Steve Gibson was “not comfortable participating in council business where religious or spiritual practices form part of official proceedings”. Read...

Steve Gibson was “not comfortable participating in council business where religious or spiritual practices form part of official proceedings”. Read...

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Microsoft said this week that it expects Surface and Windows revenue to fall as a result of the ongoing shortages of memory in the PC market. Microsoft chief financial officer Amy Hood told analysts that revenue in its More Personal Computing segment, which includes the Surface devices, should fall to between $12.3 billion and $12.8 billion, from the $14.3 billion that the company reported during the quarter. Windows OEM and devices revenue should decline in the low teens, she said. “The range of potential outcomes remains wider than normal, in part due to the potential impact on the PC market from increased memory pricing,” she said. Microsoft also reported that the surge in PC buying due to transition away from Windows 10 has ended as PC makers sell through their inventory. Windows revenue should fall by 10 percent, Hood said. PC makers have already warned about rising prices, especially Dell and Lenovo. Microsoft did not say that it was raising PC prices, however — still, as we have noted, the continuing rise of RAM prices means the impact to PC consumers tends to remain a mystery. A day later, however, and Microsoft’s stock had plunged by 12 percent in a single day, as investors apparently worried about Microsoft’s Azure revenue and dependence on OpenAI. “Capital expenditures were $37.5 billion, and this quarter, roughly two-thirds of our [expenditures] was on short-lived assets, primarily GPUs and CPUs” for the server business, Microsoft’s Hood said. “Our customer demand continues to exceed our supply.” Overall, Microsoft reported net income of $38.5 billion, up 60 percent from a year ago, on revenue of $81.3 billion for its second fiscal quarter and the fourth calendar quarter of 2025. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Attractive and lightweight chassis Enjoyable keyboard and haptic touchpad Easy-to-view matte OLED touchscreen Good multi-core CPU performance Great integrated graphics performance Cons Battery life is merely typical Might be expensive at MSRP Our Verdict The Asus ExpertBook Ultra benefits from the performance of Intel’s new Panther Lake architecture, but it’s also a great premium business laptop in its own right. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Asus Expertbook Ultra Retailer Price Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Intel’s Panther Lake, produced with the company’s long heralded and frequently delayed 18A fabrication process, is finally beginning to tip-toe into the world. And the Asus ExpertBook Ultra is one of the first production laptops we’ve had the chance to try (Mark Hachman also recently reviewed an Asus Zenbook Duo with the top-tier Intel Core Ultra X9 388H).  While the ExpertBook has a less powerful version of Panther Lake than what’s in the Zenbook Duo, I have to concur with Mark’s conclusion. You’re going to want this.  Asus ExpertBook Ultra: Specs and features as-tested The Asus ExpertBook Ultra I received has Intel’s Core Ultra X7 358H inside. This is a high-end version of Panther Lake. It provides 16 cores in total and has Intel Arc B390 graphics, just like the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H. However, the X7 358H promises a maximum Turbo clock speed of 4.8GHz, a bit lower than the X9 388H’s maximum Turbo clock of 5.1GHz.  Model number: B9406 CPU: Intel Core Ultra X7 358H Memory: 32GB LPDDR5x-8533 Graphics/GPU: Intel Arc B390 NPU: 50 TOPS Display: 14-inch 2880×1880 tandem OLED touchscreen with Corning Gorilla Glass Storage: 2TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 solid state drive Webcam and microphone: 1080p FHD IR camera Connectivity: 2x Thunderbolt 4 with DisplayPort and Power Delivery, 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x 3.5mm combo audio jack Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0 Biometrics: Windows Hello facial recognition, fingerprint reader Battery capacity: 70 watt-hours Dimensions: 12.24 x 8.38 x 0.65 inches Weight: 2.42 pounds Operating System: Windows 11 Pro Additional features: Haptic touchpad Price: TBD While the new Intel Panther Lake hardware inside the ExpertBook Ultra is certainly exciting, it’s not the only feature worth mentioning. The ExpertBook also has a 14-inch OLED touchscreen with a Corning Gorilla Glass Victus Matte finish, a haptic touchpad, and a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports.  