ASUS Zenfone 5Z Launched In India: Can This Be The Perfect OnePlus 6 Competitor?

After much speculations, the Asus Zenfone 5Z has been announced in India and while we first saw the smartphone during MWC 2018 in February this year, we knew that it was going to take on the likes of OnePlus 6 and Honor 10, which are two of the best devices in the premium yet budget smartphone segment. The Asus Zenfone 5Z comes with almost the same internals as that of the OnePlus 6, however, it is now the cheapest smartphone to be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC, a distinction which was held by OnePlus 6 earlier.

While many might notice that the ASUS Zenfone 5Z comes with an iPhone X-like notch and critics might say that Asus has copied Apple’s design, Jerry Shen, CEO of Asus, has said that the smartphone was designed while keeping the notch in mind and the early design process started in Q2-Q3 of last year.

Other than the notch, the ASUS Zenfone 5Z comes with AI-backed cameras a huge battery backup which takes help of artificial intelligence in order to offer more juice and for fast charging capability and AI Display for auto colour temperature adjustment. There is also the AI scene detection feature present in the rear cameras to detect 16 different types of scenes automatically. On the other hand, the ASUS Zenfone 5Z also has a dual rear camera setup, ample of RAM and storage options, facial recognition for biometric and Android 8.0 (Oreo) out of the box, which comes with a promise of Android P update.

On the other hand, in order to offer a better audio experience, the company has offered the Zenfone 5Z with dual speakers having five-magnets as well as an NXP Smart amplifier, DTS Headphone: X for 7.1-channel surround sound and Hi-Res Audio earphone. The smartphone also comes bundled with a protective case as part of the box contents.

The ASUS Zenfone 5Z has priced in direct competition to popular smartphones such as the OnePlus 6, Honor 10, Nokia 8, Vivo X21, Mi Mix 2 and Honor View 10. Here we take a look at what the smartphone has to offer and has Asus indeed done a great job while pricing its new flagship killer.

ASUS Zenfone 5Z Specifications

• 6.2-inch Full HD+ (2246 × 1080 pixels) Super IPS display with 19:9 aspect ratio, 2.5D curved glass, 500 nits Brightness, DCI-P3, 1500: 1 Contrast Ratio, 95.4 per cent NTSC color gamut, Glove Touch support and Corning Gorilla Glass protection.
• 64-bit Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC coupled with Adreno 630 GPU.
• 6GB of LPDDR4x RAM with 64GB of storage, 6GB of LPDDR4x RAM with 128GB of storage, and 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM with 256GB of storage versions, all supporting expandable storage of up to 2TB with a microSD card.
• Android 8.0 (Oreo) out of the box with ZenUI 5.0 and upgradable to Android P in the future.
• Hybrid Dual SIM support (nano + nano / microSD) with Dual 4G VoLTE
• 12-megapixel rear camera with Sony IMX363 sensor, 1.4μm pixel size, dual-tone LED Flash, f/1.8 aperture, Dual Pixel PDAF, 0.03s Tri Tech auto-focus, Pro mode with RAW support, 4-axis OIS, EIS and a secondary 8-megapixel camera with OV8856 sensor, f/2.0 aperture, and 120-degree wide-angle lens
• 8-megapixel front camera with OV8856 sensor, f/2.0 aperture, screen flash and 83-degree wide-angle lens
• Fingerprint sensor at the rear panel and Face Unlock for biometrics.
• 3.5mm audio jack and FM Radio
• Dual speakers with NXP 9874 Smart AMP, DTS Headphone: X for 7.1 surround sound, Hi-Res Audio 192kHz/24b-bit, and dual microphones.
• Dual 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth 5, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz + 5GHz), GPS + GLONASS and USB Type-C (2.0)
• Dimensions: 153×75.65×7.85mm and Weight: 155 grams
• 3300mAh inbuilt battery which comes with ASUS BoostMaster fast charging support and AI charging capabilities

ASUS Zenfone 5Z Price And Availability

The Asus Zenfone 5Z has been launched in Midnight Blue and Meteor Silver options and the smartphone will be going on sale starting from July 9 exclusively through Flipkart. Coming to the pricing, the Asus Zenfone 5Z price in India starts at Rs. 29,999 for the 6GB of RAM with 64GB of storage version, Rs. 32,999 for the 6GB of RAM with 128GB of storage version while the top-end 8GB of RAM with 256GB of storage version has been priced at Rs. 36,999.

Here are the specifications of Asus Zenfone 5Z:

Coming to the launch offer, the ASUS Zenfone 5Z buyers can avail a flat Rs. 3000 off on purchases made from ICICI debit and credit cards while Flipkart is also offering its Complete Mobile Protection package at just Rs. 499. On the other hand, the smartphone will also be available with No-cost EMI options starting at just Rs. 3333 while Reliance Jio is offering Rs. 2200 worth of cashback for Jio subscribers in the form of vouchers of Rs. 50 each along with 100GB of additional data. While the data benefit will be of 10GB per month for the next 10 months, the vouchers can be used for buying consecutive recharges.