ASUS ZenFone 2 / Zoom

[Strk]

No band 12 LTE for T-mo is the biggest issue for me.

My concern would be Asus selling a polished turd. I would just worry that they are going to skimp on something major or just failed to support it for even a brief period of time.

 

[Meruem20]

im planning to buy this phone..it looks good..it looks better than my LG and it's cheaper haha

 

[kpkp]

ASUS keeps its word and puts a stellar price for their new flagship.
Asus releases the Zenfone 2, slaps sub-$300 price tag on the 4 GB RAM model

• ZE551ML (5.5″, 1080p display, 4GB RAM, 32GB, Z3580) – 8990 NT$ (~US $285)
• ZE551ML (5.5″, 1080p display, 2GB RAM, 32GB, Z3560) – 6990 NT$ (~US $221)
• ZE550ML (5.5″, 720p display, 2GB RAM, 16GB, Z3560) – 5990 NT$ (~US $190)
• ZE550CL (5″, 720p display, 2GB RAM, 16GB, Z2560) – 4990 NT$ (~US $158)

 

[tipoo]

ASUS keeps it's word and puts a stelar price their new flagship.
Asus releases the Zenfone 2, slaps sub-$300 price tag on the 4 GB RAM model

• ZE551ML (5.5″, 1080p display, 4GB RAM, 32GB, Z3580) – 8990 NT$ (~US $285)
• ZE551ML (5.5″, 1080p display, 2GB RAM, 32GB, Z3560) – 6990 NT$ (~US $221)
• ZE550ML (5.5″, 720p display, 2GB RAM, 16GB, Z3560) – 5990 NT$ (~US $190)
• ZE550CL (5″, 720p display, 2GB RAM, 16GB, Z2560) – 4990 NT$ (~US $158)

Perfect! Thanks for posting that, I was worried about the rumours of a bait-and-switch with the low end model having a previous gen Atom. 3560 is good enough for me.

Can't wait for full reviews of this, hope AT does one. Seems like it might be the new value champ, and I want to upgrade from my Moto G now. MicroSD is a big appeal, could get by with bottom tier storage with it (though I'll probably end up going one higher given the other upgrades - the "(5.5″, 1080p display, 2GB RAM, 32GB, Z3560) – 6990 NT$ (~US $221)" one)

 

[Crono]

I wonder how much higher the pricing will be once/if it is available in the United States.

 

[kpkp]

I wonder how much higher the pricing will be once/if it is available in the United States.

The prices were announced at CES, it should be starting from $199 for the 1080p, 16GB, Z3560, 2GB RAM version.

 

[VenomXTF]

Why can't they just announced the release dates for all regions... I'd order this phone today if I could.

 

[r4sh1d]

Didn't they say they'd release a 64GB version though?

 

[kpkp]

Didn't they say they'd release a 64GB version though?

There did, the price for 4GB RAM, 64GB storage version in Taiwan is about $317.

 

[elitejp]

any hands on reviews yet? specifically picture quality(photos) and screen quality?

 

[r4sh1d]

There did, the price for 4GB RAM, 64GB storage version in Taiwan is about $317.

Thanks! Beautiful, just beautiful.

Cant wait to watch/read a detailed review on this thing

 

[darkswordsman17]

Definitely will be interested to see how these turn out. Hopefully availability will be good to especially if the quality lives up to the specs. The 2GB 550/551ML is definitely another interesting option in that lower-midrange. Would love a comprehensive comparison between the ZenPhone 2 lineup and the Lumia 640/640XL. The ASUS blows them away in SoC, but more interested in camera quality, display quality (expect ASUS to have the edge there too), and battery life.

Is the only difference on the 551MLs the RAM?

 

[kpkp]

Is the only difference on the 551MLs the RAM?

RAM (2, 4), SoC (Z3560, Z3580), storage (16, 32, 64).

 

[Strk]

The speaker looks like it is on the back?

 

[mmntech]

Asus is coming out with a smart watch alongside the ZenFone 2, because why not. Will cost $199.
http://androidcommunity.com/asus-takes-a-jab-at-apple-shows-off-zenwatch-and-zenfone-2-20150312/

All signs seem to indicate a North American launch though they still haven't announced a date.

 

[kpkp]

Asus is coming out with a smart watch alongside the ZenFone 2, because why not. Will cost $199.
http://androidcommunity.com/asus-takes-a-jab-at-apple-shows-off-zenwatch-and-zenfone-2-20150312/

All signs seem to indicate a North American launch though they still haven't announced a date.

The watch was announced a while back already (IFA 2014), nothing new here.

 

[rudeguy]

Are these available yet? I'll buy one.

 

[kpkp]

Unboxing

 

[r4sh1d]

Thanks for the link! Looks nice. I'm only worried about the speaker volume now.

Would the phone be able to connect to 4G/LTE on AT&T & T-mobile though?

Edit: It doesn't look like the battery is "easily" swappable?

 

[kpkp]

Edit: It doesn't look like the battery is "easily" swappable?

We will see if there is any glue or no. In case there is no glue i would guess it's just a few screws and a connector, similar to the Moto G.

 

[r4sh1d]

I meant as swappable as Galaxy Note, previous S series..etc.
I can't just carry another battery on me and swap when needed.

But looks like it's easy to replace since only a few screws needs to be removed to get access to the battery. I wanted to replace my wife's HTC M7's battery, can't believe the work needed to get to the battery! It's fun to tinker and stuff, but man it's getting ridiculous!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPkwWxX8PU8

 

[Roland00Address]

Thanks for the link! Looks nice. I'm only worried about the speaker volume now.

Would the phone be able to connect to 4G/LTE on AT&T & T-mobile though?

Edit: It doesn't look like the battery is "easily" swappable?

It has all the AT&T and T-Mobile bands besides band 12. Band 12 is the recently acquired 700 mhz frequency which is not in much use yet but when your market gets it will be superb for 700 mhz is great at building penetration (the lower the number the better at building penetration)

For more info go here where we had another zenfone 2 thread.

In that thread I listed the lte bands and benchmarks in post #2

The new dell venue 8 7000 has the same soc so it may perform similarly in benchmarks as the zenfone 2 (we wait and see) here is anandtech review on that tablet

 

[r4sh1d]

That post is fantastic, exactly what I was looking for; thanks!

 

[kpkp]

Here are all the supposed SKUs LTE bands.

WW (world wide I suppose) is what will come to Europe.

 

[Roland00Address]

What LTE Bands each carrier uses
Verizon Band 2, 4, 13
Sprint- Band 25, 26, 41
AT&T- Band 2, 4, 5, 12, 17
T-Mobile- Band 2, 4, 12

According to kpkp the US SKU

1,2,3,4,5,7,8,17,20

• So No Sprint Skus
• All the AT&T bands but besides 12 (700 mhz, a block)
• All the AT&T bands but besides 12 (700 mhz, a block), The Zenfone 1 came to the US under AT&T last year. Note this does include band 17 (700 mhz b/c block)
• All the Verizon bands but band 13 (700 mhz, c block) but it does have band 2 (1700 mhz) and band 4 (1900 mhz), but it is Verizon so they will do something to prevent a $200 phone which you can buy and still keep unlimited

Now verizon purposefully sold its band 12 spectrum to other people such as T-Mobile for while it owned it was hard to use. While both are 700mhz the band 13 is better for it has less interference from tvs and it is available in all markets instead of some markets. Furthermore you can't use one chip for transmitting 700 mhz at the radio towers so while you can reuse the same radio towers the towers would be more complicated to use band 12 and band 13.