At CES 2020, Intel showcased its Tiger Lake hardware with an interesting 'Horseshoe Bend' 17-inch foldable laptop. Fast forward two years and ASUS has taken the concept and run with it to create what it says is the "World's first 17.3" foldable OLED laptop. The ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold OLED has a variety of features, including Intel's 'latest' processor, up to 16 GB of LPDDR5 memory, and a 17.3" foldable OLED touchscreen display capable of supporting resolutions of up to 2560 x 1920 across two panels.
Although the ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold OLED isn't the first foldable laptop on the market, it's undoubtedly the largest of the bunch. This includes either as a laptop, a tablet, or book and extend, with a seamless foldable 180° hinge in the middle that splits the large 17.3" 4:3 2.5k pixel touchscreen panel into two 12.5" 3:2 1080p screens. The bottom panel also includes an on-screen keyboard meaning it can be used without the ErgoSense Bluetooth keyboard and touchpad. It offers a variety of different and usable modes.
The ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold OLED in 'Book' mode
Powering the 17 Fold OLED is a 75 Wh lithium-polymer battery. Focusing more on the screen, the 17.3" OLED panel has a full touchscreen display, a 100% DCI-P3 color gamut with Pantone verification, and an HD IR 5 Megapixel webcam built-in. IO is on the light side, with just one Thunderbolt 4 Type-C port that supports external displays and one 3.5 audio combo jack.
The rear panel of the ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold OLED
When folded, it has a footprint of 287.6 x 189.3 x 17.4 mm (HxWxD), while unfolded, it is even more slimline, with dimensions of 378.5 x 287.6 x 8.7 mm (HxWxD). The ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold OLED weighs just 3.75 lb without the ErgoSense keyboard and 4.39 lb when using it.
Looking at the specifications, ASUS hasn't stated which Intel Alder Lake mobile chip it will use, but it indicated that it'd be a Core i7 U-Series processor. The ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold OLED will include Wi-FI 6E and BT 5.2 connectivity, with four Harman Kardon certified speakers supported by Dolby Atmos for a more immersive audio experience. For storage, there's 1TB of PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2, while there's support for up to 16 GB of LPDDR5 memory.
ASUS has said that the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED will be available sometime in Q2 2022, although it didn't provide any pricing information.
Gallery: CES 2022: ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold OLED, 17 Inch Foldable With Thunderbolt 4
Source: ASUS
