Following the launch of Disney Plus late last year, many fans of the classic animated sitcom The Simpsons voiced their displeasure upon discovering that the show's first 19 and a half seasons had been cropped or stretched to fit into the 16:9 format, effectively ruining a number of quality visual gags in the process.
The streaming service quickly responded by promising to fix the aspect ratio on The Simpsons in 2020, and now Disney has tweeted an official update on when subscribers can expect to see those episodes in the 4:3 format as originally intended.
According to Disney's tweet, the House of Mouse is working hard to "make the first 19 Seasons (and part of 20) of #TheSimpsons available in 4:3 versions", suggesting that viewers will have the option to choose which version they would rather watch.
Disney Plus also stated that it believes it will "accomplish this by the end of May." As for why the process is taking so long, it's likely that Disney has had to go back to the original source materials and remaster them all over again into HD.
When you're on the hunt for the speediest NBN plan available, the sheer range of options, providers and contracts can be a tad baffling. Some telcos are offering what should be the same speed for half the price of others, so what's the catch?
We've painstakingly sifted through all the minutiae and detail of the NBN plans on offer and found the fastest plans that also deliver great value. So, if you're looking for an NBN100 plan, you've come to the right place.
While the speed tier that a service uses is indicative of the level of download and upload speeds that can be obtained (i.e. NBN100 should be up to 100Mbps), this will vary with actual usage.
Thankfully, telcos are now required to advertise a "typical evening speed" to give you a better indication of what you'll be facing in reality. For NBN100, we're generally seeing "typical evening speeds" between 75-85Mbps.
AWS has announced that its new security service Amazon Detective is now available at no additional cost to customers.
Amazon Detective makes it much easier for customers to conduct faster and more efficient investigations into security issues across their AWS workloads.
The service automatically collects log data from a customer's resources and then uses machine learning, statistical analysis and graph theory to build interactive visualizations that allow customers to analyze, investigate and quickly identify the root cause of potential security issues or suspicious activities.
There are also no additional charges or commitments to use Amazon Detective and customers pay only for data ingested from AWS CloudTrail, Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) Flow Logs and Amazon GuardDuty findings.
Amazon Detective
To start using Amazon Detective, AWS customers must first enable the service in the AWS Management Console. From there, the service automatically begins distilling and organizing data from AWS CloudTrail, Amazon VPC Flow Logs and Amazon GuardDuty findings into a graph model that summarizes resource behaviors and interactions observed across an AWS customer's environment.
By using machine learning, statistical analysis and graph theory, Amazon Detective produces tailored visualizations to help customers answer questions without having to organize any data or develop, configure or tune their own queries and algorithms. The service will also allow security teams to more quickly move on to remediation as Amazon Detective handles all of the necessary data sifting.
Vice president of security services at AWS, Dan Plastina explained why the company created the service in a press release, saying:
“Even when customers tell us their security teams have the tools and information to confidently detect and remediate issues, they often say they need help when it comes to understanding what caused the issues in the first place. Gathering the information necessary to conduct effective security investigations has traditionally been a burdensome process, which can put crucial in-depth analysis out of reach for smaller organizations and strain resources for larger teams. Amazon Detective takes all of that extra work off of the customer’s plate, allowing them to focus on finding the root cause of an issue and ensuring it doesn’t happen again.”
Amazon Detective is available now in the US East (N. Virginia), US East (Ohio), US West (Oregon), Europe (Frankfurt), Europe (Ireland), Europe (London), Europe (Paris), Europe (Stockholm), Asia Pacific (Mumbai), Asia Pacific (Seoul), Asia Pacific (Singapore), Asia Pacific (Sydney), Asia Pacific (Tokyo), and South America (Sao Paulo) regions with availability in more regions coming soon.
In the fiercely competitive and innovative world of the PC, it’s always an exciting thrill seeing products and technologies come along, shake things up and move the industry forward. We use and choose good gear because of the performance on offer, the neat design, the new things it lets us do. We buy something for these reasons, and are always mindful of the value when comparing options.
It is these tangibles that drive the Australian PC Awards each year. The Awards are a joint undertaking by Future Australia’s key tech and game publications: TechRadar, PC Gamer, APC, TechLife and PC PowerPlay.
The editorial teams behind these magazines and sites live, love and breath tech and computing, and together we've distilled all of the most notable releases of 2019 across all of the critical PC categories.
