Asus has big hopes for the Zenfone 3

According to a recent article in the Taipei Times, Asus is hoping for a lot of success with their upcoming June launch of the ZenFone 3. The market is getting tougher, but Asus was able to meet a lot of their expectations with the Zenfone 2. Can they build on their Zenfone 2 success with the Zenfone 3?

Nick Wu, Asustek CFO says that they are planning to sell 25 million smartphones in 2016 which is an increase of 25 percent from last year which saw sales of 20 million. He also says that they will be starting mass production in July, so keep this in mind if you’re planning on pre ordering a Zenfone 3.

Wu also indicated that Asus will be launching other phones in the second half of the year which should boost sales through the year to meet sales targets.

Jerry Shen, Asustek CEO, has said previously that they will be targeting the Zenfone 3 in emerging countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines and India. Included in this targeting, Asus is hoping for 3% growth in countries like Indonesia up to 18% and India up to 5%.

Some industry forecasts for smartphone sales are more conservative than the Asus  targets with the Zenfone 3. For example, Gartner Inc just recently suggested that the market will see a 7% increase only. That’s a stark comparison to Asus’ hopes for Zenfone 3 to grow their smartphone sales by 25%.

[source: TaipeiTimes.com]

 

Zenfone Zoom now available to buy in US

Pre orders are shipping and this means people will start receiving their unique Zenfone Zoom (ZX551ML) smartphones in the coming days. Of all the different models, this 3x optical zoom has stirred up quite a lot of buzz in the tech world. Asus pulled off a pretty interesting design that opens the door for even better phone photography.

B&H are selling and shipping the Zenfone Zoom for a price of $399. It comes in the color black for now. A couple other countries, Taiwan and India also have availability to by the Zoom model. Other countries availability we will update in the coming days.

 

Buzz builds for Zenfone 2 Deluxe Special Edition

Taking some of the past and injecting some of the latest and fastest hardware, Asus is showing off a likely last Zenfone 2 model. In terms of packing in the hardware, this phone has it. You want fast? This could be the Zenfone for you.

First, aside from the specs, the actual look of the Zenfone 2 Deluxe Special Edition is unique. The rear design is the same pattern as the Zenfone 2 Deluxe, but you get a unique silver color. In addition to that, the Zenfone 2 Deluxe Special Edition comes with a second back cover that is named “Carbon Night”.

Speed wise, this model is packing an Intel Atom Z3590 quad-core processor. If you want to compare this to the Z3580 processor, the Z3590 comes at a clock speed of 2.5GHz.

Price: $399.99 US

Here is a breakdown of the remaining specs:

  • 3,000 mAh battery
  • 5.5-inch screen
  • 1920 x 1080 pixel display
  • 128GB storage
  • 4GB RAM
  • microSD card slot for up to 128GB of removable storage
  • dual SIM card slots
  • 4G LTE
  • 802.11ac WiFi
  • 13MP rear camera, 5MP front camera
  • Bluetooth 4.0

Photo Gallery:

Would you buy a Zenfone Note style phablet?

Samsung have hit a home run with the Galaxy Note phablet and now in 2016 there is a growing popularity in bigger phones, pushing up against that 6-inch size. These devices also typically have stylus capabilities also.

Asus has already delved into the “Note” category of devices with their interesting and innovative Fonepad Note 6. With the Zenfone branding, Asus has yet to release a Galaxy Note competitor. Having a stylus pen and a bigger screen are two aspects that make the Samsung phablet such a success.

This begs the question. How interested are you in a Zenfone Note device that is of the phablet variety?

Two mystery Zenfone models show up on GFXBench (Z010DD and Z012D)

It’s difficult to take benchmarking information and draw accurate conclusions. These devices are still a mystery but what we can say is that these two models haven’t been seen before. Thus, they are at least a couple new smartphones from Asus that should be coming soon in 2016.

Z010DD Specs:

  • 1280 x 720 resolution
  • 5.9-inch display
  • octa-core Snapdragon 615
  • Qualcomm Adreno 405 GPU
  • 3GB of RAM
  • 24GB of flash storage
  • 12MP rear camera
  • 5MP front camera (both with full HD video recording)

Z012D Specs:

  • 1920 x 1080 resolution
  • 5.5-inch display
  • hexa-core Snapdragon
  • Adreno 510 GPU
  • 3GB of RAM

Our Analysis:

Currently the Zenfone 2 Laser is at 6-inches. The Z010DD is showing as a 6-inch display but is also sporting a fairly low resolution. This would appear to be a lower end model smartphone. The Z012D is showing a higher resolution, with a typical size screen. It’s worth noting also that the majority of the Zenfone 2 models were sporting the Intel processors, but both of these mystery phones are using Qualcomm processors.

[source: GFXBench]