Asus ZenBook Pro Duo 15 OLED (UX582L) review: A premium dual-screen laptop for creative pros

Asus is perfectly recognized for its unique strategy to notebook style and design, and specially the plan of second screens. Before this calendar year I reviewed the fourteen-inch ZenBook Duo fourteen (UX482), which incorporates a total-width second monitor that lifts and tilts up when the notebook is opened. The new ZenBook Professional Duo 15 OLED (UX582L) has the similar second monitor configuration, in a bigger kind variable. It really is a beast in phrases of dimensions and excess weight, but with an Intel Core i9 processor, discrete Nvidia graphics, a tremendous-dazzling high-resolution 15.six-inch OLED monitor and features developed for creators, could it be a contender, even with a $3,000 price tag? 

Several individuals will want to carry the ZenBook Professional Duo 15 OLED very considerably, as it weighs two.34kg (five.16lbs) and steps 35.98cm vast by 24.92cm deep by two.15cm thick (fourteen.17in. x 9.81in. x .85in.). That suggests it will will need a big bag and solid shoulders. The electric power offer is chunky and will increase more excess weight — and it might perfectly be necessary, offered this laptop’s disappointing battery lifetime (see beneath). 

The ZenBook Professional Duo 15 OLED is accredited to fulfill MIL-STD 810G and so need to cope perfectly with the tough and tumble of a notebook bag. Still, it is really great to get a bundled sleeve, which need to avert bag dust from fouling ports and the plentiful air vents on the two sides of the chassis, as perfectly as defending the deep blue/gray chassis. This Celestial Blue livery will be common from any variety of other Asus laptops. 

The outside the house of the ZenBook Professional Duo 15 OLED, like its ‘Duo’ brethren, presents no indicator of the radically distinctive monitor arrangement within. Open up and a second monitor — the ScreenPad Plus — raises itself to sit at an angle developed for less difficult viewing than if the monitor had been flat. The ScreenPad As well as occupies additional than 50 percent of the house typically available to the keyboard and touchpad. I calculated its panel at 12.5cm deep (this contains the bezel), even though the keyboard part has 10.5cm of depth (which includes the encompass into which it is really recessed). 

The keyboard keys are typical in dimensions and present an appropriate one.4mm of journey. You can find a extended row of 50 percent-peak Fn keys with all the standard suspects, in addition a couple that relate to the second monitor. The arrow keys are 50 percent-peak and double-width, and there’s a vast but not additional-tall Enter vital.  

You can find a little additional resistance than standard on the downward vital press, which slowed my typing down a bit, but I uncovered it at ease adequate in shorter bursts. Nonetheless, the absence of a wrist rest and the awkward positioning of the touchpad are additional severe challenges, for me at least. 

In phrases of the wrist rest, by my measurement the keyboard sits 20mm earlier mentioned desk peak. That leaves your wrists hanging in mid-air when typing except if you use a different wrist rest. Asus does give 1, and if you strategy to carry this notebook about you need to consider providing it bag-house, despite the fact that it might not be feasible to use it in cramped disorders this kind of as on trains or airplanes. 

Touchpads commonly sit beneath the keyboard in the wrist rest region. As which is not doable listed here, the touchpad is relocated to the appropriate of the keyboard, and also rotated by means of 90 degrees, providing it a portrait component ratio. This is the similar configuration as in the ZenBook Duo fourteen (UX482). As with the fourteen-inch product, the touchpad is truly a third monitor, doubling up to give a variety pad which is toggled by pressing an icon in its upper appropriate corner. 

At a time when touchpads are obtaining bigger relatively than smaller sized, the portrait orientation feels awkward in use. That claimed, I can fault neither its responsiveness nor the clarity and brightness of the variety pad. If you use an external mouse or other unit you’ll only dismiss the touchpad, and alternate navigation solutions are available through the contact delicate key monitor and the ScreenPad As well as.  

Asus also provides a stylus which is driven by a single AAAA battery. It really is perfectly weighted and at ease to use, and supports 4,096 pressure ranges. It magnetises to the keyboard, but not to both side of the notebook, and there’s no inside of-chassis residence for it. As a outcome, it is really pretty possible to be mislaid. 

The key monitor is a 15.six-inch 4K (3840 x 2160) OLED contact panel with a 16:9 component ratio. It sits in relatively massive bezels, but the depth of the base bezel is obscured by the raised ScreenPad As well as. The upper bezel houses an High definition webcam with IR for Windows Good day facial area authentication. Peak brightness is 550 nits, despite the fact that this routinely dials down when the procedure is operating on battery electric power.  

