The Asus ZenBook Pro's futuristic touchpad, which doubles as a second, smaller display on certain Asus laptops, is getting a significant upgrade just a year after Asus introduced it.

The Taiwanese tech giant is referring to the revamped touchpad-display combo, unveiled at Computex this week, as the ScreenPad 2.0. The two main promised improvements are a reduced impact on battery life and a significantly streamlined user experience. Even better, the ScreenPad 2.0 is coming to a wide range of Asus laptops, not just the expensive, rather large ZenBook Pro 15.

How It Works

Beyond the novelty factor, a touchpad that doubles as a small secondary display can actually be a very useful feature. The ScreenPad 2.0 can display any Windows app in miniature. Asus has designed a custom interface for some apps, including Microsoft Office ones, that displays shortcuts when you move them to the ScreenPad. But most apps are simply miniature versions of how they look on the main display.

How is that handy? For example, you can play videos or keep tabs on your Facebook Messenger chats on the tiny screen while working on the main display. Or you might quickly do some figures on the calculator app.

All of this was possible with the original Asus ScreenPad, but it wasn't always seamless. Transferring app windows from the main display to the ScreenPad wasn't exactly drag-and-drop easy, and Asus had a convoluted method of installing ScreenPad-compatible apps that involved visiting an obscure part of the Microsoft Store.

Based on a brief demo of the ScreenPad 2.0, these issues appear to be resolved. You can now use any app downloaded from the Microsoft Store, and drag it to the ScreenPad with ease. You also get many more customization options, including the ability to adjust the refresh rate and resolution of the ScreenPad 2.0 display panel. Those are very welcome improvements, seeing as the original had plenty of wow factor but plenty of limitations, too. (Check out our full review of the ZenBook Pro 15 for more on those initial difficulties).

ScreenPad: What Remains to Be Seen

There are still a few unknowns. Asus points out that the battery impact of ScreenPad 2.0 is greatly lessened by powering the ScreenPad via the laptop's power-sipping, on-CPU integrated graphics processor instead of the juice-happier discrete GPU. The company is promising 2.5 times the battery life of the first generation, but we won't be able to gauge the change (or lack thereof) until we get a unit in to PC Labs for review.

Asus says the new ScreenPad will be available on the ZenBook 13, ZenBook 14, and ZenBook 15 laptops, as well as the ZenBook Flip 15 2-in-1 convertible. Meanwhile, the ZenBook Pro is getting an even more futuristic ScreenPad Plus, a much larger keyboard-deck secondary screen that covers nearly the entire surface of the laptop's base that isn't taken up by the keyboard.