The ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) Zephyrus Duo 16 (GX650) is their latest version of the dual-screen laptop and features the latest updates to bring it closer to mainstream reality.
The new panel featured on the new Zephyrus Duo 16 has been co-developed with BOE and is a ROG-exclusive “Dual Spec” panel: you can choose between 4K at 120Hz and 1080p at 240Hz modes. In the latter, ROG Pixel Acceleration Technology scales a 1080p image – four physical pixels for one digital pixel – resulting a cleaner image with a high refresh rate.
The second display – the ScreenPad Plus – is a 4k, 14.1″ touchscreen that automatically rises to a 13-degree angle for ergonomics and airflow. The two screens were designed to sit flush with each other at full height for a near bezel-free experience.
What’s also new here is an internal certification ASUS calls Nebula Display, which covers laptop gaming specifications. It demands that the panel cover 100 per cent of the DCI-P3 colour space, display a minimum of 500 nits of brightness, and demonstrates a maximum of 3ms response time.
Other features you can expect from this certification are: official Pantone validation, Dolby Vision HDR, Adaptive Sync, and TÜV Certification for low blue light and flicker reduction. You can also expect a minimum refresh rate of 120Hz for 4K, 120Hz for QHD and 240Hz for Full HD resolution.
Top notch internals
Asus has opted for the combination of an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU, coupled with 64GB of 4800MHz DDR5 memory and 4TB of PCIe 4.0 x4 storage in a RAID 0 array, with easy access for future upgrades.
The new Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut Extreme liquid metal is an indium and galium based compound with 17 times higher thermal conductivity than traditional thermal pastes. The ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 (GX650) is able to run 15°C cooler, which raises the max TGP to 165W. Asus says the new compound will not dry out or lose thermal efficiency over time.
In addition, the second display hinge uses a mechanism they call Active Aerodynamic System 2.0 (AAS+ 2.0), which is part of the thermal design. It utilises the 28.5mm of free space between the secondary screen and chassis to take in 30 per cent more fresh air.
To improve control over performance or battery life, ASUS added a MUX Switch that enables direct GPU mode to reduce latency and boost performance by an average of nine per cent. Typically, laptops route the GPU’s frames through the CPU’s integrated graphics for better battery life.
But if it all sounds too good to be affordable… yes, you will have a good reason to wince. The ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 (GX650RX-LB213W) is, after all, a bells and whistles experience and unsurprisingly, it retails for a whopping $7,998. It’s now available at the ROG Experience Store Bugis, ASUS Online Store , and all authorised retailers.
