Introduction: ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 2022 Review
In our launch review for Intel’s 12th-gen CPUs on laptop, we talked about the Intel Core i9-12900H and hosting our CPU is this year’s ROG Strix SCAR 15. Mind you, that was an ROG Strix model but so far leads our charts as our top performance laptop model featuring a modern CPU. But ROG features varying models with it and sharing the flagship spot is the ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 with the other flagship being the ROG Strix SCAR 17 SE.
ROG distinguishes its laptops by a few things and the ROG Strix SCAR series is a traditional laptop design while the Zephyrus is more in-line with being ultra-compact. That may be up for debate but today we’ll take a look at the 2022 refresh of ASUS’ first dual-screen ROG laptop with the ROG Zephyrus Duo 16.
Debuting in 2020, the gaming dual-screen flagship represented ASUS’ top-end ROG philosophy by developing new, daring designs that have never been tried before. After all, the ROG brand’s slogan is “For those who dare” and like many before like the ROG Mothership or the original ROG Zephyrus, ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 follows in the same vein but unlike the Mothership, we’re now back for the 3rd iteration which means there’s a good amount of people that really like this model.
At 20.5mm, it barely scrapes past the minimum, following Intel’s Ultrabook standard that set a 21mm envelope for 14″ models so it barely makes it by half-a-millimeter. Regardless, at 16″ wide, the ROG Zephyrus DUO 16 is a beast but the addition of the 2nd-screen really sets it apart by giving a larger look. The second screen is basically built on top of the unused space on the top of the keyboard previous seen on the original GX501 and the larger GX701 but is now maximized with a screen on top of the AAS vents.
To cap off the bit of history, the original Zephyrus DUO 16 was also an Intel platform but switched to AMD last year and still sticks to AMD this year with the newer Ryzen 6000 line of CPUs which introduces DDR5 to the mix. In turn, the Zephyrus DUO 16 2022 embodies the Ryzen flagship of the ROG lineup which is why I needed to point out that it shares this status with the ROG Strix SCAR 17 SE.
In this in-depth performance review we’ll take a closer look at the ROG GX650R (2022), particularly model code GX650RX-LO163WS which features an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX, a Geforce RTX 3080 Ti (165W TGP max, 150W dynamic), 64GB (32x2GB) DDR5-4800 memory and 2TB + 2TB (RAID 0) Gen4 NVMe SSD. The rest of the available models for the Philippines are below:
- GX650RX-LO163WS – Ryzen 9 6900HX / 64GB DDR5-4800 / RTX 3080 Ti (165W) / 2TB+2TB (RAID 0) Gen4 NVMe SSD. Priced at ₱319,995
- GX650RW-LO113WS- Ryzen 9 6900HX / 32GB DDR5-4800 / RTX 3070 Ti (165W) / 1TB Gen4 NVMe SSD. Priced at ₱254,995
Your region configuration will vary. Read on to find out more.
Our review unit is the absolute top-most in ROG’s line: the GX650RX-LO163WS featuring a maxed-out setup of an unlocked Ryzen 9 CPU, the RTX 3080 Ti, a large 64GB DDR5 RAM config and a 2TB+2TB RAID 0 (stripe).
For those buying for the 2022 Philippine school year, ASUS ROG is holding a special promotion for the ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 which will include a free ROG Claymore II mechanical keyboard, the upgraded ROG Chakram wireless gaming mouse and an ROG hoodie valued at Php23,315 combined. Find out more in ASUS ROG’s Cool FOR SCHOOL 2022 promotion in this article.
Closer Look
Packaging
With its premium price, ASUS ROG makes sure this is a premium bundle. The box alone is one of the largest you’d see unless you’re a rockstar and have owned the likes of the ROG GX700 before which came in a luggage.
Obviously, the large package isn’t for the laptop alone and inside we have a nice phat bundle which includes an ROG Ranger backpack, an ROG Delta headset, an ROG Claymore Core gaming mouse, a 100W PD charger, a larger 200w power brick and the laptop itself.
Here’s the bigger part of the bundle for your reference.
