Chris Carlon / Android Authority
I’m at IFA 2022 this weekend, my first real-life event in ages. It’s clear that everyone is still a little out of sorts as we wonder around the laboratory halls of the Messe Convention Center. This included the bright-eyed journalists, but the general lack of focus was even more evident in the list of products on display. It was a snooze-fest, with one notable exception: flexible-screen laptops.
Road openings
Chris Carlon / Android Authority
Lenovo X1 Fold
Laptop makers are known for their penchant for experimenting — determined to survive, dictates a mature industry. Most attempts have failed, so I wasn’t surprised to see the first foldable screen laptop, the 2019 Lenovo X1 Fold. It seems like a poor attempt to capitalize on a bender that is destined to be forgotten in a year.
Three years later, the X1 Fold is still better than ever. Lenovo made it bigger and gave it a less cramped physical keyboard. The bezels are tighter, the specs are crisper, and the product feels a lot less prototype-y than before.
Read more: Lenovo X1 Fold (2022) hands-on: A foldable laptop with a convertible
Lenovo was first out of the gate with foldable laptops, but Asus was close behind. The Taiwanese giant showed off its concept at CES 2022 and revealed full details at IFA this week. The Zenbook 17 Foldable is very similar to the Lenovo, but larger, at 17 inches. It looks a little refined, but that’s to be expected from a fresh first-gen entry.
Read more: Asus Zenbook 17 OLED hands-on: real potential here.
What’s so great about foldable laptops?
The ability to turn a 16-inch or 17-inch tablet into something that resembles the netbooks of the pre-iPad era is an obvious selling point. The Lenovo X1 Fold and Zenbook 17 Fold can be used as external monitors (or, more accurately, all-in-one PCs), as large tablets, dual-screen media consumption machines, or as compact 13-inch laptops.
The most compelling way to use them is in the first mode I mentioned: a portable all-in-one prop on a flat surface and use it in conjunction with the wireless keyboards you’ve used. In this mode, you get the productivity benefits of a 16/17 inch screen with a 4:3 aspect ratio. The last bit is important. A 4:3 17-inch screen has a larger surface area than a 16:9 17-inch screen, giving you more room for your content. Most people prefer foldable screen laptops as they become power users, which makes them ahead of conventional laptops. You can’t get a traditional 17-inch laptop in 4:3, it’s simply too big. Folding screens solve that problem.
In a few seconds you get a 12-inch or 13-inch screen combined with a fully functional keyboard.
When you want to be on the go, it’s easy to turn your 4:3 screen into something portable. In a few seconds you get a 12-inch or 13-inch screen combined with a fully functional keyboard. Of course, it is a thick package, but not uncomfortably so. Windows detects the new format and disables the part of the screen you can’t see. You are ready to go.
Foldable laptops vs foldable phones
Thanks to Samsung’s leadership in foldable screen technology, foldable phones had a head start compared to laptops. But I’d argue that foldable phones have led us down the wrong path — or at least a less interesting one.
Make no mistake – foldables like the Galaxy Z Fold 4 or Z Flip 4 are great. In its current iterations, regular consumers buy refined, mature products with complete confidence. But what all foldable phones do is that the already small device is, well, small.
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4
On the Galaxy Z Flip 4 or the Huawei P50 Pocket, folding the device is less practical. What you gain by reducing the length of the product, you lose mostly due to the increased thickness. In this regard, the Z Fold or Mate X lines are better, because you can use them in a realistic shape. When you reveal them can Do more on them thanks to the big screen. Laptops are similar, but you get more screen real estate and more hardware. This is the theme of my argument.
Being larger, foldable screen laptops offer more usability/productivity than a phone can.
Being larger, foldable screen laptops offer more usability/productivity than a phone can. Google and phone makers have tried to make the most of the space with Android 12L and new software features. But you can only do so much with a few square inches of display. On the flip side, Microsoft definitely needs to do a better job supporting foldable laptops in Windows. Even so, the productivity bump makes more sense on the 17-inch screen.
Foldable screen laptops may still fail.
Ryan McLeod / Android Authority
Asus Zenbook 17 fold
There are many arguments you can make about foldable screen laptops. In fact, we did. They’re backward in terms of durability, recovery, and upgradeability, and they’re extremely expensive, at least for now. The Lenovo X1 Fold is priced at $2,500, while the Asus Zenbook 17 Fold starts at $3,500. You can also argue that they solve a problem that doesn’t exist. Traditional laptops are already very compact, and you can be very efficient with them.
One of the biggest issues holding back foldable laptops is ergonomics. For example, the tiny footrest on the ZenBook 17 Fold doesn’t inspire confidence. If you can only use the big screen on a flat, stationary surface, that limits its capabilities considerably. So there is work to be done there.
I have a bright hope
Foldable laptops are becoming a thing, and they’re pretty darn cool at that. But I see their potential, and to me, they can be more impactful than (over)folding phones. A foldable laptop is more useful than a foldable phone, and unless Samsung somehow figures out a way to fit a laptop-sized screen into a device the size of a smartphone, that won’t change. That’s still possible, mind you. There are patents out there for all kinds of crazy folding designs, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
Today’s foldable laptops are unrefined, unfocused and expensive. I don’t recommend buying them. But thanks to their inherent productivity-enhancing benefits over phones, they can be a more successful form factor in the long run.