A more user-friendly entry point for this sophisticated device is a plus, and additional adjustments and improvements enhance the design even more. The Zephyrus Duo 15 is still an expensive niche device, and a second screen is still something you can afford rather than something you need, but it’s still a cool and appealing gaming laptop. Even if the model’s design is remarkably similar to that of the original, its originality justifies a rundown. First, the obvious: the two screens, which are implemented in a very streamlined manner, are the feature that stands out. The concept is still impressive, as is the laptop’s ability to remain thin and portable while housing the dual displays. We’ll talk more about what they can do later. The Duo is identical to last year’s model, measuring 0.82 by 14.2 by 10.6 inches and weighing 5.3 pounds. It is also not significantly larger than many typical gaming rigs. also you can check our article on Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE GX551 review.
Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE GX551 review: Design
The ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE GX551 largely maintains the smart and reliable design of the previous year’s model. In essence, it consists of a relatively thin, blocky laptop chassis with a lift-up second screen that is located above the keyboard. The result is a crowded keyboard and an awkwardly placed moussing device, despite the fact that it looks good and feels solid and premium. When you power on the laptop, the keys dance across the keyboard and glow red, and when you open the lid, the lower Screen Pad rises (to both improve viewing angles and aid in cooling). As the device boots, an animation that resembles a spacecraft console from a Marvel movie briefly plays on the lower screen before the Windows 10 Pro desktop appears. Is it a scam? Yes, but it’s also quite nicely done. The ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE weighs 5.29 pounds and measures 14.1 by 10.6 by 0.8 inches, therefore it is hardly ultraportable. It’s not very large, though, for a 15.6-inch gaming laptop with high-end parts (in this setup, two 1TB NVMe SSDs and 32GB of RAM are included). Without adding a second display, the MSI GP66 Leopard weighs 5.25 pounds and measures 14.09 by 10.51 by 0.92 inches. The magnesium-aluminide that Asus utilizes for the laptop’s body helps reduce weight while providing a darker black shade this time around as opposed to the blue-on-grey of the previous design. The aggressive and game-like default animations and flashing RGB keyboard may be turned off or toned down to create a laptop that wouldn’t look out of place in an office. The RGB keyboard and aggressive animations that are on by default can be turned off or toned down to create a laptop that wouldn’t look completely out of place in an office. Instead of a power jack, this laptop has a gigabit Ethernet port, an HDMI 2.0b port, and the first USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10GBps) Type A port on the rear. Two additional 10GBps Type-A ports are located on the right Edge, along with a single USB-C port that is also 3.2 Gen 2. We’d like to see a USB port on the left side and at least one more USB-C port in this location. However, this USB-C connector does support 100W USB-C charging. While you’ll want to keep the power brick nearby when gaming, the fact that it can also be charged through USB, albeit more slowly, means there will be times when you can leave the large 280W power converter at home.
Keyboard and touchpad
The 14-inch second monitor mounted to the chassis compromises the keyboard deck. The keyboard on the Zephyrus Duo 15 SE feels extremely crowded, in contrast to most 15-inch gaming laptops, which aim for a well-spaced out layout with even a Number Pad. I had a hard time adjusting to this layout at first, especially after leaving the excellent Zephyrus G14 keyboard. While typing, there is no way to spread out your fingers, and the position won’t feel very natural while playing a game. It’s equally disappointing using the trackpad. It is still a touch-enabled number pad despite being moved to the right edge. Since the trackpad cannot be clicked, there are two physical buttons at the bottom of the device. In any case, it is fairly sensitive and works well with Windows Precision Gestures. Simply put, we don’t believe anyone will voluntarily use this keyboard. But the question still remains: Is the second display even worthwhile if you have to rely on an external keyboard to keep the laptop farther from your eyes?
