TAIPEI - Taiwanese tech giant Asus unveiled its latest laptops on Tuesday featuring a trackpad that also functions as a secondary touchscreen.

As Taiwan marked the start of Computex, dubbed as the biggest electronics fair in Asia, Asus introduced its latest line of Zenbook Pros which feature a 5.5 inch full HD touchscreen in place of a traditional trackpad.

Dubbed the ScreenPad, Asus said the new feature goes beyond being a mere pointing device on a laptop as it has “functions that can intelligently adapt to match whatever the user is doing.”

Comparisons between the ScreenPad and the Apple MacBook Pro Touch Bar, which replaces the keyboard function keys with a touchscreen strip, may seem inevitable. Both technologies use a second display to interact with a computer.

Asus said the ScreenPad makes it easier and quicker to multitask, as it can be used in several different ways.

Pressing the F6 function key toggles ScreenPad between touchscreen mode and touchpad mode. Dedicated apps run within ScreenPad itself, including Calculator and Music Player.

Users who hate fumbling around with a touchpad or mouse to use the Calculator app on a laptop, will find the ScreenPad helpful. Flipping through your music collection is also a lot easier on the ScreenPad.

The NumKey app turns ScreenPad into a numeric keypad for data entry, while the Screen Extender mode turns it into an extension of the main display for multitasking.

Apps like Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint can also be launched from the ScreenPad with menus and editing controls that change automatically according to the app and task being performed.

You can even watch YouTube videos on the ScreenPad via a Chrome browser extension.

Asus said the ScreenPad would also soon support other apps, with live updates ensuring that ScreenPad is always running the latest version. New apps can be downloaded from the Windows Store.

Specs wise, the 15 inch Zenbook Pro is a powerhouse. It boasts of the latest 8th Generation Intel Core i9 processor, with up to 16GB of high-performance RAM and up to a 1TB SSD.

The top-of the line model also uses an NVIDIA graphics card that’s good enough for hardcore gamers, according to Asus.

The main screen of the 15 inch version of the new Zenbook Pro will also allow touch input.

The PC market has been seeing flat sales in the past few years according to industry tracker IDC, with only the gaming segment seeing positive growth.

Asus hopes that innovations like the ScreenPad will be enticing enough to lure consumers to upgrade to its latest offerings.