Asus Zenbook 17 Fold OLED Review

Folding smartphones have arguably begun the transition from novelties to real products. Are PCs set for the same path? Following Lenovo's 13.3-inch ThinkPad X1 Fold from late 2020, Asus has introduced the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED ($3,499.99), a folding-screen convertible with built-in kickstand and wireless keyboard. The design delivers versatile mode options for different workflows, and the 17.3-inch display is big enough to divide into two smaller screens that are still large enough to be useful. Like Samsung's $1,800 Galaxy Z Fold 4, the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED is painfully expensive, and its Intel Core i7-1250U processor is much weaker than you'd normally get in a laptop at this price, putting it about as far from a value recommendation as possible. Wealthy early adopters may take the plunge, but everyone else will mostly find it an admirable engineering exercise that represents a first step toward making similar technology more accessible in the future.

This Folding Display Is a Rare First

While the Asus is the second foldable Windows PC to come across our test bench, the fact that it upsizes basically everything limits direct comparison to the Lenovo X1 Fold. I couldn't help but feel drawn to the device after years of laptops that mostly look and behave the same way—it's an exciting addition to the market, even if its price (and one or two possible kinks) will prevent mass adoption for the time being. The first time you fold the giant screen in two, it feels as if the future has arrived, though I suspect I'd be less enthusiastic if I'd paid for the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED instead of getting a review loan. Let's examine what it is before showing how its layout can be useful.

The Fold is basically a 17.3-inch OLED tablet with a center crease or folding point that creates two smaller 12.5-inch screens. Some of the panel is lost or sacrificed to the crease, but more on how Windows and the Asus handle that in a moment. The display itself appears to be a fairly soft plastic sheet on top of a normal OLED panel, with a sheen to match. It's glossy enough to reflect much more background light than a standard laptop screen, and also takes fingerprints very easily.

(Credit: Kyle Cobian)

The device measures 0.46 by 11.3 by 14.9 inches (HWD) when laid flat and 1.25 by 11.3 by 7.5 inches when folded. It weighs just 3.31 pounds, making it one of the easiest ways to get a 17-inch screen into your bag or briefcase for travel. The folded footprint is much smaller than a full-sized laptop, though it's not quite the lightest system in its class as the LG Gram 17 is a featherweight 2.98 pounds.

(Credit: Kyle Cobian)

The chassis is made of magnesium alloy, lending the frame a high-quality heft and feel, though the screen borders are plastic. You may have noticed what looks like a cover on the rear that's in fact attached to the chassis. It's a leather cover and kickstand in one, allowing you to make use of different layouts or operating modes when folding the display; more on this a bit later. (Also, a sheen from ambient light in the room reflects off the Zenbook logo on the rear cover, adding a cool glowing-light effect, as you can see in these pictures.)

(Credit: Kyle Cobian)

If being foldable wasn't impressive enough, the panel boasts OLED technology for higher contrast and more brilliant colors than most laptops' IPS. The touch screen is of course the main attraction of the product, and Asus hasn't skimped on it. It has a 4:3 aspect ratio with what Asus calls 2.5K resolution (2,560 by 1,920 pixels), and is a pleasure to view with sharp details, vibrant colors, and ultra-deep blacks.

The panel can fold thanks to a hidden hinge in the center, which (as shown to me by Asus in a deconstructed version) features some sliding parts that prevent pulling or tearing of the screen itself when you flex or fold it. When the screen is fully flat and light hits it at the right angle, you can see a bit of a crease or dimple where the hinge runs in the center.

(Credit: Kyle Cobian)

The hinge isn't too distracting—the indentation is unavoidable and better than the solid separator seen on some folding smartphones—but it is noticeable. Asus rates it for opening and closing over 30,000 times, though I don't blame you for any concern about the device's lifespan; with a folding screen and more moving parts than a standard clamshell or 360-degree convertible laptop hinge, it's hard not to worry that the display might warp, loosen, or otherwise break somewhere down the line.

(Credit: Kyle Cobian)

That said, it's satisfying and easy to use in the present. There's a bit of resistance as you push or pull the screen up or down, but in a way that feels sturdy and smooth rather than rough and tumble; raising or lowering the display feels steady relative to your pressure. You will, however, want to use both hands and hold the other side firmly as you close or open the panel to counterbalance the resistance.

That’s how the Zenbook 17 Fold works, but what can the transforming display do for you? Let's see how it handles.