One bit of information that’s missing from the equation, however, is the price. The ExpertBook is not due for release until April. Because of that, pricing is not yet settled. Asus said it expects a price similar to competitors, however, and cited alternatives like the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon and Dell Pro 14 Premium. These are often around $2,500 when similarly equipped. The Asus ExpertBook Ultra is a solid premium business laptop and a significant escalation of Asus’ profile in the space. Asus ExpertBook Ultra: Design and build quality Foundry / Matthew Smith The Asus ExpertBook Ultra makes a solid first impression straight out of the box. It uses a light, strong magnesium-aluminum alloy that keeps the laptop’s weight down to just 2.42 pounds (with tandem OLED display).  Magnesium-aluminum alloy is a common material for lightweight laptops, and it usually suffers from a plastic-y feel that seems inexpensive. However, the ExpertBook Ultra counteracts that with a “nano ceramic” finish, much like Asus’ ceraluminum, which adds a pleasing matte finish and gives the laptop a grippy feel. The laptop’s build quality is solid, too, with only the slightest flex noticeable when handling the laptop from one corner or opening the display lid.  I like the laptop’s Morn Gray colorway. Gray—as opposed to silver—is not that common of a color option for a modern laptop, and the particular tone used here feels modern but professional. The finish is matte but has a metallic luster that sparkles when the light catches the laptop just right. It will also be available in a darker Jet Fog colorway, but I didn’t have a chance to see it. It’s also a compact laptop, measuring a hair over 12 inches wide, about 8.5 inches deep, and no more than 0.65 inches thick. Measurements like this are not uncommon in 2026, but still sufficient to give the laptop a slim, sleek feel similar to what 13-inch ultralights provided five or so years ago—but with a slightly larger 14-inch display.  Asus ExpertBook Ultra: Keyboard, touchpad Foundry / Matthew Smith I was further impressed when I sat down to write on the Asus ExpertBook Ultra. It has a spacious keyboard with fantastic key feel. Keys have good travel and activate with a crisp yet not overly firm action. Most modern business laptops have at least a passable keyboard, but the ExpertBook Ultra has one of the best in recent memory.  Below the keyboard you’ll find a spacious haptic touchpad. It measures about five inches wide and a little over three inches deep, which is a respectable size for a 14-inch laptop. The surface provides enough room to execute Windows multi-touch gestures including the 5-finger swipe.  I also like the touchpad’s haptic feedback. I find haptic touchpads are almost universally better than those with a physical click action. Of course, that’s because the physical click action on modern laptops is often terrible, but it is what it is. The haptic touchpad offers a convincing sense of tactile feedback. Asus ExpertBook Ultra: Display, audio Foundry / Matthew Smith A 14-inch OLED touchscreen with 2880×1880 resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate is found on every Asus ExpertBook Ultra. The specs suggest it’s a rather common panel, but the ExpertBook has a secret weapon. It’s a matte display.  Specifically, the laptop uses a Corning Gorilla Glass Victus display with a matte finish. This is doubly rare. Most laptops with an OLED panel don’t have a matte or anti-glare finish, and most laptops don’t use Corning’s Gorilla Glass.  The result is a spectacular yet practical display. The 14-inch OLED panel delivers the incredible color vibrance, rich contrast, and high sharpness that is typical of OLED display panels. Yet it also provides a low-glare finish that keeps the display reasonably easy to read even outdoors. The high-gloss finish used by most OLED screens can become a problem in that situation. The ExpertBook also comes through in audio performance. It has a six-speaker sound system that delivers good volume and some hint of bass, which allows it to deliver kick in movies and music without becoming muddy and indistinct. It can still begin to sound buzzy and harsh at maximum volume, but that volume is so loud you’ll likely not use it often, and the sound is decent at more modest volumes. Asus Expertbook Ultra: Webcam, microphone, biometrics The Asus ExpertBook Ultra has a lot to recommend it, but it’s not flawless, and the webcam is among its less impressive features. That’s not to say it’s bad. It’s a 1080p webcam with a physical privacy shutter. Image quality is competitive with most Windows laptops in good to moderate lighting, but it doesn’t defy the typical issues webcams experience in mixed or low light. The webcam also has an extremely wide field of view, which I’m not a huge fan of—though this is typical for many webcams on modern Windows laptops. Audio is recorded with a dual-microphone array. Like the webcam, it’s not bad but also doesn’t stand out. The audio is recorded at good volume and can reject most background noise, but audio capture still has the hollow, distant sound common to laptop microphones.  