A nice little bonus is this folding stand which is inserted in the laptop box. It folds to serve as a kickstand of sort for the ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 2022 to improve your viewing angle.
The included Ranger backpack is a toploader, rider-style backpack. From what I can tell, this is exclusive with this laptop and is not sold by itself.
Design
Modern ROG laptops are the fruits of various design experiments that ASUS has done throughout the 2010s and has resulted in their current design language. We rarely see the LED-backlit ROG logo on most laptops now with modern ROG laptops like the ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 sporting a badge. This year’s model has a more subtle RGB fade on the treatment complemented by the “slash” that divides the metal lid top.
The bottom is bare as expected but curiously, ASUS ROG has made a visible outline of the intake fans as seen in the image above. This is also similar to the speaker ports in the bottom of the photo.
At 20.5mm at its thickest side, ROG has little port options but they make do with the space already consmed by the ROG AAS and touch screen. ROG’s IO options aren’t as rich as the the more standard ROG Strix SCAR but plenty enough for most uses. The right side features a single USB Type C port and the left side houses the DC jack, a USB-A port, another Type-C port, a microSD card slot, and a audio/mic combo jack. Take note that all USB ports on the ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 2022 whether Type A or Type C are 10Gbps capable. The left Type C port also serves as the primary DisplayPort output and features G-Sync compatibility while the right side, although supporting display output, does not support NVIDIA G-Sync.
Opening up the ROG Zephyrus Duo for the first time is a wonderful experience. The lifting second screen just looks so high tech but seeing it all fold up in the standard body is similarly astounding.
ASUS ROG boasts some incredible engineering in their ScreenPad Plus and says it features a lot more rigidity than ever before. That means its tougher and can endure more hard presses.
The keyboard remains largely the same. There is now a design bar just above the keyboard as the ScreenPad Plus opens up.
The transparent bar above the keyboard serves mostly for aesthetics and has RGB lighting. Other than, it is just for looks.
Unlike previous models, the ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 2022 has a 720p webcam. Its not as great as a separate webcam like the ROG Eye but it works enough for Windows Hello. It does feel a bit disappointing as something this grand feels weighed down by a fairly lackluster webcam.
Teardown
Power Draw, Clock Speed and Temperature
Back2Gaming is proud to partner with OCCT for this test to allow us to set various stress loads without using mixed-load benches like AIDA64. OCCT allows granular control on the testing. It also features monitoring and logging for troubleshooting problems and performance analysis . OCCT is available for free for all users with a paid version for power users and businesses. This stress test goes through different workloads with 5-minute breaks in between. The loads run for 10 minutes and goes through SSE, AVX and AVX2 workloads. The last test is a combined CPU and GPU test which should push our unit to a very intense loading scenario which should show us a good indicator on the peak load temps of this laptop.
Our extended endurance test is a near 2-hour stress test that stresses the 1) CPU then the 2) GPU and lastly both 3) CPU and GPU to test cooler endurance and performance.
In the lighter CPU test phase, the Ryzen 9 6900HX the CPU runs at around 3.8Ghz and hovers around 80*C. The last phase of the test is our combined CPU/GPU workload that uses more intense AVX workloads and we now see the laptop touching the 90*C mark. Looking at our power draw chart, we can see that this could mostly be from the GPU as our CPU runs at limit at only 50W while even in its higher boost clocks and 70W it sits just below 80*C.
Gaming
As seen in our previous reviews, to fully unlock a laptop’s TGP users have to be familiar with what settings they use. In our ase, the out of box settings only sees this laptop operating at 120W TGP. Our testing procedure only uses out-of-box configurations as the test setup but obviously there is some power to spare here if the user shifts the laptop to Turbo mode.
Battery Life
Our battery life test uses PCMark 10’s Modern Office battery test which comprises of the Modern Office benchmark within PCMark 10 but looped ad infinitum until the system shuts off due to low battery.
The test sees teleconferencing, browsing, spreadsheet, word processing and video viewing to simulate daily office tasks. This is very consistent with most daily tasks that we see today.
