Asus struck a chord with the smartphone users when it launched the budget-friendly Zenfone series last year. It become pretty successful globally as well as in India. Inspired by its success last year, the Taiwanese smartphone brand has launched the successor to the Zenfone during its event at the CES 2015. The Asus Zenfone 2 features a 5.5-inch 1080p IPS LCD display, a 64-bit quad-core Intel chipset, a 13-megapixel camera, dual-SIM card slot, and a large 3,000 mAh battery.
The Asus Zenfone 2 runs Android 5.0 Lollipop with the company's latest Zen UI on top of it. It is powered by Intel Atom Z3560/Z3580 chipset, which features a 64-bit quad-core CPU and PowerVR G6430 GPU. It is the world's first commercial smartphone to feature 4GB RAM. The device has a screen-to-body ratio of 72%, which means thin bezels around the screen, and comes with a brushed metal finish for a premium feel.
Asus Zenfone 2 specifications
- 5.5-inch IPS LCD display, 1920 x 1080 pixels, 72 percent screen-to-body ratio, and Gorilla Glass 3 with Oleophobic coating
- Android 5.0 Lollipop with new Zen UI and Zen Motion gesture controls
- Intel Atom Z3580 SoC, 64-bit 2.3GHz quad-core processor, PowerVR G6430 GPU, and 2GB/4GB of RAM
- 16GB/32GB/64GB internal storage and a microSD card slot
- 13-megapixel PixelMaster primary camera, dual-tone dual-LED flash, and 1080p video recording
- 5-megapixel secondary camera and 1080p video recording
- 4G LTE Cat. 4, dual-SIM dual-standby, Wi-Fi ac/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth v4.0, and GLONASS A-GPS
- microUSB v2.0 port and 3.5mm headphone jack
- 3,000 mAh battery with fast charging
The primary 13-megapixel PixelMaster camera features a dual-tone dual-LED flash, and 108p video recording. There's also a 5-megapixel secondary front-facing camera for clicking ideal selfies. Asus has also launched a camera-centric variant of the device in the form of Asus Zenfone Zoom. It features a 10-element lens and 3x optical zoom, to enhance photography capabilities of the device.
To support all these features, the Zenfone 2 is powered by a 3,000 mAh battery with fast-charge technology, which Asus claims will charge the device from zero to 60 percent in just 39 minutes. It is available in five colours; Osmium Black, Sheer Gold, Glacier Grey, Glamor Red and Ceramic White colour options.
Price? Well, it will cost just $199 (Rs.12,585) for the 16GB variant, when it gets launched. The pricing makes the device look extremely value for money and it doesn't really leave anything else to desired, at least on the paper. We'd like to reserve our opinion till we test the device thoroughly. But for the time being, it surely has got us quite excited. Expect the Zenfone 2 to arrive with a sub-Rs 15,000 price tag in India during the first half of 2015.
