ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 (GX650, 2023) review – double the screen, double the fun

LaptopMedia.com Reviews and Analysis ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 (GX650, 2023) review - double the screen, double the fun Page 3

From: Nikolay Palaozov, eng. Kroum Nikolov 25 October 2023 / 10:35 2

3. Display quality, Health impact (PWM), Sound

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Display quality, Health impact (PWM), Sound

The main display of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 (GX650, 2023) is a WQXGA (Wide Quad Extended Graphics Array) Mini LED panel with 1024 dimming zones, model number BOE NE160QDM-NM4 (BOE0BC4). It comes with a 240Hz refresh rate. Its diagonal is 16.0″ (40.6 cm), and the resolution – 2560 x 1600p. Additionally, the screen ratio is 16:10, the pixel density – 189 ppi, and their pitch – 0.13 x 0.13 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 46 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels).

The second display of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 (GX650, 2023) is a touchscreen panel, model number BOE NV140XTM-N52 (BOE0A68). It comes with a 60Hz refresh rate. Its diagonal is 14.1″ (35.8 cm), and the resolution – 3840 x 1100p. Additionally, the screen ratio is 3.5:1, the pixel density – 283 ppi, and their pitch – 0.9 x 0.9 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 31 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels).

Viewing angles are good. We offer images at different angles to evaluate the quality.

Also, a video with locked focus and exposure.

The brightness of the main display depends on the content of the picture and the settings in the “Armoury Crate” application – screen and machine performance. When “GPU Mode – Standard” or “GPU Mode – Eco mode” is enabled, it is only possible to change Luminance using the Brightness slider if HDR is On.

Therefore, the data below is with “GPU Mode – Ultimate” on, the backlight mode set to “One zone” and the selected picture mode is “Native-Default”. When choosing “One zone” mode, the laptop is comfortable for accurate color work, while “Multi zone” is for gaming (in “Multi zone” mode, white window with 7% fill on a black background has a maximum brightness of 990 cd/m2).

The maximum measured brightness in (“GameVisual – Native – Default”, Backlight control “One zone” in the Armoury Crate app) is 460 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 461 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of just 4% (HDR Off). The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6770K (average).

The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits) – in this particular case at 32% Brightness (White level = 140 cd/m2, Black level = 0.12 cd/m2, “Backlight control – One zone”, HDR – Off)). Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work (a maximum tolerance of 2.0). We measured a good contrast ratio – 1190:1 (“Backlight control – One zone”). In “Backlight control – Multi zone” mode, the contrast ratio is excellent – 34000:1 ON/OFF and 7050:1 ANSI.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people on HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 (GX650, 2023)’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 100% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976, and 100% of DCI-P3, ensuring a super vibrant and attractive picture (HDR off, „GameVisual – Native“ in the Armoury Crate app).

The “GameVisual” setting in “Armoury Crate” emulates the DCI-P3 and sRGB color gamuts.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc.

Below you can compare the scores of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 (GX650, 2023) with the default settings (Armoury Crate“; „GameVisual – sRGB – Default“; HDR off, compared to sRGB color space (Illuminant white point – D65, sRGB encoding curve).

Also, you can see the default accuracy results in Armoury Crate“ – „GameVisual – Display P3 – Default“; HDR off, compared to P3-D65 (Display) color space.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 10 ms.

Health Impact: PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the display is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

The backlight of the main panel of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 (GX650, 2023) has significant pulsations. Their frequency is high, but the filling coefficient is very low. The last segment of the chart below is from another display, which has a similar maximum brightness but does not use PWM. This display might not be very comfortable for the more sensitive users.

The backlight of ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 (GX650, 2023)’s secondary display doesn’t use PWM at any brightness level.

Health Impact: Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Health Impact: Gloss-level measurement

Glossy-coated displays are sometimes inconvenient in high ambient light conditions. We show the level of reflection on the screen for the respective laptop when the display is turned off and the measurement angle is 60° (in this case, the result is 61.3 GU).

Sound

ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 (GX650, 2023)’s Dolby Atmos speakers produce a sound of very good quality. Its low, mid, and high tones are clear of deviations.

3. Display quality, Health impact (PWM), Sound

2. Design and construction Previous page Next page 4. Buy our profiles

Author: Nikolay Palaozov

Author: eng. Kroum NikolovHead of Engineering at LaptopMedia.com, inventor and innovator with 40+ years of experience in electronics and high technology.