With a big battery at its disposal together with a historically efficient platform from AMD, the ROG Zephyrus Duo tops our battery life office tests at just below 6 hours. This bests even the most efficient (but smaller battery-equipeed) Zenbook Pro 14X OLED by a full hour. Mind you this was performed with both screens enabled at 100%. This is a big upside for the ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 2022 and gives it some creds as a work laptop on the go provided you an carry it around.
Performance Testing – System
System Performance Test Methodology
All systems tested use the same version of the application and no data from previous reviews are used for this test. All games are updated to their latest version and are set to details indicated in their charts. Back2Gaming prefers running games in max detail with motion blur off.
Rendering
Blender
Office and Productivity
Office
Potentially the most used desktop software next to Windows OS is Microsoft Office. . This tests the responsiveness and system performance of the system when doing common office-users tasks, such as copying, pasting, cutting, adding images, resizing, saving, etc..
Photo and Video
PugetSystems is a US-based system builder that provides high-performance computers built for workstation solutions. They developed an in-house benchmarking tool for various apps including Adobe Photoshop, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Davinci Resolve and a few others. These benchmarks put a professional-level workload on systems and are scored based on a reference system. The current version PugetBenchmark for Photoshop is scored against a Core i9-9900K system while the Premiere Pro benchmark is scored against a Ryzen 9 5900X. PugetBench is a plugin to the software it is named after and requires actual Adobe software to function. For a detailed description of the benchmark, see here (Ps) and here (Pr).
PCMark 10
PCMark is a global standard in benchmarking PCs to meet organizational as well as consumer requirements. PC Mark 10 is the latest version and provides details for office, multimedia use as well as extended features like battery testing for mobile devices, storage testing and a lot more advanced testing features.
BAPCo CrossMark
CrossMark is a cross-platform benchmark aimed to provide comparative data for different platforms. It uses application models and gauges system performance and responsiveness to generate a score.
SPECWorkstation
SPECworkstation is part of multiple benchmark suites provided by the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC) aimed at providing a standard and unified benchmarking system to meet organizational requirements and performance expectations.
CPU
GPU
Performance Testing – Gaming
Games Testing Methodology
For a full-hardware workout, visit https://benchmarks.ul.com for our system warm-up and stress test of choice. For benchmarking methodology, please see our game benchmark method guide. Test results are gathered and produced on CapFrameX. This makes it easier to get both a line graph comparison and raw averages without extra tools. Simply the easiest tool for benchmarking and it is available for everyone to use, free of charge. Check it out at capframex.com. Since this is a GPU review, we benchmarked the area of the games that put heavy load on the GPU. All our test runs are repeatable, click the links below for area and details. Read our benchmarking methodology.
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive: FPS Benchmark Workshop Map
- DOTA2 – The International Main Event – Day 6: T1 vs PSG.LGD Game 2 (48:00) – The 10-Man Buyback Fight
- Rainbow Six: Siege – Benchmark Mode
- Apex Legends
- PUBG Battlegrounds
- Call of Duty: Warzone
- Valorant
- The Witcher 3 – Woesong Bridge
- Grand Theft Auto V – Palomino Highlands
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider – Kuwaq Yaqu
- Forza Horizon 5
- Destiny 2 – The Tower
- Resident Evil Village – Church
- Final Fantasy VII Remake – Sector 5 Slums
- Cyberpunk 2077 – Little China, noontime
- Watch Dogs: Legion
- God of War
See our Youtube playlist for benchmark sequences. Note: Some proprietary technologies of NVIDIA like PCSS, HBAO+, and HairWorks work on AMD GPU’s BUT to maintain uniformity amongst GPUs, these have been turned OFF. You can click on any of the benchmark charts to enlarge the photo. You can also move forward and backwards to quickly navigate through our charts via gallery view. For this test, only the out-of-box normal mode will be tested. Notes:
- All data are gathered from exactly the same system, with the exact configuration we list here. No data is reused from another system or from any variations of. We gather data from only one system as indicated here.
- Graphics cards are allowed to heat up prior to benchmarking. Cooler graphics cards may boost higher than normal.
- Following up on the above, we try to enjoy the game and play a bit before proceeding to the actual benchmark scenario. This allows us to detect any other problems like stuttering, frame skipping, or any other problems.
