Asus has been steadily building its line of ZenFone smartphones, and last year saw a camera-focused variant model, aptly named the Zenfone Zoom, that made its way to the Consumer Electronics Show. Now it seems the Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer is ready to bring it to the West as it announces a release date for its heavily anticipated camera smartphone in the United States.
The Asus ZenFone Zoom, which the company tags as the "most advanced photography-focused smartphone," is pegged for a February release. The company's latest smartphone features a 13-megapixel camera with a Panasonic sensor, as well as 3x optical zoom. Further details were sparse, however. But Asus says it will be offering more about the release on Jan. 20, 2016.
According to reports, the rest of the specifications is similar to the hardware sheet of the high-end ZenFone 2. With that said, the ZenFone Zoom features a 5.5-inch Full HD display with a layer of Gorilla Glass 4 on top; the revered 4GB of RAM that the ZenFone 2 heralded; a 3,000mAh battery; and an Intel Z3580 chipset as well. Storage options are also available in 64GB and 128GB variants, which are also expandable via a microSD card slot. Furthermore, its design is similar to the Nokia Lumia 1020, albeit it comes in a leather casing instead of a colorful polycarbonate plastic.
However, the ZenFone Zoom runs Android 5.0 Lollipop instead of Android 6.0 Marshmallow. But with Asus launching the smartphone this year, the company may be pushing over-the-air updates to keep it up to speed with other smartphones launching within the same time frame.
As for the price, the Asus ZenFone Zoom will be carrying a US$399 price tag, and it will be available in "early February." It first arrived in Taiwan December of last year, and it seems India will follow next when it will be released in the country this month.
