CES 2020: ASUS Unveils Dual-Screen ZenBook Duo UX481 Notebook
by Anton Shilov on January 14, 2020 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Notebooks
- Asus
- Laptops
- Zenbook
- Trade Shows
- Comet Lake
- CES 2020
- ZenBook Duo
Last year ASUS introduced its exclusive ZenBook Pro Duo laptops with a secondary display aimed at creative professionals with performance-hungry color critical workloads. At CES 2020, the company revealed a new iteration of its dual-screen notebook — the ZenBook Duo UX481 — designed for road warriors (or creators in budget) and promising to offer decent performance and battery life in addition to the second monitor.
The ASUS ZenBook Duo model UX481 comes in the company's signature Celestial Blue aluminum unibody and is equipped with a Pantone Validated 14-inch Full HD display with optional touch support and a 12.6-inch auxiliary screen. The latter can be used to run apps designed for the company’s ScreenPad or just extend Windows programs to it and increase useful screen real estate. It will be interesting to find out how significantly will the auxiliary monitor improve performance in productivity applications used by people who work on the go, but at least ASUS believes that this LCD makes sense for the target audience.
Inside the ZenBook Duo machine is Intel’s 10th Generation Comet Lake Core i5-10210U or Core i7-10510U processor (with UHD Graphics) that can be optionally enhanced with NVIDIA’s discrete GeForce MX 250 GPU with 2 GB of GDDR5 memory. The system comes with up to 16 GB of soldered-down LPDDR3 DRAM as well as a 256GB/512GB/1 TB PCIe SSD. Connectivity wise, we have a fairly standard 2020 laptop here, so it has Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5, USB 3.2 Gen 1/2 with Type-A as well as Type-C connectors, HDMI, microSD, and a combo audio jack.
ASUS equipped its ZenBook Duo with a 70 Wh battery, but it is rather hard to make predictions about actual battery life of the notebook given its second screen and applications developed for it. As for portability, being aimed at road warriors, the ZenBook Duo UX481 is relatively compact and lightweight for an aluminum 14-incher (especially when an additional screen is taken into account): it weighs 1.5 kilograms and is 19.9 mm thick.
| The ASUS ZenBook Duo UX481 Laptop | ||
| UX481 | ||
| Primary Display | General | 14-inch |
| Resolution Color Gamut |
1920×1080 ? |
|
| Features | Pantone Validated Optional Touchscreen |
|
| Secondary Display | Diagonal | 12.6-inch with touch |
| Resolution | ? | |
| Viewing Angles | 178˚ (?) | |
| CPU Options | Intel Core i7-10510U Intel Core i5-10210U |
|
| Graphics | Integrated | Intel UHD Graphics |
| Discrete | NVIDIA GeForce MX250 w/ 2 GB GDDR5 | |
| RAM | up to 16 GB LPDDR3 | |
| Storage | SSD | 256 GB PCIe 3.0 x2 512 GB PCIe 3.0 x2 1 TB PCIe 3.0 x4 |
| Wireless | Wi-Fi | Intel Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) |
| Bluetooth | Bluetooth 5.0 | |
| USB | 1 × USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C 1 × USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A 1 × USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A |
|
| Thunderbolt | - | |
| Display Outputs | 1 × HDMI | |
| Gigabit Ethernet | none | |
| Card Reader | microSD | |
| Webcam | Windows Hello-capable webcam with IR sensors | |
| Fingerprint Sensor | none | |
| Other I/O | Microphone, stereo speakers, audio jack | |
| Battery | 70 Wh Li-Poly | |
| Dimensions | Width | 32.3 cm |
| Depth | 22.3 cm | |
| Thickness | 19.9 mm | |
| Weight | 1.5 kilograms | 3.3 lbs | |
| Price | various | |
ASUS will start sales of its ZenBook Duo model UX481 sometimes in the first quarter. The company does not announce pricing of its unique laptop, but it is natural that they will be sold at a premium.
Related Reading:
- Asus ZenBook S (UX391): ZenBook Gets a Lift
- ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo UX58: A Dual Screen Laptop with 100% DCI-P3 OLED
- ASUS Unveils Ultra-Thin ZenBook Pro 15 with Six-Core Core i9, GTX 1050, Calibrated 4K LCD
- ASUS ZenBook 3 Deluxe UX490UA: Kaby Lake, 16 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD, TB3, 14" FHD, 2.4 lbs
Source: ASUS
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CarBarlos - Tuesday, January 14, 2020 - link
So we're downgrading from a RTX 2060 to a MX 250 because that makes all the sense!Eletriarnation - Tuesday, January 14, 2020 - link
Depending on the application, it does. My manager bought one of the previous model to use as his work laptop. Do you think he needs a 2060 for PowerPoint and WebEx?Makaveli - Tuesday, January 14, 2020 - link
Probably also alot less noise and increased battery life with a less powerful gpu.And considering this looks to be more of an office machine and not gaming laptop its a good trade off.
Retycint - Wednesday, January 15, 2020 - link
Technically speaking, having a more powerful GPU does not make the battery life any worse when doing office tasks because the GPU remains off during low intensity workloads (graphics-wise). It will be running on the iGPU when using powerpoint/chrome etcsmilingcrow - Tuesday, January 14, 2020 - link
Gamers often seem to be very myopic; maybe a result of spending so much time in front of a screen!jordanclock - Tuesday, January 14, 2020 - link
They also dropped the "Pro" moniker, so yeah, it makes sense. This isn't likely meant for gamers and will almost undoubtedly have better battery life in its intended use cases.CampGareth - Tuesday, January 14, 2020 - link
The UX481 is already available in some regions, there are even reviews out. 1920x515 is the resolution of the secondary display. Battery life is apparently really high, like 10 hours of video watching on a loop, no doubt helped by the 10W gpu and 15W cpu. The main upgrade for the CES 2020 version is the main screen has been upgraded to a touchscreen. Price tag in the UK is £1500 to the pro duo's £2500 or £3000 depending on the spec.I am waiting for the dual touchscreen variant to be available in the UK before buying but when I emailed Asus support about availability they said "probably before next CES" and nothing more.
Rhl2mcm - Sunday, February 9, 2020 - link
Thank you u are the only one who has answered my question I’m gonna cancel my order for the non touch screen version and will wait for the new oneRhl2mcm - Sunday, February 16, 2020 - link
Now they told me the model is available with retailers it’s called UX481fly and ux481fal retailers like Currys,amazon,John Lewis and scan.co.uk have it but I googled it and it wasn’t there so I asked them for proof and no reply yetCampGareth - Monday, February 24, 2020 - link
I think Asus's support people are a bit confused. There are two models of UX481 available in the UK, the UX481FA and FL. Neither of these have the optional primary touchscreen. When that shows up I'm expecting it to appear in the US first, possibly with a new model number, which should be some time in Q1 but that's coming to an end soon.