If you thought that the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Sony Xperia XZ2 were going to be the biggest unveilings at the MWC 2018 in Barcelona, here is the Asus ZenFone 5Z with segment-leading internals and a design which makes it an iPhone X-clone.
The Asus ZenFone 5Z comes with the latest flagship Snapdragon chipset, a massive 6.2-inch display which still fits into a form factor one would expect from a traditional 5.5-inch smartphone and intelligent dual cameras which comes with interesting AI capabilities.
For the unknown, Asus has launched their new ZenFone 5-lineup at the Mobile World Congress and the Asus ZenFone 5Z sits right at the top as the flagship offering. Other than that, there is the conventional ZenFone 5 and a ‘Lite’ version of the smartphone.
While only the ZenFone 5 was on display at the event, it was also unveiled that apart from a bigger and better Snapdragon 845 SoC chipset, the Asus ZenFone 5Z shares almost every internal with its conventional sibling, including the 6.2-inch Infinity display and an iPhone X-like notch.
Asus ZenFone 5Z Specifications
Asus ZenFone 5Z Specifications- 6.2-inch (2246 × 1080) Full HD+ 19:9 Super IPS display with 2.5D curved glass, 500 nits Brightness, DCI-P3, 1500: 1 Contrast Ratio, 95.4% NTSC color gamut, 90 percent screen-to-body ratio, Glove Touch support and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection.
- 2.0 GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 845 14nm Mobile Platform coupled with Adreno 630 GPU
- 8GB LPDDR4x RAM with 128GB/256GB of internal storage, expandable up to 2TB via microSD
- Android 8.0 (Oreo) out of the box with ZenUI 5.0 on top, upgradable to Android P
- Hybrid Dual SIM with Dual VoLTE and Fingerprint sensor at the rear.
- 12MP rear camera with Sony IMX363 sensor, dual-tone LED Flash, 1.4μm pixel size, 0.03s Tri-Tech auto-focus, f/1.8 aperture, Pro mode with RAW support, Dual Pixel PDAF, 4-axis OIS/EIS, a secondary 8MP camera with OV8856 sensor, f/2.0 aperture and 120-degree wide-angle lens.
- 8MP front camera with OV8856 sensor, f/2.0 aperture, and 83-degree wide-angle lens.
- Dual speakers with NXP 9874 Smart AMP, DTS Headphone: X for 7.1 channel surround sound, Hi-Res Audio 192kHz/24b-bit, and dual microphones
- 3300mAh battery coupled with ASUS BoostMaster fast charging as well as AI charging
- Dimensions: 153×75.65×7.85mm and Weight: 155g
- 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth 5, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz + 5GHz), NFC support, GPS + GLONASS, 3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio and USB Type-C (2.0) support.
Asus ZenFone 5Z Price And Availability
The Asus ZenFone 5Z will be available in Midnight Blue and Meteor Silver color options from April 2018 but the company is yet to make an official announcement about the pricing of the device.
However, the expected price of the Asus ZenFone 5Z is expected to start at $499 / €479.
Asus ZenFone 5Z Review (First Impressions)
Asus ZenFone 5Z certainly has the specs, while the AI sounds interesting which includes ZeniMoji (like iPhone X’s Animoji), camera’s artificial intelligence, AI scene detection to automatically detect 16 types of scenes including Food, Sky, and Animals, and AI Display with auto color temperature adjustment.
Other than that, Asus ZenFone 5Z has got a thin design, feels great in hand and have a gorgeous display which is everything one can expect from a 2018 flagship smartphone.