After several months of waiting, Asus has finally launched its new Zenbook 17 Fold OLED laptop. The latter is quite special, since as its name suggests, the screen is able to bend in its center.
Originally, Asus unveiled its Zenbook 17 Fold OLED at CES 2022 in Las Vegas in January, but it ultimately took several months to hear from it. This unusual 17.3-inch laptop reminds us a lot of Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 that was launched in 2019.
Indeed, the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED stands out from the competition thanks to its gigantic foldable screen, which allows the computer to close in two equal parts. As much laptop as tablet, the new device from Asus will allow users toadapt its format according to their use.
What technical characteristics for the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED?
Despite its particular format, the Asus Zenbook 17 Fold OLED offers us a rather interesting technical sheet. His 17.3-inch 4:3 touchscreen 2.5K OLED 60Hz with a definition of 2560 x 1920 pixels may fold into two equal 12.5 inch pieces. Its foldable aspect does not make it a bad screen, since we find a maximum brightness of 500nitssupport at 100% of DCI-P3HDR and Dolby Vision or even a response time of 0.2 ms. According to Asus, the screen would “only” support 30,000 openings and closingsfar from the 200,000 folds provided by the Galaxy Z Fold 4. However, this still allows you to use it on average 6 times a day for 9 years.
The power is also there. The PC is powered by a processor Intel Core i7-1250U, 16GB 5200MHz LPDDR5 RAM and 1 TB of storage. For the GPU part, no discrete graphics card, the computer relies on theIntel Iris Xe. The Asus Zenbook 17 Fold OLED is powered by a 75Wh battery sufficient to ensure a day’s autonomy. Inevitably, the computer will be much more enduring when it is folded than when the whole screen is used. Asus promises up to 9.5 hours in 12.5-inch laptop mode, and up to 8.5 hours in 17.3-inch desktop mode.
We will find four Harman Kardon speakers Dolby Atmos certified. The computer can also count on a 5 MP webcam, an infrared sensor and an ambient light sensor.
On the connectivity side, the laptop PC offers WiFi 6Ethe Bluetooth 5.2 and two USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports compatible with 65 W fast charging as well as a 3.5mm jack. Everything is finally contained in a fairly compact device, which weighs only 1.5 kg without keyboard, and 1.8 kg with keyboard.
The Zenbook 17 Fold OLED comes with a separate keyboard
Unlike most laptops, the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED does not offer an integrated keyboard, since its entire surface is occupied by a screen. Although possible to bring up a virtual keyboard when folded in half, ASUS provides a physical Bluetooth keyboard with a touchpad that you can attach directly to the screenor you can simply place it on your desk to take advantage of the full 17.3-inch screen.
Asus offers several ways to use your computer. We find the desktop mode, where the screen is unfolded in landscape with the keyboard placed in front, a laptop mode where it is possible to magnetically attach the keyboard to the lower half of the screen, a tablet mode, a support mode reading or viewing (screen folded with the keyboard detached) and finally a widescreen mode (Windows 11 with portrait orientation).
Price and availability
In its press release, Asus unsurprisingly confirms that the price of the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED will be high. The laptop will be offered from 3999 euros in France. However, we will have to wait a few more weeks before seeing it arrive at our house. Asus announces thatit will be available worldwide in the fourth quarterwithout giving a precise launch date.
The possibilities of using the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED could well revolutionize the use we have of a traditional laptop, and we can’t wait to try such a device for ourselves.