The computer has indeed stagnated recently. Apple announced “innovation” when it launched the MacBook Pro 2016 series of styluses, but on the other hand, in general, true innovation and trying new things on computers is limited to reducing physical size.
We recently reported on the launch of this new series of Asustek computers, but this year Computex released a new version of a simple touch: no trackpad, but a touchscreen.
This new Asus laptop does not contain a traditional tracking panel. I like my massive trackpad on the MacBook Pro 2016+, but my first impression is that I can not imagine a touchscreen there. Although ASUS canceled the trackpad in the latest version of ZenBook Pro 15, they replaced it with ScreenPad. This 5.5-inch touchscreen also doubles as a second screen and trackpad.
Screen Pad can be used as a calculator, numeric keypad, calendar, movie or music media controller. It even connects to Office applications to provide simpler formatting, so you don’t need to search the action bar. This 1080-inch 1080p mini display can be used as a second laptop player. This may be useful for maintaining control of Twitter or Facebook or monitoring only messaging clients such as Slack during business days.
Second screen
The Screen Pad reflects its larger counterparts, allowing you to update the multitasking. The ideal setting for the second screen is to open my Facebook or Twitter application on the Screen Pad. Make sure the extension view is enabled before using the second screen. From there, you can drag the window to the ScreenPad.
Youtube remote
Instead of getting the top screen, you can access all the YouTube controls on the ScreenPad. When you enable extensions in Google Chrome, Remote will automatically open each time YouTube starts. You can access full-screen mode and closed captions without having to activate the title and scrollbars.
Music player
If you like music, you will appreciate ScreenPad’s ability to play music. ScreenPad currently contains two music applications: Music Player and Spotify. The music playback application will play your music files as long as they are downloaded to your computer. Spotify allows you to access all playlists and grant access to ScreenPad after login. Keep in mind that ScreenPad is only available for Spotify Premium accounts.
Office toolbar
One of the biggest attractions of ScreenPad is its adaptive smart design, specifically for Microsoft Office. With this feature, when you start Excel, Word, or PowerPoint, a small toolbar with some useful shortcuts appears. It’s like a bigger and better touch bar version in Apple. Now, if Asus can find a way to introduce this feature into Google Docs, this may be one of the main uses of ScreenPad.
Adobe sign
Digital signatures are the direction of the future. To help make this easy and comfortable future, Asus added Adobe Sign. As the name implies, the application allows you to use the touchpad signature, which is more elegant than using the mouse. Make sure Adobe Reader is installed before attempting to use this feature.
Phone mirror
Some of us have established serious relationships with our smartphones, so it’s hard to touch them at any time. ASUS offers a smart solution for this through the ASUS application for synchronization. After you download the app on your Android device (or iOS) and a ZenBook phone and synchronize your devices, you can make calls and view notifications via ScreenPad. You will not be allowed to lose your smartphone to fix itself, but it’s a start.