- Games that receive graphical updates that affect performance e.g. (DOTA2 moving from DX9 to DX11) will be retested completely.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO)
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, popularly known as CSGO, competes for Steam’s most popular game. It has found a resurgence in its popularity and has recently peaked in 2020 with the number of players that play the game. Based on Valve’s Source Engine, the game received major asset overhauls during the years since its inception nearly 10 years ago. Still, it’s a light game and can be played on fairly lighter systems but the competitive scene for CSGO has seen average players demand high FPS from their systems thus gaining favorable standing with GPU vendors just from the demand for higher FPS alone. CSGO is a game that can easily go past 500FPS on enthusiast systems on maximum settings. We’re including CSGO as requested by our community.
API: DirectX9 (default)
Maximum In-Game Settings
Texture Streaming Disabled
Vsync OFF
DOTA 2
Note: JUNE 2020 – DOTA2 has implemented a transition from DirectX9 to DirectX11 and new install of the game will prompt users to switch from DX9 to DX11. With that said, we are testing DOTA2 in DX11 from as of June 2020.
In contention for the most popular game on Steam and the biggest competition in eSports: DOTA 2 is powered by the Source 2 engine. The game is fairly light on low to medium settings but maxed out with heavy action on screen, especially during clashes which can really stress most systems. This is a game where frame times matter as responsiveness is very important in high-stakes competition. We’re looking at consistently low frametimes in this game for the best experience Our test uses actual game replay, using the segment from game 2 of PSG.LGD versus T1 during Day 6 of the Main Stage. The clash during the 48:00 where we see a drawn-out fight which sees both teams expending all of their buybacks to secure this clash. You can watch the replay of the actual game used in the benchmark in your Dota2 client.
You can browse the TI10 replay files to see the actual match. You can download it for your own reference. (save it to your DOTA2 replays folder)
API: DirectX11 (default)
Best-Looking slider setting (Ultra)
FPS_MAX 0 Vsync OFF
Rainbow Six: Siege
Nearly 4 years later and Rainbow Six: Siege has become a phenomenon after a lukewarm beginning. The massive shift in focus of the game sees it stepping into eSports territory and the excellent mix of gameplay mechanics, good design and a dedicated dev team has put R6: Siege in a position it couldn’t even picture during launch. Rainbow Six: Siege focuses heavily on tactical and creative gameplay and its vertical levels and highly destructible maps encourage players to be quick on their feet so the action is always going. Powered by Ubisoft’s own AnvilNext 2.0 engine which powers some of Ubi’s recent visual masterpieces, R6:Siege also feature excellent graphics and can get very taxing at high detail settings. The game also features an Ultra HD texture pack download for those that want higher resolution textures but will of course demand more from the system.
API: DirectX 11
Ultra Settings
Anti Aliasing: TAA
Ultra HD Texture pack not installed
Ambient Occlusion: SSBC Vsync OFF
The game automatically drops to 50% render resolution when Ultra preset is selected
Apex Legends
The battle royale genre sees multiple titles emerge and Respawn Entertainment’s most successful title to date, Apex Legends differentiates itself from main rival PUBG as it presents itself in true, fast-paced FPS. Existing in the same universe as Titanfall, Apex Legends sees contenders in traditional battle royale elimination format but gameplay heavily gears towards more familiar FPS mechanics. As a Respawn Ent. game, it is closer to COD versus PUBG’s more sluggish and heavier gameplay.
API: DirectX 11
Settings: High
Texture Streaming Budget: 6GB VRAM
FPS Cap Disabled
Vsync: OFF
Call of Duty Warzone
Previously known as Call of Duty Modern Warfare, Call of Duty Warzone is the free-to-play, battle royale component to the 2019 reboot of the original Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare game featuring a rebooted storyline, set in a different world where you, along with Captain Price have to stop the world from going to war. Call of Duty Warzone reignites the franchise by introducing full crossplay support where Xbox and PS4 players can play together with PC players. On PC, the game features a new engine pushing photorealism for COD far beyond what their older engine is capable of. The new engine also introduces raytracing and the AI is designed to perceive light as well. With a revitalized multiplayer arena, the game will require fast frame rates. Warzone has a slightly higher system load than COD:MW multiplayer and single player campaign mode.
