14 DAY TRIAL // As expected, Asus has taken the wraps off its mid-range Zenfone 5 Android smartphone, which is to go on sale in India in the next couple of days.
Zenfone 5 seems to be a Flipkart exclusive, so customers in India may not be able to pick this one up from other retails. According to fonearena, Asus Zenfone 5 will be available for purchase in India for Rs 12,999 ($215 / €160) outright.
However, there’s also a 16GB Zenfone 5 variant that can be purchased in India as well, but customers would have to come up with Rs 13,999 ($235 / €170) upfront.
The smartphone will be available in various color options, including Charcoal Black, Pearl White, Cherry Red, Twilight Purple, and Champagne Gold.
The Zenfone 5 is not the only smartphone introduced by Asus India, as the company also confirmed that Zenfone 4 and Zenfone 6 would also be available for purchase in the country for Rs 5,999 ($100 / €75) and Rs 17,999 ($300 / €220), respectively.
“We are very excited to bring this premium luxury to consumers in India. When we set foot on this journey in search of incredible, we aimed to create the most extraordinary phone for everyone to enjoy. It fulfils every aspect of our Customer Happiness 2.0 – Beauty, Sound, Touch, Heart, and Ubiquity,” said Jerry Shen, Asus’ CEO.
Just like the other smartphones in the family, Zenfone 5 ships with the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean platform on board, but it has already been scheduled for a KitKat upgrade sometime in the near future.
The mid-range handset is packed with a powerful enough 2GHz dual-core Intel Atom Z2580 processor, a PowerVR SGX544MP2 graphics processing unit, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal memory.
The 16GB model should come with 2GB of RAM, but this has yet to be confirmed. The good news is that both versions feature microSD card slots for memory expansion (up to 64GB).
Also, Asus Zenfone 5 sports a 5-inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen display that supports HD (720p) resolution and features Corning Gorilla Glass 3 coating for extra protection against scratches and accidental drops.
The phone also boasts an enhanced 8-megapixel rear-facing camera that offers autofocus, LED flash and full HD (1080p) video recording, as well as a secondary 2-megapixel camera on the front for video calls.
The non-removable 2110 mAh battery that powers the Zenfone 5 should provide users with up to 350 hours of standby time or up to 18.5 hours of talk time. Keep in mind that Asus Zenfone 5 offers dual-SIM support, as well as Wi-Fi, 3G HSPA+ and Bluetooth 4.0.