CES 2022: Asus brings 17.3-inch foldable notebook with keyboard

The first foldable laptop was launched at the end of 2020. It is the 13.3-inch Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold. It now has competition from a larger 17.3-inch foldable notebook from Asus: the "Zenbook 17 Fold OLED" with an HDR-500 OLED foldable screen calibrated for movie and series junkies. The touch display offers 2560 x 1920 pixels in a 4:3 format. For frequent writers, the tablet turns into a notebook thanks to an external Bluetooth keyboard.

The device can be opened and closed up to 30,000 times without damaging the hinge or display. In operation, it can be used hybrid and offers a Windows 11 experience that can be done in a variety of ways.

PC mode with 17.3-inch display

In PC mode you benefit from a large display area, which can never go wrong when working. This mode is of course also perfect for watching movies.

Laptop mode with 12.5-inch display

Half-opened, the device becomes a notebook. The external keyboard can be placed directly on the lower part of the display. You get a 12.5-inch notebook with a resolution of 1920 x 1280 pixels.

Laptop mode with on-screen keyboard or second screen

Of course, the Foldable can also be used with an on-screen keyboard. Or you put the keyboard in front of it and use the lower display part as a second screen.

Tablet mode

Used as a classic tablet, the Zenbook is comparatively huge.

Book mode

The book mode, whatever its advantages, also exists. Are there art picture books as e-books?

The back of the device looks like this:

And closed:

What's inside and when is it coming?

An Intel Core i7-1250U is at work inside the "Zenbook 17 Fold OLED". The system-on-a-chip (SoC) offers an integrated Iris Xe Graphics and the CPU clocks from 1.1 to 4.7 GHz (2 P- and 8 E-cores). On the side are 16 GB LPDDR5 SDRAM and a 1 TB SSD (M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0).

Two Thunderbolt 4 ports provide fast connections to external displays or peripherals with Display/Power Delivery. A 3.5 mm combo audio jack is also available. In addition, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 provide even more connectivity. The Bluetooth keyboard offers a key travel of 1.4 millimeters and has an integrated touchpad.

Those who want to enjoy music or movie sound directly on the device get a Dolby Atmos certified speaker system with four speakers. A 5 MP camera and an array microphone are included for video telephony. The camera also has an infrared function to unlock the device via Windows Hello Camera.

The 17.3-inch foldable touch display with 2560 x 1920 pixels is glossy and has a response time of 0.2 milliseconds. It relies on OLED technology, which is known for particularly beautiful black levels and rich colors. It is 100% calibrated for the DCI-P3 color space, which is important for movies, and is Pantone-validated. Furthermore, it is also certified for HDR True Black 500. This means that the brightness peak for movies can be up to 500 nits for a short time and videos in the corresponding format get a better brightness gradation including truly black. In normal use, the display's brightness offers a peak of 350 nits.

The Foldable has a choice of Windows 11 Home or Pro, and it packs a 75 Wh battery. It measures 37.85 x 28.76 x 0.87-1.17 centimeters when unfolded and weighs 1.65 kilograms - if you carry it around including the Bluetooth keyboard, it's around two kilograms.

The foldable Zenbook will be available in mid-2022, but a price is not yet known.