Display
The 14-inch touch ScreenPad has a 3840 x 1100 resolution. It contains a specialized management tool that arranges the panel’s programmes in snaps, and it offers a customizable shortcut dock. The ScreenPad is practical because it allows you to utilize any software. We used Discord while playing games and Spotify and Skype while working. Many well-known eSports games, including League of Legends and Fortnite, have Overwolf plugins that are compatible with the ScreenPad, and XSplit Gamecaster is designed for the second screen. Timelines and controls may be displayed on the second screen, making the ScreenPad perfect for users who frequently use creative programmes. It also benefits streamers. Compared to the GX550’s prior similar display, it is more adaptable. The contrast of the ScreenPad is around 1000:1. Although color fidelity may be better, it is less critical on the secondary panel. The main screen is a 4K IPS panel with 120Hz AMD FreeSync and a 3ms response time, making it ideal for frantic gaming. The panel renders a staggering 100% of the sRGB and Adobe RGB color gamuts, and its contrast ratio of 1144:1 is strong, punchy, and vibrant enough for work and gaming. The screen is excellent for both work and play. The GX551’s audio system includes two 4W speakers and two 2W tweeters. They have strong bass that is never overpowering and are loud, clear, and well-balanced.
Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE GX551 review: Audio
Although the SE version of the Duo doesn’t add many new capabilities, Asus has enhanced the original speakers with a pair of “Smart Amp Woofers,” which the company claims enables immersive Dolby Atmos surround sound. Now, any assertion that the four speakers in a laptop can provide real surround sound is at best speculative. We can, however, state that there is some audible low-end thump present. The opening bassline of “Purge,” the first track on Frontline Assembly’s most recent album Mechanical Soul, had a visceral weight to it even before the beat began to play. Additionally, Bill Leeb’s pitch-shifted, distorted vocals remained as menacing as ever. Having said that, despite the fact that there was no distortion at maximum volume, we frequently found ourselves wishing there was more volume. The current setup is adequate for gaming and watching videos at moderate volumes, but if you want really loud sound, you’ll need to connect headphones or a reliable Bluetooth speaker.
Graphic and gaming
The “proper” desktop GeForce RTX 3080 is a far cry from the raw graphics performance, which is only about 15% faster than the typical GeForce RTX 2080 laptop. Despite having the same name as the desktop version, it is still one of the fastest mobile GPUs currently on the market. Nevertheless, users should not anticipate performance to be even remotely comparable. Performance will instead be closer to that of a desktop GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. Positively, graphics performance is around 45% faster than the GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q in the GX550 from last year. Depending on how you see the data, the news is not all negative. According to 3DMark, using our Zephyrus’s GPU in Performance mode as opposed to Turbo mode would only result in a 5–10% performance loss. Our Fire Strike Physics and Graphics scores would be 24710 and 6478 points, respectively, if we were operating on battery power. The GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q is consistently outperformed by real-world game performance, especially when playing at higher resolutions than 1080p. When running at 4K, frame rates should increase by up to 50%, compared to 30–40% at 1080p.
Performance
The RTX 3080 is a powerful GPU with 6144 CUDA cores and an Ampere-powered architecture; Asus has included the more powerful model with 16GB of memory. The GX551 has 32GB of memory and a 2TB RAID 0 SSD array, and the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX processor, which has eight cores and features the beautiful Zen 3 architecture, is powering it. also you can check our article on Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE GX551 review. The majority of today’s top games will be playable at this high resolution thanks to Nvidia’s GPU, which can run them at 4K and Ultra settings with frame rates ranging between 36fps and 50fps in titles like Horizon Zero Dawn, Borderlands 3, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and Far Cry New Dawn. Ray tracing and DLSS were enabled in the appropriate games, and the RTX 3080 was still playable with them. The RTX 3080 and RTX 3070 can be compared favorably. The Asus outperformed the Aorus by eight and thirteen frames in our 1080p benchmark tests for Borderlands and Horizon, averaging 92 and 95 frames per second, respectively. It also compares favorably to the RTX 2080 Super, which had a 3DMark Time Spy score of roughly 9000 compared to the RTX 3080’s 10,356. The new Nvidia GPU offers tremendous 1080p power. It typically ran beyond 60 frames per second and frequently soared past 100 frames per second with every game’s settings turned up. In less taxing games like Dirt Rally, the average frame rate is 146 fps, significantly beyond the display’s minimum requirement of 120 fps for that refresh rate. The potential for playing eSports games smoothly is therefore enormous. For eSports enthusiasts, there is a better option: the GX551 for £2499 comes with an RTX 3070, a 1TB SSD, and a 1080p screen, but it also offers a 300Hz refresh rate. Additionally, there are 4K restrictions on the RTX 3080 laptop version. It struggled to handle 4K and Ultra settings in the most taxing games; in CyberPunk 2077 and Metro Exodus, its average frame rate dropped below 30 fps. The issues were fixed by lowering the graphics settings, but they demonstrate that the laptop’s RTX 3080 isn’t faultless and that it won’t achieve 120 frames per second in the majority of high-end games at 4K.
