Taiwanese tech company Asus took the IFA 2015 event in Berlin, Germany as yet another opportunity to launch two of its major offerings – the ZenWatch 2 and the Asus ZenFone 2 Deluxe.
Considering how prolific Asus is as a smartphone maker, it was no longer surprising to see the company showing off its other smartphone offerings in addition to the Asus ZenFone 2 Deluxe, which actually came with the same hardware as its base model, the Asus ZenFone 2, but with different exterior design.
The Phone Arena describes the Asus ZenFone 2 Deluxe as the stylish version of the Asus ZenFone 2 ideal for those who want their handset to stand out and obviously a better-looking variant of the base model.
The Asus ZenFone 2 Deluxe features a rear cover design that is accentuated by a multi-faceted rear cover and chameleon-like coating that tends to change the color hues of the phone as the user tilt it around.
With its 5.5-inch display screen size and 1080-pixel resolution covered by a Gorilla Glass 3, the Asus ZenFone 2 Deluxe is very comfortable to hold and has the acceptable sharpness that users normally desire.
Interface and OS
The Asus ZenFone 2 Deluxe also features the familiar ZenUI interface and comes out of the box with Android 5.0 Lollipop for its mobile operating system.
The Asus interface gives the smartphone full added features and options, with more of them applicable for customization. Users can download and personalize themes as well as a plethora of the interface’s many aspects.
The handset also features the double-tap-to-sleep and double-tap-to-wake feature that really comes in handy especially to those who does not want to push the top-positioned power button.
The smartphone comes with either a 1.8GHz Intel Atom Z3560 processor or the more powerful 2.3GHz Intel Atom Z3580 quad-core chipset. Depending on the processor, it also comes with either a 2GB or 4GB or RAM with more amount of operational memory naturally fitted inside the phone with the faster chipset.
It also features a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera with a dual-tone LED flash and a 5-megapixel front snapper, which performs quite well similar to the Asus ZenFone 2.
A contemporary smartphone
The Asus ZenFone 2 was actually launched during the CES 2015 held in Las Vegas, Nevada in January this year.
It was unveiled along with another contemporary handset, which the Taiwanese smartphone maker called as the Asus ZenFone Zoom.
The Asus ZenFone 2 was already launched a few months later, made it to the global retail markets, and actually bred a lot of variants including the recently unveiled Asus ZenFone 2 Deluxe, but the Asus Zenfone Zoom have yet to see the light of day in global retail stores.
But during the IFA 2015, Asus has formally unwrapped the ZenFone Zoom, but the company still did not disclose when it will be officially hitting the markets. Speculations are going around that when the smartphone finally hits the market, it will have a retail price of about $400, notes Tom’s Hardware.
Given its name, it is obvious that the smartphone is more focused on the capabilities of its camera. The Asus ZenFone Zoom apparently features a 10-element 3x optical zoom lens, OIS, and laser AF. Asus is reportedly using Panasonic instead of Toshiba for the ZenFone Zoom’s sensor.
The Asus ZenFone Zoom’s camera is actually a 13-megapixel Panasonic SmartFSI sensor, which can turn four 13-megapixel images into one 52-megapixel super resolution images.
It also has full manual camera control, including adjustment of the shutter speed, exposure, white balance and ISO, with a dedicated camera shutter button, a smaller one to activate video recording, and physical controls for the zoom lens.