At its grand event today at One Esplanade in Pasay City, ASUS has finally launched the newest iterations of its popular Zenfone lineup, as it went #BackTo5, and welcomed a new breed of photography-focused smartphones. Meet the Zenfone 5Q, Zenfone 5, and Zenfone 5z.
Zenfone 5z
Photo: GSMArena
The leader of the pack, and the most powerful of the lot, the Zenfone 5Z features a 6.2-inch 19:9 display with FHD+ resolution, giving the phone a 90% screen to body ratio. Under the hood is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chip with an Artificial Intelligence Engine or AIE, along with 6GB of RAM, and up to 64GB of storage with microSD card support.
For imaging, the 5z has dual rear cameras composed of a 12MP main sensor, along with secondary 8MP sensor equipped with a 120° wide-angle lens. It also has OIS, 4K video recording, and AI-assisted scene detection. At the front is an 8MP snapper.
The Zenfone 5z also has dual 5-magnet speakers, along with three internal microphones augmented by ASUS Noise Reduction, Hi-Res Audio compatibility, and DTS Headphone:X support. It also has NFC, Bluetooth 5.0, and uses a USB Type-C interface.
Out of the box, the device runs on the new ZenUI 5.0 on top of Android 8.0 Oreo, and packs a 3,300mAh with ASUS’s very own BoostMaster and AI Charging capability.
Zenfone 5
The vanilla Zenfone 5 also has the same 6.2-inch FHD+ 19:9 display and screen to body ratio of 90%, but runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 chip, which offers a 40% jump in performance over the 630, also boasts AI capabilities, such as intelligently allocating tasks to the most suited portions of the chip, resulting to improved performance and efficiency. The device has 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage with microSD card support.
The device also packs dual rear cameras composed of a 12MP RGB sensor, along with an secondary 8MP sensor with a wide-angle lens. The main camera also features Night HDR, OIS, EIS, PDAF, 4K Video Recording and RAW file support. There’s also an 8MP front camera.
Like the z, the Zenfone 5’s main camera also features scene detection, and is able to adjust individual elements such as color and saturation to make each shot look better. It also learns from its user’s preferences, and is able to make the corresponding adjustments to the camera for succeeding shots.
The device also runs on the new ZenUI 5.0 on top of Android 8.0 Oreo, and packs a 3,300mAh battery with ASUS BoostMaster and AI Charging.
Zenfone 5q
The Zenfone 5Q is the most affordable of the lot, and runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 processor, along with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage expandable with a microSD card. It also features a slightly smaller 6-inch FHD+ 18:9 display. It’s also the only one among the three that doesn’t make use of a notch, and keeps the standard bezels.
The device sports dual rear and front cameras – 16MP + 8MP at the rear, and 20MP + 8MP at the front, with both secondary sensors fitted with a 120° wide-angle lens. The main camera also has PDAF, and is capable of recording 4K videos.
The Zenfone 5Q runs on ZenUI 4.5 on top of Android 7.1.1 Nougat, with an update to Oreo and ZenUI 5 on the way. It packs a 3,300mAh battery. No fast charging here, unfortunately.
Specifications, Pricing and Availability
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To check out our review of the ASUS Zenfone 5Q, click here. Catch our unboxing of the Zenfone 5 this Monday!
Emman has been writing technical and feature articles since 2010. Prior to this, he became one of the instructors at Asia Pacific College in 2008, and eventually landed a job as Business Analyst and Technical Writer at Integrated Open Source Solutions for almost 3 years.