Into The Fold: Multiple Modes, and a Wireless Keyboard

The default use case for the Zenbook Fold is probably what we'll call laptop mode, with one side lying on a desk or table and the other tilted up at a roughly 90-degree angle facing you. Of course, the big difference is that where you'd normally find a keyboard and touchpad there's a second face-up display. That gives you a load of screen real estate, and you can still use a virtual keyboard or wireless mouse to control the two screens—a potential boon for productivity on the go.

(Credit: Kyle Cobian)

Ultimately, it's still difficult to replicate the usefulness of a real keyboard with a touch screen, but fortunately a Bluetooth wireless keyboard is included. This unlocks the full capability of the Zenbook Fold device as a productive laptop replacement and can be used in a few ways—most obviously, putting it on your lap or desk to control the dual 12.5-inch screens.

This can be a bit awkward since one of the displays is pointed straight up at the ceiling; you'll need to be seated pretty close to see and make use of it. The real wow moment comes when you place the keyboard on top of the bottom display. Not only does this turn the setup into a traditional if small laptop setup, but Windows automatically shuts off the lower screen, shifting the taskbar and all your app windows to the upper display.

(Credit: Kyle Cobian)

It's a smart, intuitive solution that works well. If you want the functionality of a standard laptop with this device, this is the way to go. Of course, there are many easier and more affordable ways to get a traditional laptop, but those lack the flexibility of the Zenbook Fold's other modes.

This is where the kickstand comes into play. The rear case can be propped open to support one of the most useful layouts, which we'll call desktop mode—the full 17.3-inch display in landscape orientation, held up by the kickstand facing you. Place the wireless keyboard in front and you have a full desktop setup that can be packed and transported with ease.

(Credit: Kyle Cobian)

You can also use the Fold like a giant book, half-folding the screen and holding it with the “spine” vertical. It makes for a decent e-reader and works for formatting page layouts, but in my experience proved a bit unwieldy to hold or use for more than a few minutes. Finally, laying the Asus flat on the table makes it a giant tablet, but your uses for this will vary; you can of course pick it up and hold it while seated for viewing media or browsing the web, but I have a hard time thinking of many work scenarios for it.

That's especially true because there is no official stylus support for this device. Asus is wary of scratching the relatively soft screen, so there's no stylus pen included, and the company doesn't recommend trying a third-party stylus. Not all pens are sure to scratch the display, at least not with brief use, but considering use over time and to avoid a gray area Asus officially says you use a stylus at your own risk. Soft-tipped domed rubber styluses may be all right, but are difficult for the same uses as a pen. Without one, the tablet mode isn't useful for much except media viewing.

(Credit: Kyle Cobian)

When you're ready to take the Fold with you, you can place the keyboard over half of the display. Because of the wedge shape of the clamshell, the keyboard will fill the empty space when you close the device, making a portable stack.

I was unimpressed with the keyboard's Bluetooth connection. The wireless technology is notoriously finicky, so I'm reluctant to judge our test unit too harshly, but I needed to reconnect the keyboard most times after the computer turned off or went to sleep. This is frustrating and counter to the fluidity of the design. Even connecting it the first time took more attempts than it should have.

What's my takeaway from trying the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED in all of these modes? Its versatility is impressive, though I think users' individual mileage will vary as far how useful each mode is for their personal workflows. Like the ThinkPad X1 Fold, it's extremely cool to mess around with, and the larger screen and keyboard allows some legitimately helpful use cases, but it's hard not to think of it as a novelty or proof of concept.

(Credit: Kyle Cobian)

After looking at the Zenbook Fold as a unique entity, how does it stack up as a regular Windows laptop? Asus offers only a single $3,499.99 configuration, so let's run down the details.

Components and Connectivity

The Zenbook 17 Fold OLED combines a Core i7-1250U processor (two Performance cores, eight Efficient cores, 12 threads) with 16GB of memory and a 1TB solid-state drive. Intel's Iris Xe integrated graphics fill in for a discrete GPU. Even more than most laptops, the system isn't easy to open or upgrade, though Asus says it is possible to replace the SSD with effort.

While these components are understandable considering the form factor, they're unimpressive for the Asus' price. Settling for one of Intel's 15-watt U-series CPUs in a $3,500 laptop is so unusual as to be shocking, especially since its size and novelty set the Fold apart from ultraportables built for extra-long battery life.

(Credit: Kyle Cobian)

Clearly, much of the Zenbook Fold's price goes into design and development rather than a workstation-grade CPU or a gaming-class GPU. Besides having the cash, you must desire this device for the possibilities offered by its form factor, not for its raw performance.

