Asus unveils a dual-screen Zenbook Duo, souped up ROG Strix laptops, and more at CES 2024

There’s a big focus on gaming at CES 2024, but that hasn’t stopped companies like Asus from debuting a slew of innovative new products alongside a thinner and lighter 2024 Rog Zephyrus lineup and big changes in store for the ROG Strix line. (And yes, there’s even a 32-inch, 4K, 240Hz OLED gaming monitor in the pipeline).

While Asus didn’t show off any new ProArt products at CES—their line of creator-focused PC components, systems, and accessories—there were plenty of laptops for the productivity crowd on display, and upgrades for its popular Vivobook and Zenbook lineups.

Productivity

Asus is all-in OLED displays this year, inserting 3K, 120Hz Lumina OLED panels into pretty much every model of laptop that the company sells. Combined with new Meteor Lake CPUs from Intel and Hawk Point (Ryzen 8000-series) AMD processors, and Asus’s productivity laptops are getting a refresh inside and out.

Intel and AMD have both built in dedicated AI accelerators into their newest CPUs (an NPU, or neural processing unit), but the biggest story here might be that Intel has finally caught up with AMD in the integrated graphics department. If your new laptop has Intel Meteor Lake Arc graphics, you can squeeze some light gaming in even at 1080p (see our MSI Claw preview for proof).

Vivobook and Zenbooks

The Vivobook S OLED lineup has been refreshed, and now the 14, 15, and 16-inch options can all be configured with up to a 3.2K (3,200 x 1,800 pixels), 120Hz OLED screen, 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM (up from 16GB), up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 or AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS and slightly thinner and lighter chassis across the board.

Speaking of thin and light, the Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED has gotten a Meteor Lake refresh and new 3K OLED screen as well (though Asus declined to mention the refresh rate) and now weighs in at a paltry 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) and is only 1 centimeter (.39 inches) thick. The Zenbook 14 OLED has gotten a similar trim (going down to 1.2kg and 14.9mm-thick), a 3K 120Hz OLED screen, and new AMD or Intel CPU options.

Doubling up on OLEDs with the Zenbook Duo

The far-and-away star of Asus’s CES presence was the new Zenbook Duo, a showstopping reimagining of the current Zenbook Duo line. Instead of embedding a second screen in the keyboard like in past years, Asus has instead opted for twin 14-inch, 3K, 120Hz OLED panels joined by a “lay-flat” hinge. This isn’t Asus’s first foray into folding laptops—the Zenbook Fold 17 OLED was bulky and overpriced—but the Zenbook Duo looks much more promising and will start at $1,499.99, the same as the previous generation.

Even though it weighs in at only 2.98 pounds and a scant .57 inches (when closed), the 2024 Zenbook Duo will still pack an array of full-sized ports, including two Thunderbolt 3 ports, a 3.5mm audio jack, a full-sized HDMI 2.1 port, and a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port. That’s a lot for a device that’s essentially two thin screens stuck together, especially when you consider that it will be equipped with the same 75Whr battery that the Vivobook and Zenbook laptops are getting (though we’ll have to test the real-world battery impact of running two screens in our forthcoming review). It can similarly be configured with up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 processor, 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and a 2TB PCIe gen 4 SSD.

Asus showed off all the ways to use the new Zenbook Duo; propped up vertically for two side-by-side displays; open horizontally and propped up on the built-in kickstand for dual landscape displays; lain flat so two people on opposite sides can use each monitor independently, or, finally, just like a regular laptop. The bottom screen can be used as a keyboard and track pad in and of itself, but most people will want to opt for the included physical keyboard. It connects either via Bluetooth or pogo pins at the bottom of the lower screen for a zero latency connection and recharging, and slots in between the two panels when the laptop is closed. In my limited hands-on experience, it felt pretty good to type on, at least by laptop standards.

