APRIL 2020 • TECH ADVISOR 33in keyboardandtrackpad,andmostofthewayto
theedges of the body too.
In terms of raw specs, it’s a 14in IPS LCD with an
aspect ratio of 3,840x1,100 – so it’s just about half
the size of the main OLED panel, which is 15.6in
and 3,840x2,160. Asus touts the secondary display
as4K,whichisn’ttechnicallytrue,butis accuratein
thewaysthat count: it’s the same pixel density as the
top panel, so there are no awkward resolution shifts
between the two panels.
You might have noticed that the screens differ
in more than size. While the top panel is OLED the
secondary screen is only an LCD. That’s a compromise
presumably driven mostly by cost, but one that
shows in side-by-side comparisons – the only kind of
comparisons that are really possible, given the two
screens are basically touching. The second screen is
dimmerandlessrich,evenwithbrightnesscranked
uptothemax,andhasa moremattefinish– I got
usedto the difference eventually, but never totally
stopped noticing it.
The difference makes sense when you consider
that Asus still intends you to use the bigger display
for the main part of creative work, which bears out
in the display quality. While that big screen covers
100 percent of the colour gamut in both sRGB and
AdobeRGB, the lower panel drops to 97 percent and
78 percent respectively – enough to still look nice
in use,butnotquitethereforfull-oneditingwork,
whichitreally isn’t designed (or needed) for.
From a software perspective things mostly work well.
Mostly. You can fit up to three different app windows in