The Zenfone 3 Flagship?
It seems that the Taiwanese manufacturer is not over at showing off their guns for their 2016 lineup as Asus unveils another iteration to the growing family of the Zenfone 3.
Mabuhay, Manila. This is Drew for Manila Shaker and this our hands on and first look of the Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom.
This is the Taiwanese manufacturers first dual camera contender to the ever expanding arena of the mobile photography battle.
The Dual Camera
Unlike that of the Huawei P9 and P9 Plus, that utilizes a Leica co-engineered optics sensor, the Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom will be employing a 12MP wide angled main camera and a 12MP telephoto lens right beside that offers 2.3x optical zoom.
The setup includes two tone LED flash, phase detection auto focus and an RGB sensor. What this means basically is that this could be the budget-friendly, camera focused smartphone that will answer you trigger happy needs.
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The engineering is sound as we tested out the highlight of the Zenfone 3 Zoom.
Due to the limited amount of time we had with the pilot run of the Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom, we captured the following images for initial testing and feel:
Experience
The camera was snappy and took photos with ease. As the unit is still in pre-release condition, we couldn’t fully test it against other devices.
Selfie games are upped by the 13MP front facing camera.
Battery Endurance
Aside from the reasonably capable snapper, the Zenfone 3 Zoom will also be featuring a whopping 5,000 mAh battery pack. If the Zenfone 3 Max 5.5 is any indication of its endurance we can expect around 2 days of full use before we start a mad dash towards a power outlet.
Specifications
The excitement plateaus as we discover that the handy capable mobile phone will be powered by a dated Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 system on a chip, Adreno 403 GPU, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage.
Other options will include 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. Don’t be perturbed as the Zenfone 3 Zoom will utilize a hybrid dual nano SIM tray that allows memory expansion of up to 128GB.
The display will be 5.5inches of 1080p goodness brought together by an AMOLED setup clad in 2.5D curved Gorilla Glass 5.
If the specifications sound familiar, we are basically looking at the hybrid of a Zenfone 3 Max, a Zenfone 3 Laser and a Zenfone 3 merged into a do-it-all-at-once device with long lasting capabilities.
read:
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Aside from the mentioned, the experience is a standard affair as the bloated and skin heavy ZenUI 3.0 on top of Android Marshmallow 6.0 remains unchanged as well as the button placements and the non-back-lit navigation keys.
Initial testing showed that the USB type C port supports 2.0 data transfers and the speakers emulate that of the Zenfone 3 with decent overall quality.
Expected to retail at about PHP 20,995 or about 420 USD this can-do-everything device will be the challenger of the Taiwanese manufacturer against that of the Huawei P9 and the LG G5 among other contenders in the mobile photography race.
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What do you think of the Zenfone 3 Zoom? Let us know at the comments section below.
If you have any questions you can hit me up on Twitter @ginuhit.
Keep it locked in on ManilaShaker.com.
Once again, this has been Drew.
Mabuhay, Manila.
Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom (un)Official PH Price, availability, release date, specifications
| SPECS, PH Price | Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom |
| Display | 5.5-inch 1080p AMOLED, 400ppi |
| Size | TBD |
| Design | Metal, antenna lines, plastic caps |
| Colors | navy black, rose gold, glacier silver |
| Chipset | Snapdragon 625 octa-core |
| Processor | 8x ARM Cortex A53 2.0GHz |
| Graphics | Adreno 506 GPU |
| Memory | 4GB RAM, 64GB internal, expandable up to 128GB via microSD slot |
| Main Camera | 12MP wide angled, and 12MP telephoto or zoom lens up to 2.3x optical zoom with LED flash, autofocus, phase detection |
| Multimedia | 4K UHD @30fps, 1080p@30fps & 60fps, 720p@30fps & 60fps, Auto HDR |
| Front camera | 12MP selfie camera |
| Connectivity | GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz HSPA+ : 850/900/1900/2100 MHz 4G LTE , WiFi b/g/n, Bt 4.1, GPS, GLONASS |
| OS | Android 6.0 Marshmallow |
| Software | ZenUI 3.0 |
| Battery | 5000mAh |
| Ports | USB type C |
| (un)Official Price | Php20,995k ($420) |
| Availability date | February 2017 |
| Where to buy | available locally through Asus concept stores and parter retailers and establishments in the Philippines |
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