Asus is taking Computex 2018 by storm, they released what looks to be the most advanced gaming phone and now they are changing the way we interact with our laptops with the Asus ZenBook Pro line-up. With these laptops, they introduced the new ScreenPad and an 8th Generation Intel Core i9 processor.
ScreenPad
The ScreenPad is a screen on the touchpad that is very versatile and can be used for many uses. The best example is that it can further extend the functionality of certain apps. Microsoft took interest in this and worked together with Asus to make all their Office apps utilize the new touchpad. In the demo that was shown, you can perform image and text manipulations by just touching the icons on the ScreenPad. For those of you that want some customizations in your life, the shortcuts and functions can be customized to suit your needs.
Other than that, it also comes with tools like a calculator, music player, NumKey and an app launcher which can also be customized. The ScreenPad can also be used to extend the laptop main screen to give you a second screen. It works exactly as how you would expect a second screen to work and you can even interact with the screen if you need to. The company will release a ScreenPad SDK for developers that want to create new apps or if they want to get their app supported by the ScreenPad.
The highest end ZenBook Pro model comes with an 8th Generation Intel Core i9 processor with up to 16GB of DDR4 RAM clocked at 2400Hz and up to 1TB of PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD. Gaming will not be an issue and will look great as it comes with a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics card and a 15-inch 4K UHD touchscreen display which supports the Asus Pen.
If you feel that the ZenBook Pro 15 is packing too much power, you can opt for the ZenBook Pro 14 which comes with an 8th Generation Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM and a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 MAX-Q graphics. It also supports Intel Optane memory and has a 14-inch FHD display. For security, it has an infrared camera for facial recognition and has built-in support for Amazon Alexa.
Asus has mentioned that the laptops will see a Q3 release date, however, they did not mention the price for both the ZenBook Pro 14 and 15.