This year, we've introduced a new and particularly exciting award. 'Excellence' is as broad a term as the world of technology itself, and in that big sea, our new Excellence Award is intended to highlight the person, product or technology that advanced the PC more than any other in 2019. We had a lot of fascinating debates coming up with the shortlist for this award – but once we had a list of finalists, there really was no contest when it came to choosing the irrefutably worthy winner.
We hope you agree with most of our expert team's choices. We know some may be slightly controversial, but what's undeniable is that across all of the finalists and winners are some superb products and technologies, many of which are being used and appreciated right at this moment by many of you.
We extend warm congratulations to the winners, and the people behind the products that work so hard to bring you the best.
Plus there's more excitement to come, when we announce the winner of the Gold Award for best company on Monday April 6th – which was voted on by our audience. We hope you had your say!
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Hines, senior vice president of global marketing and comms, made the announcement on Twitter, despite numerous other developers confirming they would host some form of digital showcase when the E3 2020 expo was meant to have occurred in June.
The tweet does mention “exciting things to share about our games” and that there will be “more in the coming months” for Bethesda fans to look forward to, though it seems any news we hoped to get during E3 may be pushed until a later date, possibly to prevent news getting lost amid a host of other digital announcements and live streams.
The cancellation of E3 2020 was a big blow to many, and it’s clear that developers are having to be savvy about when and how they show off new games, trailers, or teasers that might otherwise have been showed off at the event in June.
We first heard about Starfield back in 2018, when Bethesda revealed it was working on yet another single-player RPG franchise – possibly taking the reins from the Fallout franchise, which has suffered a big blow to its reputation since the buggy and ill-judged release of the online Fallout 76 game – set somewhere among the stars.
But since that initial Starfield trailer, we’ve heard nothing but crickets, and 2020 seems like long enough of a wait for more news on the game.
The same press conference also revealed that Elder Scrolls 6 was in the works, though, again, we’ve heard little since. There's no doubt that both games are being planned for next-gen PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles – if not for current-gen consoles as well – but until Bethesda unzips its lips, there’s little firm information to go on.
Take a look at the original Starfield trailer below:
We recently saw an iPhone 12 leaked benchmark test which gave us a glimpse at its potential processing power, and now the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Plus is another upcoming phone which also had its results leaked. However these new numbers are... well, quite a bit lower.
These test results were spotted by Sammobile, in the listings of Geekbench. Sammobile noticed a phone listed under SM-N986U - for context, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus 5G had the model number SM-N976U, so this is very likely its successor.
Specs in the benchmark entry include 8GB RAM and the Snapdragon 865 chipset, which is the same as the Samsung Galaxy S20 in certain regions (Samsung uses its own Exynos processors in other regions).
The benchmark scores show a single-core score of 985 and a multi-core score of 3220, and if accurate would mean this handset beats any other Samsung phones to date. However, as previously stated, they don't touch the recently-leaked iPhone 12 results from mid-March.
The iPhone 12 benchmark scores were 1,658 for single-core and 4,612 for multi-core, so it seems its rumored Bionic A14 chipset will beat the Snapdragon 865.
This isn't much of a surprise, since Apple's chipsets tend to have some of the best processing power in the smartphone world, while Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors have their own advantages like power efficiency.
In addition, at this top-end of mobile speeds, it's unlikely that many users will notice a huge difference when using the phones.
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 chipset questions
While Sammobile reported the chipset looks to be a Snapdragon 865, a prevalent leaker thinks it'll actually be the Snapdragon 865 Plus, suggesting Qualcomm is repeating its 2019 action of putting out a Plus version of its popular chipset towards the end of the year.
Leaker UniverseIce dug into the benchmark some more, and thinks the chipset shown must actually be the Snapdragon 865 Plus, based on the frequency levels of the chipsets.
This information contradicts leaked Galaxy Note 20 code found recently, which indicates the phone range will have the non-Plus chipset, but neither leak is from a convincing enough source for us to think one is more likely than the other.
We'll find out the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Plus processor, as well as everything else about the phone, in around August when we're expecting the range to launch. Before that we're likely in for plenty more leaks, so stay tuned for them.
We're now onto day three of week two of Joe Wicks' PE workout, and many people across the country are starting to feel the benefit of the morning routine of watching an enthusiastic man shout fitness commands at them.
If you're looking to get your first taste of PE with Joe Wicks, it's a simple set up: we've got a guide below on how to access his BodyCoachTV YouTube channel, as well as our recommendations of great tech and fitness kit to help you get even fitter if you're committing to this plan while in self-isolation.
While PE with Joe Wicks sounds like it's for kids, it's also great for adults too, with modified versions for those of us who have 'neglected' strength training for the last... twelve years.
