A Foldable Laptop for all occasions

Asus Zenbook 17 Fold OLED Review: the future of laptop evolution

The Zenbook 17 Fold OLED is a very interesting device. The hybrid laptop is built with a folding 17.3-inch 2560 x 1920 pixel OLED display with a 4:3 aspect ratio when you fully open it and when you unfold it, it has its own kickstand and works as a full display when you combine with a Bluetooth keyboard.

Ultimately, the name of the game with the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED is ultra-portability with a ground-breaking form factor.

Design

The Zenbook 17 Fold OLED is designed for versatility. There are multiple usage scenarios for different workflows, which are the reader, desktop, and tablet modes. You can use the kickstand to make the display turn into a proper desktop solution, or a make it like a giant book so it becomes an e-reader and of course the final tablet form for watching things and when you're done, you can nicely pack and take it with you and that’s the value in portability.

The design itself gives you a lot of screen room to work with. You can either use the virtual keyboard or the Bluetooth one, making this a machine that ticks both productivity and portability boxes. It's a very smart solution that gives you more to do with your laptop and the versatility of the number of ways to use this is the Zenbook's unique selling proposition.

Display

The Fold is a touchscreen-enabled 17.3-inch OLED tablet with a crease in the centre that creates two smaller 12.5-inch screens. The 60 Hz display is a soft plastic sheet built on top of the OLED panel and provides up to an 87 per cent screen-to-body ratio. It can push up to 500nits of brightness. It has a weight of 1.8 kilograms with the Bluetooth keyboard, making this among the lighter hybrid devices you can take with you on the go.

Asus integrated this new panel for foldable's with Intel's support and was co-developed with display vendor, BOE. What resulted was a very thin display with 180-degree, precision-engineered hinge. This design was also stress-tested for over 30,000 bend cycles for consumer everyday usage scenarios. The overall chassis body is made of a magnesium alloy and Asus's unique hinge, which prevents pulling and tearing the screen. ASUS this time truly brings the market a seamless design with amazing OLED visuals in a transformative way.

Performance

The Intel Evo-certified Zenbook 17 Fold OLED is powered for effortless multi-tasking by high-performance components including a 12th Gen Intel Core i7-1250U processor, Intel Iris Xe graphics, 16 GB RAM and a 1 TB PCIe SSD.

Given the form factor, these internals mentioned above, handle daily computing tasks with relative ease. It sounds great too. There are Harmon Kardon certified speakers built-in with Dolby Atmos support, something we've seen Asus do consistently and that's built great audio in their machines.

But the battery life is where the Zenbook Fold OLED really shines. It's enough to easily get you through an entire day of use with a 75Whrs lithium-polymer battery for quick charging.

Verdict

The Asus Zenbook 17 Fold OLED is a revolutionary device and Asus has taken charge with creating an entirely new class of laptops. You end up getting this hybrid folding tablet that works in many ways, which is not only a functional full-blown laptop, but also with more emphasis on portability.

It's getting obvious that that's where the future of laptops lies and perhaps for Asus, that future is foldable. The product is now available at major retailers at Dh12,999.