The Asus Zenfone 5Z has been launched in the Indian market today at an event in New Delhi. The Zenfone 5Z is a direct competitor to the OnePlus 6 in India as the pricing of the handset starts from Rs 29,999, which is Rs 5,000 less than that of the OnePlus 6, which is the only device with Snapdragon 845 SoC until now. Before the launch, the price of the Zenfone 5Z was revealed by e-commerce portal Flipkart. The phone sports gorgeous design, flagship processor, lots of AI integration, dual rear cameras with a promise of excellent low-light performance and it boots Android 8.1 Oreo-based on ZenUI 5.0. The phone comes with UFS 2.1 storage and the 'Z' in the Zenfone 5Z, according to Asus is the faster boot time. Asus says that the Zenfone 5Z boots up faster than the OnePlus. It has support for dual 4G, Bluetooth 5.0, Cat.12 3CA for faster download and upload speeds.
Asus Zenfone 5Z Specifications and Features
Being a flagship smartphone, the Asus Zenfone 5Z comes with high-end specifications. The smartphone was first unveiled back at the MWC 2018 event, and the specifications of the handset did not change a bit for the Indian market. The phone has a 6.2-inch Full HD+ display, but it's an LCD panel, not an AMOLED panel like the one seen on the OnePlus 6. The phone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC, clubbed with up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. Asus has used LPDDR4 RAM and UFS 2.1 storage inside the smartphone.
Asus is touting the cameras on the Zenfone 5Z a lot. The phone sports a 12MP primary shooter on the rear with f/1.8 aperture, dual-pixel PDAF, Electronic Image Stabilisation (EIS) and Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS). The phone has a secondary 8MP shooter which has f/2.2 aperture and 120-degree field-of-view. The secondary wide-angle sensor also enables the hardware-based Portrait mode to give a strong bokeh effect. The camera app inside the Zenfone 5Z comes loaded with scene detection features, again based on Artificial Intelligence. The phone is capable of recording 4K videos at 60fps. Asus has added an 8MP shooter on the front side.
One of the highlights of the Zenfone 5Z is the ZenUI 5.0, which is built on top of Android 8.1 Oreo. Asus has added a plethora of AI features such as auto brightness setting, battery saving features and more. The Asus Zenfone 5Z is armed with a 3300mAh battery, and it has a USB Type-C port. Connectivity options in the Zenfone 5Z include Dual 4G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, FM Radio and Cat.12 3CA for making full use of the Carrier Aggregation speeds on Jio and Airtel networks. The phone has support for fast charging.
Asus Zenfone 5Z Pricing and Availability
The Asus Zenfone 5Z will be available for purchase in India exclusively via Flipkart. The phone comes in various storage options- 6GB RAM/64GB storage, 6GB RAM/128GB internal storage and 8GB RAM/256GB of internal storage. The base variant with 6GB RAM of 64GB storage is priced at Rs 29,999; the 6GB RAM/128GB of storage option costs Rs 32,999, while the 8GB RAM/256GB of storage will retail for Rs 36,999.
Asus has teamed with ICICI bank and offering Rs 3,000 instant discount on ICICI Debit/Credit cards. Flipkart's Mobile Protection plan will be available for Zenfone 5Z at Rs 499 and it's worth of Rs 2,299. Reliance Jio is also offering Rs 2,200 cashback along with 100GB additional data offer. Asus is also offering Device swap at service centres when you give your phone for servicing and the company is also providing free pick up service.
