ASUS Zenbook DUO (2024) UX8406 review: one screen is good, but two are better?

Quite a few users need two screens, but not everyone has a dedicated workstation to put a laptop and monitor on. With this in mind, ASUS decided to create the Zenbook DUO (2024), a 14-inch dual-touch laptop that aims to expand multitasking capabilities without sacrificing much space. You could even say that it is a very compact solution. ASUS itself has been experimenting with adding additional displays to laptops for many years. We have seen them built into touchpads, as small additional screens, and now as a full-fledged additional display. I’ll tell you how successful this decision was in this review.

ASUS Zenbook DUO (2024) UX8406 specifications

Scope of delivery

Given the flagship positioning of the model, ASUS decided not to deprive customers of accessories. That’s why the Zenbook DUO comes with not only a standard 65W charging cable and power supply, but also a carrying case and even a backpack.

I should also note that the power supply here is as compact as in the Zenbook S 13 OLED, which is very convenient.

Design and usability

When folded, the Zenbook DUO (2024) does not differ much from the latest generation of ASUS Zenbooks, except that you can immediately notice the thicker body. Otherwise, we have a branded lid with a silhouette of the manufacturer’s logo, which is made of aluminum and has a matte finish.

Even when you open the laptop for the first time, everything looks familiar: here’s a 14-inch screen, here’s a keyboard with a touchpad. However, it’s not that simple, because the keyboard unit is magnetically attached and can be completely removed to reveal another 14-inch display. We’ve seen similar models before, and the concept of a dual-touch laptop is not new, but ASUS has taken a very careful approach to solving its problems.

First of all, it is quite obvious that such a laptop will often be used simultaneously with two screens above each other or installed side by side, and it is rather inconvenient to carry around an additional stand for this purpose. Therefore, the bottom of the Zenbook DUO (2024) has a solid folding stand that allows you to work comfortably with two displays on any flat surface.

Secondly, the detachable keyboard could have been a separate accessory, but ASUS was well aware that this would have been a compromise. Because of this, the keyboard unit in Zenbook DUO (2024) is part of the design, it is very convenient to use both when it is connected to the laptop and separately. In the latter case, the connection is via Bluetooth 5.2 and it works in such a way that the user does not experience any delays.

The manufacturer also thought that users may forget to charge the keyboard, so although it has a separate USB-C port for charging, its battery is charged through a special connector when the keyboard is installed on a laptop.

So, we have a fairly well-thought-out design of a laptop with two screens, but it is worth noting that there is room for improvement. For example, the screens of the Zenbook DUO (2024) open 180 degrees, they can be quickly and conveniently placed on top of each other thanks to a hinge, and there is a fairly wide tilt angle (from 40 to 70 degrees) that can be used to adjust their position. But none of this works if you need the displays to be next to each other. The hinge doesn’t allow you to set them up evenly.

As you might expect from a laptop with two touchscreens, the Zenbook DUO (2024) provides the ability to work without a physical keyboard. I can hardly imagine such a scenario, but let’s say you don’t want to take it with you to a meeting because you’re just going to show a presentation to a client, and with the keyboard unit, the laptop weighs 1.65 kg, while without it it weighs 1.35 kg.

However, let’s imagine that you still need to make changes to your presentation, and for this purpose, Zenbook DUO (2024) has a virtual keyboard. To ASUS’s credit, it completely repeats the layout of the physical keyboard, and if you need to type not very large text, this will not be a problem.

Of course, it’s better not to type large texts on the virtual keyboard. Even though it has several modes of operation (with or without a touchpad) and offers a separate emoji bar, I still firmly believe that it should not be used as your primary input method. Take care of your wrists.

I would like to mention the virtual touchpad separately, it is quite large and can be enlarged to almost the entire width of the screen, but I do not understand ASUS’s decision to add an imitation of two buttons that have long been missing from its physical touchpads. This is simply not convenient, because these buttons are not real and are not limited by anything, if you move your finger on the touchpad without looking, it is very easy to touch them and perform some unnecessary action.

The bundled keyboard and touchpad in Zenbook DUO (2024) are another matter, they are very conveniently implemented. Even though this unit itself is very thin, the buttons have a 1.4 mm travel with a soft but clear press. It is worth noting that they are also quite large, with the distance from the center of one key to the center of another key being 19.05 mm. All in all, it’s a very comfortable keyboard with backlighting.

The same goes for the touchpad, which is made of glass and has an oleophobic coating, so it’s very comfortable for your fingers to move across its surface.

Summarizing the experience, I would like to note that, apart from some nuances, the Zenbook DUO (2024) is a convenient solution in general. This is definitely not a concept, but a fully working version of a laptop with two screens, which in some cases really simplifies multitasking.

Ports

All the ports in the Zenbook DUO (2024) are located on the sides, with HDMI 2.1 and a 3.5 mm combined audio jack on the right side.

On the left side, you can find two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C with PowerDelivery and DisplayPort support, as well as one USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A.

As can be seen, there are not too many ports, but the laptop has everything you need to connect peripherals.

Displays

The ASUS Zenbook DUO (2024) has two 14-inch Lumina OLED touchscreens with a resolution of 2880×1800 pixels, a refresh rate of 120 Hz, an aspect ratio of 16:10, a response time of 0.2 ms, and a peak brightness of 500 nits.