As befits a monitor aimed at creators, the OLED show is a joy to work with. Movie is pin-sharp, with terrific colour rendering and the 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut showing off to terrific effect. The show is also Pantone Validated.  

The audio subsystem in some cases fails to enhance a terrific show, but which is not the circumstance listed here. The Harman Kardon speakers deliver solid, punchy seem even at top volume. The DTS equaliser makes a genuine big difference to seem configurations, with treble, audio and bass improve as perfectly a additional in-depth graphic equaliser and preset solutions for music, flicks and game titles. My only criticism is that I would like additional volume. 

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The ScreenPad As well as is a fourteen-inch IPS contact panel with 3,840 by one,100 resolution. It really is considerably less lively than the key OLED monitor, but is apparent and sharp adequate. Asus assigns various duties to it.  

Consumers of Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom Typical, Premiere Professional and Immediately after Effects can obtain a total panel of controls, which includes person-described presets, leaving the key monitor absolutely free for the genuine innovative work. The ScreenPad As well as can also function as a second application monitor — you just drag an product down from the key monitor. Social media can scroll, a video window can play, and so on. A Fn vital swaps what is actually on the key monitor and the ScreenPad As well as, even though the App Navigator instrument allows you finger-flick applications concerning the two screens.   

Asus also offers various committed second-monitor apps, which includes a Spotify app, an additional variety pad, Quick Key (tappable shortcuts to often-utilised menu solutions in apps) and a handwriting recognition instrument. It really is a modest selection, but perhaps additional will turn into available in owing program.  

Alongside with the stylus and wrist rest, Asus bundles an ErgoLift Stand. This is an accessory that can be folded to make a riser for the notebook. The place would seem to be to permit the angle of the ScreenPad As well as to be raised more, even though you tilt the key monitor back again to the wanted angle. This nearly would seem like an admission from Asus that the ScreenPad As well as would not elevate up considerably adequate to permit for at ease use. 

The standard specifications of the Asus ZenBook Professional Duo 15 OLED are extraordinary, despite the fact that my £2,999.ninety nine (inc. VAT) evaluation unit experienced a 10th generation Intel Core i9 (10980HK) processor as an alternative of an eleventh generation chip. This is coupled with a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 GPU, 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. In the US, you get an eleventh-gen Core i9-11900H and up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 graphics for a identical price ($3,099.ninety nine), so ideally these solutions will arrive to the British isles ahead of extended. 

On the left edge there is a total-dimensions HDMI port, a 3.5mm headset jack and a spherical pin electric power connector. The appropriate side houses a single USB-A port and a pair of Thunderbolt 3 ports with DisplayPort help. Surprisingly, there’s no memory card slot, offered that photographers must be a vital focus on market for the ZenBook Professional Duo 15 OLED. If you will need 1, increase it to the list of supplemental kit for the carry bag. 

Just as apparent as the ports and connectors operating along just about every edge are the massive vents. They are necessary: even when operating rather essential duties like video streaming and writing into internet applications, these vents threw out heat air, and the laptop’s underside was also noticeably heat to the contact.  

I left the ScreenPad As well as on all the time all through my battery test. The 15.six-inch OLED on its very own is pretty a obstacle, and maintaining the two screens operating meant the 92Wh battery drained really promptly. In 1 3-hour session, with the battery total and operating my standard array of mainstream productivity duties, which includes writing into internet applications and intermittent audio and video streaming, the battery fell from 100% to 22%. That’s about four hrs on a linear extrapolation, which only underscores this laptop’s unsuitability for lifetime on the street. 

At least charging is relatively quickly. With the battery at 21% the charge amount attained 46% immediately after 15 minutes, 67% immediately after thirty minutes and 83% immediately after forty five minutes. 

Conclusions 

The Asus ZenBook Professional Duo 15 OLED is a massive and significant notebook which is developed generally for creators. The key 15.six-inch OLED monitor is superb, even though the secondary ScreenPad As well as offers a set of controls precise to sure innovative apps, as perfectly as accommodating any application or app ingredient you drag there, and catering for a small variety of bespoke applications. 

It really is a great plan, but to squeeze it in Asus has experienced to compromise the touchpad and eliminate the wrist rest in favour of a presented accessory. Running two high-resolution screens and the top-end processor compromise battery lifetime to the place in which you’ll usually will need handy obtain to mains electric power, earning cellular operating a little something of a obstacle. 

These things, in addition the price, make the Asus ZenBook Professional Duo 15 OLED a notebook for a very precise set of innovative/electric power users. 

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