API: DirectX 12
Render Resolution: 100%
Texture Resolution: High
Texture Filter Anisotropic: High
Particle Quality: High
Tessellation: All
Shadow Map Resolution: Extra
Particle Lighting: Ultra
DirectX Raytracing: OFF
Ambient Occlusion: Both
Anti-Aliasing: Filmic SMAA T2X
World Motion Blur: Off
Vsync: OFF
Shaders Installed before benchmarks*
PUBG Battlegrounds
Developed and published by PUBG Corporation, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (now officially PUBG Battlegrounds) was an ARMA3 mod which has gained a massive global playerbase after being released as a stand-alone game. PUBG Battlegrounds is now available for almost all platforms from PC to mobile but PC has been the definitive edition of the game. The game has evolved much since its release, receiving multiple polish to arrive at its current state.
API: DirectX 11
Settings: Ultra
Vsync: OFF
Valorant
API: DirectX 11
Settings: Max in-game details
Anti-Aliasing: MSAA x4 (highest in-game)
NVIDIA Reflex: Off Vsync: OFF
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
API: DirectX 11
Frame Rate: Unlimited
Nvidia HairWorks: Off
Ultra Settings
Motion Blur: Off
Anti-aliasing: On
Bloom: On
Sharpening: High
Ambient Occlusion: SSAO
Depth of Field: On
Chromatic Aberration: Off
Vignetting: On
Light Shafts: On
VSync OFF
Grand Theft Auto V
The fifth and most successful installment to date in the highly controversial Grand Theft Auto series brings a graphical overhaul to the PC version of GTA V which many have lauded as a superior approach in porting a console game to PC. Featuring large areas and detailing, GTA V is a highly challenging application in terms of scene complexity. Our benchmark uses a run from Palomina Highlands running through a lush area to a remote road all the way to a neighborhood in our car to simulate multiple scene changes.
API: DirectX 11
FXAA Off
MSAA 4x
TXAA Off
Very High settings
Anisotropic Filtering: 16x
Motion Blur disabled
Advanced Graphics enabled
Vsync OFF
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is the latest installment in the reboot run of the classic Tomb Raider franchise. The game follows the story set forth by the previous game which Shadow of the Tomb Raider shortly follows after. Technology-wise, the game uses the Foundation engine updated to meet the demand of developer Eidos Montreal to push the engine to its limits. The game supports DirectX 12 and is one of the launch titles to support RTX technology namely DLSS which launched a couple of months post-release.
API: DirectX 12
Graphics Settings Preset: Highest
Texture Quality: Ultra
Texture Filtering: 8x Anisotropic
Anti-Aliasing: TAA
DLSS: OFF
Raytraced Shadow: OFF
Vsync OFF
Destiny 2
Destiny 2: New Light is an MMOFPS which sees a persistently sizable playerbase. The game features traditional MMO elements but played in an FPS approach which allows a more skill-dependent game versus traditional MMORPG formats. The game features a futuristic sci-fi universe with lush and detailed in-game locations that puts respectable workload on a gaming system.
API: DirectX 11 Settings: Highest
Vsync: OFF
Forza Horizon 5
Developed by Playground Games and published by Xbox Game Studios, Forza Horizon 5 is the latest installment in the Forza series, picking up straight after the British escapades of Horizon 4, Horizon 5 takes us now to Mexico for another open-world racing spectacle, that is Horizon. Built on the proprietary ForzaTech engine, the game harnesses its power to provide an excellent experience on both PC and Xbox.
API: DirectX 12
Settings: High
Raytracing: Off
Vsync: Off
Resident Evil Village
Easily one of the best installment in the Resident Evil franchise, Village takes the best of what makes RE4 such an icon and mixes it up with vestiges of classic RE. Built on modern RE Engine, the game supports raytracing as well as other modern niceties. But for the most part, keeps a conservative PC gaming experience. Regardless, the game brings with it classic RE and the RE Engine’s best outing to date on a Resident Evil title.
