The Taiwan based computer hardware and electronics company Asus announced today a new device in the marked called Asus Zenfone Zoom in the US first and in India as well in later this month, even though we had seen it’s release announcement in China last year itself. This device has got high end specs on paper paper, and unlike popular Asus budget models like Zenfone 2, Zenfone 5, this device is a bit high priced.

The unique aspects of this device are a camera on the back with 3X zoom, although it reminds the one present in Lumia 1020 with circular bump on the back. Asus already released 4GB RAM devices before, so it isn’t the first one.

Asus Zenfone Zoom looks like having curved Aluminum unibody frame design with plastic textured leather cover having metallic finish. If you talk about the display, it has a 5.5 inch Full HD IPS display (1920 x 1080 pixel resolution @403 ppi). FHD display would look sharp on a 5.5 inch screen with brightness, vivid color production and nice viewing angles all over. So, display wise, you wouldn’t expect any hitch. Coming to the dimensions, Asus Zenfone Zoom measures 158.9 x 78.84 x 5 ~ 11.95 mm. This device is thicker compared to other phones out there and it weighs 185 grams in hand with battery, which isn’t the lightest either. With leather back, one can expect to have good grip while holding this device in hands.

Under the hood, Asus Zenfone Zoom packs an octa core processor (Intel Atom Quad Core Z3590 (up to 2 core running at 2.5GHz) + Intel Atom Quad Core Z3580 (2.3GHz)) coupled with PowerVR G6430 GPU having with OpenGL 3.0 support. As I mentioned earlier, it has a massive 4GB RAM and comes in two storage variants – 64Gigs and 128 Gigs which can be expandable up to 128 GB via Micro SD Card. This guy runs Android 5.1 Lollipop with Asus ZenUI (Really? In 2016?). As you can see, this device packs a powerhouse inside which would give you great performance. This device can handle high end processing, multi tasking and HD gaming as well. Even though you wouldn’t find that much difference between a device with 3GB RAM and the one with 4GB, but still, the number is Good. Depending on the budget, you can choose the storage variant too, and then it can be expandable. So, you can load bunch of apps, throw in your favorite multi media content like photos, videos into this device. Even though I see coming with Android Lollipop is a down side, but we can expect OTA upgrade soon.

Now we’ve come to the another interesting part of the device, the camera. Asus Zenfone Zoom packs a 13MP Auto Focus (PixelMaster Technology, 0.03 sec laser auto-focus sensor, close-up macro photography (5 cm), dual -color Real Tone flash, BackLight HDR mode, Low Light mode, Manual Mode, Super Resolution Mode, Real time beautification, 10- element lens). Phew. This camera would definitely deliver great performance even on day light and also in low light conditions as per the specs on paper. It has manual settings just like a DSLR, so if you know how to operate them, you can get best out of that also.
Coming to the front side, this device has a 5MP (Wide- view, PixelMaster, Selfie Panorama upto 140 degrees) camera to take some nice selfies and engaging in video calling with far dear ones. On whole, this device is good with camera, it seems.

Now turning to the connectivity side, Asus Zenfone Zoom is a 4G enabled device. Other features are BT 4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, NFC, GPS (GLONASS), 3.5mm audio jack. It packs a 3000 mAh unremovable battery on the back. Even though number looks big, since it has to handle larger FHD display, octa core processor, you might get decent performance if you are an average user.

Coming to the price of the device, it’s been announced at $399 which would be approx. ₹26.5K. We would get missing details soon.

Spec Sheet of ASUS Zenfone Zoom ZX551ML

• Octa core processor (2.3GHz quad-core Intel Atom Z3580 + 2.5GHz quad-core Intel Atom Z3590 processor) coupled with PowerVR G6430 GPU with OpenGL 3.0 support
• 5.5 inch FHD IPS display (1920×1080, @403 ppi) with Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection
• dimensions – 158.9 x 78.84 x 5 ~ 11.95 mm; weight – 185 grams (with battery)
• 4GB RAM, 64/128 GB storage expandable up to 128 GB along with 5GB lifetime ASUS Web Storage
• Android 5.1 Lollipop With ASUS ZenUI
• 13MP primary camera with 3X optical Zoom (OIS, Laser AF, Real Tone flash, f/2.7-4.8 aperture) on the back, 5MP front wide view camera
• 4G; 3.5 Audio jack, BT 4.0, GPS, NFC
• 3000mAh non removable battery
• Black/White color