Foldables are becoming a trend right now in the global smartphone market and ASUS is not going to be left behind. The firm has launched its first foldable 17.3-inch laptop, the Asus Zenbook 17 Fold OLED co-developed by ASUS and Intel®.

The laptop is an easy-to-carry 12.5-inch device, smaller than a sheet of A4 -size paper but loaded with a 17.3-inch OLED display that gives users an incredibly immersive visual experience. The Zenbook 17 Fold OLED comes with a Bluetooth keyboard to allow users to use the Fold as a 12.5-inch laptop or a 17.3-inch PC or a tablet.

Design and durability

Users can remove the Bluetooth keyboard and use the laptop’s OLED screen as an interactive pad or connect it to an external monitor via one of its two Thunderbolt™ 4 ports or fold it into laptop mode and use it with a virtual onscreen keyboard on the lower screen. The fold allows users to either use the device as a 17.3-inch tablet or use it as a laptop.

The Asus Zenbook 17 Fold OLED weights 1.5 kg without a keyboard, the ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold OLED fits right into your backpack or handbag. The 17.3-inch OLED touchscreen display, comes with a with 4:3 aspect ratio and 2560 x 1920 resolution plus a 60 Hz refresh rate, and wide coverage of the color gamut with 100% DCI-P3. The display can support up to 500-nit of peak brightness and 0.0005 nits of deep black brightness providing a brighter and more detailed viewing experience for both web content consumption, cinema content or movies.

The ZenBook 17 Fold Notebook is a portable 12.5-inch piece and can be used on transit open space, hotel or cafe. The 17.3-inch screen is good for gaming, media consumption and productivity. The Zenbook’s two Thunderbolt 4 ports can be used for charging or to plug in peripherals. On durability, the ASUS Zenbook is sturdy and can withstand much amount of pressure.

Display and cameras

The ZenBook 17 Fold has a display screen with a 2560 x 1920 FOLED 4:3 aspect ratio, 0.2ms response time, 60Hz refresh rate and 500nits HDR peak brightness. The Display HDR True Black 500, 1.07 billion colors, PANTONE Validated, Glossy display, 70% less harmful blue light.

The Touch screen is a very bright screen and can be used comfortably in a bright room or at night in the dark or under daylight. The OLED panel has all the bright colors and deep blacks and offers bright, high contrast graphics with faster response times, wider viewing angles, and lower power consumption than conventional LCDs and VFDs. OLEDs also offer a variety of colors including green, yellow, blue, white, and full color.

The Zenbook 17 Fold OLED also features 5 5.0M camera with IR function with a 5 MP AI webcam, a HD IR camera for fast face login, and a color sensor for automatic brightness and color temperature control. The cameras can be used for facial login or to detect your presence and automatically logs off when you walk away to reduce battery consumption.

Processor and performance

Powered by a 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i7 U-series processors, and a 16 GB onboard memory, the Zenbook 17 Fold has a 1 TB M.2 SSD and features two Thunderbolt™ 4 ports and a 3.5 mm audio combo jack. The Core i7-1250U, which is part of Intel’s 12th gen processors, combines the power of 2 Performance cores and 8 Efficiency cores (P-core and E-core) for greater performance and responsiveness for heavy loads such as gaming.

The Intel® Core™ i7-1250U processor also brings along support for the higher speeds and bandwidth of LPDDR5 memory, faster connectivity of Intel® Wi-Fi 6E, and reliable Thunderbolt™ 4 ports on a thinner and lighter chassis. It features up to 16 GB capacity and fast 5200 MHz LPDDR5 clock speeds for great processing power.

Each Thunderbolt 4 port can support up to 40 Gbps data bandwidth, DisplayPort, and power delivery allowing anyone to connect to an external 4K display, an external device or storage. It’s USB-C® Easy Charge support promises a wide range of standard USB-C chargers (5V-20V) on the go.

The ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold OLED comes with one of ASUS ErgoSense Bluetooth Keyboard and Touchpad in the package with up to 24 hours battery life. The magnetic keyboard connects wirelessly over Bluetooth

Battery life

With its large 75 watt-hour battery, the Zenbook has enough battery life to last for a day as battery life matters so much to any device in this digital age. Digital nomads need to work around the clock whether they are on vacation or in the office. These also determines the amount of work one needs to do requires extra room for battery which is not always available for mobile devices. However, using the Zenbook 17 Fold for text, video and tablet and PC mode took over 12 hours and can work the entire day on maximum use.

Conclusion

The Zenbook 17 Fold can be used as an ultraportable tablet, portable desktop and laptop with applicable apps for each version. The bigger 17.3-inch screen gives users enough room to consume any type of content, play games or get their professional work done regardless of where they are.

However, at $3,500, the Asus Zenbook 17 Fold is expensive, has several software bugs here and there despite coming preloaded with McAfee® LiveSafe™, has no styles for its tablet version and has no military grade durability despite the fact that its one of the latest in the market. Also because its new, the foldable laptop will need lots of refining to get a mass market foldable laptop.

Key Specs Zenbook 17 Fold OLED (UX9702)

Color: Tech Black

Operating System: Windows 11 Home, Windows 11 Pro for business

Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-1250U Processor 1.1 GHz (12M Cache, up to 4.7 GHz, 2P+8E cores)

Display: 17.3-inch

Memory: 16GB LPDDR5 on board
Total system memory upgradeable to:16GB

Storage: 1TB M.2 NVMe™ PCIe® 4.0 Performance SSD

I/O Ports: 2x Thunderbolt™ 4 supports display / power delivery
1x 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack

Keyboard & Touchpad: Soft Keyboard, 1.4mm Key-travel, Touchpad

Camera: 5.0M camera with IR function

Network: Wi-Fi 6E(802.11ax) (Dual band) 2*2 + Bluetooth® 5

Battery: 75WHrs, 4S1P, 4-cell Li-ion

Power Supply: TYPE-C, 65W AC Adapter, Output: 20V DC, 3.25A, 65W, Input: 100-240V AC 50/60GHz universal

Weight: 1.50 kg (3.31 lbs)

Size (W x D x H): 37.85 x 28.76 x 0.87 ~ 1.29 cm (14.90″ x 11.32″ x 0.34″ ~ 0.51″)