Almost two years ago I reviewed the ROG Zephyrus Duo 15, a gaming laptop with two displays. And now Asus is back at it again, this time with the ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 that boasts a 16-inch main display with a 14-inch secondary display just below it. It still looks wildly cool and chaotic, but this time around I’ve actually found a use for the second screen.
Specs
Here are the specifications of the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 I’ve been testing:
- Model: Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 (GX650R-XS97)
- Display: 16-inch QHD+ 165Hz (2560x1600), 14-inch (3840x1100)
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX 3.3GHz (20M cache, 4.9GHz max boost)
- Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU, 16GB GDDR6
- Memory: 16GB DDR5 4,800Mhz
- OS: Windows 11 Pro
- Storage: 1 x 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD
- Webcam: 720p HD IR camera
- Ports: 1 x microSD card reader, 1 x HDMI 2.1, 1 x 3.5mm audio jack, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C w/DisplayPort support, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C w/DisplayPort support and power deliver, 1 x Ethernet, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A
- Connectivity: WiFi 6E 802.11ax, Bluetooth 5.2
- Dimensions: 13.98 x 10.47 x 0.81-inches (WxDxH)
- Weight: 5.73-pounds
- Price: $4,489
Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 – Design
The Duo 16 is a beast. It’s big, heavy and I’m here for it. The black exterior is broken up by a dot matrix design that’s cut in half diagonally on the lid by a blue and purple line, with the rest of the lid left plain, save for the ROG logo that uses the same blue and purple color scheme.
The hinge connects on both outer edges of the housing, with another dot matrix-like design found on the back portion of the housing, along with status lights. As you lift the lid, you’ll feel a touch of resistance the further you push it up. The resistance comes from the lid also pulling up the touch-capable Screenpad+ display, which rests at a 13-degree angle. Underneath the display are a couple of airflow vents to help improve the cooling system.
Below the Screenpad+ is a revamped keyboard and a larger touchpad that can be transformed into a digital number pad. To switch between the touchpad and number pad you long press on the small silkscreened button that’s on the touchpad itself. After a second or two, the touchpad displays a red numpad that you can use to quickly punch in numbers. When you’re done, you long-press on the same button to go back to a standard touchpad.
The 16-inch display is sandwiched between two vertical bezels that are impressively thin. Along the top of the display is a 720P infrared camera that works with Windows Hello to use facial recognition for tasks such as signing in to your Windows account or logging into apps.
On the right side of the deck is a single USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port that supports DisplayPort for connecting an external monitor. On the left side of the deck is where a 3.5mm headphone jack, a microSD card reader, a second USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port with Power Delivery and DisplayPort support, a standard USB 3.2 Gen 2 port and the charging port are found.
On the rear of the laptop’s housing you’ll find three more ports – another standard USB port, an HDMI 2.1 port and a 2.5G Ethernet port.
I’ve said it before, but I really appreciate it when laptop makers spread the ports out as they are on the Duo 16. It looks cleaner than overloading a single side of the laptop with ports, along with the connections and cables that come along with it.
The Duo 16 isn’t something you’ll want to get in the habit of carrying around everywhere with you simply due to its weight of 5.78 pounds. Still, its dimensions are impressively small given that there’s a 16-inch display involved, measuring 13.98 x 10.47 x 0.81 inches.
Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 – Performance and gaming
Inside the Duo 16 I’ve been testing is all of the high-end components I’d put on my wishlist if I was building a gaming laptop from scratch and a budget wasn’t involved. More specifically, the Duo 16 houses an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX mobile processor with 8-cores and 16-threads, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti laptop GPU with 16GB of GDDR6 of memory, a 2TB NVMe SSD for storage and 32GB of DDR5 4,800MHz memory.
It’s a good thing it has specs that are sure to make your friends jealous, too. Performance is good, if not great on the Duo 16 – and when you look at its benchmark scores compared to two equally impressive builds in the Gigabyte Aero 16 and MSI Raider GE76, it sits right in the middle of the two.
For example, the Duo 16 more or less matches the GE76’s performance in 3DMark tests, but then saw its average frames per second in gaming benchmarks consistently below the GE76’s. That said, it did beat the Aero 16’s scores almost across the board.
My personal experience with the Duo 16 was similar. Using it for everyday, common tasks such as streaming Spotify or Twitch while talking with colleagues and friends in Slack and Discord with a number of tabs open in Edge, I never saw any performance hiccups or slowdowns. I didn’t see any hiccups when gaming, either, but I did expect to see higher fps numbers than I did.
When I first installed Warzone and started adjusting to graphics settings, I thought something was broken. I’m accustomed to seeing the memory bar on the right side of the screen fill up and eventually turn red as it goes past the suggested limit. However, with all graphics settings on high and ray tracing enabled, Warzone didn’t get remotely close to taking up the full 16GB of GPU memory.
With all graphics settings on high, ray tracing turned on, and DLSS set to Quality, the Duo 16 hovered right around 120 fps. If I switched DLSS to performance, the average fps jumped up to 123 – so not much of a difference.
I also spent a good amount of time playing Fortnite, again with all graphics settings on high, and saw an average of 110 fps. At first, I expected performance, even with maxed-out settings, to be higher than those numbers, but then I remembered I was playing at the Duo 16’s full resolution of 2560x1600. I’ll take 120 fps of practically 2K gaming on a laptop any day of the week.
Speaking of the display, I really liked the color quality, saturation and overall clarity of the Duo 16’s screen. With a little bit of tweaking to graphics settings it’s easily within reach to get Warzone or Fortnite to match the display's 165Hz refresh rate.
With the keyboard at the front of the housing, there isn’t a comfortable palm rest. Because of that, Asus includes a palm rest that snugs up to the front of the deck. The keyboard feels like a mix of mechanical and chiclet, with plenty of movement and a silent switch-like sound and feel.
The touchpad is too small to be used all day long, but it does its job and is comfortable to use for short periods of time.
With the Duo 15 I never really found a purpose for the second screen. Sure, I could view my system stats while I was gaming and ensure everything was running smoothly – but I never felt like having the second screen was a true benefit. With the Duo 16, however, I found myself using the second screen for activities I would normally use an external monitor for. For example, I often had Twitch open and streaming on the bottom Screenpad+ while I browsed the web, wrote an email or completed some other random task on the top display.
While gaming, I could have Discord open on the bottom display, for instance, to monitor different chats and servers I’m in. I do wish that more apps and games supported the Screenpad+; it’d be awesome to see an option to manage your custom loadouts in Warzone or perhaps have an always-on map on the bottom screen in Fortnite.
Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 – Battery life
Battery life is always an issue on gaming laptops, but I was surprised at the Duo 16’s performance given that two displays remained on during the battery test. I looked through every settings pane I could find for a switch to turn off the Screenpad+ display to no avail. So I lowered both screens’ brightness to 50% like I always do for battery benchmarks and let the test run.
The Duo 16 powered through 2 hours and 59 minutes before it ran out of power. That’s one minute longer than the single-display Aero 16 lasted in the same test, and 38 minutes less than the GE76 (again, with a single screen).
Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 – Software
When you drop over $4,000 on a gaming laptop, the last thing you want to deal with is preinstalled bloatware and random apps. And with the Duo 16, I’m happy to say that isn’t an issue.
Asus has some of its own apps preinstalled, and the standard Windows 11 apps are present, but that’s par for the course. The Asus app I used the most during my testing was Armoury Crate. It’s in that app where you go to adjust performance settings, view system stats, change the individually lit keyboard’s color scheme or check for firmware and system updates that are specific to Asus.
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