Yesterday Wicks announced during his PE workout that his pledge to pass all advertising revenue from these workouts to the NHS had crossed £80,000 / $100,000, which means that just by watching you're helping save lives.
And for those that have been watching closely but missed yesterday, good news: the music in the background has gone, clearly dismissed as an experiment after it was hard to here his instructions.
Head back to this article just before 9AM GMT to start moving along with Wicks, where we'll embed the live article in the section below our recommendations of what to buy - and scroll to the bottom to get the jump on some other workouts if you're feeling super energetic today.
If you're working out in front of the TV or huddled around a smartphone, here are our quick picks of what we recommend to enhance the experience:
Or, if you don't want to buy a whole new TV to get easy smarts, a Chromecast or Roku stick will allow you to easily stream to your TV too:
And if you want to track your heart rate and effort over the course of the workout, or just want to extend your exercise, then check out these picks:
What time does Joe Wicks’ PE lesson start each day?
If you’re itching to get your fix of Wicks live each day, then you’ll need to have YouTube open and waiting at 9AM BST each day.
(If you're in other parts of the world and don't want to get up ridiculously early each day to watch live, we've got the recent uploads listed at the bottom of this article).
The sessions last for 30 mins, and include a warm up and cool down, and two repetitions of the circuits he walks (or sprints) you through.
If you‘re interesting in getting involved with The Body Coach as it happens, and can cope with irrepressible enthusiasm as this hour, then you’ll need to have your YouTube portal open on your TV, tablet or smartphone at around 8:55AM BST.
You won't see him on camera straight away - but try to memorise all the items on his shelves as there's a daily spot the difference for the die-hard fans.
(If you want to watch it on catch up each day, at a time that suits you, then you can just follow the same instructions above, where the previous workouts will be posted to catch up on.)
How to watch Joe Wicks’ kids workout on a TV
The best way - if you’ve got the space - is to watch the workout in front of a TV. There are myriad ways to get YouTube on your tellybox, thus making it simpler to get active.
Using your smart TV
The easiest way is if you've got a smart TV into your life - open up your smart hub and navigate to YouTube, where you can follow the searching instructions above to find The Body Coach TV, with a new video going live each day at 9AM GMT.
If you don't see it straight away, then it should appear just before 9AM - and Wicks gives you a few minutes to get ready too.
Using Google Chromecast
Alternatively you can use streaming sticks - one of the simplest is Google's Chromecast, which plugs into your HDMI socket and will stream content from your phone to the TV.
Fire up YouTube on your smartphone or tablet and look for the icon below in one of the corners:
(The same icon will also show you any compatible smart TVs or streaming sticks on your network that you can 'cast' the show to - you might be surprised which devices are already enabled).
The Chromecast isn't too expensive either, and is a simple way to turn your TV smart - allowing you to stream a multitude of services (like Netflix and other streaming platforms) from your small phone screen to a larger display:
How to watch on a Roku stick:
More advanced than a Chromecast, the Roku stick turns your TV into a smart hub easily too. When plugged in, hit the 'source' button on your remote and navigate to the HDMI port where your Roku stick is located (or, with some modern TVs, just pressing the 'Home' button on the Roku remote will achieve the same thing).
From there, open the YouTube app and navigate to the Body Coach TV at 9AM GMT... or fire it up on your smartphone or tablet and look for the 'cast' icon above, tap it and see if the Roku is listed (which it should be if all devices are connected to the same Wi-Fi network).
How to watch Joe Wicks’ PE workout on an iPad
You’ve got two options here: if you’ve already got the YouTube app downloaded onto your tablet, then just search for ‘The Body Coach’ and click the icon at the top of the screen for ‘Body Coach TV’.
From there you’ll see a list of all the videos, and at 9AM the new option should pop up - although you may need to refresh.
You can achieve the same thing if you don’t have the iPad app by heading to your Safari or Chrome browser and clicking the link to the The Body Coach’s YouTube channel - you can play the video directly from there, and hit the full-screen option in the bottom right-hand corner.
How did Joe Wicks break his arm?
For those wondering why Joe Wicks' PE workouts feature a man that can't do all of his exercises because of the cast on his wrist, it's because he fell off his bike before embarking on a pledge to become the nation's PE teacher - you can see all about it over on his Instagram Stories.
How to catch up on Joe Wicks' other PE workouts
If you missed anything, or want to browse previous workouts, they're all available on the same YouTube channel above - or you can watch them right here:
Huawei unveiled the Huawei P40 series to the world last week and it delivers on everything the P series stands for- high-end performance and a fantastic camera wrapped up in a gorgeous design that other phones will soon follow.
