In brief: Asus is wasting little time bringing one of its most fascinating products from CES to market. The Zenbook Duo UX8406 is now available to purchase and the price tag might surprise some.
For the uninitiated, the Zenbook Duo features a pair of 14-inch 3K (2,880 x 1,800 resolution, 500 nits peak brightness) OLED touchscreens with 120 Hz refresh rates that cover 100 percent of the DCI-P3 color space. The displays are held together by a 180-degree lay-flat hinge that can function in a variety of modes including side-by-side for a "single" large display, in regular laptop mode, in dual-screen mode, or in what Asus calls sharing mode.
You can also use the two displays in stacked mode – one on top of the other – although I am not sure how sturdy this top-heavy tower configuration would be in the real world. The keyboard and touchpad are fully detachable for added flexibility.
The Zenbook Duo is offered in a variety of hardware configurations with up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 Processor 185H CPU and an integrated Neural Processing Unit for AI acceleration, 32GB of LPDDR5X memory, and up to a 1 TB NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD. The original announcement mentioned a 2 TB option but I'm not seeing that here.
Port selection includes a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A, two Thunderbolt 4 ports that support display and power deliver, an HDMI 2.1 TMDS connection, and a 3.5mm combo audio jack. A 75 Wh battery and Harman Kardon-certified Dolby Atmos audio system are also included. The system ships with Windows 11 Home out of the box, and is offered in a single color: Inkwell Gray.
Pricing starts at $1,499.99 for a model with an Intel Core Ultra 7 Processor 155H and 16 GB of RAM. According to the Asus shop, the Ultra 7 is not expected to ship out until February 21. Opt for the Ultra 9 model and Asus can get it out a week earlier, on February 14.