ASUS Announces February Launch For The ZenFone Zoom
by Brandon Chester on January 4, 2016 1:55 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Asus
- CES
- Zenfone
- CES 2016
Today at CES ASUS showcased their upcoming ZenFone Zoom, and confirmed that it will be coming to the United States this February. ASUS has teased the ZenFone Zoom a couple of times, and most notably showed it at IFA last year. It was also mentioned during their CES keynote last year, and so it has taken quite some time for it to get to market. Just as a refresher, you can find the ZenFone Zoom's specs in the table below.
| ZenFone Zoom | |
| SoC | Intel Atom Z3580/Z3590 Quad Core 2.3/2.5GHz PowerVR G6430 GPU |
| RAM | 4GB LPDDR3 |
| NAND | 64/128GB NAND |
| Display | 5.5” 1080p IPS |
| Network | 2G / 3G / 4G LTE (Category 4 LTE) |
| Dimensions | 158.9 x 78.84 x 5-11.9mm, 185g |
| Camera | 13MP Rear Facing, 3x optical zoom, 28-84mm F/2.7-F/4.8, OIS |
| 5MP Front Facing | |
| Battery | 3000 mAh (11.4 Whr) |
| OS | Android 5.1 w/ ZenUI |
| Connectivity | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac + BT 4.0, USB2.0, GPS/GNSS, NFC |
| SIM | 1 x MicroSIM |
| Launch Price | $399 (Z3580/64GB) |
The ZenFone Zoom is very similar to the ZenFone 2 as far as the internal specs go. In the 128GB model there is a bump in clock speed, as the SoC moves from Atom Z3580 to Z3590, but the phone remains the same otherwise. Obviously the big attraction is the rear-facing camera with optical zoom. It's not clear exactly which camera sensor is used in the ZenFone Zoom, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that it's the same Toshiba sensor from the ZenFone 2. I hope that ASUS has put a lot of work into improving their camera processing from the state it was in on the ZenFone 2, as hardware has never really been the issue with photo quality on ASUS devices.
The ZenFone Zoom will be launching in the United States this February, with a starting price of $399 for the 64GB model. Pricing for the 128GB model with the Z3590 SoC is currently unknown.
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julianb - Monday, January 4, 2016 - link
Damn, I do like that hump on the back...I wish it came with a USB 3 port though...so sick of long copy/paste times on my current USB 2 phone.
Also- is the battery removable? Asus web-site doesn't mention that, strange.
Any idea how prone is this phone to receive Marshmallow update? No idea how often/quickly Asus updates their phones...or if XDA's gurus are at all interested in updating the previous ZenPhone.
I wish it also had a 1440p resolution, not higher, but 1080p is not a deal breaker for me.
On the plus side- dedicated photos and VIDEOS buttons.
3x optical zoom
Slick design
4GB RAM
Upgradable storage
Decent price
This could very well be my next phone...will wait till WMC 2016 finishes though :)
Le Geek - Monday, January 4, 2016 - link
Well, you can pretty much expect updates upto Android n, Asus is pretty good with update. Their updates do take same time, however they do make sure their devices get updated. I personally have a cheap $100 Zenfone 4 as a back up device. It shipped with android 4.3 and was updated to 5.0 and still receives security updates every now and then. Pretty decent for a cheap device launched in early 2014, don't you think?baka_toroi - Monday, January 4, 2016 - link
Asus is very slow with updates. The Zenfone 2 still has Android 5.0. There are some nice ROMs though, CM 13 is in beta but already provides Marshmallow.Le Geek - Monday, January 4, 2016 - link
It is rumored that Asus will skip 5.1 and directly update the 2nd Gen zenfone devices to 6.0. However I do agree with that Asus' updates do take some time.julianb - Monday, January 4, 2016 - link
I see, thanks for the info guys. Also- Engadget reports the battery is non-removable... not sure if that's true but still.Also- supposedly there's also Gorilla Glass 4.
evilspoons - Monday, January 4, 2016 - link
A USB 3 port isn't going to make your transfers faster if you're copying to your phone, you need faster internal storage. Most phones could double their internal NAND and still not saturate USB 2.0. From the Anandtech Nexus 6P review: http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph9820/78728...julianb - Tuesday, January 5, 2016 - link
Was not aware of that...I thought it would go both ways- to and from.Still though- copy from the phone to my PC would benefit from having USB 3, right?
Thanks for the tip.
MrSpadge - Monday, January 4, 2016 - link
I'd like to see a new roundup of camera-centric phones, including the Lumia 1020 as reference and Lumia 950.Le Geek - Monday, January 4, 2016 - link
+1akil.AN - Monday, January 4, 2016 - link
Press release suggests it uses a Panasonic SmartFSI® sensor