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00:00Alright, so a bunch of really cool laptops just got announced at Computex.
00:07We should be seeing these things over the next couple of months, some of them sooner
00:10than that.
00:11I thought I'd just go through some of them and give you my thoughts and opinions on them.
00:14The one that is most interesting to me, and I think this is actually one of the coolest
00:17laptops I've seen in a very long time, is the new Asus ZenBook Pro Duo.
00:23This is a laptop that now has two screens.
00:26The secondary screen is smaller and it's located on the keyboard deck, but we've seen attempts
00:32at this type of technology, some kind of second screen with functionality.
00:36When the MacBook Pro did it in 2016, I called it right at the beginning, I was like, I really
00:40don't see this thing being particularly useful.
00:42And then Asus last year did a secondary screen in the touchpad or trackpad area of their
00:47ZenBook Pro, and I commented in that review about how as interesting as it was and how
00:52it was a better version of a secondary screen than the MacBook, it still wasn't super obvious
00:59as to how people would use it, right?
01:00It was still something that I thought would have to develop over time, but this new implementation
01:05on the ZenBook Pro Duo is, I think they crushed it.
01:08I actually don't even think Asus recognizes how useful it is.
01:11They're talking about how there's first party apps that they're working on or how developers
01:15can create custom UIs for that extra real estate.
01:18Forget all of that.
01:19The moment you need a developer to go out of their way to create some functionality
01:22for an app, like, that's stupid.
01:25The reason why this screen is so awesome is that it's immediately intuitive as to exactly
01:30how you would want to use it.
01:31Everyone's going to have a different usage case, right?
01:33If you're a streamer, you're going to use it a different way.
01:35If you're a content creator, if you're a writer, if you're doing...
01:38Whoever looks at the screen can already imagine how they would use it, if they can actually
01:42make use out of it.
01:43Like for me personally, I'd find like two or three fantastic uses out of it.
01:46It's obviously not for everyone, but this is by far the best implementation of a secondary
01:51screen we've ever seen on a laptop, and they've done a really good job at it.
01:55They've basically added 25 or 30% more screen space to your laptop experience, and it's
02:00like usable screen space, right?
02:01It's not just like widescreen stuff for content consumption.
02:05It's productivity space, like the vertical stuff, which is...
02:08You don't get that on laptops, and now they can deliver that.
02:11Now, there are a couple issues that come up with design.
02:15Like Asus developed the...
02:16I mean, this is their Zephyrus product.
02:19But they've done the whole keyboard shift down, like the ZenBook Pro Duo.
02:23And when you do that, you have a slightly awkward keyboard typing experience.
02:26Like it's something you can get used to, but it's not like a traditional laptop with a
02:30wrist rest.
02:31And you also have your trackpad on the right, which is something that, again, I think most
02:35people get used to.
02:36And because of what the ZenBook Pro Duo offers, I feel like that shift is totally worth it.
02:41But the problem is thermal management.
02:45When you shift the keys down like this on the Zephyrus, you get way better airflow on
02:49the hottest components.
02:50Like the CPU and the GPU are located right on the top here, and because the keyboard
02:54is no longer in the way, you get unobstructed or less obstructed airflow going to cool off
02:59the components.
03:01On this ZenBook Pro Duo, because they have a screen there, you are just inherently restricting
03:07airflow through the top of the device.
03:09It does have the ergolift design just like this, so you can get better airflow underneath
03:13the laptop, but it is a thermally restrictive design.
03:17Super cool, and I'm like, I'm more excited about that product than anything else I've
03:20seen this year.
03:21I want to get one into the studio as soon as I can, but yeah, that thing looks awesome.
03:26Second thing I want to talk about are the Alienware devices that are shown.
03:30The new M15 and M17.
03:32These are fully revamped.
03:33They look very much like the Area 51m in terms of design language.
03:37Normally, I prefer my laptops to look relatively clean and simple.
03:40I like the way that the razor blades look, but there's something about the design language
03:44of those new Alienwares that just does it for me.
03:46Both of these laptops are supposed to be running the new thermal system, so the same kind of
03:50thermal design that we saw in the Area 51m, a very well-cooled and well-thought-out system,
03:55so hopefully the performance on these two new Alienwares are going to be awesome.
03:59I also want to talk about the screens.
04:01I'm just going to bring this in real quick.
04:03This is an Alienware M15 that we saw, this is the previous generation, but this is running
04:09their new OLED panel.
04:12I got this 13 days ago, and the moment I got it, or the day after I got it, I turned
04:18this thing on, set the background to white, and I put one black icon right in the middle
04:23of it, hoping to simulate burn-in.
04:27I just checked this thing before I filmed this video.
04:29There's no burn-in.
04:3012 days running with the screen at max brightness, with no screensaver, no nothing, white background,
04:35black icon, and when I shifted this away, I expected to see some kind of visual artifact
04:39or something.
04:40Nothing.
04:42Basically.
04:43Now, that doesn't mean that there's no burn-in on this.
04:44I think the nature of OLED panels makes them have some degree of visual wear over time,
04:51but I can't notice it.
04:53I also noticed this as well on the Alienware 13, the very first OLED paneled laptop that
04:58I ever did a review on in 2016, I believe.
05:01After a year and a half of using that thing, when I checked it and I did another long burn-in
05:04test like this as well, didn't notice a thing.
05:07That's not to say that there's no burn-in at all.
05:09I do believe with enough use, there will be some kind of degradation, but I think the
05:14concern that I had, and I think a lot of you guys have as well, if you're interested in
05:18an OLED-based laptop, I think they should be okay.
05:21I think they're just way better than I thought they would be, considering how bad some phones
05:25can get OLED burn-in.
05:27The last announcement I want to talk about is the new studio lineup of the Razer Blade.
05:31So they have a 15-inch and a 17-inch, they come in mercury white, and so I'm someone
05:36who's interested in this product line because I like the color, I obviously like Razer Blades,
05:41but there's something about the way the...
05:43I mean, this is more Nvidia's announcement, more than Razer's, I mean, Nvidia launched
05:48this studio laptop lineup, which is kind of cool.
05:50A bunch of companies are making these studio laptops, Razer's one of them, MSI, Acer, I'm
05:55sure I'm missing a half dozen of them, but a bunch of companies are making laptops geared
05:59towards creators, and I get it, it's cool, you know, obviously as a person who creates
06:05things on the internet, I like, I prefer using Windows laptops for my stuff because
06:10they just have better performance, and I think that's one of the angles they're going for,
06:13like they're comparing it with Apple's new MacBook Pros, and they're just saying that
06:17GeForce and Quadro-based devices are just crushing the MacBook Pros when it comes to
06:23performance, but it's strange to me that Nvidia's doing it, like, they've never made a big deal
06:27about their Quadro and just kind of studio-based products before, but, I mean, as long as you
06:32understand what you're buying, like not everyone's going to benefit from Quadro cards, understand
06:37what you're using the hardware for before you purchase anything, because for a lot of
06:40people, the regular GeForce GPUs are actually better than the Quadro stuff, and it's a little
06:44bit cheaper, obviously if you're doing stuff like workstation graphics or 3D stuff that
06:49can benefit from Quadro, go for it, but for a lot of creatives, myself included, GeForce
06:54is the better option.
06:55Okay, hope you guys enjoyed this video, thumbs if you liked it, subs if you loved it, see
06:59you guys next time.