A
sus’ Zephyrus Duo SE GX551 is one of the first RTX
3080 laptops to come out the door, and Nvidia’s
Ampere-powered portable GPU has a fearsome
specification, including 6,144 CUDA cores and a 1545MHz
boost clock and even up to 16GB of GDDR6 memory in
the version used here. The mobile RTX 3080 is
2,560 CUDA cores short of the desktop
card, but it’s still mighty for a mobile chip.
This laptop also uses AMD’s latest
Zen 3-powered Ryzen 9 5900HX laptop
CPU, with eight SMT-enabled cores and 4.6GHz turbo peak.
The GX551 has 32GB of 3200MHz DDR4 memory and a
2TB RAID 0 storage array, comprising a pair of 1TB Samsung
PM981 NVMe PCI-E 3 drives. The array delivers stupendous
read and write speeds of 6,961MB/sec and 5,499MB/sec,
but its striped configuration means data isn’t protected if
one drive fails. Meanwhile, networking comes from dual-
band Wi-Fi 6 and Gigabit Ethernet, but
there’s no 2.5Gbps Ethernet.
The Asus also has three USB 3.2 Gen
2 ports and a Type-C connector, plus
several ports are installed at the rear,
so cable tidying is easier when you’re
at a desk. The power connector sits
awkwardly about halfway down the
left-hand edge, though, and most of
the USB ports sit towards the front, so
cables could obstruct your mouse. It’s
also disappointing to see just a micro-
SD card slot, not a full-sized SD reader,
and there’s no webcam either.
The Duo’s defining external
feature is the ScreenPad Plus, which
is installed in the base and pitches
upwards when the laptop is opened,
to improve viewing angles and cooling.
It sits below the main display, which
is a 15.6in IPS panel with a 120Hz
refresh rate, a 4K resolution and
Pantone certification – alongside a
3ms response time.
The 3,840 x 1,100 touch-screen
has a customisable shortcut dock,REVIEWS / LAPTOPS
SPEC
CPU
3.3GHz AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX
Memory
32GB 3200MHz DDR4
Graphics
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile 16GB
Screen
15.6in 3,840 x 2,160 IPS 120Hz; 14in
3,840 x 1,100 IPS touch-screen
Storage
2 x 1TB Samsung PM981 PCI-E 3
NVMe SSDs in RAID 0 configuration
Networking
Dual-band 802.11ax Wi-Fi, Gigabit
Ethernet, Bluetooth 5.1
Weight
2.5kg
Ports
3 x USB 3.2 Gen 2, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen
2 Type-C/DisplayPort, 1 x audio,
1 x HDMI, 1 x micro-SD slot
Dimensions (mm)
260 x 268 x 21 (W x D x H)
Operating system
Windows 10 Home 64-bit
Warranty
One year parts and labour return to baseZEPHYR
+^ Fantastic GPU^
+^ Huge CPU power
+^ Impressive design
+^ High-end^
components
HURRICANE
-^ Poor keyboard and^
trackpad layout
-^ GPU isn’t^
4K-capable
-^ Some heat issues
-^ Expensive
GAMING LAPTOP
ASUS ROG ZEPHYRUS
DUO SE GX551 /£ 3,499 inc VAT
SUPPLIER overclockers.co.ukalongside dedicated apps for games such as League of
Legends, Fortnite and CS:GO. The ScreenPad is useful in
creative applications too – you can move timelines and
controls to the touch-screen or use it for secondary apps.
The second screen and beefy internals mean the Duo’s
physical design is inevitably compromised though. The
21mm thickness and 2.5kg weight are decent considering
what’s on offer and the build quality is superb, but
conventional laptops are slimmer and lighter. There’s also
no getting around the price for the second screen. Drop the
ScreenPad and compromise on the CPU and you can find
RTX 3080 machines from £1,999.
The biggest compromise concerns the keyboard and
trackpad, which are both pushed to the front. The trackpad
is too narrow, with soft buttons. The keyboard is cramped,
and the buttons are fast but soft, while their 1.4mm of travel
is mediocre. Asus tries to address layout issues by including
a wrist rest, but it can’t be secured to the laptop and it’s
too small. For mainstream use on a desk, the keyboard is
passable, but more space and snappier typing would be
preferable at this price.Performance
The RTX 3080 scythed through games at 1080p - it returned
99th percentile minimums of between 43fps and 98fps in
our core titles, as well as Metro Exodus with High ray tracing,
and the frame rates remained playable with ray tracing and
DLSS enabled at 2,560 x 1,440.
Sadly, though, the GPU doesn’t have enough power to
play demanding games at the screen’s native 4K resolution.
The RTX 3080 was only playable in Cyberpunk 2077 at Ultra