ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold OLED Review: Premium, Feature-Rich Foldable
Our final group of tests with the ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold are focused on battery life, acoustics, and thermal performance and how they may impact the user experience.
ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold OLED Battery Life Testing
Here we're running PCMark's Battery video loop test that runs a 1080p video playback workload in a continuous loop, with the Windows 11 Moves and TV player, until the battery is exhausted. In all tests, Windows Quiet Hours / Focus Assist has been enabled and the displays are calibrated with lux meters on pure white screens to as close to 115 lux as possible. Wi-Fi is left enabled, which we feel is a common use case. However, enabling airplane mode in a travel use case, for example, would provide additional battery life over the results we'll show you here.
The ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold's battery life performance is excellent, likely due to its relatively large battery and OLED display. This system feature a 75Wh battery, which is fairly large for a machine of this type. The OLED display likely plays a huge role as well. OLED displays can shut off black pixels, which ultimately conserves power. And to achieve 115 lux, we were able to turn the brightness way down. Regardless, battery life shouldn't be a concern for most users.
ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold OLED Thermals And Acoustics
We measured the peak acoustic output and external skin temperatures on the ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold while looping the 3DMark Night Raid benchmark, to put a heavy workload on the CPU and CPU. A workload like this would be somewhat of a worst-case scenario for a machine like the Zenbook 17 Fold.
In short, skin temperatures and acoustics are non-issues with the ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold. Under a prolonged load, the systems noise output was barely detectible at close proximity making it an ideal notebook for use in meetings or other times when a noisy fan may be distracting or disruptive. The sound meter was basically registering the ambient noise floor of the room we were testing in.
Skin temps are an interesting proposition with this system as well. Typically skin temps would be measured on or around the keyboard, which is where end users are most likely to feel the heat, but that's not the case with the ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold. The keyboard is a separate Bluetooth device. Maximum heat output ends up being towards the upper right corner of the screen when in laptop mode, so that was where we took the thermal reading. Even still, the skin temp only hit 38.7°C/ 101.7°F, which is impressive and only about 30°F over the ambient room temperature at the time of measurement.
Skin temps are an interesting proposition with this system as well. Typically skin temps would be measured on or around the keyboard, which is where end users are most likely to feel the heat, but that's not the case with the ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold. The keyboard is a separate Bluetooth device. Maximum heat output ends up being towards the upper right corner of the screen when in laptop mode, so that was where we took the thermal reading. Even still, the skin temp only hit 38.7°C/ 101.7°F, which is impressive and only about 30°F over the ambient room temperature at the time of measurement.
ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold OLED: Our Conclusion
The ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold OLED is an above-average and desirable option for mobile professionals when it comes to a notebook that can execute on multiple fronts. Build quality is top-shelf. The machine is built from premium materials and the attention to detail is evident throughout every inch of the design. ASUS' foldable OLED screen is a feast for the eyes, thanks to its amazing contrast, peak brightness, and vibrance. Images, movies and animation simply look great on this display.Battery life also exceeded ASUS' claims in our testing, which was a pleasant surprise and a sure benefit for road warriors. We should reiterate that our testing methods necessitated lowering the brightness on the Zenbook 17 Fold's display to keep the playing field level, but it was still more than comfortable to use at that brightness setting. Keep in mind, however, that running at full tilt will reduce battery life to something more in line with ASUS' claim of 9.5hrs.
Find The ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold OLED @ Amazon
The ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold's performance, while strong, isn't class-leading in any particular measure -- which is to be expected given the low-power nature of its U-series processor. We can say that day-to-day tasks and working in Microsoft Office programs are responsive and snappy at all times, even when off the charger. The Zenbook 17 Fold isn't heralded as a multimedia powerhouse but with the ability to orient it to desktop mode and having a nice beefy 17" 2560x1920 screen, we found ourselves wishing it had a little more grunt because some light video editing on that screen would just take the cake. But thanks to the power-conscious designs around that performance this device is a joy to work on under heavy loads because of how quiet it is and how the keyboard doesn't transfer any heat to the user.
Ultimately, the ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold isn't for everyone. The ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold is for users that will make the most of its literal flexibility. In the office or on the road it is built to stun and wow both the user and everyone walking near by, and it will do just that. But the focus here is really on the professional user and not the average note-taker. This system's price tag also makes that clear. Starting at $3499 there is nothing 'budget' about the Zenbook 17 Fold, but for those who need the flexibility it offers or those who really want the latest and most impressive display technology, there is something great here.
Ultimately, the ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold isn't for everyone. The ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold is for users that will make the most of its literal flexibility. In the office or on the road it is built to stun and wow both the user and everyone walking near by, and it will do just that. But the focus here is really on the professional user and not the average note-taker. This system's price tag also makes that clear. Starting at $3499 there is nothing 'budget' about the Zenbook 17 Fold, but for those who need the flexibility it offers or those who really want the latest and most impressive display technology, there is something great here.
