Asus ZenFone Zoom With 3X Optical Zoom to Go on Sale This Month

Asus ZenFone Zoom was initially showcased at CES this year and was promised to be available in Q2 2015. The smartphone was once again showcased at IFA 2015, but without any concrete information about pricing or availability. Now, the smartphone is said to be designed with the photographer in mind is set to go on sale in Taiwan only now.

The company has announced that the Asus ZenFone Zoom will be available starting mid-December in Taiwan and will be available in two versions based on chipsets.

The ZenFone Zoom with 64GB of inbuilt storage and powered by a 2.3GHz quad-core Intel Atom Z3580 processor has been priced at TWD 13,990 (approximately Rs. 28,500) while another version with 128GB storage and powered by 2.5GHz quad-core Intel Atom Z3590 processor will come at TWD 15,990 (approximately Rs. 32,500). Rest of the specifications of the two versions is identical. The handset comes with faux leather rear back panel.

Running the Asus ZenUI based on Android 5.0 Lollipop, the ZenFone Zoom sports a 13-megapixel rear camera with f/2.7 to f/4.8-aperture, 10-element lenses with 3X optical zoom, OIS (optical image stabilisation), laser auto-focus and dual-color Real Tone flash. The company touts that with a thickness of just 11.95mm, the ZenFone Zoom is the "world's thinnest 3X optical smartphone offering up to 12X zoom-in effect." It also packs a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. Much like other ZenFone 2 series smartphones, the ZenFone Zoom also packs 4GB of RAM.

The ZenFone Zoom supports expandable storage support up to 128GB via microSD card. It features 5.5-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) display and sports Corning Gorilla Glass 4. Connectivity options include GPRS/ EDGE, Bluetooth, 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi, and Micro-USB. The Asus Taiwan listing confirms that the ZenFone Zoom supports Indian 4G LTE bands as well. The listing further says that the smartphone supports single-SIM (Micro-SIM); though we can expect the company to reveal a dual-SIM variant in India. The handset packs 3000mAh battery. It includes sensors such as accelerometer, proximity, ambient-light, gyroscopic, and digital compass. It measures 158.9x78.8x11.95mm and weighs 185 grams. The ZenFone Zoom will be available in Glacier White and Meteorite Black colours. The Taiwan launch was first reported by ePrice.