The first thing you will notice about the HUAWEI P40 Pro is its design. The HUAWEI P series is always known for its stylish phones, and the HUAWEI P40 Pro continues that trend. You can see that upfront, the phone features a 'Quad-curve Overflow Display', with curved glass at all four edges, including the top and bottom. This is reminiscent of water on the overflowing from the rim of a filled cup.
Additionally, super narrow bezels and streamlined round corners ensure an ergonomic hold and a near borderless look, while also being comfortable to use.
This screen also packs an improved in-screen fingerprint reader that can unlock your phone 30 percent faster.
This is the gorgeous matte Silver Frost variant, but the P40 Pro is also available in a glossy Black finish here in UAE. As you can see, this design exudes classical elegance no matter how you look at it, while the matte finish also makes it fingerprint proof.
Being a trendsetter in smartphone design is what Huawei does best, seen in the earlier P20 series gardient twilight colours and even the gradient finishes from last year’s P30 Pro.
5G for today and tomorrow
The Huawei P40 Pro is powered by the Kirin 990 5G chipset which is the only flagship chipset with an integrated 5G modem. Competing phones have to use an external 5G model which affects performance and power consumption.
Huawei continues to support both non-standard architecture and standard architecture 5G modes making it work with current and future versions of 5G. It also comes with support for 160MHz Wi-Fi 6 Plus technology for high-speed connectivity with support for 2,400Mbps peak theoretical transmission speed.
You can also see a boost in display responsiveness and gaming experience are taken to the next level by the upgraded graphics rendering engine making the most of the 90Hz panel on the HUAWEI P40 Pro.
A camera that’s always ready
The P series has always impressed with camera technology and the Huawei P40 pushes this even further with its Ultra Vision Leica Quad Camera. The primary lens features an incredibly large 1/1.28 RYYB sensor- Huawei’s largest CMOS sensor to date. It supports pixel binning to achieve a pixel size of 2.44μm and Full Pixel Octa PD AutoFocus for high-speed focus at any time of day. The setup on the back includes a 50MP Ultra Vision Wide Camera, a 40MP Ultra Wide Cine Camera, a 12MP 5x Optical Telephoto Camera and a ToF Camera.
The 40 MP Ultra Wide Cine Camera has a 1/1.54 inch sensor that allows taking stunning Ultra Low-light and Ultra Slow-motion videos. The ToF sensor helps with depth sensing and taking better portrait mode shots or videos.
One thing we really like about Huawei is that it isn't shy about talking up the 'real', optical zooming capabilities on its phone. Other competing phones tend to confuse consumers with hybrid zooming capabilities- that sometimes are nothing more than digital zoom. Huawei is upfront with the P40 Pro that offers a large 12MP 5X optical zoom telephoto lens which is capable of zooming upto 50x closing in on your subjects.
Upfront, the HUAWEI P40 Pro has a 32MP AF Camera and IR Depth Camera that support autofocus and Bokeh reproduction to deliver the same outstanding portrait effects that are signature to Huawei devices, as well as IR Face Unlock for device unlock even in low light conditions.
Huawei was one of the first companies to add AI capabilities to its phone cameras and with the P40 Pro, it’s pushed even further. The Audio zoom feature lets you focus the audio to match where your camera is zooming into and amplifies the captured sound for a more realistic experience.
There’s also a Golden Snap feature that uses AI algorithms to choose the best frames from a moving picture. It also allows you to remove an unwanted passerby from your photo- this is something many of us have experienced multiple times where our perfect photo is ruined by someone walking into the picture just when its clicked. Using AI, Huawei can now remove those unwanted people from your background making it the shot you intended it to be. With AI Remove reflection, you can also remove any glares from the frame.
EMUI 10.1 and HUAWI AppGallery
The HUAWEI P40 Pro is powered by Android 10 operating system, with EMUI 10.1 running on top of it. This allows for a wide range of new features for a richer and seamless AI life. Huawei Share facilitates high-speed file transfer between the smartphone and other devices such as tablets and PCs, while also allowing for music streaming to smart speakers, screen projection and Multi-Screen Collaboration.
It also comes with HUAWIE AppGallery and HUAWEI Mobile services. Working in close collaboration with global developers, Huawei offers a wide range of global and local apps on AppGallery, Huawei’s official app marketplace and one of the top 3 app platforms in the world. There are a wide range of global and local apps, each optimized for Huawei devices, with an overall smooth and fluid experience. If users can’t find an app they are looking for, they can add it to a Wishlist after which they will be notified once its available.
