Asus ups their game with metal-hewn, Snapdragon processor packing ZenFone 3 in three different flavours at Computex 2016
In a packed press conference, ASUS chairman Jonney Shih announced an interesting line-up of products that covered the gamut from notebooks to an inordinately cute robot though what had the rapt attention of the room was their latest successor to their best selling ZenFone line of phones. For 2016, you’ll get two distinct variants of the ZenFone 3 alongside the standard model in the form of the ZenFone 3 Deluxe and the humongous ZenFone 3 Ultra.
ASUS Designer Jen Chuang talks about the craftsmanship that went into creating the ZenFone 3
The ZenFone 3 ditches the faux metal looking polycarbonate casings of its predecessors and instead opts for an actual metal unibody chassis layered with glass that mounts a 5.5-inch Full HD display that comes with an impressive 77% screen-to-body ratio. The phone retains a bottom row of capacitive hardware buttons at the base and sports a rear square-shaped fingerprint reader.
The ZenFone 3 comes with a rear fingerprint reader and a 16-MP camera with OIS.
Rather than the Intel processors of yore, the new ZenFone 3 comes with a 64-bit Snapdragon 625 2.5GHz octa-core processor with an Adreno 506 GPU, either 3GB or 4GB of RAM, up to 64GB of onboard storage with 32GB and 8GB variants available and, of note, a rear 16-MP camera that comes with an f/2.0 aperture, laser autofocus, 4-stop optical image stabilisation, a dual-LED real tone flash as well as Asus’ respectable PixelMaster imaging tech that offers better low light images. Combined, the phone lets you get 0.03 second subject acquisition time. Pretty nippy, that. The front of the ZenFone 3 comes with an 8-MP fixed focus selfie camera with an F/2.0 aperture. In keeping with recent trends, the phone sports a USB type C port at the base to power the 3,000mAh battery. The ZenFone 3 comes in three different colours – Sapphire Black, Moonlight White and Shimmer Gold. The ZenFone 3 retails from USD249 (RM1,024) and up though the build quality makes it look like it’s easily worth twice the price.
The Zenfone 3 Deluxe is essentially the ZenFone 3 on steroids. It’s slightly heavier by 20g at 170g than the Zenfone 3 but is a wee bit thinner and comes with the works. The front has a slighter larger 5.7-inch 1080P screen sheathed in Corning Gorilla Glass 4.
The casing of the ZenFone 3 Deluxe is a solid unibody aluminium casing unbesmirched by antenna lines
Under the hood it runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow on a 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 2.15GHz processor paired with an Adreno 530 624MHz GPU and comes with up to 256GB of built-in expandable storage. The non-removable 3,000mAh battery supports fast charging with 39 minutes netting you 60% capacity while the rear also sports a more powerful 23-MP camera with an f/2.0 aperture, OIS and Asus’ Pixelmaster imaging tech. The front comes with an 8-MP selfie camera with an F/2.0 aperture along with a physical capacitive button that doubles as a fingerprint reader.
Like the ZenFone 3, the ZenFone 3 Deluxe has a USB Type C charging port at the base to juice up the 3,000mAh battery that also supports fast charging with a 39 minute juicing yielding 60% of full battery capacity. The phone also sports a dual hybrid SIM card/micro SD card tray that supports LTE connectivity on both slots if you so choose. The ZenFone 3 Deluxe will come in three colours – Glacier Silver, Titanium Gray and Shimmer Gold starting from USD499 (RM2,052). Again, the craftsmanship on the ZenFone 3 Deluxe is impressive as the casing aluminium unibody chassis doesn’t sport any of the usual plastic antenna lines that you’d see in other phones, rendering it a seamless slab of awesomeness.
The ZenFone 3 Ultra comes with a massive 6.8-inch 1080P display up front that has a whopping 79% screen-to-body ratio
The largest of the lot, the ZenFone 3 Ultra tops the scales at 233g in weight but packs in a 6.8-inch 1080P display with an impressive 79% screen-to-body ratio, a Snapdragon 652 1.8GHz octa-core processor, an Adreno 510 GPU, either 3GB or 4GB RAM, up to 128GB of onboard storage and large 4,600mAh battery that also supports fast charging tech like the ZenFone 3 Deluxe. The rear has a similarly sized camera as the ZenFone 3 Deluxe – a 23-MP snapper with f/2.0 aperture, OIS and a dual-LED flash along with a front-facing 8-MP f/2.0 aperture selfie camera and a fingerprint reader too. The ZenFone Ultra will ship in Glacier Silver, Titanium Gray and Metallic Pink for USD479 (RM1970).
There’s no word yet on launch dates for Malaysia but if there’s anything we’ll let you lot know as soon as we get any details.