The Asus ROG Concept Dali is a prototype laptop built on the old ROG Zephyrus G14 chassis, though the cover of the laptop has been swapped for an e-ink display that may be the most impressive e-ink display we’ve ever seen.
Asus showed off the ROG Concept Dali on the expo floor at Computex in Taipei this week. The concept is a dual-screen laptop, though the secondary e-ink display is positioned on the top cover.
We’ve seen a few laptops with e-ink displays, particularly the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus line. E-ink has been used for e-readers for quite some time now, but it’s only just being implemented on laptops. Many of these end up being expensive and a little too gimmicky to be worthwhile.
However, the ROG Concept Dali has me rethinking how much I would like an e-ink cover on my laptop. Sadly, because the Concept Dali is still just an expo prototype for Computex, it doesn’t have a release date, specs, or pricing.
However, lending me some semblance of hope, reps from the Asus ROG team seemed confident that if enough people liked the Concept Dali, a consumer version could go into production.
Asus ROG Concept Dali: Design
The Concept Dali uses the same chassis as the ROG Zephyrus G14 from 2022 and 2023. The 2024 version of the Zephyrus G14 uses a slightly different body, but we’re very familiar with the base of the Concept Dali. It’s one of the more iconic designs Asus has put on the Zephyrus line, so it makes sense to reuse it.
Where the Concept Dali differs from the Zephyrus is the top cover of the laptop. The top cover is entirely e-ink, with the main image sitting more on the top-right-hand side while the left-hand and lower edges feature a small ROG logo and some geometric design elements to lend the laptop a futuristic look.
The e-ink cover doesn’t change much about the size of the Zephyrus G14 chassis, to the point you wouldn’t necessarily know it’s an e-ink display until you see it change.
Having the customizable image panel off-center makes the Concept Dali feel like a futuristic drawing tablet. This is especially noticeable when displaying original art on the cover, though even the pre-rendered digital graphic and sticker options also have a more artsy feel than some other e-ink laptops have managed to pull off in the past.
Asus ROG Concept Dali: Display
Okay so obviously the display is the big thing with the Concept Dali. The e-ink on Concept Dali’s cover is some of the most highly detailed and vibrantly colorful we’ve ever seen. It’s a far cry from the muted colors and low-resolution graphics we’ve seen on other e-ink displays.
Asus showed off the ROG Concept Dali as something of an art piece, with multiple prototypes hung up on a temporary wall with coordinated art. It felt like an art exhibition more than a laptop demo. I honestly did not want to believe the cover display was e-ink, it was just that gorgeous.
Asus didn’t share any details on the internal display panel, though I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the same 14-inch LCD panel from the Zephyrus G14. It was certainly a quality display itself, showcasing the curated and customizable art options with a high degree of definition and vibrancy.
Asus ROG Concept Dali: Customization
One of the fun bits about the Concept Dali area of the Asus ROG booth is the ability to customize the e-ink display on a pair of laptops. Asus prepared a large set of curated images, a handful of images that could be tweaked using AI image generation, and a blank canvas that could be filled with stickers to make a custom design.
A rep for Asus ROG confirmed, should the concept ever go into production, users would be able to put their own art, curated art, stickers, or AI-generated designs on the lid. So, if you wanted to advertise your business or show off your favorite illustrations, you absolutely could do so.
Asus ROG Concept Dali: Performance
Without specs, it can be difficult to evaluate performance, but one of the claims that Asus reps had about Concept Dali was its power efficiency. The e-ink display is designed to be low-power and will maintain its image even when the laptop is powered off.
That alone is more than enough to get us interested. Of course, our standard Laptop Mag battery testing procedure isn’t quite built with e-ink static displays in mind. However, I would love to put Asus' claim to the test that the e-ink display doesn’t impact the battery life of the laptop.
As for general and gaming performance, with Concept Dali being an ROG product built on the chassis of a Zephyrus G14, we would expect it to keep up with general productivity tasks and a slew of Chrome tabs.
I also would not be shocked if it housed a discrete GPU. While an e-ink display doesn’t necessarily require that extra graphics power, the Zephyrus G14 is known as a high-end gaming platform.
Outlook
Concept Dali is just that, a concept.
But like any concept, if enough people express interest it could end up in our hands at some point in the future. In either case, just knowing you can get an e-ink display with this much color and detail is kind of game-changing. It makes other e-ink dual-screen laptops look like poorly executed prototypes in comparison.
Of course, I’m the type of person who would love to customize my laptop lid. The only thing stopping me from doing it right now is that stickers can be difficult to remove, and making sure they get placed head-on is a painstaking process.
Being able to change my laptop lid design with only a few moments of warmup time would be incredible. I could change the look of my laptop as often as I change hair colors.
