Asus launched its ZenFone Zoom smartphone at an event in Agra on Friday, marketing it as the “world’s thinnest smartphone with 3X optical zoom”. The device has been in the making for a long time now, though the final product appears to be worth all that wait.
The marquee feature of the device is optical zoom, making it the first smartphone in the market to boast non-digital zoom.
So, without any further ado, let’s take a closer look at the ZenFone Zoom for India’s smartphone market.
Specs and software
The Asus ZenFone sports a 5.5-inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels (~403 ppi pixel density) and 16M colors, covered by Corning Gorilla Glass 4 for ultimate scratch and shatter-proof protection.
Underneath the hood, the phone is powered by a Intel Atom Z3580 processor, housing four cores clocked at 2.3 GHz, coupled with 2GB of RAM at and 16GB/32GB/64GB of internal storage and 4GB of RAM at 128GB of internal storage and PowerVR G6430 GPU. Built-in storage is expandable via microSD card up to 64GB.
Camera wise, the primary shooter, located on the rear, shoots at 13MP and packs 28-84mm (3x optical zoom), laser autofocus, OIS, face/smile detection, panorama, HDR, 1080p video and dual-LED (dual tone) flash. The secondary ‘selfies’ camera, embed on the front, comes with a 5MP sensor.
In terms of connectivity, the Zoom has been fitted with LTE antennas, 3G, GPS (with A-GPS), WiFi, Bluetooth v4.0, microUSB v2.0 and single Micro-SIM.
To accommodate the humongous 5.5-inch screen, Asus has backed the device up with a non-removable 3,000mAh battery, which does not appear to be sufficient enough, at least on paper.
Dimensions wise, the ZenFone measures 158.9 x 78.8 x 12 mm (6.26 x 3.10 x 0.47 in) and weighs 185 g (6.53 oz).
The phablet will come with Android 5.0 Lollipop straight out of the box, skinned under Asus’ ZenUI.
Pricing and availability
The ZenFone Zoom is already available through Flipkart, while it will hit Asus’ own digital store in February. Pricing starts from Rs. 37,999, while a bundle of the smartphone alongside the ZenFlash and a Manfrotto-branded portable tripod will be rolled out a tad later for Rs. 39,999.
Furthermore, the ZenFone Zoom will be available in two color variants; Meteorite black and Glacier white.