Dual Displays Done Right ASUS Zenbook Pro Duo 2026 Review

Sponsored by Anker. I spent most of my last video trying to replace my laptop with my phone, and it turns out even with 10 inches of display to work with, we're not quite there yet. So what if the answer instead is asking my existing laptop to do more? This is the new ZenBook Pro Duo from Asus, and while it's not the first time I've used a two-screen laptop, it is the first one I could envision in the hands of a normal person. Now, I don't ordinarily cover laptops on this channel, but I've always made time for hardware that seems to be thinking about an established category, like laptops, in a new way. Two brands have stood out over the years in this respect, Lenovo and Asus, but only Asus has consistently shipped aspirational PCs that I actually want to use. It all started back in 2018 when Asus shoehorned a second screen into the trackpad of its ZenBook Pro, and the next few years saw the company experiment with a number of wider half displays above the keyboard. This happened both on the productivity-focused ZenBook and the gaming-optimized Zephyrus lineups. And thankfully, Asus didn't just make a handful of these and then give up. Over the past eight years, it's steadily iterated on both of its Duo families, detouring briefly into the foldable world before finally settling on its current approach, two 14-inch screens controlled by a removable wireless keyboard. I gave the first version of this ZenBook my best of CES award in 2024, but even as I did so, I lamented its chunky build, asymmetric hinge, and drab paint job, all ailments that Asus has now addressed with the 2026 model. It's always a nice surprise when the spec sheet kinda lies about the way a device feels, and this is a prime example. While the new model is only about 5% more compact than the last one, and the mass is almost identical, the 26 version feels eons ahead. A lot of that is down to the elimination of the old drop hinge. We're now keeping both displays on the same plane, and the bezel between has been almost eliminated, though it has sprouted a bigger forehead in exchange. There are more curves this year, too, less aggressive styling throughout, and it's all coated in Asus' new Ceraluminum material. Yeah, that's marketing speak for something we've seen before on products like the OnePlus 15. Aluminum is treated with high-temperature plasma to grow a layer of ceramic oxidation, and the result is a surface that feels more like stone or pottery than metal. It still smudges like any other paint, and typing on it does take some getting used to. The soft touch sort of tricks my brain into thinking these keys are mushy, but that's an illusion. The 1.7 millimeters of key travel is actually more than I'm used to on my MacBook. Anyway, all these design refinements and the lighter gray option make this ZenBook feel more approachable, and less like a science fair experiment from the Transformers universe. You've still got the same diverse port selection, including twin thunderbolts, USB-A for your legacy peripherals, a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack, and full-size HDMI when even two screens aren't enough. Impressive. There's pen support on these panels if you're the writing type, and all that is augmented by a 32% bigger battery this time around, without adding additional weight to the 3.6-pound chassis compared to last year. How do you test a battery like that, especially when you don't much care about benchmarks? Well, you do what I always try to do, take it out into the real world for some real-life soak test, and you end up coming away still more impressed with one or two exceptions. Your intelligent devices deserve an intelligent power adapter, and this little guy is the first smart display charger that knows your iPhone. Plug it in, and you'll find out why my sponsor, Anker, calls it the smart display charger. It recognizes my iPhone 17 Pro right away. More than just a cute mascot, this little cyber companion is here to tell you how much wattage is going into your device, from a trickle charge all the way up to 45 watts, depending on which product is plugged in. It can take an iPhone 17 Pro from dead to 50% in just 20 minutes. At those charging rates, heat becomes a factor, which batteries don't like. So Anker included a care mode that keeps your phone battery nine degrees cooler than other 45-watt chargers, while the charger itself stays 36 degrees cooler than international standards, all while staying pocket-sized and including a clever plug design so it can fit into almost any outlet, keeping the screen pointed at you so you always know how much power it's pumping. Hit the link in the description for a special discount, and keep in mind that Anker has more to offer, including a 25,000-milliamp-hour laptop power bank with retractable cables and 140-watt laptop charger, each with its own smart display and multiple ports to charge multiple devices simultaneously. Thanks to Anker for sponsoring this video. I start the Duo's day of duress around 11.30 a.m. in laptop mode, because there's no room for anything else on the subway or in the Uber, with about two hours of writing and email, and a half hour of that spent streaming live radio via Chrome. Then I free the ZenBook from its clamshell shackles for about an hour of dual-screen