The Asus Zenfone 2 is supposed to be a budget phone but it does not feel or act like one. The design is not different or unique and it might remind you of some existing devices, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. It is made of plastic but does not feel cheap at all. It's actually put together very well.
The Zenfone 2 is dual SIM and has a micro SD card slot but the battery cannot be removed. Asus claims the Zenfone 2 is a 5.5 inch smartphone in a 5 inch smartphone body. It is a very sleek looking phone. It has a 5.5 inch screen with a 1080 resolution and a respectable PPI of 403. It is sharp, vivid and bright and easy to view in broad daylight.
Asus has a close relationship with Intel so it's no surprise they used Intel for its processor in the Zenfone 2.The base 5.5 inch model comes with an Intel 3560 and 2 gigabytes of RAM. The higher version features the Intel 3580 with a whopping 4 gigbaytes of RAM. The Zenfone 2 is fast and feels as responsive as a $700 phone. Animations are smooth and apps open quickly. Multitasking is a breeze on this phone. The speaker is located on the rear denoted by a very large speaker grill. The sound quality is fine but it does not get too loud. It also has a 13 megapixel rear camera.
The Zenfone 2 starts at $199 in the U.S. Asus, a Taiwan based manufacturer, made sure it made an appearance in Barcelona at the Mobile World Congress last March. This means they are seriously looking at penetrating the EU market in a major way. With their prices and quality to go along with it, they should seriously consider it.
The Asus Zenfone 2 is avalable in select markets right now like China, Taiwan and Europe. It will be released in India in the coming weeks but U.S. availability has yet to be announced. Available colors will come in black, grey, gold, red and white. The price will start at $199 for the base model and official pricing for the higher end models will be announced by Asus later this month. But you can expect the increase of price to range from $50 to $100 extra based on RAM and storage.
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