SZBOX launches 16-inch dual-screen laptops with Intel Alder Lake-H / P CPUs starting at just $710

Dual-screen laptops have been a thing for a few years now, but the technology is still quite expensive for it to break into the more mainstream channels, at least in the Western markets. This, however, is not the case for the SEA markets anymore, as a relatively new Chinese company called SZBOX is already offering 16-inch dual-screen laptops starting at just above $700. The company even has variants with 64 GB RAM priced under $1,000 and all these are available worldwide via Aliexpress.

In order to lower the production costs to such degrees, SZBOX obviously had to sacrifice some features. The Alder Lake i5-12450H and i7-1260P CPU options are not exactly last gen, but they still offer decent performance. Additionally, the SZBOX DS16 laptops do not feature any physical keyboard, as the lower touchscreen can turn into a virtual keyboard. Other notable minuses include wireless connectivity limited to Wi-Fi 5 & BT 4.2, RAM limited to DDR4-3200 speeds and a port selection that is missing future proofing with only 3x USB-A 3.0, 1x USB-C, HDMI video out, audio and GbE jacks.

Since it integrates 2 screens on top of the usual slim chassis, the DS16 laptop has a slightly thicker profile of 1.2 inches (31 mm) and weighs 6.17 lbs (2.8 kg). Unfortunately, the 57.76 Wh battery might not be able to provide more than a few hours of power for the dual-screen setup. Speaking of the touchscreens, these integrate 1920 x 1200 IPS panels and offer good color reproduction with 100% sRGB. Other specs are not mentioned, and given the lower prices, a 60 Hz refresh rate and relatively low brightness could be likely. A 1 MP webcam and dual 1 W speakers are also provided.

The default configurations include either the 8-core / 12-thread i5-12450H or the 12-core / 16-thread i7-1260P CPU, 16 GB DDR4-3200 RAM and 512 GB NVMe SSDs. Price difference between these two configurations is small, as the i5 costs $710 and the i7 $750. SZBOX is offering 32 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD as well. Surprisingly enough, the 64 GB RAM + 2 TB SSD variants are only ~$200 more expensive than the base configurations, with the i5 costing $935 and the i7 $983 in this case. All the variants are available for purchase from the official SZBOX store on Aliexpress. Prices mentioned above only apply to US orders. EU orders cost ~$100 more for each variant.