Asus at CES 2015 revealed the ZenFone 2 promising a March release date for the handset. The Taiwanese company, as promised, on Monday announced the Asus ZenFone 2 in Taiwan and also unveiled new variants of the handset.
According to a Korean publication, apart from Taiwan, the ZenFone 2 will be available in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and France starting in March while other countries such as Italy and other Southeast Asian markets including India will launch in April. The Asus ZenFone 2 will be also released in Brazil in June.
The new ZenFone-series (via Asus Taiwan) include the Asus ZenFone 2 ZE551ML (4GB RAM) priced at TWD 8,990 (approximately Rs. 18,000); the Asus ZenFone 2 ZE551ML (2GB RAM) at TWD 6,990 (approximately Rs. 13,900); Asus ZenFone 2 ZE550ML comes at TWD 5,990 (approximately Rs. 11,900), and Asus ZenFone 2 ZE500CL priced at TWD 4,990 (approximately Rs. 9,900).
The Asus ZenFone 2 ZE551ML, as seen above, will be available in two RAM variants – one with 2GB of LPDDR3 RAM, and another with 4GB of LPDDR3 RAM.
Asus at the launch had claimed that the ZenFone 2 is the “industry’s first smartphone” packing 4GB of RAM. The 4GB RAM variant is powered by a 64-bit Intel Atom Z3580 quad-core processor running at 2.3GHz while the model packing 2GB of RAM is backed by a quad-core Intel Atom Z3560 clocked at 1.8GHz. The ZenFone 2 ZE550ML is also powered by the same Intel Atom Z3560 chipset. The basic ZenFone 2 ZE500CL model features a 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Atom Z2560 processor. All the versions support expandable storage via microSD card (up to 64GB).
The top model of the Asus ZenFone 2 will feature 4GB of RAM alongside 32GB inbuilt storage and 5.5-inch full-HD display while the ZE551ML model will also feature a 5.5-inch full-HD display; though it will pack just 2GB of RAM alongside 32GB of storage.
The Asus ZenFone 2 ZE550ML, on the other hand, features a 5.5-inch HD display coupled with 2GB of RAM and 16GB inbuilt storage. The ZenFone 2 ZE500CL is the basic model of the series and features a 5-inch HD display alongside 2GB of RAM and 16GB of built-in storage. It only supports single-SIM, unlike other variants in the ZenFone-series.
All four variants runs the company’s new ZenUI based on Google’s Android 5.0 Lollipop. The Asus ZenFone 2 ZE551ML (4GB and 2GB of RAM) and ZenFone 2 ZE550ML both sport 13-megapixel rear PixelMaster camera while there is a 5-megapixel front camera on board as well. Both the ZenFone 2 ZE551ML models feature dual-tone flash. The Zenfone 2 ZE500CL sports an 8-megapixel rear PixelMaster camera alongside a 2-megapixel camera.
For connectivity, both the ZenFone 2 ZE551ML models and the ZenFone 2 ZE550ML include 4G LTE (Cat 4. support with up to 150Mbps download speeds), dual-SIM, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, GPS, and GLONASS. The ZenFone 2 ZE500CL supports 3G connectivity apart from dual-SIM, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, GPS, and GLONASS.
Both the ZenFone 2 ZE551ML models and the ZenFone 2 ZE550ML are backed by a 3000mAh battery while the Zenfone 2 ZE500CL features a 2500mAh battery.
Asus at the launch in January had claimed that the ZenFone 2 models support fast-charging technology and can charge up to 60 percent in just 39 minutes. It includes sensors such as accelerometer, proximity, ambient-light, gyroscopic, and digital compass.