ASUSZenbook Duo 14 OLED UX8406MA 14.0" 120Hz 3K Dual-OLED Touchscreen Laptop (Intel Core Ultra 9-185H, 32 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD, Detachable Keyboard, Windows 11) Intel EVO Certified

My venerable Huawei laptop (AMD Ryzen 5 based) quietly handed its cap in after 6+ years of faithful service - and the cost of repair was unrealistic. So, I wanted a more powerful replacement device - but at a reasonable price.This laptop appeared to fit the bill - especially at a discounted price of £699 (and the Amazon offer of 12 interest free monthly payments) - EXCELLENT!Despite the reasonable price, with 16GB of memory, an Intel i7 processor and a 1TB SSD, this laptop is no slouch. OK, everything is not quite state of the Art. The processor is an 11th generation device (the latest ones from Intel are gen 13), the SSD is PCIe generation 3 rather than the newer gen 4 and, as per the listing, this model has Intel Iris Xe graphics rather than a dedicated GPU.That said, the laptop doesn't hang about. It converts video files about 10x quicker than my old PC. Also, with WiFi-6, file transfers to our NAS are much quicker too - I am happy with that!The PC arrived well packaged complete with a leatherette sleeve and stylus. Build quality is excellent and there is thankfully little bloatware. I just had to remove the abominably expensive Office 365 (I prefer MS Office 2021 Professional) and the godawful MacAfee paraphernalia.I reluctantly use Norton Security as it's free with our BT Broadband and, if managed, isn't too intrusive. I use Paragon Hard Drive Manager 17 Advanced - which is excellent for backups, creating recovery media and for disk cloning etc. I also use a few different media editors to manage the family Plex server I run on our TerraMaster NAS.I didn't buy the laptop for its second screen but I find it surprisingly useful for cross referencing purposes etc. It took me a while to get used to the keyboard (with no wrist support) but it works fine. The touch pad is squeezed in to the right of the keyboard which some may find a tad odd. It doesn't bother me as I use a Bluetooth mouse and the touch screen. The stylus is easy to use and the AAAA batteries it requires are readily available on Amazon. The included foldable laptop stand works a treat and is unobtrusive when folded away.The 1TB SSD is an SK Hynix device and I downloaded their SSD Manager App to keep an eye on things. It showed the SSD as being brand new with zero errors. CrystalBenchMark showed the device to perform as advertised - see attached screenshot (includes both displays). This is an SSD known to be frugal as regards its power requirements, give good performance for its price and, to run relatively cool. It can be upgraded by the user. There are a number of YouTube videos on the subject.The 16GB of main memory should be more than adequate for most users. However, note that this RAM is soldered in - so cannot be user upgraded.I ran NovaBench (see 2nd screenshot) and the results were good. As anticipated, with no GPU, the weaker aspect is the Intel Iris Xe graphics capability. However, as I am not an avid gamer, that is not an issue. Both displays are clear and precise, more than adequately meeting my requirements. I believe the BIOS settings can be used to allocate more of main memory to the display if required.There are 2x Thunderbolt-4 and a USB-A 3.2 port so there's plenty of connectivity. I already have a PD power pass-through docking station which gives all the other connections I need including an RJ45 LAN port.My only minor gripe concerns the twin cooling fans being surprisingly noisy when they kick in. That said, I quickly got used to them and they normally drop out after a few seconds. There is an option in MyAsus to reduce fan noise by lowering their spin speed. Anyway, checking on the temperatures, neither the CPU nor the SSD get unreasonably hot.I did see that the MyAsus App shows the laptop as having its 12 month warranty starting last May (I bought it in December) and ending in May 2024. However, I am not particularly concerned as, when I queried it, Amazon confirmed that the laptop is covered by their own 2 year warranty from date of purchase. So, I presume Amazon bought a 'job lot' of these laptops from ASUS earlier in the year at a bulk discount - and hence their reasonable price now.In summary, I am rather chuffed with my purchase. It's an excellent laptop that meets my needs at a very reasonable price. The more I use it, the more I appreciate it 😊 😃

I had been intrigued by the ZenBook Duo for a while, but looked at it as a bit of gimmick.When a needed a new Laptop, principally to use in meetings, I realised that the dual screen was ideal as it allowed me to follow the agenda or presentation and make in-meeting notes all at the same time without having to decipher my hand made notes afterwards.When I received the new Laptop, it more than lived-up to it's expectations. Not only did I get a fast laptop with a bright, high resolution touch screen display - but I got a Laptop with two of them!The ZenBook Duo is a dream to use, and although you get a very nice stylus as well, I find that the screens are so responsive, I hardly need to use it. I had worried that I might not be able to read the 14" screen easily, let alone the second screen, but because of the combination of high resolution, high background illumination and good contrast there has never been a problem, even in brightly lit environments.I have had this Laptop for about five weeks now, and it still blows my socks off! From its sleek lines, its tilted second screen and its gently illuminated keyboard - it just ticks all the boxes.I would thoroughly recommend this Laptop. My only regret is that I didn't buy it sooner!

I have been looking to move away from the different cheapy laptops I have been using for a while, and I decided to get something a little bit different.The 14" ZenBook Duo is a little bit science fiction - you can't believe it has so much technology in a 14" chassis! The top half is a normal laptop, with a high resolution screen, thin bezels and a webcam (that supports Windows Hello). The bottom is the clever bit - the keyboard has been shrunk and compressed a bit, with a touchpad on the side, so that the top half of the deck can support a second fullwidth high resolution touchscreen, tilted towards you. Windows treats this like a second monitor, and Asus has also included some smart software that allows you to reorganise and swap windows, use it as a quick launcher for apps and commands, or use it as a big touchpad.This makes it a multi-tasking powerhouse - as I type this review on the main screen, I have my email and messages on the second screen. I have also been using it for copy editing - with a main Word document on the big screen and a second reference document on the smaller one, copying and pasting between them.Everything else is also bang on - loads of ports, strong battery life and a nice clicky action to the keyboard. It is powerful too - everything feels quite zippy with the quad-core 11th Gen i5 processor.I am really pleased with it - and for only £900 I think it is tremendous value. Asus don't skimp either - it comes with a leather carry case and a stylus pen for the screens, extras that other manufacturers make you pay more for.Highly recommended.