Every time I’ve used a foldable laptop like the HP Foldable PC, I’m struck by how much more practical the designs might be as portable monitors, and how nice it would be to use folding screens so we could have bigger but still totable ones. Lo and behold, Asus, which makes its own take on a foldable laptop, decided to fulfill my wish. Its ZenScreen Fold OLED MQ17QH, announced this week at CES, is the first portable OLED display, with a (relatively) large 17.3-inch screen that you’ll be able to fit into any standard bag.
It’s not exceptionally lightweight at 2.6 pounds (1.17kg) and about as thick as a laptop. If you can opt for a smaller notebook to use in conjunction with it, that probably makes the size and weight a wash. It’s got two USB-C ports and an HDMI connection, as well as a socket that can let you set it up at eye level with a desktop tripod, plus a kickstand that works in either portrait or landscape orientation.
The screen has a 4:3 aspect ratio (2,560×1,920 resolution), which is an uncommon size these days, but that makes it bigger than the more popular 16:9 or 16:10 screens. Like all OLEDs, it’s very high contrast and has a 100% P3 color gamut, and this model is DisplayHDR True Black 500 compliant.
Asus hasn’t announced pricing or availability, but it’s expected to ship some time in the first half of 2024.