Battery life
It’s normal to assume that the battery will be some sort of afterthought while using a device like this, a high-end gaming laptop. That’s not entirely inaccurate, but this is more than just a flimsy attempt to let you save your game in case the power goes out. In PCMark’s battery life test, it managed a respectable five and a half hours, and four and a half hours while playing a movie continuously, which is on the lower end of reasonable and slightly longer than we’d anticipate for a device with these tiny insides. Naturally, we played games on the battery, and before it died, we reached a pretty-much industry standard cooking time of almost two hours. This is a device you can use to play games wherever there is a power outlet, not a laptop that will get you through a long flight.
Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE GX551 review: Heat
The ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE GX551 isn’t an especially loud gaming laptop, as was already said. During the fans are audible while gaming, they don’t make a forceful blowing noise or keep spinning continuously as they do on some laptops. Instead, they make a consistent midrange whirr. And while the laptop might become warm in some places, that happens largely on the bottom. We used an IR thermometer to record surface temperatures when we ran our Metro Exodus stress test (see the gaming performance section above). The touchpad reached 35.2 degrees Celsius while the center of the keyboard, between the G and H keys, registered 34.9 degrees Celsius (94.9 degrees Fahrenheit) (95.1 degrees Fahrenheit). The area of the laptop’s bottom that reached its highest temperature was directly behind the serial number sticker, close to the back, at 49.4 degrees Celsius (120.9 degrees Fahrenheit). These numbers, with the exception of the keyboard temperature, are a little higher than what we observed on MSI’s GP66 Leopard, but that laptop has a single screen and is thicker and noisier.
Configuration options
The Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE GX551 is a more uncommon laptop; you won’t see it produced in great quantities, but Asus appears to have established a reliable supply chain in most areas, so you should be able to get one if you look around. You won’t be spending much less than the MSRP, according to stockists, and you might even have to pay a tiny premium. For $2,999.99 (£2,499, AU$4,099), you can get the version with fewer features, which includes an RTX 3070 (8GB GDDR6), a 300Hz IPS FHD screen, 16GB RAM that is soldered on, 16GB RAM that is slotted, and 1TB M.2 storage. you will learn our article on Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE GX551 review. The Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE GX551 in this review is the full-fat $3,699.99 (£3,499, AU$5,599) variant that comes with an RTX 3080 (16GB GDDR6), 120Hz IPS 4K screen, 16GB RAM soldered on, 16GB RAM slotted, and combined 2TB M.2 storage. Be extremely explicit with me. Regardless of the model you choose, this is a pricey device made for people with lots of extra cash. Probably not for people like us.
Conclusion
In comparison to the previous generation, Asus has made some really cool advancements. The decision to transition to AMD was unquestionably wise since today, if your device doesn’t have an AMD CPU inside, you can’t declare it “the most powerful laptop on the market.” This is for the five or six of you if you’re a serious gamer looking for a portable system that doesn’t sacrifice performance or a creative professional whose time is literally your money and who can’t sit around all day waiting for a video to render.