It comes with 4200 mAh battery But if you do run out of juice, you can quickly charge the P40 Pro using the 40W supercharger that comes inside the box. It supports the fast Wireless HUAWEI SuperCharge.
In the UAE Huawei is offering 8GB of RAM and 256GB which can be further expanded using Huawei’s nano memory cards.
And there you have it, that’s the new HUAWEI P40 Pro, Huawei’s latest flagship that shows off gorgeous design, unprecedented 5G performance and a powerful camera setup like no other.
The Huawei P40 Pro is now open for pre-orders for AED 3,499 with an estimated delivery of 9th April. Consumers that pre-order the phone will also receive the Huawei Watch GT 2, VIP service, 6 months one-time free replacement screen protection warranty, cloud service package and a Flip cover for free.
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Samsung’s next mainstream flagship, the Galaxy Note 20+ 5G, has already visited the Geekbench database, giving us key information about the chipset in tow.
A new Samsung device with the model name SM-N986U has just been listed, which is believed to be the 5G variant of the Note 20, as the Note 10+ 5G had the model number SM-N976U. It is supposed to be the US version with the Snapdragon chipset.
Cluster information of the performance core
Taking a closer look at the benchmark, it confirms that the apparent Samsung Galaxy Note 20 will run on Android 10. The chipset is labeled as “Kona,” which is the internal name for the Snapdragon 865 series of chipsets. Interestingly, the specific cluster information suggests that the performance cluster has a max frequency of 3.1 GHz, which is significantly higher than the 2.84 GHz that the Snapdragon 865’s “Gold” core can achieve. It leads us to believe that we might be looking at the Snapdragon 865+ and not an overclocked or binned variant. The other clusters remain unchanged, with three cores at 2.4 GHz and four efficiency cores at 1.8 GHz.
The phone is listed to have 8GB of RAM, but there will also be variants with more memory than that. It needs to be noted that early benchmarks are not accurate representations of how the phone will perform, as that can change over time with better optimizations. The difference won’t be too significant when compared to the Snapdragon 865 found on the Samsung Galaxy S20 series.
The next wave of Samsung flagships is expected to be unveiled in Q3, if not delayed beyond that owing to the current circumstances. With many months left for the launch, we should hear more about the Galaxy Note 20 series before the launch.
It’s a big day for gamers, as Intel and Nvidia have both revealed their next-generation notebook chips. The former has launched its long-awaited 10th-generation Comet Lake-H mobile processors, while Team Green has released its GeForce RTX 2080 Super and RTX 2070 Super mobile GPUs.
Manufacturers, including Gigabyte, Lenovo Legion and MSI, have been quick to showcase new-and-improved gaming laptops that make use of Intel and Nvidia’s souped-up innards, and all are promising impressive gains in the performance department.
MSI
MSI’s newly-launched GS66 Sealth is a beast in the spec department, packing Intel’s top of the line i9-10980HK processor - which is capable of boosting performance speeds by nearly 50% compared to last generation i7-9750H processor - and Nvidia’s new GeForce mobile GPUs.
Beyond its high-end internal setup, the MSI GS66 Stealth also packs a 300 Hz IPS-level display, the “world’s largest” 99.9 Whr battery capacity and a thermal Cooler Boost Trinity+ system made up of 0.1mm fan blades to maximize airflow and keep the system cool. The machine, which MSI billing the machine as suitable for work and play, also includes a Thunderbolt 3 port and 8K display output.
The GS66 Stealth is now available for pre-order at Newegg starting at $1,599 (about £1,291, AU$2,630).
MSI also on Thursday showcased the sci-fi-inspired 15.6in GE66 Raider that features GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER graphics and the same hefty battery as the GS66 Stealth, along with the MSI Creator 17, The world’s first laptop with a Mini LED display. Both devices will arrive in mid-April, and both will be priced from $1,799 (about £1,450, AU$2,960).
Gigabyte
Following Intel and Nvidia’s launches, Gigabyte has been quick to announce updates to its Aorus line of “ultra-performance” notebooks with the arrival of the flagship Aorus 17X, the Aorus 17G and the Aorus 15G.
The machines, which Gigabyte boasts are the “lightest in the industry” to feature mechanical keyboards, come with a choice of Core i9-10980HK, Corei7-10875H and Core i7-10750H processor that can be paired with Nvidia’s all-new GeForce RTX 2080 Super and RTX 2070 Super GPUs.
