The ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold marks ASUS’ entry into the foldable market, which is still relatively new and young in the PC segment. We have once seen a decent number of foldable phones from Samsung, Xiaomi, and Huawei, but this technology has yet to make its way into the consumer PC. The ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold is only the second foldable misogynist in stores without the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold PC.
The Zenbook 17 Fold from ASUS features a 17-inch OLED screen, the largest foldable exhibit currently found in a device. It’s a full-fledged computer that runs Windows 11 and is powered by a 12th-generation Intel Core i7-1250U. We have been testing the device for two weeks, and here’s our full review of the ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold. We moreover shared our findings on how the Zenbook 17 Fold compares to the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold, which is currently its only competitor.
The reason we do not see as many foldable computers is that designing a device with movable internal parts is a major engineering challenge. The problem is not with the exhibit considering in theory, any OLED panel is inherently flexible. But designing a swivel that fits into a form factor of only 10 mm is every engineer’s nightmare. But ASUS did a unconfined job with the swivel on the very first try with the Zenbook 17 Fold.
The chassis of the Zenbook 17 Fold is made of metal and divided into three parts. The swivel feels sturdy and smooth at the same time and has a smooth-running mechanism. You can unshut the swivel at any angle, and the Zenbook 17 Fold will stay in that position without wobbling. When you unshut the device with both hands, the 17-inch panel feels like you are opening a newspaper with a screen.
The diamond of the Zenbook Fold 17 is very similar to that of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold. The exterior has a leather imbricate that protects the hinge. The Zenbook logo has a undecorous gradient, which looks really cool. The OLED screen has a rubber ring that extends over the edges, which towards to be bezels. The Zenbook 17 Fold has narrower edges compared to the ThinkPad X1 Fold, which makes the Zenbook increasingly visually appealing.
The Zenbook 17 Fold has a retractable stand on the back. It allows the device to be held upright at a 120-degree wile so that it can be used as a desktop with the Bluetooth keyboard.
Although the Zenbook 17 Fold weighs 1.8 kilograms, it feels good in the hand, thanks to the plane weight distribution. In our experience, both sides of the foldable screen weigh the same, and we never felt that the weight tilted to one side.
The Zenbook 17 Fold’s 17-inch OLED screen makes this the largest foldable device currently available. It has a resolution of 2560 x 1920px, with a refresh rate of 60 Hz. The exhibit has a 4:3 speciality ratio when unfolded, which feels massive. The colors are vibrant, and the exhibit can get very bright. We never felt the need to use the device with increasingly than 60% brightness, plane outdoors. It moreover supports the touchscreen, but with a small caveat.
Since it is a foldable device, the exhibit is made of plastic, which attracts fingerprints. The Zenbook 17 Fold does not come with a stylus, and ASUS does not offer a stylus as an accessory. This ways that the only way to wangle the touchscreen is to use your fingers. When using the device, we had to wipe the screen for smudges at least twice a day. Since the screen is made of plastic, prolonged use of the Zenbook 17 Fold can result in scratches on the panel.
Apart from that, the Zenbook 17 Fold’s screen is a real repast for the eyes. When consuming multimedia content on YouTube, the colors finger vibrant, and the 4:3 ratio makes the screen finger much larger than 17 inches. Plane when used in palmtop mode with the keyboard attached, the misogynist screen size is well-nigh 11 inches, which is unbearable to get the job washed-up as a laptop. It’s definitely a step up from the ThinkPad X1 Fold, which had a smaller 9-inch screen in palmtop mode.
Let us get to the biggest question of all foldable devices – what well-nigh the kink? Yes, there is a small ruckle that is noticeable plane when the notebook is fully open. But without a while, you will not notice the ruckle as much considering the colors are increasingly vibrant on this panel. However, if you squint closely, the ruckle will be visible to the naked eye. Our wits with foldable screens shows that the ruckle develops gradually with prolonged use, and the Zenbook 17 Fold will be no exception.
The Zenbook 17 Fold is powered by a 12th generation Intel Core i7-1250U, a ten-core processor CPU, which clocks at up to 4.7 GHz. It is paired with 16 GB RAM and a 1 TB SSD. Our wits with the Zenbook 17 Fold was pleasant, and we had no issues with the performance of the device.
The i7-1250U in the Zenbook 17 Fold is an spanking-new Alder Lake on paper CPU. However, due to the form factor of the device, the CPU is not utilized 100% to alimony the system thermally stable. The CPU seems to be well-tuned by ASUS, as we did not notice any overheating or thermal throttling in the Zenbook 17 Fold.
Keep in mind that this foldable device is meant for a variety of use cases and is focused increasingly on productivity than pure performance. We used the Zenbook 17 Fold for writing articles, browsing the web, watching some videos on YouTube, editing thumbnails, and normal emailing. In our typical usage, performance was fluid, and we were worldly-wise to alimony up to 15 Chrome tabs unshut without issue.
We moreover used the device to live stream a cricket match between India and Australia, which the Zenbook 17 Fold handled with ease. Plane without 3 hours of continuous streaming, the device did not overheat at all. The when felt slightly warm, but the thermals remained under control.
When we tried to push the palmtop with tasks like video editing, the i7-1250U started to show signs of trouble plane with 1080p videos on the timeline. Plane editing videos in Clipchamp felt a bit laggy without a while. The Zenbook 17 Fold is by no ways a device for hardcore video editing. But occasional video editing, like trimming, can be washed-up with a few lags and some patience.