(Credit: Kyle Cobian)

Physical connectivity is limited to two USB-C ports on the upper left corner and the right side, both of which support Thunderbolt 4. (Either accommodates the AC adapter.) Don't look for an HDMI monitor connector or USB Type-A port. The Fold also includes Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, and a 720p webcam that produces decent video quality—not among the best we've seen, but better than other 720p cameras.

Testing the Zenbook Fold 17 OLED: Know When to Fold ‘Em

At the risk of stating the obvious, the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED has no direct competitors. For our performance benchmark comparisons, therefore, we chose a mix of laptops that combine a variety of the Fold's assets. The HP Pavilion Plus 14 is a lightweight OLED laptop with a superior CPU and a substantially lower price. The HP Spectre x360 13.5 is a premium convertible with a similar CPU. The abovementioned LG Gram 17 is an easy-to-carry big-screen notebook. Finally, the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 is an exotic gaming laptop that matches the Fold's price and its dual-screen design, while offering much more potent components that make it a sure bet to win most of our tests. You can see the contenders' basic specs in the table below.

Productivity Tests

The main benchmark of UL's PCMark 10 simulates a variety of real-world productivity and content-creation workflows to measure overall performance for office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheeting, web browsing, and videoconferencing. We also run PCMark 10's Full System Drive test to assess the load time and throughput of a laptop's storage.

Three further benchmarks focus on the CPU, using all available cores and threads, to rate a PC's suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon's Cinebench R23 uses that company's Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene, while Primate Labs' Geekbench 5.4 Pro simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning. Finally, we use the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to convert a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution (lower times are better).

Our final productivity test is workstation maker Puget Systems' PugetBench for Photoshop, which uses the Creative Cloud version 22 of Adobe's famous image editor to rate a PC's performance for content creation and multimedia applications. It's an automated extension that executes a variety of general and GPU-accelerated Photoshop tasks ranging from opening, rotating, resizing, and saving an image to applying masks, gradient fills, and filters.

The Fold is quick enough to handle your everyday needs and moderate office work (it easily cleared the 4,000 points in PCMark 10 that indicate excellent productivity for Microsoft Office or Google Workspace), but it brought up the rear in this group. Not all of these systems are ready for digital media editing or content creation, but the Fold is the least suited for such jobs. It's a shame, since its large, high-quality OLED screen will tempt creative users, but the Zenbook Fold is no kind of workstation.

Graphics and Gaming Tests

We test Windows PCs' graphics with two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL's 3DMark: Night Raid (more modest, suitable for laptops with integrated graphics) and Time Spy (more demanding, suitable for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs). Two more tests from GFXBench 5.0 exercise OpenGL operations, performed offscreen to allow for different display resolutions.

As expected, the ROG Zephyrus Duo's high-end Nvidia GeForce GPU made mincemeat of its rivals' lowly integrated graphics. The Zenbook Fold proved itself totally unsuited for gaming (except for the least demanding casual or browser-based games) or 3D tasks like computer-aided design or CGI rendering, also as expected.

Battery and Display Tests

We test laptops' battery life by playing a locally stored 720p video file (the open-source Blender short Tears of Steel) with display brightness at 50% and audio volume at 100% until the system quits. We make sure the battery is fully charged before the test, with Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting turned off.

We also use a Datacolor SpyderX Elite monitor calibration sensor and its Windows software to measure a laptop screen's color saturation—what percentage of the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 color gamuts or palettes the display can show—and its 50% and peak brightness in nits (candelas per square meter).

The Zenbook Fold's battery life is a plus, easily enough to get you through a full day of work or school or most business flights plus a bit of work at your hotel. This device begs to be taken on the go, so it's essential that you won't always be looking for an AC outlet. All these laptops' displays are well above average, with strong color coverage and good brightness; the Fold's 321 nits isn't sky-high compared to the 400-plus we hope to see from IPS panels, but its OLED technology makes up for it.

Verdict: Folding Into a Vision of the Future

The Asus Zenbook 17 Fold OLED mostly accomplishes what it sets out to do, resulting in an impressive folding tablet that can function as a real laptop. There are some caveats, however: The price seems frankly exorbitant, especially considering the performance you can get from a mobile workstation or gaming laptop for the same cost (or even an ultraportable for a lower cost). The Fold falls well short of an Editors' Choice recommendation, though its innovation earns it an extra half star above the 3-star rating we'd otherwise give it. But viewed as a proof of concept for future, hopefully more affordable and accessible devices, the Zenbook Fold is undeniably cool. We're glad it exists.