Its been a whole two years since Asus exited the flagship market segment in India, and today, the company is making a come back with the official unveiling of the Asus Zenfone Z5 with dual rear cameras. The device was initially announced about some month ago at the MWC in Barcelona but was never pushed to the Indian market probably due to strong competition from Chinese rivals.
The device much like the mid-range Zenfone Max Pro M1 is exclusive to Flipkart India and will go on sale on the platform from July 9th with a starting price of Rs. 29,999($438) for the base model with 6GB RAM, Rs. 32,999 for the 128GB storage variant, while the top-end variant with 8GB RAM+ 256GB storage goes for as much as Rs 36,999 ($540). Aside from benefits such as invoice free walk-in, free pick-up and drop, and device swap at service centers, intending buyers can bank on launch offers such as the flat Rs. 3,000 discount on ICICI credit and debit cards, Flipkart’s ‘Complete Mobile Protection’ at Rs. 499 (down from Rs. 2,299), no-cost EMIs starting from Rs. 3,333/month and Jio offer with Rs. 2,200 cashback and 100GB additional data.
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The ZenFone 5Z is a true Asus flagship device by 2018 standard. It is made entirely of a metal frame with a glass back with ASUS and a Corning Gorilla protected display. The device features iPhone X like dual rear cameras located to the left of the back, with a centrally placed fingerprint sensor below the camera settings. On the flip side is a 6.2″ FHD Super IPS display with the infamous notch and a high screen-to-body ratio that is above that of the Galaxy S9. The device comes with AI Display for auto color temperate adjustment akin to the True Tone feature found in Apple’s iPhone X. Humming inside the device is the same SoC found in most flagship devices so far released in 2018 – the SD 845 coupled with Adreno 630 GPU as well as Qualcomm’s AI engine.
Powered by a 3300mAh battery with AI charging and Asus BoostMaster fast charging, the ASUS Zenfone 5Z has a dual 12MP+8MP camera setup with Dual LED Flash, f/1.8 aperture lens, PDAF, 1,4um pixel size, Optical Image Stabilization, Face detection, Manual Focus and Raw Capture, while an 8MP selfie shooter sits inside the display notch. It runs with Android 8 Oreo with ASUS Zen UI out of the box but should be able to get Android P update when available. Connectivity wise, the device has onboard 4G VoLTE, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac (2.4GHz/ 5GHz), NFC, Bluetooth v5.0, FM radio, USB OTG, GPS/ A-GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, USB Type-C (Gen1), and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
At Rs. 29,999($438) for the base model with 6GB RAM, the Zenfone 5Z will be an edge over the OnePlus 6 in the Indian market, pending the arrival of the Mi 8, LG G7 ThinQ and even the Xperia XZ2.