However, the ExpertBook Ultra delivers on biometrics. It has a fingerprint sensor built into the power button, which is located on the keyboard beside the Delete key, and it supports facial recognition via an IR webcam. Both were smooth in my testing.  Asus ExpertBook Ultra: Connectivity Foundry / Matthew Smith A pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports are the star of the Asus ExpertBook Ultra’s connectivity. Each supports Power Delivery to charge the laptop as well as DisplayPort for video-out connections. Asus also wisely places one port on each side of the laptop, instead of both on the same side, and both ports are about as far back on the flanks of the laptop as possible. That helps with cable management.  The laptop also has a pair of USB-A ports. These, too, are split across both flanks of the laptop. An HDMI 2.1 port and a 3.5mm combo audio jack, both on the laptop’s left flank, round out the options.  Wireless connectivity is solid, as well, as the laptop supports both Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0. I was impressed by the laptop’s Wi-Fi speeds. Most laptops that I review deliver fine performance, but the ExpertBook was noticeably quicker than the average when I used it in my detached home office, which is several walls and about 40 feet from my router.  Asus ExpertBook Ultra: Performance The Asus ExpertBook Ultra is one of the first laptops PC World has received with Intel’s new Panther Lake architecture inside.  Specifically, the laptop has the Intel Core Ultra X7 358H. This chip provides a total of 16 CPU cores (four performance, eight efficient, and four low-power efficient) with a maximum Turbo clock of 4.8GHz. The ExpertBook pairs the Intel chip with 32GB of LPDDR5x-8533 memory and a 2TB PCIe 4.0 solid state drive.  So, how does Intel’s new hardware stack up? Foundry / Matthew Smith We start off with PCMark 10, a holistic system benchmark that speaks favorably of the Intel Core Ultra X7 358H. It leaps ahead here with a score of 9,892, which is well ahead of the AMD Ryzen AI and Intel Core Ultra Series 2 chips in previous premium business laptops.  I found this result surprising, and tried it several times, only to discover the scores improved (slightly). Having done that, I can only conclude that the laptop is a performer, and a performer across many aspects instead of one or two. This is a stellar start for Panther Lake. Foundry / Matthew Smith Next up is Cinebench R24, a heavily multi-threaded benchmark that is often quite harsh on Intel architecture or, at least, was harsh to Lunar Lake chips that usually found their way into this category of laptop. The benchmark doesn’t seem to love Intel’s strategy of using many different types of cores.  This may still be somewhat true with the Intel Core Ultra X7 358H, as its level of performance is not what the core count might lead you to expect, but it’s still quick enough to deliver a big gain over Intel Core Ultra 256/258V chips from the last generation, and it’s now competitive with AMD Ryzen AI 9 and Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite.  Foundry / Matthew Smith Handbrake was a real surprise. As the graph shows, this benchmark has historically been rather down on Intel Core Ultra Series 2, placing them well behind AMD Ryzen AI competitors. Yet Panther Lake makes up the difference and then some, and squeezes out a slight victory. As the graph shows, this is a huge improvement. Intel’s Panther Lake seems to be mostly spoken of as a graphics story, or at least that was the impression I received at CES 2026, but don’t sleep on its CPU performance. It’s a big leap over Lunar Lake.  It should be mentioned that Panther Lake currently has the advantage of going first. PC World has yet to benchmark a production laptop with AMD’s new Gorgon Point architecture (though its gains are expected to be modest) or Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon X2 (which is promised to post big gains). Still, as it stands right now, Panther Lake looks solid. Foundry / Matthew Smith The Asus ExpertBook Ultra’s integrated graphics performance only sweetens the deal. Some new Intel Core Ultra Series 3 chips, including the Intel Core Ultra X7 358H in the Asus ExpertBook Ultra, have Intel’s Arc B390. It has 12 Xe graphics cores and, in this incarnation, a maximum clock of 2.5GHz. And it’s quite a beast. Intel’s Arc B390 cleans up the competition. In 3DMark Time Spy, the most graphically complex of these tests, it’s about 75 percent faster than the HP EliteBook X G1a with AMD Radeon 890M integrated graphics, and over 45 percent quicker than Intel Arc 140V in the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s. For comparison, I also tossed in the Acer Nitro V16 AI with Nvidia RTX 5050 graphics. The RTX 5050 is still much quicker with a Time Spy score of 9,571, so if you were thinking Intel Arc B390 might replace modern Nvidia discrete mobile graphics, it’s not quite there. However, the Intel Arc B390’s Time Spy score is in league with many entry-level RTX 3050 and RTX 4050 laptops from a few years ago. Laptops with those GPUs often