CES 2021: ASUS TUF Gaming Dash F15 and ASUS ZenBook Duo seen in real
Yesterday we talked a little bit about two ASUS laptops introduced at CES 2021. They are from the Republic of Gamers gaming range. Today we will meet a couple of new laptops. One of them is also made for gamers, but from the more affordable TUF Gaming series. The second new laptop, which we were able to see, is the updated ASUS ZenBook Duo with two screens. The first version of the laptop was introduced back in 2019 at Computex.
ASUS TUF Gaming Dash F15 (FX516)
ASUS TUF Gaming laptops have become extremely popular due to their more affordable price point when compared to the ROG range. The new TUF Gaming Dash F15 has every chance to repeat the success of its predecessors. It's got a case that's almost the same design as the more expensive Zephyrus, but made of plastic and designed a little differently. The thickness is 2 cm and weight is 2.1 kg, which is very good for a 15-inch gaming model with high performance hardware inside. The plastic does not feel cheap and the covers practically do not sag. Of the decorative elements — the series logo and a large TUF lettering on the top lid of the laptop.
Black and white versions will be available. The white one looks more genuine and fun to our taste. Like most ASUS laptops, the new TUF Gaming Dash F15 is MIL-STD-810 certified, which means it should be quite durable. There's a decent amount of ports on the sides: a fresh Thunderbolt 4 (with support for USB4.0, Display port 1.4a, Power Delivery 3.0), 3xUSB 3.2 Gen1 (Type-A), 1xHDMI 2.0, 1x3.5mm audio, Kensington lock and RJ-45 for wired network connection. Wireless interfaces include Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1.
Internally, things are interesting, too. The new Intel Core 11th generation processors (Tiger Lake-H family) for gaming laptops are used. Even up to the top-of-the-line Core i7-11375H with up to 5GHz Turbo Boost. The RAM is up to 16GB of DDR4 3200MHz on the motherboard and one slot with support for up to 32GB sticks. There are two M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 slots with SSD support up to 1TB. And, of course, the most interesting is the new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, 8GB GDDR6 or GeForce RTX 3060, 6GB. The screen diagonal is 15.6 inches, IPS panels with FullHD resolution, 240 Hz with Adaptive Sync and 3 ms pixel response time are used in the top version. There is also a model with 144 Hz refresh rate.
The laptop is powered by a 76Wh battery, promising 16.6 hours of video playback. I suspect at minimum brightness and without connection to the network. The included PSU is 200W, and there's also support for Power Delivery 100W of charging via Type-C.
ASUS ZenBook Duo (UX482)
The updated ASUS ZenBook Duo at first glance looks pretty much the same as the previous generation: the main 14-inch display and an additional 12.6-inch ScreenPad Plus across the entire width of the case. But, in fact, the additional screen is now raised in the open position, as implemented in the gaming ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 15. This allows better airflow to the cooling system and turns the ScreenPad Plus slightly towards the user, which benefits the visibility of information on it. ScreenPad Plus can display additional windows you need, toolbars, messengers and more. Among the useful things — native integration with Adobe applications.
The rest looks familiar: the keyboard is moved to the edge of the laptop, closer to the user, and the touchpad is located to the right of the keyboard unit. The case is metal. On the top cover you can see a well-known concentric ZenBook range decor and ASUS logo. The ports are as follows. 2xThunderbolt 4 USB-C (up to 40Gbps) with Power Delivery and DisplayPort, you can connect either one 8K monitor or two 4K screens. There's also 1xUSB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, HDMI, a 3.5mm audio combo jack and a microSD card slot. Wirelessly, there's Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0.
For convenience, ASUS ZenBook Duo will come with a removable wrist rest and one more cool feature — a folding stand that is attached to the bottom lid of the laptop. It allows you to place it at an even wider angle than the Ergo Lift hinge allows.
The main display is touch screen, with FullHD resolution and Pantone certification. They promise 100% sRGB color range. The 12.6-inch ScreenPad Plus is also IPS, FullHD. The laptop meets the requirements of the program Intel EVO (successor to Project Athena) and will be available with the new Intel Core i7-1165G7 and Core i5-1135G7 processors. It is notable that a new dual fan cooling system and ASUS Intelligent Performance Technology is used, which will make the processors run at a maximum TDP of 28W without any drop off in performance. In terms of graphics, NVIDIA GeForce MX450 with 2GB GDDR6 or integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphics will be available. There can be up to 32GB of 4266MHz LPDDR4x RAM and up to 1TB of M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0 storage will be available.
Harman/Kardon audio system is responsible for the sound. Whether it is good or not we’ll see during the upcoming detailed testing. The laptop is powered by a four-cell 70Wh battery. The ASUS ZenBook Duo is relatively compact and lightweight: 12.8x8.7x0.67 inches (324x222x16.9 mm), 3.5 pounds (1.6 kg). It's also 3 mm thinner than the previous generation.