ASUS has followed in the footsteps of companies like Samsung and Lenovo and has just unveiled its first foldable notebook, the ZenBook 17 Fold. Announced during CES 2022, the novelty promises to deliver a significantly more refined experience than that delivered by competitors in the past, taking advantage of the processing power of the new 12th-generation Intel Alder Lake processors.
ZenBook 17 Fold is ASUS’s first foldable laptop
Equipped with a 17.3-inch OLED screen, the ZenBook 17 Fold is extremely similar to Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Fold, both in concept and features and in design. The device is a kind of tablet with reasonably thin edges, premium finish in metal and fabric that imitates leather, and a removable magnetic keyboard, resembling a small notebook when it’s folded.
Unlike Lenovo’s competitor, however, the novelty brings full-bodied specifications that promise to offer good performance and responsiveness, one of the criticisms made to the ThinkPad at its launch.
Want to catch up on the best tech news of the day? Access and subscribe to our new youtube channel, Kenyannews News. Every day a summary of the main news from the tech world for you!
The recently launched Intel Core i7 1250U is responsible for processing the ASUS machine, bringing 10 cores and 12 threads, with 2 high-performance P-Cores with 4.7 GHz Hyper-Threading and 8 low-power E-Colors at 3.5 GHz.
The solution integrates the 12th generation Alder Lake UP4 series, formerly known as the Y series, specifically focused on low-power devices and extremely compact design. The component has a base consumption of 9 W, but it can be configured to reach 29 W, which, in practice, should mean enough power to deliver good fluidity in everyday tasks.
Up to 16 GB of LPDDR5 RAM, up to 1 TB of SSD M.2 NVMe PCI-E 4.0 storage, 5 MP webcam with infrared sensor for biometrics via Windows Hello and four speakers optimized by Harman/Kardon come with the chip.
There are good range of connections with Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, two Thunderbolt 4 ports and P2 connector for headphones and microphone, plus 75 Wh battery with 65 W fast charging and Windows 11 Pro.
Its biggest highlight is the folding OLED panel, which brings Quad HD resolution of 2560 x 1920 pixels in 4:3 aspect ratio and 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut when it is open in tablet mode, or 12.5 inches with resolution Full HD 1920 x 1280 pixels and 3:2 aspect ratio when half-folded in notebook format.
The ZenBook 17 Fold can be used with gestures, a virtual keyboard that takes up half of the display in laptop mode, or the magnetic Bluetooth keyboard, which attaches to the lower folded part. According to ASUS, the device can be folded up to 30,000 times, a considerably low number considering the 200,000 times Samsung has certified for the Galaxy Z Fold 3.
Price and availability
The ASUS ZenBook 17 Fold hits the market in the North American summer, between the months of June and September, and has not yet had the price announced — the giant has confirmed that, despite the distant launch window, it should announce the prices charged for the novelty already in the next weeks.
