The Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 (2022) is a powerful laptop designed to provide gamers with an immersive gaming experience wherever they are.
This laptop features a unique dual-screen design with a 16-inch (3,840 x 2,400 pixels) primary display and a secondary 14-inch (3,840 x 1,100 pixels) ScreenPad Plus display. The ScreenPad Plus is an interactive touchscreen that provides you with additional tools and options for gaming.
- Price: S$7,998, get it at Shopee and Asus Store
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX Mobile Processor
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti
- Memory: 32GB x 2
- Storage: 2TB + 2TB SSD (RAID 0)
- Battery: 90Wh
- Weight: 2.55kg
When the review unit rolled in, I was surprised by its massive box that you can probably use as a coffee table. However, it gives you everything you need for a mobile hardcore PC gamer.
Apart from the laptop, the package includes a ROG Ranger BP2701 gaming backpack, a ROG Delta wired gaming headset, a ROG Chakram Core P511 wired gaming mouse and a palm rest. Considering its jaw-dropping price tag of S$7,998, I actually thought there will be more gaming peripherals to be included.
Back to the laptop, the ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 is a superbly built laptop that feels sturdy and robust. Not to mention, this laptop is always going to draw glances of envy each time you pull it out of your bag.
Tipping the scales at 2.55kg, it can be considered quite lightweight by gaming laptop standards. It looks sleek and stylish with its stealthy black lid with dotted patterns, a luminous line cutting across at 45 degrees with the “Republic of Gamers” tagline and a ROG logo on the other side. Furthermore, it has a matte finish that helps to reduce fingerprints and smudges.
| PROS | CONS |
| Sleek design | Very expensive |
| Two screens better than one | Battery life can be better |
| Superb gaming performance | |
| Responsive keyboard and touchpad |
At its sides and rear, there are air ventilation vents that will not look out of place in a sports car. On its left side, you can find the power point, a USB-A port, a Thunderbolt 4 port and a microSD card slot. There is another USB-A port, a HDMI 2.1 port and a Ethernet port at its rear, while there is a lone USB-C port on the right.
Lift the lid and you will be greeted with the two gorgeous displays. The main display can only tilted up to 50 degrees, while the secondary display is set up to 15 degrees.
The main display offers a refresh rate of up to 165Hz, which is great for gaming. But the secondary display only has a refresh rate of 60Hz. In any case, you probably using the main display to game, while using the secondary display for checking hints and walkthroughs.
Below the secondary display, you will find the RGB-backlit keyboard with a large touchpad on its right. The keyboard offers a great tactile typing experience with nice key travel. The touchpad is also very responsive. But due to the laptop’s lack of wrist rest, typing on the keyboard is a tad awkward as you need to rest your wrist on a table or on “air” if the laptop is at the edge of a table.
However, in terms of performance, the Zephyrus Duo 16 is capable of running any game at high settings as long as you use the power brick included. For instance, running Cyberpunk 2077 at Ray Tracing: Ultra setting clocks an average of 27.7 frames per second. You can see the intricate details on the surface of cars and as you walk through Night City, you can the realistic lighting effects in all its glory.
In the PCMark 10 benchmark test, this laptop scored an impressive 6,987, bettering the likes of 2022 Razer Blade 15 Advanced Model (score of 6,886) and Alienware x15’s (score of 6,711).
Most importantly, in the Digital Content Creation category, it scored a stunning 9,950. In other words, it can easily handle demanding tasks like video editing and 3D rendering tasks.
Gaming laptops are not renowned for their battery life and the Zephyrus Duo 16 is no exception. In our video-loop battery test whereby a HD video is looped only on the main display but with both displays at full brightness, it lasted only 4 hours 28 minutes. Not bad for a gaming laptop, but not good if you are gaming on the go.
VERDICT: Apart from its astronomical price tag and mediocre battery life, the ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 GX650 is an impressive gaming laptop with dual screens and superb performance. It is a dream laptop for hardcore gamers to play games on the go. But probably a fantastic overkill for many others.