score between 5,000 and 7,000. I also tried Intel Arc B390 in two games we frequently test: Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Cyberpunk 2077. Tomb Raider averaged 79 FPS at 1080p resolution and the Highest detail settings, while Cyberpunk 2077 averaged 46 FPS at 1080p and Ultra detail. This is playable performance, and without any form of XeSS upscaling (which works well) used to further enhance frame rates. Asus ExpertBook Ultra: Battery life Asus stuffs a 70 watt-hour battery in the ExpertBook Ultra. That’s a typical battery capacity for a Windows laptop of this size, so the laptop’s longevity comes down to the efficiency of Intel’s new chip. The results are fine but, unlike Panther Lake’s performance, don’t stand out. Foundry / Matthew Smith I recorded a little over 15 hours of battery life in PC World’s standard battery rundown test, which loops a 4K file of the short film Tears of Steel with the display brightness set to roughly 200 nits. As the graph shows, this is a fine but not unusual result. Many modern Windows laptops can achieve 15 hours of battery life, though some land far short of that mark. My real-world experience was close to the battery life test. The battery drained at a rate that would leave me with about 12 hours of life. I used the laptop for my typical workflow, which included writing in LibreOffice, using Google Docs, browsing the web, and occasionally editing photos with GIMP.  The ExpertBook ships with a 90-watt power adapter that can charge the laptop via either of its two Thunderbolt 4 ports. The power adapter is compact, measuring less than three inches in depth and width, and almost exactly an inch thick.While the laptop will complain if it receives less than 90 watts of power, a less powerful 45 to 65 watt USB-C power adapter can charge the laptop if you’re not using it for demanding work—it will just do so more slowly and may impact performance. Asus ExpertBook Ultra: Conclusion The Asus ExpertBook Ultra is a solid premium business laptop and a significant escalation of Asus’ profile in the space.It’s attractive and light, it has a great keyboard and touchpad, and it offers an easy-to-view matte OLED display. Intel’s Core Ultra X7 358H, meanwhile, delivers great marks across the board with good multi-core CPU performance and outstanding integrated graphics performance.  I can find a couple nitpicks. The battery life is just mediocre and the webcam is merely adequate. But in these areas the laptop is competitive—it just doesn’t stand out. The one open question is the laptop’s MSRP, as the ExpertBook Ultra will not arrive until April. I do expect it will be expensive (roughly around $2,500), as is typical for this type of laptop. Still, the laptop’s quality is high enough to be worth a premium. This is a serious alternative to a Dell Pro 14 Premium, ThinkPad X1 Carbon, or HP EliteBook. Read...

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At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Dual 14-inch OLED screens, which can be configured in a variety of ways Powerful Intel Core Ultra Series 3 (Panther Lake) processor Elite battery life Cons Average keyboard Slightly on the heavy side Our Verdict This dual-screen laptop is an almost perfect productivity and gaming laptop, save for a keyboard that falls a little short. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Asus Zenbook Duo (UX8407A) Retailer Price Asus $2299.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices I’m a huge fan of long-lasting laptops that can hold up as a productivity solution for the road. In this case, the new iteration of the dual-screen Asus Zenbook Duo has everything I want and more. For years, my go-to has been the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2. But the new 2026 edition of the Zenbook Duo arguably does all that in a single laptop. The new Zenbook Duo was the launch vehicle for Intel’s new Core Ultra Series 3 or “Panther Lake” chip, which Intel claims offers the power of an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 with battery life that can last as long as a full day or more. That’s helped by packing the largest allowable battery inside this new iteration of the Duo. Essentially, the Zenbook Duo’s “Panther Lake” iteration improves both as a productivity machine and as an entertainment option over the 2025 Zenbook Duo (Lunar Lake), with more powerful gaming options and smaller screen bezels that improve the look and feel. It’s still a surprisingly chunky laptop, however, pushing near four pounds. Asus Zenbook Duo: Configurations Normally, we’d review a laptop with a price and ship date attached. In this case, Intel sent us the laptop, not Asus. The top-of-the-line model, which we’ve reviewed here, costs $2,299.99, and it will ship later this quarter. Other configurations will be available, as indicated below. Though the Asus Zenbook Duo (UX8407A) is a dual-screen device, it can be used in clamshell mode, where the keyboard covers one screen.Mark