Asus Zenfone 2 Comes To India

Two phones with seemingly hundreds of variants. Asus seems to be wanting to please everyone in the room with one gift!

Asus India has launched the next Zenfone — the Zenfone 2 exclusively on Flipkart. Priced at INR 12,999, it is touted to be the first smartphone to offer a 64-bit dual channel 4 GB RAM (the dual channel theoretically doubles your memory’s transfer capabilities, however gamers, normal users may not see any immediate benefit).

The phone will be available in White, Grey, Black, Gold and Red colors, with deliveries starting from the 4th of May.

Asus will launch two models, with two variants for each:

The flagship model, the ZE551ML, will be powered by a 2.3 GHz Intel Atom Z3580 octa-core processor with the 4 GB dual channel RAM.

This version will come with a 5.5 inch full HD display with 32 GB or 64 GB memory.

• The 32 GB variant is priced at INR 19,999,
• The 64 GB version is pegged at INR 22,999.
• A third variant, with 16 GB is at INR 14,999 and has a depreciated 2 GB RAM

‘Depreciated’ is a misnomer… 2 GB RAM is rock-solid for the Android 5.0 OS that this device will run on; 4 GB is like having a 500 horsepower supercar living in Delhi — you usually end up driving it at 20 kmph, so you dont really need all the power it can theoretically put-out, except for the warm and fuzzy feeling that the knowledge of greatness gives you).

The other model, ZE550ML, will also have a 5.5 inch screen and powered by a 1.8 GHz Quad Core Intel Atom processor with a 2 GB RAM and 16 GB of storage memory.

This model too, will have two variants, though in this case, the primary difference in the variants would be their screens — one has a Full-HD display (the resolution being 1920x1080) and is priced at INR 14,999, while the other with a HD screen (1280x720 pixel resolution) will cost INR 12,999.

All phones will be dual SIM (dual-active) devices powered by a 3,000 mAh battery with 4G, WiFi, WiFi Direct, GPS, GLONASS, NFC, USB OTG, Bluetooth 4.0.

Additionally, all four will run on an updated version of Asus’ proprietary OS the ZenUI (a custom-build of Android 5.0 Lollipop OS).

The camera on paper may appear to be similar to the Xiaomi Mi 4i with a 13 megapixel back camera and a 5 megapixel front camera, however the similarities end there.

The Asus camera will have their proprietary Pixelmaster technology 2.0, that combines software, hardware, optical design and enables maximum contrast ratios to deliver incredible image quality, even in low-light conditions.

While both the cameras on the Zenfone 2 boast of f/2 aperture, the front camera even has a 85-degree wide angle lens.

In what seems like a new design trend triggered with by LG through their LG G2, volume buttons have been placed at the back along with the rear camera’s dual tone flash.

The Asus Zenfone 2 will have a stiff competition from the Xiaomi Mi 4i and Xiaomi Mi 4 flagships, OnePlus One (which is now available without any invitations) and Gionee Elife E7 to name just a few of the many.

Let’s see what the consumers choose.

Originally published at Chip-Monks.