Gaming

The entirety of Asus’s gaming stack is getting a refresh this year, whether it be a complete redesign like the 2024 Zephyrus G14 and G16, or just a components update like the 2024 TUF Gaming series.

2024 ROG Strix Scar 16 and 18

In a surprising departure, Asus revealed that its top-of-the-line ROG Strix and ROG Strix Scar will be getting updated with a new ROG Nebula display, a mini-LED panel. The Scar 16 and 18 will get 240Hz, 1440p ROG Nebula HDR panels, which have 10,000 mini-LEDs, over 2,000 backlighting zones, and a 1,100-nit peak brightness. The non-Scar Strix models will get non-HDR ROG Nebula displays, which, while also 240Hz, will only hit a maximum of 500 nits peak brightness as it lacks HDR capabilities. The ROG Nebula HDR display looked almost OLED-like in person, without the dimming or strange contrast issues that sometimes pop up on mini-LED panels with a substandard amount of dimming zones.

Every 2024 ROG Strix laptop will come configurable with up to a 65-watt Intel Core i9 14900HX processor, though if you want a Nivida RTX 4090 in your laptop, only the Scar models will have it. Otherwise, you’ll have to “settle” for an RTX 4080. Both mobile GPUs have a maximum power draw of a staggering 175 watts.

Completely new ROG Zephyrus designs

In a gaming shakeup, both the 2024 Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 and G16 have gotten redesigns and the first OLED screens in an ROG-branded product. The 2023 ROG Zephyrus G14 was one of our favorite laptops last year, and the new model looks even better. The G14 is getting a 16:10 3K OLED display, while the G16 is getting a 16:10 2.5K OLED display, though we’ll have to wait and see what the maximum refresh rate of each panel is.

Because of the new thinner screen, Asus redesigned both Zephyrus models with unibody CNCed aluminum chassis, making them thinner than their predecessors. The 2024 G14 is 15.9mm thick versus 19.5mm compared to the previous generation (.62 inches versus .76 inches), while the 2024 G16 is a svelte 14.9mm thick, compared to the 21.1mm 2023 version (.58 inches versus .82 inches). The G16 has gotten lighter, too, trimming down from 2.3kg (5 pounds) to 1.85kg (4 pounds). The end result looks very MacBook-ish, though Asus has carried over the illuminated slash of light on the back of both.

Interestingly, the 2024 Zephyrus G14 will top out at a Ryzen 8000-series CPU, but the G16 can be configured with up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor. The G14 will only be configurable with up to an RTX 4070 to keep cooling and power demands under control, but the G16 can go all the way up to an RTX 4090—though, it remains to be seen how powerful that model will be given that the maximum power draw for the entire laptop maxes out at 115 watts, less than some other manufacturers have allocated to the GPU alone. The other big focus was on audio; both models will bump up the speaker count to 6, and Asus claims that not only are they up to 252% louder than the last generation of Zephyrus laptops, but that the audio quality surpasses every other Windows laptop currently on the market.

TUF gaming

Last but not least, the Asus TUF Gaming line is getting an internals refresh up and down the stack. The 2024 Asus Tuf Gaming A16 can now be configured with up to a Ryzen 9 7845H processor and RTX 4070 GPU, with 5600MHz DDR5 RAM (up from 4800MHz); the newly announced Asus TUF Gaming F16 can be configured with up to an Intel Core i9 13650HX CPU and RTX 4070; and the Asus TUF gaming A15, which hasn’t had an update in a few years, can now be spec’ed with a Ryzen 8000-series CPU and “up to” a Nvidia 40-series mobile GPU (that information wasn’t public at the time of writing).

The A15’s display is getting a major upgrade, going from a previous 1080p, 144Hz IPS panel to a 165Hz 1440p display rated for 100% DCI-P3 coverage. Despite being marketed as Asus’s budget gaming option, all three of the new TUF models looked and felt more premium than in years past, especially when it came to screen quality. We’ll review the new lineup more comprehensively later in the year.