ASUS Project Precog Concept Takes Trends To Ridiculous Heights

ASUS has just driven two of the tech and mobile market's largest hype trains and made them collide with each other. From a different angle, you could say the ASUS Project Precog computer did what Lenovo was perhaps hesitant to do. The device, in a nutshell, is a dual-screen, not exactly foldable, laptop. But more than just having more screens than any laptop, ASUS wants you to know that Precog is also smarter than any laptop you'll find in the market.

AI and dual screens. Only one of those is enough to turn heads but why settle for one when you can do both. That might be the thinking that went behind the creation of this concept device. While it remains to be seen if there is indeed a convergence of those two as ASUS says it does, the Project Precog is already interesting even just on a technical level.

This isn't the first implementation of a dual-screen device (hats off to Kyocera for that) nor is it the first concept for one. It will probably call to mind fond memories and dashed dreams of the Microsoft Courier, though the Precog is far too large to be comfortably used as a notebook replacement. Unless you happen to like carrying large notebooks around.

The Precog's real appeal is that you can have the two screens act as a seamless entity, just as you would expect that a laptop keyboard and touchpad are connected to the laptop's screen. That second screen can function as a second display when an external keyboard is attached or as a laptop keyboard when there is none.

It's not simply a second display, though, ASUS would remind. It's a smart one. For example, it would know automatically to display a keyboard if an external keyboard isn't present or has been removed. Likewise, it will display a touchpad when the mouse is gone. Even the keyboard layout adjusts to be more forgiving of your typing mistakes. And you can do one thing on the main screen while doing something else on the other, like waiting for Cortana or Alexa to do their jobs.

There's probably a good reason it's still considered a concept device, though an already working one. Impressive as it may seem, it's uncertain whether something like this will actually sell, especially considering it will most likely have a high price tag. But, like many concept products, it could simply be a launchpad for ASUS' continuing Search for Incredible.