Hachman / Foundry Asus Zenbook Duo: Specifications Model number: UX8407A Display: Two 14-inch (2880 x 1800) touch OLED w/stylus support, HDR Processor: Intel Core Ultra 7 355/ Ultra 9 386H / Ultra X9 388H (Ultra X9 388H as tested) Graphics: Intel Arc B390 NPU: Yes, up to 50 TOPS Memory: 32GB LPDDR5X, integrated / non-upgradable Storage: 1-2TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD (1TB as tested) Ports: 2 USB-C (Thunderbolt 4), 1 10Gbps USB-A, HDMI 2.1, 3.5mm audio jack Security: Windows Hello (camera) Camera: 1080p30 Battery: 99Wh Wireless: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 Operating system: Windows 11 Home / Pro Dimensions: 12.21 x 8.21 x 0.77 to 0.92 inches Weight: 3.54 pounds Color: Moher Gray Price: $2,299.99 This is a superb productivity machine, one that road warriors, business travelers, and consumers alike should consider for their next laptop. Fun fact: I wasn’t told that I would be reviewing the Asus Zenbook Duo, and I was expecting a more conventional clamshell laptop when I removed it from the box. What’s surprising about this laptop is that it appears to be just that: a slightly thicker clamshell. Only when you remove it from the box do the dual screens and the floating keyboard emerge. Normally, a clamshell laptop has both a screen as well as a keyboard deck. In the case of the Duo, the deck is replaced by an additional, 14-inch screen. A “floating” keyboard can sit above one of them, held down by magnetic pogo pins. The secondary screen can also be supported by a small kickstand. This new Duo replaces the Intel Core Ultra Series 2 (Lunar Lake) version of the Zenbook Duo that we reviewed last year. What makes the Zenbook Duo different is how you can align the screens. You can hide one to create a “traditional” clamshell; orient both screens on top of each other in landscape mode to create an “elevated” screen; align them vertically, one next to another, in portrait mode; or lay both screens flat, which creates a “sharing” mode that flips one screen to face a secondary user. The kickstand is now integrated, and Asus has minimized the individual screen bezels even further to give the displays a more cohesive appearance. Mark Hachman / Foundry There’s a mammoth advantage that the Asus Zenbook Duo offers, which doesn’t immediately stand out: a 99 watt-hour battery, basically the largest that can be put inside a laptop or external battery pack to meet FAA airline regulations. (Part of the battery sits behind one screen, part of it sits behind the other, but Windows treats it as a single whole.) Think of it this way, you’re getting the largest battery available paired up with a processor designed to sip power. Don’t forget to read our performance evaluation below to see if this laptop lives up to these claims, especially the Panther Lake processor’s powerful gaming performance! Physically, this laptop looks somewhat like the earlier Asus Zenbook S 14, itself the launch vehicle for Intel’s Core Ultra Series 2 (Lunar Lake) chip. It’s basically the same dimensions, but a quarter- to a half-inch thicker and almost a pound heavier than a more traditional thin-and-light. The Duo has the heft of an older, chunkier laptop but with the promise that you can leave its 100W charger at home or in your hotel room. All of the Zenbook Duo is made out of “ceraluminum,” which Asus touts as having lightness of aluminum as well as the durability of ceramic. It all feels a bit plasticy, but I don’t really care what a laptop is made out of as long as it holds up. It would be nice if the displays on the Asus Zenbook Duo (UX8407A) could be folded back into a tent mode, but they cannot.Mark Hachman / Foundry I performed most of my testing in a traditional clamshell configuration, with the keyboard perched over one of the displays, which shuts off to save power. In this case, the keyboard and touchpad use the physical connection, even if the laptop is in airplane mode. You certainly can use the Zenbook Duo in its portrait mode, where the paired displays create two vertical columns for reading a column of email and a vertical web page. I think more people will prefer unfolding the kickstand, however, and positioning the two landscape displays one over the other. This feels more like my traditional on-the-go setup, with one primary and an additional secondary screen for reference. The Asus Zenbook Duo (UX8407A), where the displays are extended vertically. A kickstand keeps them secure.Mark Hachman / Foundry In either scenario, both screens are physically separate, which feels a little insecure in a public space, and basically makes working on a plane impossible. Otherwise, this is the first dual-screen laptop I’ve reviewed, and I could see the productivity gains immediately. Well, sort of. Placing the displays one above the other doesn’t pose much of a problem, but in portrait mode the “sides” of the screen on the keyboard deck become the top and bottom. On the left-hand side of the Zenbook Duo are an undisclosed HDMI