We’re currently in the middle of the annual gadget fest that is the Mobile World Congress, held every year in Barcelona. Historically, this event has seen some of the greatest smartphones and consumer electronics released to the world.
Over the past few days, we’ve seen the launches of the crowd-favourite Samsung S9 and others such as an Airbus smartphone and a Land Rover Smartphone too.
But the latest releases from Asus is rather interesting.
The Taiwanese smartphone maker launched three devices in the new ZenFone 5 series. The three smartphones are the ZenFone 5Z, the ZenFone 5 and the ZenFone 5 Lite.
While there are several similarities between the ZenFone 5 and the iPhone X, in terms of design, we shouldn’t write it off as a blatant clone just yet.
Sure it features a similar ‘Notch’ on the top of the screen and an edge-to-edge display. Its cameras on the rear are also vertically-stacked on the left of the device.
Beauty and brains
The ZenFone 5Z and ZenFone 5 are the first-ever models to have Artificial Intelligence (AI) and feature "all-screen" displays with a 90 per cent screen-to-body ratio.
The price of ZenFone 5Z starts at 479 euros (Dh2150) and the device is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform with Qualcomm Artificial Intelligence Engine (AIE) and features up to 8GB RAM and 256GB on-board storage.
ZenFone 5Z and ZenFone 5 come with dual-camera systems that adapt and learn, the company claimed. And the ZenFone 5 is powered by the latest Snapdragon 636 mobile platform.
They are equipped with Sony IMX363 sensor an f/1.8 wide-aperture lens, 120-degree wide-angle secondary camera, four-axis optical image stabilisation (OIS) and AI-enhanced camera features, including AI "Scene Detection" for 16 different scenes and objects.
ZenFone 5 Lite is a 6-inch smartphone featuring the world's first globally-announced true four-camera system with a 120-degree wide-angle camera at both front and rear.
There is still no news on UAE pricing and availability.
- With inputs from agencies
