Asus has launched the Zenfone 5Z in India at a starting price of Rs 29999. The new affordable flagship smartphone will be sold via Flipkart exclusively and go on sale on 9th July. It is worth noting that there is a flat Rs 3000 discount upon using an ICICI Credit/Debit card, bringing the price down to Rs 26999 for the base model. The Asus Zenfone 5Z enters India’s affordable flagship segment and will be up against the likes of OnePlus 6 and Honor 10.
The Zenfone 5Z has all the makings of a flagship smartphone of 2018. The infamous notch also makes an appearance on the device. The notch, unlike the Xiaomi Mi 8, does not have any special sensors housed inside. The notch, however, allows the company to use a bigger display without drastically increasing the overall footprint of the smartphone.
The Asus Zenfone 5Z has a 6.2 inch Super IPS+ display with a 2246 x 1080 px resolution. This translates into a 19:9 aspect ratio, just like the OnePlus 6 which also has a 19:9 aspect ratio. With so many different aspect ratios prevalent in the market, it will become harder for content creators to cater to everyone’s needs.
Under the hood, the smartphone runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset. The flagship chipset is coupled with either 6GB or 8GB of RAM. In India, the Zenfone 5Z will retail in three models, one with 64GB of storage, the second one with 128GB storage coupled with 6GB of RAM. The third variant has 256GB of onboard storage and 8GB of RAM. The onboard storage will be expandable up to 2TB via a microSD card which will use up the second SIM slot.
The fingerprint sensor is placed on the back of the device in a central location. The company also spoke about the ZenEar Pro earphones which will be included in the retail box. This is something most affordable flagship devices don’t include in their packaging and Asus has in fact, claimed that its earphones are of premium quality.
As is with a flagship device these days, the Asus Zenfone 5Z has a dual-camera setup on the back. It consists of a 12MP primary sensor with an f/1.8 aperture and 4-axis OIS. The secondary 8MP sensor has a wide-angle lens with a 120º field of view. This implementation is different from a lot of other flagship devices which usually have a telephoto or a monochrome lens. The OnePlus 6, for example, has two RGB sensors. The notch houses an 8MP camera with an f/2.0 aperture and an 84º field of view.
The Zenfone 5Z has all the features of a flagship smartphone. Moreover, it severely undercuts the OnePlus 6 and Honor 10 in terms of pricing. The OnePlus 6 retails for Rs 34999 while the Honor 10 is priced at Rs 32999. At a starting price of Rs 29999, the Zenfone 5Z gives consumers a lot to think about before buying their next flagship smartphone.
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