Looks like ASUS is doing a good job behind their doors closed. This year’s CES, the Taiwanese multinational has announced multiple tech products. While in the category of smartphones, ASUS introduced an affordable Zenfone 2 and a camera centric Zenfone Zoom for doubled the price.
Both the phones are packed with similar hardware components inside, while being the camera smartphone Zenfone Zoom features additionally the 3x Optical Zoom with the Optical Image Stabilization.
It’s worth mentioning as the company sold 1,500,000 units of Zenfone per month in the fourth quarter of 2014 and collected good reviews.
The Zenfone 2 features a 5.5 inch full HD IPS display, 13MP rear camera and 5MP front camera with ASUS’s PixelMaster technology, a 64-bit Quad Core Z3560 (1.8GHz) / Z3580 (2.33GHz) Intel Atom processor with 2GB/4GB RAM and 4G/LTE connectivity.
| Processor | 64-bit Intel Atom Z3560/Z3580 Quad Core Processor (Running at 1.8/2.3GHz) PowerVR Series 6 – G6430, with OpenGL 3.0 support |
| Operating System | Brand-new ASUS ZenUI with Android 5.0 Lollipop |
| Memory | LPDDR3 2GB/4GB RAM/Micro SD card support, up to 64GB |
| Storage | 16GB/32GB/64GB ROM ASUS WebStorage 5GB (lifetime) |
| Display | 5.5-inch, 1920 x 1080 (Full HD), 403ppi IPS display/400nits brightness/ Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3 |
| PixelMaster Cameras | Front: 5MP, f/2.0-aperture, wide-angle (85-degree) lens with Selfie Panorama Rear: 13MP, f/2.0-aperture, 5-element, auto-focus lens with dual-color Real Tone flash PixelMaster features: Low Light mode / Backlight (HDR) mode / Enhanced Beautification mode / Manual mode / Zero shutter lag |
| Network | LTE speed: Category 4 maximum: 150Mbit/s / DL: 50Mbit/s 4G band: FDD LTE: 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/9/17/18/19/20/28/29 TDD LTE: 38/39/40/41(Network support varies by country) |
| Battery | 3000mAh lithium-polymer, Fast-charging technology |
| Sensor | Accelerometer, proximity, ambient-light, gyroscopic, digital compass and Hall-effect sensors |
| Navigation | GPS / A-GPS / GLONASS |
| Wireless | 802.11ac, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC |
| Ports | 3.5mm audio jack, dual micro-SIM, micro USB (support OTG) |
| Color | Glacier Gray / Osmium Black / Glamour Red / Ceramic White / Sheer Gold |
| Dimensions | 152.5 x 77.2 x 10.9 ~ 3.9 mm |
| Weight | 170g |
With all those features above the Asus Zenfone 2 is seriously an affordable smartphone costing only $199 (PKR ~20,000/-) before taxes. Also note that this is the starting price of Zenfone 2 variant having 2GB RAM, 16GB storage. It will be available in March 2015
The Zenfone Zoom is similar to the Zenfone 2 at most of its elements featuring the same 5.5 inch full HD display. It comes in 16, 32 and 64GB of storage options as well as additionally a 128GB storage variant will be available in select regions. A quad-core 2.3GHz processor and 2GB/3GB RAM options.
11.95 mm thin, the Zenfone Zoom is said to be the world’s thinnest smartphone which features a 3x optical zoom lens on a 13MP. Zenfone Zoom’s rear camera features a 10-element lens design with up to a 12x digital zoom. To impress with a smartphone camera, the Zenfone Zoom’s camera also has an optical image stabilizer (OIS). It also features a laser auto-focus for quick capture.
To our interests, Zenfone Zoom’s camera comes with the manual modes to allow manual control of ISO settings, shutter speed and more.
| Operating System | Brand-new ASUS ZenUI with Android 5.0 Lollipop |
| Storage | Up to 128GB ROM*, ASUS WebStorage 5GB (lifetime) |
| Display | 5.5-inch, 1920 x 1080 (Full HD), 403ppi IPS display/400nits brightness/ Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3 |
| PixelMaster Cameras | Front: 5MP, f/2.0-aperture, wide-angle (88-degree) lens with Selfie Panorama Rear: 13MP, f/2.7- to 4.8-aperture, 10-element lenses with 3X optical zoom, optical image stabilization (OIS), laser auto-focus and dual-color Real Tone flash PixelMaster features: Low Light mode / Backlight (HDR) mode / Enhanced Beautification mode / Manual mode / Zero shutter lag |
| Network | LTE speed: Category 4 maximum: 150Mbit/s / DL: 50Mbit/s 4G band: FDD LTE: 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/9/17/18/19/20/28/29 TDD LTE: 38/39/40/41(Network support varies by country) |
| Battery | 3000mAh lithium-polymer |
| Sensor | Accelerometer, proximity, ambient-light, gyroscopic, digital compass and Hall-effect sensors |
| Navigation | GPS / A-GPS / GLONASS |
| Wireless | 802.11ac, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.0 |
| Ports | 3.5mm audio jack , micro USB (support OTG), dual micro SIM |
| Color | Meteorite black /Glacier white |
| Dimensions | 158.9 x 78.84 x 11.95 mm |
| Weight | 185g |
The Asus Zenfone Zoom will come in Meteorite black and Glacier white colors. It will cost $399 (PKR ~40,000/-) before taxes and will be available from Q2 2015.
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