The things you need to know about the new ASUS ZenFones

Keeping with the festival theme, ASUS launched three new ZenFones (plus one surprise announcement) at the ZenFestival Manila held at Green Sun Hotel yesterday. The ZenFone Selfie, ZenFone 2 Laser, and ZenFone 2 Deluxe build on the crowd-pleasing ZenFone 2 and bring different personalities, if you will, to the table.

ZenFone Selfie
Just as its name suggests, the ZenFone Selfie caters to the selfie-obsessed. It even makes it easier for you to take your selfies. All you need to do is swipe the letter “S” on the 5.5-inch IPS Full HD display and you’ll be firing up the 13-megapixel front camera. Yes, you get two 13-megapixel shooters on this device. The front camera comes equipped with f/2.2-aperture, wide-angle 88-degree lens with dual color real tone flash, selfie panorama, and supports macro photography that allows the users to capture objects over than 6cm. Meanwhile, the rear shooter has f/2.0-aperture, auto-laser focus lens with dual-color real tone flash, and supports macro photography as well.

The ZenFone Selfie comes with ZenUI Beautification mode, if you’d want to tweak your selfies. This smartphone also boasts great low-light performance as well as true-to-life colors with the dual-LED, dual-color Real Tone flash. The laser auto-focus system on the rear camera promises near-instant focus for low-light conditions and close-up photography. You have a lot of camera settings to tinker with to help you take even more creative shots.

This dual-SIM, LTE-powered device runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB internal storage (expandable up to 128GB via microSD), and Android Lollipop. It has a 3,000mAh removable battery and it comes in Pure White, Chic Pink, Aqua Blue, Glacier Gray, Sheer Gold, and Glamour Red. The ZenFone Selfie retails for P11,995.

ZenFone 2 Laser
The ZenFone 2 Laser puts its laser auto-focus technology front and center in its rear 13-megapixel camera. It promises extremely fast focusing and zero shutter lag, making sure you get the shot you want instantly. It also packs in ASUS technologies like Low Light mode for promised 400 percent brighter photos in low light environments, Real Tone flash, Backlight Super HDR mode to get evenly exposed shots even with challenging backlit scenes, and Manual mode.

There are two variants of the ZenFone 2 Laser, the 5.5-inch ZE550KL and the 5-inch ZE500KL. These are powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB internal storage with expandable memory up to 128GB via microSD, and Android Lollipop. Both have 5-megapixel front shooters and dual-SIM, LTE support. The ZE550KL packs in a 3,000mAh removable battery and goes for P8,695, while the ZE500KL has a 2,070mAh battery and retails for P7,695. It’s available in Pure Black, Glamour Red, and Ceramic White.

ZenFone 2 Deluxe
The ZenFone 2 Deluxe (ZE551ML) has style at its core with the new crystal-like back cover, which also makes it look like you got this cool 3D-printed cover. ASUS calls it the “Ergonomic Arc” design. The back features over 500 tessellated polygons on the curved case that ASUS proudly claims tapers to as thin as 3.9mm at the edges. The Taiwanese company pairs this with an ultra-narrow 3.3mm bezel and a 72 percent screen-to-body ratio on its 5.5-inch Full HD IPS display to give you a great viewing experience.

ASUS partners the beauty of the exterior with the beast of an interior with a 64-bit Intel Atom Z3580 2.3GHz processor, 4GB of RAM, and a whopping 128GB internal storage (expandable up to 64GB via microSD). The ZenFone 2 Deluxe also comes with 4G/LTE connectivity, dual-SIM support, 13-megapixel rear camera with auto-focus, five-element lens, f/2.0 Aperture and Dual Color Flash, and a 5-megapixel front shooter with f/2.0 Aperture and wide-angle 85-degree Pano Selfie capability. This Android Lollipop-powered handset comes with a non-removable 3,000mAh Prismatic battery and BoostMaster fast charging technology. It retails for P17,995 and you can get it in Illusion Diamond White, Illusion Polygon Blue, and Illusion Smooth Pink.

But wait there’s more!
ASUS also announced the ZenFone Max at the ZenFestival. It packs in a gigantic 5,000mAh battery, which makes it viable as a power bank, too. It runs on a Qualcomm 64-bit processor and supports LTE and dual SIMs. It gets a 13-megapixel rear and 5-megapixel front shooter. Aside from the specs, ASUS hasn’t announced the pricing for this device yet. But it will supposedly arrive in October.