API: DirectX 12
Detail Settings: Prioritize Graphics
Raytracing: Off
Final Fantasy VII Remake
Exclusively on Epic Game Store Now available in Steam and Epic Game Store as of June 17th of 2022, Final Fantasy VII Remake’s PC port is a much awaited transition from Playstation-exclusive to PC release. Despite its exclusive nature of release on PC, the game still managed to carve a following, many thanks to Epic’s barrage of free games leading up to launch. Built on Unreal Engine 4, the game natively runs on DirectX 12 but like many other Sony Studio games, is a bit restricted when it comes to graphic options. Unlike Final Fantasy XV, Final Fantasy VII Remake is limited to framerate options as well resolution options. That said, we only test this on our trio of primary resolution targets.
API: DirectX 12
Vsync: Disabled thru mod
Cyberpunk 2077
The most anticipated game of 2020 has just received its sort of “launch patch” this 2022 with version 1.5 changing many things in terms of performance as well as few things in the graphics department. Perhaps the most anticipated game of the last decade, Cyberpunk 2077’s launch has been a rollercoaster to gamers on PC who are largely in agreement that it was definitely worth the wait bar the bugs. Made by CD Projekt Red and based on the REDengine4, Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the most modern games introducing full utilization of raytracing amongst others. We do not enable raytracing in this test segment, that will be for the later section of this review if and when listed.
API: DirectX 12
Settings: Ultra Preset
Raytracing Off
DLSS Off
Vsync: OFF
Average FPS
The charts below summarizes performance for all our games to give readers an idea of what to expect from these laptops in gaming at a glance. We use the arithmetic average for an easier reference on the average. The chart is presented to better visualize the totals.
Relative Gaming Performance
These charts gives you a quick reference on how the product we’re reviewing performs against similarly tested products.
Dual Screen Functionality
Most of the people I personally know who own any of the Zephyrus Duo models personally use the ScreenPad Plus as a secondary display but as a touchscreen, it can do more than that. ROG has decent resource on what the basic screen can do in the video below:
Users can switch easily between screens, utilize both with screenmax or launch groups of applications with a single action. This helps in day to day work and for coders who like the larger vertical real-estate but also want access to other tools, this mode works great but ROG’s ScreenPad Plus got its pedigree from the Zenbook Duo and its creative DNA carries thru.
For creative applications like Adobe Photoshop, Premiere Pro, etc. the ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 2022 will up ASUS Control Panel upon launch. ASUS Control Panel is a ScreenPad Plus utility that converts your second screen into a control deck. If you’ve ever used a Loupedeck controller before that brings extra knobs and buttons which is handy for faster control of certain functions, then ASUS Control Panel will feel very familiar, albeit in touchscreen form.
With ASUS Control panel, you can create custom decks that allow you to bring controls you need immediately like knobs, buttons and dials. Scrub faster and adjust levels quicker as well as change settings quickly.
For gaming and streaming, ROG offers custom Overwolf applications that work with popular games like League of Legends, Counter-Strike, Apex Legends, Rainbow Six Siege DOTA 2, and Valorant to display functional information on your second screen. One can also use the second screen as a streaming panel for software like Xsplit and focus their game and chat on the second screen. Some games have integrated expanded screens as well built directly into the game for maximum immersion like Dying Light 2 which has their co-op chat, inventory and mission logs to the second screen. More games are being developed but we’ll touch on this later on.
All of those details boil down to the fact that you can either appreciate or actually use the secondary screen. Much of the value of the Zephyrus Duo lies in its second screen and as much as ASUS ROG can just convert this to another 16/17″ Zephyrus, they stuck to this formula and even Spider-Man: No Way Home acknowledges how futuristic this laptop is as it is the personal laptop of Ned (Jacob Batalon) in the movie with a bit of cinema sin (webcam lol).
But in real life, a second screen is always handy but much in the way of everything extra this option does feel more of a novelty from ROG but that’s if you limit yourself. ASUS ROG has gone out of their way to even include drag-and-drop context menus in Windows itself to fully maximize the displays along with automatic integration with compatible applications means that most of the advertised functions are already available right on the go with no setup needed.
