KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 1 ― Foldable devices have so far been mostly limited to smartphones that fold out into a tablet like the Galaxy Z Fold 4, or smartphones that fold down into a small square like the Galaxy Z Flip 4, but Asus wants to go even bigger than that. First announced during CES 2022, Asus has now officially revealed the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED, a giant touchscreen tablet that can be folded down to a 12.5-inch ‘laptop’.
Now I know what you’re thinking: isn’t every laptop a ‘foldable’? But jokes aside, the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED is essentially a 17.3-inch, tablet with a 2560 x 1920p OLED display in a 4:3 aspect ratio, that can be folded down to two halves, each a 1920 x 1280p display in a 3:2 aspect ratio. The panel itself is capable of 350nits of brightness, and features Pantone Validated colour accuracy covering 100 per cent of the DCI-P3 colour gamut, as well as supporting Dolby Vision.
The hinge that splits the display meanwhile has apparently been tested by Asus to meet the MIL-STD-810H military standard for durability and reliability, with Asus going as far has torture-testing it, ensuring that the hinge will be able to last at least 30,000 open-and-close cycles. This means that, assuming you open and close the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED six times a day, the hinge will last approximately nine years. The stepless hinge will also be able to hold the upper half of the display at any angle for easy use as a 12.5-inch laptop.
Under the hood meanwhile the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED will come with a 12th Gen Intel Core i7-1250U processor, mated to 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and a 1TB SSD too. In case you didn’t know, these 12th Gen Intel U-series chips basically mean that it’ll run at a lower 15W TDP than P-series chips, but should generate less heat and use less power. It also comes with Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics. The Zenbook 17 Fold OLED will also come with Windows 11 Home out of the box.
Powering the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED is a 75Wh battery with USB-C Easy Charge, allowing it to also be charged by a USB-C power bank or any other Power Delivery charger when you don’t have the bundled 65W charger with you. Elsewhere, you’ll also find a 5MP camera with IR functionality, a quad speaker setup with Dolby Atmos and Smart Amp, as well as WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity. As for I/O, you get two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports and a 3.5mm audio jack.
Another thing worth noting is that, because there’s no actual physical keyboard on the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED, the device comes with the Asus ErgoSense Bluetooth keyboard and touchpad. It has a full size 19.05mm key pitch and a 1.4mm travel on the keys themselves, with Asus calling it their best laptop keyboard ever. Alternatively, you can always pull up the on-screen keyboard too. The Zenbook 17 Fold OLED weighs just 1.5kg without the keyboard, while with the keyboard it weighs 1.8kg.
The Asus Zenbook 17 Fold OLED will be available in Malaysia by the end of the year, and will be priced at an eye-watering RM14,999. For more information about the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED, you can check out its product page here. ― SoyaCincau
