The annual refresh of the dual-display Zenbook Duo has become an exciting event, with improvements each year. This year ASUS announced new design improvements, bringing the displays closer than ever before, as well as incorporating their lightweight, durable Ceraluminum material for the first time.
The Zenbook Duo also includes an impressive new maglatch design for their removable keyboard, as well as incorporating the kickstand into the body of the laptop to maintain a streamlined look.
The hero is of course the dual 14″ 3K ASUS Lumina Pro OLED narrow bezel touch displays, mounted on a new hide-away hinge.
These touch displays are designed to work with the new ASUS Pen 3.0, which is included with the laptop.
Prices start at $6,399 running Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors and using Intel’s Arc discrete graphics to drive the dual displays and power your workflows, with 32GB of RAM and 1TB of on-board storage.
I’ve been using the ASUS Zenbook Duo for a couple of weeks now and here’s how it went.
This latest Zenbook Duo brings a new, and improved design. Introducing ASUS’ lightweight, yet durable ceraluminum to the line-up. I’m a big fan of this coating, which has a warmer and more premium feel than the cold metal laptops that have become prevalent.
It only comes in one colourway : Moher Gray, but it’s a pretty nice classic option.
As you’d expect with two displays, the Zenbook Duo is a lot thicker than your average laptop. It has a slight wedge shape that ranges around 2cm thick.
There’s a lot packed in there including the bluetooth keyboard which now magnetically attaches to the lower deck and charges using pogo pins making it a more stable experience in laptop mode – and keeping it more secure when in transit.
As with previous designs it’s backlit, and it is a lovely keyboard to type on with good key-travel, and Ecimer-coated keycaps that are more durable so you won’t see the letters rubbing off.
There’s a large, and very responsive multi-touch touchpad below the keyboard, with support for volume and brightness scrolling as well as multi-finger gestures.
The keyboard automatically charges through those POGO pins in the lower deck when docked, but if you need to you can plug it in to charge through the USB port on the side.
The laptop includes multiple connectivity options, including a USB-C port on either side of the laptop making for easy charging no matter where you sit. There’s also a USB-A port and HDMI output and 3.5mm combo audio jack.
The big attraction for the Zenbook Duo line is of course the dual-display setup. This year ASUS have worked towards almost eliminating the split in the displays leaving only a minimal bezel between thanks to the new hide-away hinge.
The hinge is phenomenal. Last year’s model sat slightly back from the lower panel giving it a slightly disjointed look. This year the displays sit right next to each other in either horizontal or vertical orientation and the line is still there, but a massive improvement.
Complementing the hinge is the new built-in stand. It’s down to barely a bump now, and still fitting in under the rubber feet on the base.
The stand allows you to have the displays in either upright or side-by-side orientation, and it’s sturdy and stable, so you don’t feel it’s teetering.
The hinge is easy to manipulate, pushing down easily before getting stiffer as it approaches the usable angles. It does away with a lot of design criticism from previous models and disappears into the laptop design.
The displays of course are a big attraction, with the ASUS Lumina Pro OLED displays top of the line. These touch displays include 3K resolution at 144 Hz refresh rate with up to 1000 nits brightness making them visible even outdoors. They include an anti-reflection coating offering decent protection though it doesn’t completely do away with it.
The display is Dolby Vision certified, and the laptop also includes a 6-speaker Dolby Atmos certified sound system that includes software for you to customise your EQ or use the preset modes.
The touch displays support stylus input, with the new ASUS Pen 3.0 included in the box. The stylus uses Microsoft’s Pen Protocol (MPP 2.6) and connects easily to the Zenbook Duo.
It is a little finicky for charging, with a separate dock you’ll need to have at hand – though the battery lasts an age and seems to charge quite quickly when you dock it.
The stylus can do some nice note taking and drawing, with haptic feedback supporting the 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity and tilt support to give you a very natural feel when using it on either display.
You can also annotate office documents on the fly or edit photos giving you a little more control, with the side button offering access to tools.
There’s also a button on the end which can either erase the last thing you added, or if you’re in the OS it can launch a frequently used app.
While the new design, hinge and gorgeous displays take the attention there’s also a pretty stacked spec list under the hood. Powered by the Intel Core Ultra X9 Series 3 processor with the Intel ARC B390 discrete-level GPU using up to 18GB of shared memory from the 32GB LPDDR5X on-board and a 1TB M.2 NVMe Gen 4 SSD installed it gives pretty quick performance.
The system boots up from a cold start into Windows in under 25 seconds using the Windows Hello compatible FHD resolution webcam for contactless login.
The specs offer plenty of grunt for office work, watching videos or editing media. You can also play games, ranging from Minecraft, which plays well, through to higher end games though the frame-rate drops down fairly significantly – think 30-40fps on Crimson Desert at 1080P resolution.
So while it’s not a gaming machine per se, it can do it if you are willing to play around with settings.
3DMark did fairly well, though the dual-display does play a little havoc with the benchmarking software.
Running all this is a 99Whr battery – the largest you can travel on a plane without getting permission, and charges using a 100W USB-C charger which is included in the box.
As far as battery life goes – I’m impressed. Using the laptop in clamshell mode, I got a full day of work and entertainment, then left it on standby for a day, returning to complete almost another full day of work before needing a charge.
Dual-display runs the battery down slightly faster, but it’s rarer to be using the dual-display long term. That said, I got quite a few hours of use in dual-display while stuck in a hotel for a night, and then used the laptop in clamshell mode the next day without a charge.
The battery in the Zenbook Duo is split in two, allowing for faster charging as well as giving you as much battery as possible between the upper and lower decks.
The 100W Charger offers some fast charging options, with ASUS claiming up to 60% charge in 49 minutes. I found it to be faster, but that’s not a bad thing:
The laptop includes Windows 11 Home – 25H2, with support through to October 2028 – but you’ll also receive OS Service updates, so updates will flow! You should also see an update to Windows 11 Home 26H1 which is out now.
ASUS Software
ASUS pre-loads an array of their own applications on the Zenbook Duo. The MyASUS software is on-board, giving you a place to manage and diagnose your laptop, catch up on ASUS news or find deals on software and register your device.
There’s also the ASUS Story Cube on-board, their AI powered media repository which lets you find, use and edit images. It can pull imagery from multiple sources so you can see all your media in one place.
The ASUS Zenbook Duo 2026 is a winner.
It’s going to be hard going back to a single display device after this. I often carry a mobile monitor when working, using it to expand my workspace – but with the Zenbook Duo there’s no need.
This latest Zenbook Duo has the best hinge and stand design yet, making working on a dual-display device more natural and seamless. It just works.
The debate over the ,499 price tag is over as soon as you realise the utility of dual display and the high-end performance which lets you get your work done without worrying about the hardware underneath.
I’m also impressed by the extended battery life with the new Intel Core Ultra series 3 processors, with two-day battery life on a dual-display device a very welcome addition.
If you want to check out the new Zenbook Duo 2026 it’s on-sale now. You can check it out on the ASUS Australia website – or at your favourite retailer.
Daniel has been talking about, learning about and using tech since he was able to toggle switches and push buttons. If it flashes, turns on or off or connects he wants to use it, talk about it and learn more about it. Like this article? Buy me a coffee!
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