any newer high end gaming laptop, at stores of course, I don't have that kind of money to waste, and finally seeing this video - I'm shocked - are you serious? 99C CPU, 86 GPU temperatures???? I am surprised you didn't end up with a black pool of molten plastic on your desk, WOW! Those kind of temperatures will result in a broken machine so soon, I don't think it would even outlast its original warranty, or maybe just about. It's just not practical, or realistic, to buy these machines, If I was asked, and I know I'm not. I can't state enough how bad that is for the hardware, and the rest of the machine, and your lap if you dare to place the $5,000+ machine at such risk, and your pants with chance of being set on fire. With the kind of INSANE money they're asking for these ultra high end gaming laptops, there really should be no options when it comes to cooling methods. All of those high end machines, $2,500 - $3,000 and up should come STANDARD with the best liquid cooling possible. For safety and fairness to the wasteful buyer.

How screen plus add task bar😢

cpu is error..why not intel 😅

With this poor battery life its an absolute disappointment. Not sure why they even launched it.

Don't buy, the laptop every year drop the price 30%

Asus hat die Lautstärke immer noch nicht im Griff. Kann man immer noch benutzen als Föhn, einen teueren Föhn 🤣

people are stupid complaining about the noise. Don't buy a gaming laptop if you care about the damn noise. Or don't buy one at all get a damn desktop or get one with i3

4090? Boy, are you seriously? Not even close. Don't support this scam, plz.

Is it a better option than the razer blade 18 2023 model? Since it has a lot of software issues and crashes, I'm a little confused to go for it.

mmm fkin yummy

Saw the Asus and thought it was strix g16 for a moment 🥲