port, a Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) port, and a headphone jack. On the right is the laptop’s power switch, another Thunderbolt 4 port, as well as a legacy USB-A port, too. In portrait mode, one side is the top, and the other the bottom, making one of those ports inaccessible. It also makes it a bit awkward to charge the laptop displays, since the cord from the laptop to its 100W charger will sprout from the top of the device. The port selection on the Asus Zenbook Duo (UX8407A) is a little sparse.Mark Hachman / Foundry Asus says that the laptop will ship with a pen (the SA205H) with MPP 2.6 support, but that accessories will vary by country. I don’t think my review unit shipped with one inside. An underappreciated strength of the Duo is its cooling. Though it partially failed my performance stress tests — where it successfully looped a Cinebench CPU benchmark without a significant drop in performance, but failed to do the same in a GPU test — the cooling fans are exceptionally quiet even under load. Air appears to be pulled from the bottom of the Zenbook and is pushed out the sides, but very quietly. It might be noticeable in a quiet office, but just barely. In a normal setting, it’s totally quiet under the Windows “Balanced” power settings, the default. Asus Zenbook Duo: A fantastic, power-saving display OLED screens have become vastly more commonplace over the past few years, especially in laptops, because their inky blacks make for a more visually striking experience. However, OLEDs with high screen refresh rates are a bit less common. And a pair of screens? Well, that’s nearly unique. As a fan of Lenovo’s ThinkBook Plus Rollable and subsequent prototypes, I really like a notebook that can expand to deliver additional screen space on the road. The Rollable, though, is a single screen. The smaller bezels separating the two displays still aren’t as convenient as a foldable, but the smaller gap (less than 10mm) feels cohesive and allows your eyes to “create” a single image when you’re actually looking a pair of screens. OLED screens look great, of course, and the displays are VESA certified as True Black 1000, covering 100 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut. The Asus Lumina Pro LED displays are capable of a nearly perfect DCI-P3 color gamut and with a variable refresh rate than can go to 144Hz and as low as 48Hz. That’s extremely helpful both for smooth refresh rates — including gaming — as well as saving power by lowering the refresh rate, too. Finally, Asus says that the displays can reduce blue light by up to 70 percent, though I lack the ability to test that. According to our instruments, the Zenbook Duo does maintain the 100 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut it promises.Mark Hachman / Foundry (To be fair, I tested this laptop at a fixed refresh rate of 60 Hz, which can be manually adjusted to 144Hz while running on wall power. The laptop includes a setting to dynamically adjust that down to 48 Hz, which I typically don’t do because of the variability. But the incredible battery life that you’ll see below could be even greater with that control enabled.) Asus says that the two displays can put out 1,000 nits apiece in HDR mode; our light meter measured them producing 480 nits apiece in SDR mode. That’s far more than necessary for outdoor use. Unlike the 2025 version of the Zenbook Duo, these screens feature a new anti-reflection coating that can cut light reflection by 65 percent, but they’re still too glossy for my taste. From a structural standpoint, the dual-screen construction feels quite strong. It reminds me of Lenovo’s early tablets, with a metal kickstand that holds the upper display in place, even when tilted forward. I’m not as fond of the display setup in portrait mode; there’s no other way to secure the displays except by using the angle to prop them up. Put another way, the displays will be less prone to be knocked over in portrait mode when folded close to one another, which robs them a bit of their utility. I also don’t like the Asus five-finger gesture where you close all fingers together, and then expand or “explode” them outwards. This takes a window on a single screen and projects it across the entirety of the display, but it’s tough to get right and therefore works intermittently. The Zenbook Duo ships with the MyAsus app, the overarching system utility that offer performance adjustments, and the ability to configure specific aspects of the laptop. I’ve always thought that the MyAsus app is one of the more useful, well-organized collections of laptop utility functions. I ended up mildly hating the ScreenXpert software, which hovers in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen. I would wade through a series of menus to turn it off, inadvertently trigger it again, then have to rediscover the process to banish it once again. Asus Zenbook Duo: Audio improves to superior levels Asus has made additional improvements in the audio