Asus Zenbook 17 Fold OLED
Ben Sin
Foldable phones are no longer a niche, but foldable PCs are, and Taiwanese electronics brand Asus is trying to plant its flag in this category. The product is the Asus Zenbook 17 Fold OLED (yes, the name is too long), and it is essentially a large 17.3-inch all-in-one PC that can fold in half.
The 17.3-inch screen can be used as a large desktop computer or a handheld tablet due to its touchscreen capability. But when you fold the display halfway into an L shape, you can place the Zenbook’s companion bluetooth keyboard over the bottom half of the screen and turn it into a small laptop with a 12.5-inch screen.
A 17.3-inch tablet.
Ben Sin
In unfolded form.
Ben
Its appeal should be apparent: the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED can be small enough to use on airplane tray tables or small coffee shop bar counters, a tablet when you’re lounging on the sofa, or a real work station with a 17.3-inch screen .
In 12.5-inch laptop mode.
Ben Sin
Also, a 17-inch display with a boxy 3:2 aspect ratio would normally not be able to fit into most bags. But because this screen can fold in half, the device can fit into the laptop section of my backpack without issues. It is a bit thicker and heavier than usual, at 17.4mm (0.68-inch) when folded and weighing 4lbs with the included keyboard, but it’s still manageable.
As a digital nomad who enjoys typing words out of different coffee shops daily, this machine makes a lot of sense to me—if it were priced lower. This thing retails for a whopping $3,500, which I guess eliminates it from consideration for most consumers.
The keyboard sits on top of half of the display in laptop mode.
Ben Sin
The kickstand is part of the device’s body.
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Still, the device is fully functional, so for those who can spare $3,500, this may be worth a look. The 12th-gen Intel i7 processor paired with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage are good enough for an on-the-go productivity machine, although without a dedicated graphics card, you can only do light gaming on this.
The hinge is sturdy—the device can stay in place mid-fold at any angle—and the screen doesn’t exhibit a crease. Due to the plastic nature of the screen (that’s how it folds), the surface is more reflective than a typical glass screen, and it can make the screen hard to see if the sun (or another light source) hits it at certain angles. But if you’re using this indoors or under shade, the screen looks great.
I can’t overstate how much having a significantly larger 17.3-inch (compared to a typical 13-inch laptop screen) benefits my work style, which typically has Chrome opened with a half dozen tabs, along with Twitter, Spotify, and some documents like a press release or spec sheet. The Windows 11 Pro software running here can easily lock apps into grids that let me display three or four windows at the same time. Doing so on a 13-inch screen would require a lot of squinting to see texts. Not here.
I am also a fan of the thin bluetooth keyboard, which has an excellent 1.7mm of key travel despite its thin build. The trackpad is responsive and precise, too.
The entire kit when folded, with the bluetooth keyboard sandwiched in the middle.
Ben Sin
The only downside (other than the price) is that the battery life is not good. The 67Wh battery here drains at about 15-18% per hour when I’m actively doing work on it. Keep in mind, I’m not even doing true intensive work like editing videos or graphics work, I am just typing words into WordPress on Chrome and scrolling through Twitter.
The Zenbook 17 Fold OLED when closed up.
Ben Sin
A major part of the reason I am not calling this a review is because the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED isn’t really a mass consumer device. It has an exorbitantly high retail price, and even Asus’ marketing reps have conceded this device “isn’t for the masses.” It is instead almost like an experimental proof of concept, a device to show what the future of computing is capable of. The software can also be a bit wonky, with slow orientation rotation and the display showing things across the entire 17.3-inch screen when I am in 12.5-inch laptop mode. But part of this is Microsoft’s fault. Windows is still bad as a tablet. I’d almost certainly enjoy this machine more if it was running Android or Apple’s MacOS or iOS.
But as a piece of hardware, an idea, I am completely sold. I can’t wait until the prices become more manageable, and Microsoft improves Windows.
.