Users can also expect screens with a 240Hz refresh rate that provide, in Gigabyte’s words “the optimal experience and high-speed visuals required by enthusiasts”, along with the firm’s homegrown WINDFORCE Infinity cooling technology that ensures the hardware can perform at its full potential.
The Aorus 17G and 15G laptops will be available from $1,699 (about £1,370, AU$2,800) and $1,799 (about £1,450, AU$2,960), respectively, while the top of the line Aorus 17X will be priced from $2,399 (about £1,940, AU$3,950).
Lenovo Legion
The highest-spec machine in Lenovo Legion’s refreshed gaming laptop lineup is the simply-named 7i laptop, which arrives packing an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GPU with Max-Q Design.
The top-spec Lenovo Legion 7i laptop packs an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super GPU with Max-Q Design and 10th Gen Intel Core H-Series mobile processor, which combined will deliver “higher clock speeds and new levels of realism in today’s AAA games.”
Nvidia is also delivering gains in the battery life department, with the i7 laptop featuring its new Advanced Optimus technology that dynamically detects GPU workloads and automatically connects either the NVIDIA GPU (for demanding workloads) or the IGP (for light workloads) to the display to preserve battery life while delivering maximum performance.
The Lenovo Legion 7i will be available for $1,199 (about £970, AU$1,980), while lesser-spec Legion 51 laptop – which comes with up to a GeForce RTX 2060 GPU, will be price
Lenovo Legion 5i and Lenovo Legion Y540 laptops with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 GPU will be available starting at $999 (about £810, AU$1,650). Lenovo Legion 7i and Lenovo Legion Y740 laptops with the RTX 2070 GPU will be available starting at $1,199 (about £970, AU$1,970). Availability will vary by region.
Here are the best gaming PCs if gaming laptops aren't your jam.
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Asus has revealed the ROG Zephyrus Duo 15, the world’s first gaming laptop with two screens, and packed with some of the latest gaming tech to boot.
As well as the main 15.6-inch screen, which can either be a touchscreen 4K IPS panel, or a 300MHz 1080p display, a secondary 14.09-inch touchscreen, known as the ScreenPad Plus, sits above the keyboard, kind of like a super-powered Touch Bar, which you find on modern MacBooks.
With a 3,840 x 1,100 resolution and stylus support, the ScreenPad Plus is designed to expand the desktop space of the laptop. As Asus told us, it could be used to display secondary apps when gaming, such as Twitch chats for streamers, allowing people to seamlessly interact with their audience (or use other apps) while gaming.
We were also told by Asus that it is working with games developers to add exclusive modes to their games for the ScreenPad Plus – so you could use the secondary screen to display maps, inventory and other options. While Asus hasn’t revealed what games will offer ScreenPad Plus-centric features, it could offer a decent strategic edge for players if enough titles take it up.
This isn’t the first Asus laptop to feature a secondary touchscreen, with the Asus ZenBook Pro Duo UX581 offering the same feature. We weren’t entirely convinced by it in the productivity laptop, but on a gaming laptop it makes quite a bit more sense.
Talking specs
While the second ScreenPad Plus display is the main talking point with the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15, Asus has also packed it with some cutting edge components – something we’ve come to expect from its Zephyrus lineup of gaming laptops.
So, there’s a model with an Intel 10th generation Comet Lake i7-1087H processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super GPU, up to 32GB of DDR4 RAM, and two 2TB M.2 SSDs with RAID 0 support.
There’s also a higher-specced version with an Intel Core i9-10980HK processor and Nvidia GeFroce RTX 2080 Super GPU.
Both versions come with a large 90Wh battery which should allow the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 to run without being unplugged for a little while, at least.
We had a quick go on the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15, and while we can see the potential of the second screen for gamers and creators, the ScreenPad Plus brings some compromises that we want to investigate further in our full review.
First, the dimensions and weight of the laptop are 36 x 26.8 x 2.1cm and 2.4kg, making this a bulkier and heavier laptop than we’re used to with the Zephyrus range of laptops, which are usually impressively thin and light affairs.
The other issue is price: this is an incredibly expensive laptop, which launches in July 2020 at £2,999.99 (around $3,000, AU$5,000) for the lower-end configuration, and £3,999 (around $4,000, AU$8,000) for the high-end version.
That’s an eye-wateringly high asking price, so the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 will be under a lot of pressure to justify it. We should hopefully find out if it manages to do just that when we get our hands on a review sample soon.