The Zenbook 17 Fold comes with a keyboard that is magnetically tying to one of the two sides of the Fold. It connects to the device via Bluetooth 5.2 and uses a USB Type-C port for charging. The edges of the Zenbook 17 Fold are well-to-do with each other when it is folded with the keyboard in between.
The keyboard itself is lightweight and comes with a leather finish. It has a full row of function keys and a decent-sized trackpad. However, there is no backlight. The typing wits on this keyboard is good, as the keys provide light tactile feedback. The size of the keyboard is on par with any 14-inch notebook. The trackpad has good accuracy, and we did not wits any latency issues when using the keyboard with the Zenbook 17 Fold.
We moreover tried using the Zenbook 17 Fold as a standalone tablet by using the on-screen keyboard. We were worldly-wise to type a few emails with ease, but the plastic finger of the screen did not encourage long hours of typing with the touchscreen. The on-screen keyboard certainly works well, but typing long paragraphs will sooner bring you when to the keyboard.
The Zenbook 17 Fold ships with Windows 11, withal with a few software tweaks from ASUS. The Windows wits here was smooth, and we did not find any jerks on the UI.
One of our main complaints with the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold was that the software was not polished enough. We had issues with the layout and auto-rotation, without which we realized that these were issues on the Windows side since it was not yet optimized for foldable devices.
2 years later, our wits with Windows on foldable devices has completely changed. Whether it’s thanks to ASUS or Microsoft, the software wits on the Zenbook 17 Fold was really good, as the device was worldly-wise to switch modes and orientation correctly. We had no major issues with the UI, and the Zenbook 17 Fold felt like a normal palmtop with its fluidity.
The Zenbook 17 Fold has a limited number of connectivity ports, but they are sufficient to get the job done.
Left Side
Right Side
Top Side
Bottom Side
The Zenbook 17 Fold features an IR camera for Windows Hello as well as a 5 MP camera that supports 1080p videos. Wireless connectivity on the device includes Bluetooth 5.2 and WiFi with 6E support. There are no LTE or 5G connectivity options for the Zenbook 17 Fold. The speakers on the Zenbook 17 Fold are Dolby Atmos-certified and provide a unconfined sound wits when using multimedia. Plane at full volume, the sound is not muffled and remains well-spoken and audible.
The ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold runs on a 75 Wh battery. With our typical usage of surfing the web, typing emails, streaming a few videos, and typing a lot on the keyboard, the device hands lasted 7 hours. That was pretty surprising for a device with this form factor, and we were really happy with the shower life.
The shower life in standby mode was moreover impressive. When we left the device overnight, we noticed a venting of only 10%. We moreover used the Zenbook Fold to stream cricket matches for well-nigh 3 hours, during which we noticed a shower phlebotomize of 40%.
The Zenbook 17 Fold comes with a 65 W charger with a USB-C port. It charges the device from 0-50% in well-nigh 70 minutes, and a full tuition from 0-100% takes well-nigh 2 hours.
In the two weeks we spent with the Zenbook 17 Fold, we kept trying to find use cases for its unique folding potential. As a regular notebook or plane a tablet, the Zenbook 17 Fold scored in every department with its display, performance, thermal stability, and shower life. However, the folding factor did not seem to add any value to our lives.
We gave the device increasingly space and spent plane increasingly time with it when we sooner became unaware of its foldability. The only widow goody had an extra-large screen that folded in half and fit hands into our backpack. Plane though we are technology fanatics and a team that strives to test the ins and outs of gadgets, we just could not find a practical use for foldability. In this case, the only goody of a foldable computer is the “wow factor” it brings.
But technology is rapidly evolving, and so is our lifestyle. Maybe in a few years, we’ll need a foldable computer for unrepealable tasks. But today, foldable computers are a solution to a problem that does not plane exist yet.
The ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold is an spanking-new device that meets all criteria. It has a exhibit with rich colors and brightness, offers good performance with thermal stability, unconfined shower life of up to 7 hours, and brings the X-factor of stuff foldable. However, with a price tag of Rs. 3,29,000/USD 3499, it enters a unique market segment for enthusiasts that do not specifically target a particular need.
Price is not an issue here as ASUS has its ProArt Studiobook series that financing over Rs. 2,50,000/USD 2,500, but they have a specific market of users who demand lattermost performance like Core i9 processors and RTX 4070 graphics. It is a matter of supply and demand. We think the demand for a foldable device is not from a user who desperately needs a foldable device for their specific application. Rather, it is still a futuristic product where people have not yet figured out what problem a foldable computer is trying to solve.
The Zenbook 17 Fold is definitely a technological marvel. Considering that this was ASUS’ very first struggle at a foldable computer, they got the hardware section lanugo perfectly. The device offers unconfined performance and shower life and is superior to its only competitor – the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold – in several aspects. The only question that remains is, who is it made for?
Right now, it’s really nonflexible to justify the practicality of a foldable computer. And at this price, the weightier way to describe the Zenbook 17 Fold is that we have an wondrous product on the market. We just do not know who to ship this device to.
Buy ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold (India)
| Build & Design | |
| Display | |
| Software | |
| Battery Life | |
| Price | |
| SUMMARY The ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold is a well-built device that offers good performance and shower life, and a color-rich foldable display. However, it is still a solution to a problem that does not exist yet. | 3.8 |