Asus ZenBook 17 Fold Oled test: we tested a laptop with a foldable screen
Asus ZenBook 17 Fold Oled in laptop mode and virtual keyboard. © Digital
Asus has always been a force for innovation, such as the EEE PC, the first Netbook, or the Transformer TF101, a tablet equipped with a removable keyboard that doubles as a second battery. Innovations such as the Transformer Book Duet, which included both Android and Windows and had a detachable keyboard that angered Google and Microsoft and ultimately never appeared, were marked by errors.
That’s why Asus’ latest innovation is the ZenBook 17 Fold Oled. This portable computer with a foldable screen is less innovative than the Transformer series, and as Asus relies on its experience, its pregnancy seems more controlled. Intel is also moving behind the scenes to push these foldable display formats, and the Taiwanese manufacturer isn’t the only company working on it – Lenovo is lurking with a second version of the ThinkPad Fold X1 coming in 2023.
ZenBook 17 Fold Oled is therefore free to try to convince. Small apartment entry: its price is as exclusive as the technology it houses (€3999).
Construction
That’s why ZenBook 17 Fold features a large 17.3-inch OLED display that opens up to turn it into a large Windows tablet. The screen folds down in the middle until the two ends touch. The hinge doesn’t allow the plate to fold completely back on itself, but it does tilt it, leaving a hole big enough to slide a Bluetooth keyboard into. Therefore, the addition of this keyboard allows you to use the ZenBook 17 Fold Oled as a simple 12.5-inch laptop computer with the keyboard placed on the bottom of the plate. Asus has defined no less than 6 uses: a laptop, a laptop with a virtual keyboard, a desktop mode with the screen open and the screen held by a crutch, a keyboard mode, a book mode, a tablet mode, and finally, a laptop mode. keyboard in front of the screen to take advantage of the screen surface. So much for the concept.
Asus Zenbook 17 Fold Oled folds without a keyboard. © Digital
The design mixes glass and imitation leather. Faux leather on the glass on the title and on the hinge, just like the book cover. The kit is well made, but the leather-covered mount reveals too many openings in the hinge to allow dust to slide through. Opening the ZenBook 17 Fold Oled requires both hands, and handling it takes some getting used to orienting it correctly.
The glass part is specially processed to obtain the green-blue reflection. © Digital
The Bluetooth keyboard provides comfortable typing with a large key height. However, it lacks a backlight and a cable for charging. Asus didn’t see fit to provide a USB-C to USB-C cable to charge the keyboard directly to the ZenBook 17 Fold Oled. To charge your ZenBook or keyboard, you’ll have to make do with the single USB-C charger provided. Once installed in laptop mode, a charging system with contact or induction would be welcome.
Although the touchpad is a bit small, it is also pleasant to use. Windows gestures are fully taken into account, there is nothing to complain about in this regard. In terms of use, the keyboard sticks to the edges of the screen made of rubber material. Removing the keyboard automatically expands the screen to the disabled part, and installing it immediately shrinks the screen to the part not covered by the keyboard.
In laptop mode, the lower half of the screen automatically turns off. © Digital
Connectivity is limited to two Thunderbolt 4 ports, which also serve as charging ports; therefore, only one port is available for sedentary use. Asus provides a simple, small USB-C to USB adapter as standard; we wouldn’t say no to a small USB-C hub, so it will have to be purchased as an option.
Wireless connection is provided by wifi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 compatible with the Intel AX211 chip at a speed of 2400 Mb/s.
The keyboard’s USB-C port is for charging only. © Digital
The webcam is equipped with a 5 Mpx sensor, the display of which is much higher than the average for laptops. It also allows you to unlock the session with Windows Hello. However, its orientation does not change depending on the orientation of the ZenBook. So, in tablet or desktop mode, the webcam (the sensor on the left) is in landscape mode, and in laptop PC mode (the sensor at the top of the screen), the webcam is in portrait orientation. Considering the ZenBook 17 Fold Oled’s price, it would be wise to include an image rotation system.
The ZenBook 17 Fold OLED is equipped with a fan to cool the Core i7. Only the part with the components is heated under the eye of our thermal camera. Thus, during encoding, we measure 45.1 ° C almost in the center of the screen. The temperature behind the hood above the faux leather hinge is 43.7°C. The other half of the ZenBook 17 Fold Oled is only the battery, so it stays at room temperature.
Noise pollution is very limited due to a fan that starts only under heavy load. Therefore, it remains stable most of the time. So we recorded 33.7dB in just over 30 minutes of encoding. A particularly low value that allows the ZenBook 17 Fold Oled to go unnoticed even in the library.
