ISSUE 379|COMPUTERSHOPPER|SEPTEMBER 2019
WHAT’SATWO-SCREENLAPTOP?
At the annual Computex show,which takes
place in Taiwan every June,there were
several big tech brands that decidedto
showcaselaptops with two displays in
various formats.
Asus has the ZenBook Pro Duo,which
fits a14in 4K screen below the main 15in
display, also sportinga4Kresolution,where
you’d expect to find the keyboarddeck.
HP has asimilar setup,but pops a6in
1080p displaybeneath the main screen in
the gaming-grade Omen X2Slaptop.
Then there’s Intel’s imaginatively
named Honeycomb Glacier concept
laptop,which connectstwo displays,
one on topofthe other,using aslick
lockinghinge mechanism.
ISITJUSTANOTHERFAD?
Well, we’ve seen takes on dual-screen
laptops before,with machinesfrom
Lenovo’s Yoga Book range and
the somewhatdisappointing
OLED Touch Bar on the MacBook
Pro.But the devices showcased
at Computex seem more fully
developed,with screensthat
appear to offer greater scope in
what theycan be used for.
The HP Omen X2Sis
alreadyavailable to buy now,and
it comes with some healthy
specificationoptionsthat show
it’s not agimmick.
At the topend, you can get alaptop with aCore i9-9750H,32GB of
DDR4 RAM and up to 2TB of NVMe storage
space.Admittedly,that spec won’t come
cheap,given prices forthe dual-screen
gamingmachinestart at £2,000.
Asus has been tight-lipped when it
comes to the price and releasedateof
the ZenBook Pro Duo (main image),but
given the specs Asus is touting, we’d expect
it to pop up at some point this year.
Those specs don’t just includeabrace of 4K displays, in the 15in or
14in main displayoptions, but will apparentlyincludean Intel Core i
eight-core processor,with up to 32GB of RAM and storage topping out
at 1TB of SSD space.For graphicsclout, Nvidia’s GeForce RTX2060 will
handle pixel-pushingduties.
Intel’s Honeycomb Glacier (smallerimage,above) is more of a
conceptdevice; the chip maker tends to createsuch prototypes as
reference devices forother hardwaremakersto build upon.
Given its dual-screensetup involvesattachingone screen on topof
the other using apair of hinges,rather than placingasecond screen on
the keyboarddeck, it has more of afuturistic,left-field design,and
therefore is alittle bit furtherfrom being aworking device.
But the Honeycomb Glacier still looks pretty completefor a
conceptdevice,sodon’t be surprisedto see machinesbased on the
hinge design when 2020 comes around.
DOINEEDASECONDSCREEN?
There are plenty of people who could benefit from them. Take the HP
Omen X2S: its secondscreen has been designedto provide extra
informationon topofwhat’s being shown on the main display.
Forexample,when gaming,the secondscreen could be used to
show chat channelsor in-gamemaps withoutneedingthe use of an
external monitor or flippingbetweenwindows.It won’t be foreveryone,
but foreSports players on the move,itcould be just what the PC
gamingdoctor ordered.
The ZenBook Pro Duo is more of a
professional machine,designedwith so-called
content creators in mind. The secondary
displayeffectivelyacts as an extended main
screen,providing people workingon digital
design projectsor video- or photo-editing
tasks with more screen real estatewhile
still having amachine that will fit intoa
backpack.Given the bottom displayworks with astylus, we can
absolutely see the secondscreen –dubbed the ScreenPad Plus, in case
you’re wondering–appealingto digital artists.HONEYCOMBGLACIERLOOKSABITOUTTHERE...
That’s fair to say, but the laptop looks like amachine that’s attempting
to fit in not so much asecond screen but more an external monitor
internally,ifyou’ll pardonthe juxtaposition,in that the secondscreen
sits in aposition and level similar to that of adedicated monitor.
It’s also gratifyingto see Intel push the boundariespretty hard
when it comes to laptop design,and it paves the wayfor dedicated
laptop makersto take areference design and run with it.
We’re keepingour fingers crossedthat as the year draws to aclose
and CES 2020 comes around,afresh batch of laptops that eschewthe
traditionalclamshelldesign pop up forour computingpleasure.Dual-screen laptops
Computex2019had plentygoingon, butdual-screen laptopsstole theshow
The devices showcasedat
Computex offer greatscope in
whattheycan be usedfor
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