work over lunch before moving up to the office to use it as a workstation while filming. I keep it awake in stacked mode while I film and do other YouTubey things, with several programs running on both screens for a full three and a half hours. And for almost that entire time, I'm playing podcasts on the six-speaker audio system, which cleverly hides some of its hardware in the hinge. By 7.50 p.m., after eight hours of near-constant use, I still had 15% left in the tank. That 99-watt-hour battery is pulling its weight, and then some. As for the keyboard, it lasted the full day, too, despite me forcing the backlight to stay on for the duration. But it had some help, because it charges via the pogo pins, which cleverly rise to accommodate it when docked. Stay tuned for another note on this keyboard, though. Now, the ZenBook could've gone even longer if I'd kept it in conventional laptop mode, but of course, that would miss the point. Because for most of that battery test, the work I was doing was easier than usual, thanks to those double displays. My usual example is almost criminally overdone, but that's because it's so tried and true, referencing one set of information on one screen while creating something new on the other. For me, that's usually Evernote on one screen and Google Docs on the other, and because we're talking about two 14-inch displays, there's also enough room to add Telegram or Threads or Slack, any messaging or social hub you might wanna keep an eye on while you work. Now, if you haven't used systems like this, stacking the screens in this manner might seem odd, but for me, it's perfect because of how often I'm working in a space where my lateral, side-to-side real estate is limited, but my airspace above is endless. If it's not for you, well, you can turn the system on its side for twin vertical monitors, but this just doesn't seem like what the ZenBook is designed for. You'll always be blocking some I-O ports or fan ports on the left, and you can't do it on the right because the power button is over there, so it puts the computer to sleep. And the kickstand is less stable in this configuration anyway. So yeah, probably don't rely on it for this. While we're talking downsides, well, to break it down succinctly, I'm not a fan of Windows 11, and I'm not alone. While performance is snappy and consistent, even on my slightly detuned review sample, Windows itself seems to be having kind of a moment, with a combination of buggy behavior and intrusive features combining to paint the picture of a platform in crisis. Some of those bugs are especially pronounced on dual-screen systems like this. You like my complimentary wallpapers here? Well, don't get used to them, because Windows overrides my selections about once a day to make them the same. And searching for things in settings that you know are there doesn't always produce results, just dumb stuff like this. Asus tries to correct for some of these shortcomings with custom software, much of which is clever and helpful. But then there's stuff like the gesture areas on the trackpad to control volume and brightness, which mean I'm always accidentally unmuting the computer by grazing the trackpad while I'm typing. I also have a bigger problem with the keyboard. Put a tab on this! If I rest my palm on the palm rest, you know, where it belongs, I experience major connectivity problems with both keystrokes and the trackpad. Now, when the keyboard is docked, it works just fine, indicating a possible Bluetooth radio or antenna issue, or possibly a grounding problem. Now, no other review I've seen has mentioned this, and I never had any issues with my prior ZenBook model, so it's possible my review unit is just defective. Still, it's not ideal. Kinda like this webcam, which I think I would've called mediocre even 10 years ago. Yeah. Ideally, you don't want any problems on a laptop that costs between $2,100 and $2,300. Yeah, that's a lot of money. But for me, the Bluetooth issue would be the only true showstopper if it turns out to be a widespread problem. And the reason is there's value in convenience. While you can spend a lot less on a conventional laptop and then just throw a cheap second screen alongside, well, that's one more thing to carry and power and set up and break down. That's even true to a lesser extent of Lenovo's competing Yoga Book 9i, which forces you to carry the keyboard separately. The ZenBook Pro Duo folds up neatly into one compact package giving you the option of a laptop, a workstation, and a weirdo workstation all in one. For anyone with the need for multiple monitors in the smallest footprint while they're staying mobile, for my money, this is the PC to pick. This video was produced by me, Michael Fisher, following about a month with a ZenBook Pro Duo review sample provided by Asus. As is always the case, the manufacturer had no editorial input into this review. It didn't provide compensation in exchange for it, and it didn't see a preview prior to publication. Asus is seeing it for the first time right alongside you. To ensure I can keep producing stuff like this, please subscribe to MrMobile and stay tuned for another laptop-adjacent, laptop-replacement video coming soon. In the meantime, my Galaxy Trifold review is worth a look. Till next time, thanks for watching, and stay mobile, my friends.