The thermal camera allows you to clearly separate the part of the laptop with its components. © Digital
ZenBook 17 Fold Oled seems unremovable by ordinary people. So we did not tempt Satan. However, we were able to capture photos of the ZenBook 17 Fold Oled’s interior during the launch; Note that only the SSD is removable. Asus nevertheless advertises a repairability index of 5.9/10.
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Asus ZenBook 17 Fold Oled: laptop mode with physical keyboard | © Digital
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Performance
The ZenBook 17 Fold Oled is equipped with an Intel Core i7-1250U processor accompanied by 16 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD. This Intel processor is specifically designed for ultra-thin computers. It has a 9-watt thermal envelope driven by a 2-word high-performance hyper-threaded core and an 8-word efficient core.
Performance index (the bigger the better). © Digital
After running all our tests, the ZenBook 17 Fold Oled reaches a performance index of 88. This puts it well ahead of the Huawei MateBook E (56) Core i5-1130G7 and not far behind the LG Gram Core i7- 1260P. (93) — whose processor is limited by a limited thermal envelope.
That’s why the ZenBook 17 Fold is a respectable performance for Oled, especially since it’s mainly designed for office automation. So it will be able to do all the office tasks and sometimes some creative tasks like photo editing or a bit of coding.
Good performance explained by the behavior of Core i7-1250U. So it keeps the P-cores at 2 GHz and the E-cores at 1.5 GHz. The power envelope is also kept at 13.2 watts as permitted by Intel.
The SSD is the Samsung P9MA1, a dedicated 980 Pro version for integrators. Here it reaches 6.87 GB/s in reading and 5.16 GB/s in writing, that is, high performance.
Screen
The Oled panel used by Asus comes from Chinese supplier BOE. It measures 17.3 inches and displays 2560×1920 pixels, 4/3 aspect ratio. After folding, in laptop mode, it displays 1920×1280 pixels in 3/2 format. Asus was careful with the integration, both in terms of curvature and the thickness of the bezels (more than a centimeter), as the borders do not completely fold in on themselves.
The borders are relatively thick. © Digital
Colorimetry under our probe is very accurate. Thus, we measured a Delta E of 1.8, well below the threshold of 3 where colorimetric shifts are visible to the eye. The color temperature is 6772 K, which is much lower than the video standard (6500 K). Contrast is nothing to complain about: blacks are perfect thanks to OLED technology; just like stubbornness, it’s almost non-existent.
Peak brightness is 338 cd/m² and HDR is 402 cd/m². These values are in the middle and do not compensate for the reflection of the panel (reflection 50.2%). They’re also particularly unusable, especially since the curvature of the screen doesn’t make it easy to find the best position to limit reflection.
Audio
The sound system of ZenBook 17 Fold Oled is assigned to 4 speakers distributed on the edge of the screen. A placement that avoids the risk of obstruction.
The holes for the speakers are clearly visible on the outside. © Digital
Listen, the volume is just right, but it won’t be enough to cover the room during the evening. Despite the Dolby Atmos certification, the display is typical for laptop computers, meaning it focuses on the mids and lacks low mids and bass.
The headphone output offers excellent dynamics and limited distortion. The interaction is average and therefore offers decent stereophony. On the other hand, the output level is a bit low, so the use of high-impedance headphones should be avoided.
| Asus ZenBook 17 Fold | Average computers tested | |
|---|---|---|
| Output level | 100mVRMS | 156 mVRMS |
| Distortion + Voice | 0.002% | 0.015% |
| Dynamic range | 108dB | 100dB |
| Encounter | -52dB | -64dB |
Mobility / Autonomy
Overall, this is the downside of the ZenBook 17 Fold Oled. Asus doesn’t show many photos of the folded machine and doesn’t communicate its dimensions in laptop mode. On the official sheet, you should decide on a size of 37.8 x 28.7 cm in tablet mode, 1.29 cm thick with non-slip pads. With the keyboard folded between the screen, the ZenBook 17 Fold Oled measures 28.7 x 18.9 cm for a thickness of 3.4 cm.
The thickness of 3.4 cm is surprising when first folded. © Digital
The weight is also confusing: 1.5 kg without the keyboard; in other words, the weight feels at arm’s length very quickly in tablet or book mode. Carrying it requires an additional 300g for the keyboard and 227g for the 65-watt charger.
Asus only provides one charger for the keyboard and ZenBook. © Digital
A good surprise comes from autonomy. We measured 9 hours 30 minutes in laptop mode and 9 hours 20 minutes in tablet mode (screen 200 cd/m² when reading a Netflix series in the Chrome browser).
The honorable result was possible thanks to the low appetite of the Intel Core i7-1250U processor and the large battery capacity (75 Wh). Asus claims 24 hours of battery life for the keyboard, which we can’t exactly measure, but based on our usage, the estimate seems fair to us.
Asus ZenBook 17 Fold can work in laptop mode for 9 hours and 30 minutes. © Digital
