Asus thinks laptop trackpads should be touchscreen displays

The touchpad has always been a differentiating factor for laptops around the world. Lenovo’s glass touchpads on the Carbon series make it a business-class favourite, while Apple employed tried to differentiate using its Force Touch technology on the trackpad. Yet, touchpads/trackpads haven’t evolved a lot over the years.

That’s changing today, as Asus unveils its newest laptop, the Zenbook Pro series. The trackpad on this is called the Screenpad and Asus hopes it’s going to be a revelation for the market at large. It’s basically a 5.5-inch touchscreen display with a matte finish that can be used for various purposes.

(Asus Zenbook Pro)

Asus’ software allows you to use the Screenpad as a regular trackpad, a second screen or an extended display. Instead of metal, aluminium or anything else, it’s an actual display. You can use it as a trackpad when required, or have shortcuts there.

(Shortcuts on the trackpad)

For instance, in Windows apps like Microsoft Powerpoint, the screen will show you shortcuts for text, objects and more. You can quickly save a presentation by touching the save button on the Screenpad, or add text etc. It feels like a solution similar to Apple’s Touchbar, and though it’s just as gimmicky, it does feel more useful.

(Video on the trackpad)

Of course, Asus will have to work hard to get third party support here. The Screenpad can open apps on the main screen. However, while the latency between touching an app’s icon on the Screenpad and the same being launched on the main screen is low for native Windows apps, Chrome shows a noticeable lag. If the Screenpad is to become a thing, Asus has to get a hang of this.

The 15-inch Zenbook Pro has an 8th generation Intel Core i9 processor and the Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti GPU. You can get up to a 1TB SSD and of course, the Screenpad itself. Asus hasn’t yet revealed when the laptops will be sold from, but they should arrive in global markets soon enough.