Given that this is already the third iteration of the ROG Zephyrus Duo and ASUS already has multiple variants of ScreenPad Plus laptops with the Zenbook Duo also sharing much of the functionality.
Value & Conclusion
The common misconception for laptops that pack similar specs similar to the Zephyrus Duo is that they’re a near 1:1 counterpart of their desktop brothers. The reality though is that an RTX 3080 Ti alone is around 350W not including the CPU which is roughly another 140W. A 500w laptop is not something you’d want given the heatload it produces. That said, most gaming laptops nowadays chug around a bit under 200W. Most of that power is for the GPU with the CPU dynamically sharing a boost allowance should it have the power budget to do so.
With that in mind, the ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 is an engineering marvel. All laptops in the ROG Zephyrus line are portable laptop and fall just under the 21mm thickness mark. But with all that hardware crammed in that body, the Zephyrus Duo 16 2022 is deceptively dense at 2.6kg but most 17″ laptops would fall in this weight class so ROG also scrapes by here to really score well in portability. Most 16″ and 17″ are large by its very design and most people do relegate these kinds of laptops to a more stationary use as a desktop replacement but with the introduction of Power Delivery (PD) charging, the ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 2022 makes it more handy to leave your power brick in favor of the lighter and smaller 100W PD charger. That is, if you don’t plan to game on the go.
You’d be losing out on the power that the ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 2022 has to offer. There is an argument that you would be better off with a higher TGP, lower GPU but in the case of the ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 2022, you are running 2 screens, one of which (ScreenPad Plus) is horizontally half a 4K screen. If you’re just gaming on the laptop screen then it should make a lot of sense if you play only esports titles but the RTX 3080 Ti still allows our ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 2022 to take top scores in pretty much all AAA titles. Not just that, GPU dependent tasks also benefit greatly from the massive GPU horsepower the unit has. For the CPU though its a different story and Intel really does affirm themselves with their 12th-gen CPU but there is a caveat in that Intel CPUs are utilize more power when they need it. In contrast, AMD is very stable in their power requirements which allows the ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 2022 to utilize the battery more efficiently. On dual screen, this laptop was able to go 6 hours in office workloads. Again: with DUAL SCREEN enabled. It surpasses even the more power efficient Alder Lake laptop, then Zenbook 14X OLED which is 1 hour behind the ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 2022.
With its price, the ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 2022 has a lot to prove not just in performance but in its entire purpose. While performance alone puts it at the top of the food chain, this depends on what you plan to do with it and in pure gaming, we can see its closely matched by an ROG Strix SCAR 15 2022. But from a productivity standpoint, it does manage to edge out any and all competition in many of the workloads.
At the end of the day, the ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 2022 is a very niche product but not because its a dual-screen but because its a flagship performance laptop in a compact form factor. Many people would be fine packing a larger and heavier frame for better overall performance but then again that would defeat the purpose of owning a laptop which the strongpoint of the ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 2022. This is a heavily-specced laptop that you can carry around and on the plus side, it has a secondary touchscreen.
I would have to point out that although this is now the third year of the ROG Zephyrus Duo, we’ve barely seen it utilize on anything outside of ASUS partners. Sure there’s one or two games that support the screen but other than that, most of the functions are heavily borrowed from the Zenbook Duo. This strongly roots the ScreenPad Plus on the ROG Zephyrus Duo as a creative tool and while not weak point, is a complete lack of innovation for what it can be and this is not limited to the ScreenPad Plus itself as ASUS’ entire ScreenPad functionalities are limited to what ASUS as a company can develop by themselves.
All of that said, the ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 2022 is a performance refresh of an already refined design and ASUS ROG is once again testing the waters of heavier laptops with the ROG Strix SCAR 17 SE, the possibility of a larger cooler on the Zephyrus Duo may be on the horizon. For now though, if you’re a creative or multimedia professional and is very adept in utilizing multiple screens or just very handy with tools that help accelerate your workflow but also want a powerful gaming laptop that offers great battery life, then the ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 2022 is an obvious choice.
ASUS ROG backs the ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 with a 2-year international warranty and is available now. I give the ROG Zephyrus 16 2022 our B2G Gold Award.