subsystem, moving to a total of six speakers, with two firing to the front. It’s a little odd trying to find where the sound originates from while the screens are unfolded, but there’s no doubt that the audio quality is excellent, though a bit flat. The Zenbook Duo offered Dolby Atmos as an audio enhancement, delivering sound that was pretty clear even from the bass on up to the upper end. The speakers delivered enough volume to comfortably fill my office with sound, too. I think some traditional clamshells produce a slightly richer sound, but you won’t be disappointed with how this laptop’s speakers sound at all. Asus Zenbook Duo: On paper, the keyboard is good. Under my fingers… My first reaction when typing on the Asus Zenbook Duo was… I’ve felt this keyboard before. To my fingers, it felt very much like the Microsoft Type Cover keyboards: flat, without an enormous amount of support. Asus says the keyboard has 1.7mm of key travel, which feels right. That’s a tad more than the 1.5 mm travel of a midrange laptop keyboard. The function key row adds custom keys for specific Asus functions.Mark Hachman / Foundry When docked, the keyboard charges itself via the pogo pins. Undocked, it runs off a dedicated battery inside the keyboard itself. Asus rates the keyboard’s battery at over 11 hours by itself, though I didn’t test this specifically. You can also switch off the keyboard while undocked via a small switch. There are three layers of backlighting. Typing on the keyboard itself was moderately comfortable, at least while docked. I wasn’t as happy using it in undocked mode, as the thin flat keyboard rests flat on whatever surface you rest it in. Personally, I like it raised or angled a bit. But even when used in a clamshell mode, my fingers felt a little unfamiliar on the spongy keys — I typed the majority of the review using this laptop, just to gain some added familiarity. It’s not my favorite keyboard. Asus includes dedicated keys to launch its ScreenXpert software, which includes brightness controls for both screens, as well as the ability to sync that brightness level. (The software also lets you know the battery capacity, in percentage, of the keyboard.) There are also dedicated keys to swap content between screens and even disable one entirely. The trackpad is nothing to write home about, but it does the job. Asus Zenbook Duo: The webcam’s not great, but it does the job The Zenbook Duo includes a full HD (1080p) webcam with Windows Hello capabilities, which worked acceptably during the course of the review period, though I had to log in manually occasionally. The webcam didn’t focus exceptionally well, though these examples taken in my office and upstairs in my living room came out fairly well. In general, it’s a softer image than I’d like. But I’m not sure if one of our best webcams would overbalance the displays in their extended mode. The Zenbook’s mics continue to be excellent. I’ve used the Asus Zenbooks as an example of superlative noise filtering, assisted by the NPU’s AI powers. Those controls live within the MyAsus app, a handy collection of utilities to adjust the laptop’s performance and more. Asus Zenbook Duo: Standout performance thanks to Panther Lake I spent the better part of two weeks with the Asus Zenbook Duo, testing it as a representative of the Intel Core Ultra Series 2 “Panther Lake” platform. You’ll find a number of performance tests there that aren’t included here, particular battery performance tests, along with some additional games. At this point, the Asus Zenbook Duo is the only Panther Lake system I have to test, though more reviews will be released soon. For now, I’ll compare it to the earlier Zenbook Duo, as well as some of that laptop’s rivals. Again, my Panther Lake overview compares this laptop to representative laptops that use Intel’s Core Ultra Series 1 and Series 2 chips, AMD’s Ryzen AI 300, and the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite. (The AMD Ryzen AI 400 and Snapdragon X2 Elite have yet to ship.) Intel also claims that the Panther Lake’s performance is as fast as a slightly older gaming notebook with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 inside. That’s a huge claim, and it’s partially true. Again, it’s worth checking out the other article for a deeper explanation. I think it’s worth beginning our look at the Zenbook Duo’s performance, however, by examining a key selling point, which is its battery life. The laptop contains the largest battery allowable for transport on an airplane: 99 watt-hours, which is normally the size you see in a chunky, heavy gaming laptop. In this case, the battery accounts for much of the extra pound, bringing the laptop’s weight to about 3.5 pounds. I’m not a huge fan of our ancient video rundown tests, only because chipmakers now treat video playback as relatively trivial and a task that doesn’t take up much power at all. (This test loops a 4K video file until the battery runs out of juice.) I have a little more respect