Folding—it’s not just for laundry anymore. Take a look at two new devices that are bending the rules for what a laptop can be.

Big Display, Small Device

The classic clamshell notebook is the prototypical portable computer—almost every laptop has a screen up top and a keyboard down below. It’s practical but plain, so it’s always intriguing to see a laptop that defies expectation. Case in point: the new edition of Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Fold.

The second-generation X1 Fold iterates on the design Lenovo debuted in 2020, which brought the idea of foldable displays—first seen in the premium smartphone market—to laptop PCs. Why would anyone want a display that folds in half? The core reason, aside from the wow factor, is that it enables a big screen when flat and a small device when folded. In other words, no more sacrificing screen space for bag space, or vice versa.

When unfolded into its tablet-like state, the ThinkPad X1 Fold provides a generous 16.3-inch screen with a resolution of 2560x2024 pixels. With its aspect ratio of 4:3, the screen folds neatly into two 12-inch, 3:2 halves for side-by-side (or top-over-bottom) multitasking. And the OLED display shines with a respectable 600 nits of brightness and 100 percent DCI-P3 color coverage.

Another big advantage of the foldable form is its versatility, which goes even further than hybrid laptop/tablets like the popular Microsoft Surface Pro. Lenovo touts five different ways to use the X1 Fold: laptop mode, where the bottom half of the screen becomes a touch keyboard; landscape mode, where the unfolded screen sits on a removable stand; portrait mode, which is like landscape mode but with the ability to angle the top half of the screen for easier viewing; book mode, where the screen is obtusely bent open; and tablet mode, where the X1 Fold is used as a touchscreen tablet. An optional Bluetooth keyboard and stylus complement each of these modes (the keyboard can magnetically attach to the bottom half of the display, creating what looks like a small but normal laptop).

With portability a prime concern for the X1 Fold, its power is limited—but not as much as you might think. While the original X1 Fold maxed out with Intel Core i5 processors, the new X1 Fold offers up to the 12^th-gen Intel Core i7-1260U CPU—the top end of Intel’s U9 series of chips for lightweight laptops that lack cooling fans, such as the X1 Fold. The X1 Fold does not offer any discrete graphics options, though it can be configured with up to 1TB SSD storage and 32GB LPDDR5 memory. It has three USB-C ports, two of which are Thunderbolt 4 ports.

Although these specs don’t add up to a mobile workstation, the X1 Fold is an tempting option for frequent travelers or as a complement to desktop workstations.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold is slated for release this Fall and will start at $2,500 for 8GB of memory, 256GB of storage, and an Intel Core i5-1230U CPU. The top-end configuration with 32GB of memory, 1TB of storage, and a Core i7-1260 will cost $4,200.

Double the Folds

Lenovo was alone in the foldable PC market for two years, but late last month Asus entered the game with its new Zenbook 17 Fold OLED.

With only two foldable PCs on the market, we can’t help but compare the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED to the ThinkPad X1 Fold. The devices are very similar, but there are a few differences worth noting.

Like the ThinkPad X1 Fold, the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED is essentially a large tablet that folds in half. It’s an inch bigger than the second-gen X1 Fold, with a 17.3-inch display that folds into two 12.5-inch displays. The Zenbook has a slightly lower resolution of 2560x1920 pixels, but the same aspect ratio of 4:3 that folds to two 3:2 halves. The OLED display covers 100 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut but is half as bright as the X1 Fold at only 350 nits.

The Zenbook 17 Fold OLED is powered by the 12^th-gen Intel Core i7-1250U processor, with no discrete graphics options. It comes with 1TB of storage but only 16GB LPDDR5, half that of the X1 Fold. The Zenbook offers two Thunderbolt 4 ports and an audio jack.

Another noteworthy difference is cellular connectivity: the X1 Fold offers it (5G, optional), and the Zenbook does not.

The Zenbook 17 Fold OLED offers essentially the same five modes as the X1 Fold—you can use it as a tablet, you can use it as a slightly folded tablet, you can bend it into the shape of a laptop and use it with a touchscreen or Bluetooth keyboard, or you can prop it up on a stand. Unlike the X1 Fold’s removable stand, the Zenbook has a built-in kickstand—a more elegant solution, perhaps, but one that means it can stand up straight only in landscape mode. And while it includes the Bluetooth keyboard in the box (which, like the X1 Fold’s, attaches magnetically to the lower half of the screen) the Zenbook Fold does not have any native stylus support—a strange omission for a high-end tablet-esque device.