Gaming greatness came to CES 2022 with the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 laptop

This story is part of CES, where CNET covers the latest news on the most incredible tech coming soon.

Asus never fails to announce at least a couple of extraordinary devices at CES, and this year is no different. The company has developed several dual-display laptops over the past few years — and the upcoming Republic of Gamers Zephyrus Duo 16 looks to be its most powerful. 

The updated design pairs a 16-inch main display with a secondary 14.1-inch touchscreen and up to 4K resolution. Called the ROG ScreenPad Plus, the touch panel rises from the body on redesigned hinges when you lift the lid. It stops at a 13-degree angle to meet the bottom of the main display and, since it’s just about bezel-free, it looks like one large display when viewed head-on. The angle makes it easier to see without craning your neck, while also giving it better circulation for keeping things cool. 

Asus will have two display options available for this model. The first is a Nebula HDR QHD-resolution panel with a 16:10 aspect ratio and a 165Hz refresh rate. It uses a mini-LED backlight capable of hitting a blinding peak brightness of 1,100 nits and covers 100% P3 color space. It’s DisplayHDR 1000 certified and the mini-LEDs allow for precise local dimming. 

The second option is a ROG-exclusive Dual Spec panel. Co-developed with BOE, it lets you choose between viewing at 4K with a 120Hz refresh rate or 1080p at 240Hz. For gamers, this means you can have both a fast 4K display and a faster esports-caliber display in one laptop. Plus, a MUX switch so the discrete graphics can bypass the integrated graphics to reduce latency. 

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And since this laptop is meant for gaming and content creation, it’ll be filled with top-end components. Configurations go up to an AMD Ryzen 9 6980HX series processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti mobile graphics. It’ll also have up to 32GB of DDR5 memory and up to 2TB of PCIe NVMe Gen 4 solid-state storage.

Pricing wasn’t announced, but given its predecessor’s price topped $3,000, you should expect a similar price for the Duo 16. Asus said it’ll be available some time in the first quarter of 2022.