Traditionally for OLED matrices from the manufacturer, the laptop displays demonstrate 100% DCI-P3 color space reproduction, they are really well calibrated. But, most importantly, these are completely identical screens, their color reproduction does not differ at all, so if you edit or draw an image on one, the picture will not differ.

ASUS has developed a special version of the ScreenXpert utility for this model, which, in addition to helping you call up the virtual keyboard, turn off the second display, and other quick settings, allows you to adjust the brightness on two screens simultaneously.

It’s also worth noting that both displays have Gorilla Glass protection with a very good oleophobic coating.

In previous versions of its proprietary MyASUS utility, the manufacturer allowed you to enable the Pixel Shift function, which switched screen pixels imperceptibly to the human eye to prevent them from burning out. Now this option is enabled by default and cannot be turned off.

Performance

For now, only one Zenbook DUO (2024) configuration with Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor, Intel ARC graphics, 32 GB of LPDDR5x 7467 MHz RAM, and a 2 TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD drive will be available in Ukraine.

This is quite a powerful configuration for a relatively compact model, because it uses Intel’s top-of-the-line mobile processor, which we will see in a lot of gaming laptops this year. This is a 16-core chip with 22 threads that can operate at up to 5.1 GHz. Of course, the Zenbook DUO (2024) thermal package does not allow the processor to accelerate to such values, but the user still gets a high level of performance.

This is confirmed by both usage and synthetic tests. In PCMark 10, the laptop scores 7000 points, not much less than last year’s Zenbook 14 Pro OLED with a Core i9-13900H processor and discrete graphics, which received 7678 points.
In fact, the more compact model catches up with the performance of the processor, essentially a gaming laptop.

When running on battery power, the laptop, of course, demonstrates a slower speed, with the same PCMark 10 score of 4,813 points. This is even better than the Zenbook 14 Pro OLED with its 4,399 points during battery life.

The built-in SSD drive from WD allows the laptop to show high speeds of reading and writing information.

As for graphics, on the one hand, the built-in Intel ARC demonstrates higher results in the 3DMark Time Spy and Time Spy Extreme tests than the built-in Intel HD Graphics, but this will not be enough to play modern games comfortably. In addition, the test results show that when working with two screens at the same time, the graphics speed decreases, because Intel ARC has to process images on two 3K displays.

3DMark result with one screen.

With two screens.

I tried to install the now-popular Palworld on my Zenbook DUO (2024), and the game launched, but even on the minimum settings it showed 11-22 FPS.

No Man’s Sky with low settings didn’t make it past the boot screen, the laptop lacked graphics power. However, the strategy game Dune: Spice Wars felt more comfortable, even on medium graphics settings, not to mention Stardew Valley.

That is, in general, the graphics speed in the Zenbook DUO (2024) is better than in most compact laptops, but it is still far from the level of gaming models. But if you want, you can play not very demanding or old games.

The same applies to professional use, a laptop will handle photo editing and basic video editing without any problems, but it will take longer to render more complex projects than laptops with faster discrete graphics.

Heating and stability of operation

The powerful processor and relatively small case made ASUS take a closer look at the design of the cooling system. Excessive heating could have a negative impact on the second display, among other things. Because of this, the company had to work hard on the design of the cooling system. For example, in the Zenbook DUO (2024), the motherboard is turned upside down so that the processor does not have direct contact with the screen, and a specially created space between them for air circulation. Two fans that blow warm air out of the case from the right and left sides also help with cooling. Judging by the AIDA 64 stress test, ASUS has done a great job with cooling.

Under maximum load, the laptop does not show trotting, and the processor heats up to 71.6 degrees Celsius, keeping the frequency at an average of almost 1.8 GHz. This is a good result for such a powerful chip. At the same time, the laptop case becomes noticeably warm in the lower part under load, but not hot.

Audio and web camera

The laptop has two speakers located at the bottom, which are designed to reflect the sound from the table. Therefore, the Zenbook DUO (2024) sounds a little different depending on its placement, but it is always loud. I really have no complaints about the volume, but the speakers could use some extra volume.

The webcam in this model is located in the usual place – in the center above the display. ASUS calls it AiSense, because it’s not a single module, but a whole system with an additional infrared camera that is needed for face recognition and Windows Hello login. The webcam itself has a Full HD resolution and does its main task without any problems.

Plus, thanks to the Zenbook DUO (2024)’s stackable design, the webcam can be raised much higher than is possible with conventional laptops without a stand. So your interlocutors will actually see your face, not your chin.

Battery life

The laptop has a 75 Wh battery, which is enough for a good level of autonomy, but it will vary depending on the format of use. For example, in the PCMark 10 test, the laptop lasted 8 hours and 9 minutes with two active screens and both brightness at 250 nits.

This is a good indicator, in fact, you can use two displays full time without plugging the Zenbook DUO (2024) into a power outlet. However, if necessary, you can achieve even greater autonomy by switching to a single screen.

In this case, the laptop shows a result of 11 hours and 43 minutes in the same PCMark 10. That is, almost 4 hours more battery life.

You can charge the laptop through one of two ports Thunderbolt 4.