A few weeks ago, we told you that Asus was getting ready to launch the Zenfone 3 series of smartphones before the second half of the year. If you have been waiting for these smartphones, you will be happy to know that Asus has finally launched them today, a few days before the launch date we had expected.
Pushing the limits
Asus has really tried to push things beyond what we have expected with the Zenfone 3 smartphones. The series is made up of three devices, and they include, the ZenFone 3, ZenFone 3 Deluxe, and ZenFone 3 Ultra. All these devices were unveiled at Computex 2016 and show us the direction the smartphone market is taking.
The Asus Zenfone 3 Deluxe
The Asus Zenfone 3 Deluxe is the most impressive of the three and is the company’s flagship device for 2016. It comes with a massive 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display with a 1080p resolution. Powering it is the Snapdragon 820 processor paired with 6GB of RAM which puts it ahead of some of the other established brands such as Samsung, LG and Huawei. 6GB of RAM is quite big and this shows you that the phone is made for power users.
Besides the RAM, the Asus Zenfone 3 Deluxe comes with Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box with either 64 or 256GB of storage space that can be expanded further using a microSD card.
It has a 23MP back camera with TriTech autofocus that combines second generation laser autofocus phase detection autofocus and contrast detection autofocus to achieve focus in 0.03 seconds. The back camera is able to record 4K videos. The front facing camera is an 8MP one.
The Zenfone 3 Deluxe has a 3000 mAh battery providing all the power. This battery supports Quick Charge 3.0 which is a positive thing to see. At the back, it has a fingerprint sensor for extra security and functionality.
This model will be available for $499 (approximately Ksh 50,000)
The Asus Zenfone 3
The standard Zenfone 3 is considered the basic model and comes with a 5.5 inch display with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels. It has an aluminum frame body and is covered with 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass on both the front and back panels.
The 2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor is used in this phone in combination with either 3/4GB of RAM. For the camera, it has a 16MP unit at the back with an 8MP front facing camera for all your selfies and video calls. The 16MP camera at the back features the same TriTech autofocus technology found on the Zenfone 3 Deluxe.
The Zenfone 3 comes with a 3000 mAh battery that also supports quick charging. A few other features it comes with include a fingerprint sensor at the back and a USB Type-C port at the bottom.
The starting price of the Zenfone 3 is $249 (approximately Ksh 25,000) for the 3GB/32GB model.
The Asus Zenfone 3 Ultra
The Asus Zenfone 3 Ultra is the biggest of the three and comes with a massive 6.8 inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution 1080 x 1920 pixels. It has a full Metal design and is quite massive, almost the size of a tablet.
Powering it is the Octa-core Snapdragon 652 processor paired with the Adreno 510 GPU and 4GB of RAM. As for storage space, you get 64 or 128GB options that can be expanded further using a microSD card.
At the back it has a 23MP camera with an 8MP front facing camera. A 4600 mAh battery provides all the power and the good thing is that this battery supports Quick Charge 3.0.
Some additional specs and features you should expect on this phablet include a fingerprint sensor embedded on the physics home button, TriTech autofocus system and USB Type-C among others.
Its retail price will be $479 (approximately Ksh 48,000).
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