Asus took CES 2026 as an opportunity to get a little weird (and refined) with it.
The company announced all the usual routers and laptops, with a small glimpse into our inevitable Wi-Fi 8 future. We always expect companies to say their latest routers are faster and more robust, and their laptops faster, lighter, better, etc. What I don’t expect is for a company to say (and I’m paraphrasing), ‘remember that weird test laptop we made a few years ago? We did that again, but more!’ Yet, Asus did that, and I’m mostly pleased.
The highlight laptop is the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo. It’s the gaming brand’s first full dual-screen laptop. They did have a model back in 2024, which had one big screen and then a smaller screen, but this is now two regular-sized screens on top of each other.
In terms of specs, it runs Intel’s new Panther Lake chips, and can have up to an RTX 5090 laptop graphics card, which will be as expensive as it is beautiful.
If two screens seem like a bit much, or you don’t have room to use its built-in stand, it can be used as a single-screen device. To do that, you can put the included detachable keyboard on the bottom screen, or you can also activate an on-screen touch keyboard on the bottom screen.
Another format you can use is ‘storybook’ mode, where you have the two screens on their side, which seems like it would be good for multitasking and having real overkill on some Word documents.
The new and improved hinge now includes cooling elements on both sides of the hinge, and it can be bent into an A-frame for multiplayer gaming with players on either side of the screen. That’s kinda the sticking point for me, because when I think of dual-screen gaming, my thoughts don’t immediately turn to “I wish I could fold this laptop like a tent so I can play an unspecified game with a friend sitting on the other side of the table”.
I more think, “great, two screens means I can extend the viewable space of my game and better see what’s going on for racing sims or multiplayer shooters.” However, you can’t use the second screen on the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo to extend your game. You can only mirror, or have the game on one screen and Discord or something on the other.
It appears to be primarily for multitasking and content creators, rather than for gamers, despite being part of the gaming range. I can see it being great for editors, creators, and hardcore multitaskers on the go.
But yeah. Not really for gamers who want to extend their screen, which I imagine would have been the main people who were intrigued by the idea of a (likely extremely expensive) dual-screen gaming laptop. It’s a shame Asus doesn’t have a range that better targets that group of laptop purchasers, so it would be easier for them to find it.
Staying with Asus ROG gaming for a sec, Asus also announced a new collaboration with Kojima Productions, and it looks stunning in person. It looks nice in the announcement pictures, but seeing it IRL takes it to a new level.
The ROG Flow Z13 with designs from Kojima Productions is expected to be a collector’s item, which means it’s expensive and will be a limited run (also, it’s using last year’s laptop technology).
There are lots of peripherals as part of the collection, which look great and match the carbon fibre elements on the laptop. It just looks sleek.
Zenbook Duo gets an upgrade
Dual-screen laptops aren’t just for gamers and serious graphics requirers, because the Asus Zenbook Duo is back. The biggest difference is that earlier iterations had a really big hinge, and this year’s has a smaller hinge. Asus says it’s been reduced by 70 per cent, which isn’t something to sneeze at.
Much like the Zephyrus Duo, it has plenty of different modes the screens can be used in. The only mode it doesn’t have is the A-frame, because it’s not set up for multiplayer gaming.
As far as specs go, the battery is 99Wh, up from 75Wh last year. The bigger battery and more efficient processor combine for longer usage, making it a more viable option for working on the go. Of course, it’s also running on the latest Intel Panther Lake Chips.
All these products are expected to come to Australia later this year. Keep an eye out for local pricing in the coming months.
Alice Clarke attended CES 2026 as a guest of Lego and Intel.
