Asus Zenbook pro 2018: A Genuine leap in Laptop technology

The new ZenBook Pro range, which was revealed on Tuesday at Taipei's Computex convention, has a new feature which their company is calling a ScreenPad. When you press F6 key on the Laptop’s keyboard, the laptop's touchpad gets transformed into a 5.5-inch, 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution touchscreen.

Taipei: Asus Zenbook pro is being launched at Computex convention

Although, the idea was first presented by Razor but it was only in the form of a concept. The ZenBook pro certainly takes a lead here in terms of mass producing it for its consumers. At first glance, what seems more like just another piece of gimmickry, is actually a very solid concept and has all the potential to go mainstream and become compulsory item in future laptops.

The idea of having a touch screen in place of a touchpad not only, as they say, is “Cool” but also increases the functionality of a laptop by manifold in a genuine way. It can be used to increase productivity of a consumer by giving various options such as providing calculator right on to the Screenpad, providing multimedia soft keys right at the place where previously nothing else but only a touchpad would reside, allowing various apps to be launched straight from the Screenpad, giving option to change settings of the laptop through various toggles and also be used as a secondary display.

When the Screenpad is turned off, it looks like just any normal trackpad. But what comes as pleasantly surprising is that it also feels and clicks like any normal trackpad. This is surprising because, with a screen in place, one would expect it to have a glass like feel of a  smartphone screen  but this is not the case. Lack of a natural touchpad-like feel could have turned out to be a deal breaker for many people and could have put them off easily. The Asus Zenbook pro has a mode called “Traditional touchpad mode” where screen gets turned off and Sreenpad looks, feels and behaves just like any other conventional trackpad.

In a “Screenpad mode”, it runs Asus apps in an Asus interface.  With these ASUS apps, various tasks can be performed on the pad without occupying the screen real estate. These apps include calendar app where you can see your date and do other tasks related to calendar app.

Another app shows you a number pad which you can use to write number on a main screen. This is a great little facility especially considering the fact that physical keyboards attached with the laptops nowadays are devoid of complete number pad due to lack of space or whatever reason and Asus Zenbook is no exception to this trend.

Calculator app is displayed on Screenpad of Asus

An app called “Screenpad Music Player” provides you with music controls. You can change track, move forward or backward, set the volume to your liking and perform various other tasks.

The calculator app, as discussed before, is a real handy option. It is much easier to use it this way rather than using it in a conventional manner where app is displayed on main screen and input is made through physical number keys on a laptop. Using it in Screenpad is nearly as convenient as using an actual physical calculator.

There is a “Settings” page also available in the interface of screenpad where you can change different settings of the Screenpad which includes brightness, toolbar customization, display wallpaper and number of apps available to be controlled from the Screenpad.

In an “Extension Display” mode, you can have a touch capable secondary display for whatever you want to do with it. The most interesting part is that the Screenpad keeps on working as a trackpad for main laptop screen despite having a secondary display underneath. In this mode, you can also drag and drop your programs as well as folders in the secondary display and work separately on them away from the main screen.

Various mode options available for Screenpad

Different apps in the secondary display can be made use of without taking space on the main screen. One can keep tab various things in the smaller screen while doing main tasks on the big screen. Example includes playing footage of a security camera in the small screen or a remote access program.

Overall, Asus Zenbook is looking like a promising laptop. It has come up with this new concept as well as other impressive features. It has a 4K main screen with wide colour gamut, thunderbolt 3 to dual 4K output, NVIDIA GTX 1050 Ti card, Harmon/Kardon certification for an in-built audio and fingerprint scanner.

As is the case with any other piece of technology, Asus Zenbook not without its critics and sceptics who are still questioning the practicality and functionality of this new concept. They are dismissing it as a mere gimmicky. Only time will tell whether their criticism is right or wrong but right now Zenbook is looking really promising and it is looking like it has all the potential to forever change the way we use our laptops.