for tests that simulate work such as UL’s Procyon Office benchmark, which slowly loads tests in Microsoft Office and Outlook, simulating your workday. There’s an additional wrinkle, of course. Do you want to know the results for one screen or two? I’d like to think that PCWorld readers want all the information they can, so I tested all scenarios. Here’s what I found: One screen, video rundown: 22 hours, 15 minutes Two screens, video rundown: 13 hours, 29 minutes One screen, Procyon Office rundown: 13 hours, 56 minutes Two screens, Procyon Office rundown: 8 hours, 49 minutes One screen, video rundown at maximum performance settings: 13 hours, 32 minutes In my earlier review of Intel’s Core Ultra 2 chips, my tests of the other platforms topped out at 17 hours, 17 minutes for the Core Ultra 2 platform and just over 16 hours for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite. I mistakenly tested the Zenbook Duo using Windows’ maximum battery settings for a video rundown, but it created an extra data point. As you might imagine, even two weeks of testing time didn’t allow for three runs of battery testing like I’d prefer, along with the various performance tests and rundown iterations. However, Intel provided us with an additional single-screen Lenovo laptop that produced 25 to 28 hours of battery life as a check against the Zenbook Duo. I also left the laptop running in a fixed 60Hz refresh rate during all of my tests, which would be directly comparable to other laptops. Since the Zenbook Duo can be set to dynamically drop down to 24 Hz when needed, even more battery life might be possible. For comparison, we’re using the $1,679 HP OmniBook Ultra 14, the $999 Asus VivoBook S 14, the $939 Acer Swift 16 AI, and the $1,999 Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition, together with the $1,699 Asus Zenbook Duo with Intel’s Lunar Lake chip inside as well as the $3,299 ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable. I tested the laptop using our suite of standard benchmarks. I kept the laptop in its traditional clamshell mode during the tests. Additional screens mean additional pixels, and that’s not a direct comparison to its single-screen competition. I first began with the PCMark benchmark, one of my favorites. It measures overall performance across a variety of applications, and it chewed up the CAD exercises with ease. You’ll have no problem with your day-to-day Office work with the Asus Zenbook Duo (UX8407A): .Mark Hachman / Foundry We use the Cinebench benchmark to measure the CPU performance on apps that the PCMark test doesn’t cover. Here, we use the multithreaded portion of the test. CPU-specific tasks include the operating system, file decompression, and some games. Again, the Asus Zenbook Duo flies through it with no problems. However, AMD’s Ryzen is right behind! We’re still awaiting the next-gen Ryzen AI 400 chips, and that’s a positive sign for AMD. Yes, the Asus Zenbook Duo (UX8407A): plows through this test, but AMD’s Ryzen is in the rear-view mirror.Mark Hachman / Foundry We run the Handbrake test as much as a measure of the laptop’s computational ability as a test to see how well it can execute at full load, during a prolonged period. It’s a measure of the laptop’s cooling as much as the performance of the chip. Again, Intel’s Panther Lake is holding on to a narrow lead. Another test goes to Intel and the Asus Asus Zenbook Duo (UX8407A), but just barely.Mark Hachman / Foundry However, as our Intel Core Ultra Series 3 (Panther Lake) evaluation showed, 3D graphics is a killer strength of this chip and, by extension, the Asus Zenbook Duo. If you have work (or play) that demands solid graphics, this notebook could be for you. It’s not even close. Asus Zenbook Duo (UX8407A): blows everything else away.Mark Hachman / Foundry I almost didn’t compile a chart of the battery-life figures of the rival laptops, because 1) there’s too much variability in what the Asus Zenbook Duo offers between the multiple screens and rundown tests and 2) because it’s not particularly close, right? Wrong. While I did see 22 to 25 hours of battery life in a Lenovo laptop Intel provided us, the Zenbook Duo actually squeaked by a little closer than I thought it would over the competition. I’ll be interested to see what notebooks like the Samsung Galaxy Book 6 eventually produce. At CES, Samsung management was talking about 30 hours of battery! Mark Hachman / Foundry Asus Zenbook Duo: Conclusion Nevertheless, if you’re in the market for an innovative, dual-screen laptop, you really can’t go wrong with the Asus Zenbook Duo. It’s simply superb in almost all aspects of the experience, although I’d prefer using another keyboard if I had the chance. Part of that is the Panther Lake chip, certainly, but Asus engineers have still crafted a Zenbook Duo that’s better than the last. This is a superb productivity machine, one that road warriors, business travelers, and consumers alike should consider for their next laptop. Read...