After launching six new smartphones under Zenfone 4 series, Taiwanese PC and tablet manufacturer Asus on Monday expanded its ZenFone smartphone series portfolio with the launch of a premium mid-range device, dubbed as “Asus ZenFone V520KL” in the US tech market. Priced at US$384 (approximately Rs. 24,600), the new Asus ZenFone V is now currently listed on US online mobile carrier, Verizon Wireless and the same will be soon available for purchase in the US pretty soon in Sapphire Black colour option. For qualified customers (Verizon subscribers), Verizon Wireless has listed the Asus ZenFone V smartphone on its website for $0 down payment with $16.00 per month for two years or 24 months. Unfortunately, the company has made no official announcements about the pricing details and availability of the Asus ZenFone V for other markets.
Technically speaking, the Asus ZenFone V comes equipped with a 5.2-inch full-HD AMOLED display with a screen resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and a Corning Gorilla Glass protection on top. Further, the company’s Tru2Life Video technology provides 150% sharper visuals delivering better contrast and clarity. The full-HD display also comes with EyeCare mode, that effectively reduces the amount of harmful blue light emitted from the LED display panels by up to 30 percent to make reading comfortable. The display has a smudge-resistant oleophobic coating and offers a 178-degree wide-viewing angle.
Under the hood, the smartphone is powered by a 2.15GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 quad-core processor coupled with Adreno 530 GPU to handle the graphics. In terms of memory, the Asus ZenFone V is backed up by a 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 32GB of eMMC internal storage, which can be further expanded up to 256GB via a micro SD card. On the software front, the Asus ZenFone V runs company’s proprietary ZenUI 3.0 custom UI skin, based on Google’s Android 7.0 Nougat operating system.
For photography, the Asus ZenFone V houses a 23-megapixel rear-facing camera with Sony IMX318 sensor, an f/2.0 aperture, dual-tone LED flash, Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS), and 4-axis Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) for steady photos. The camera also supports TriTech auto-focus that combines 0.03-second laser autofocus, phase-detection, and subject-tracking autofocus for clearer pictures. The rear camera is also capable of shooting videos in 4K (2160p) resolution and it has 3-axis EIS for shake-free videos. On the front, the smartphone features an 8-megapixel resolution front-facing shooter with an f/2.0 aperture for making video calls and capturing selfies. In addition, the Asus PixelMaster camera app offers multiple modes to enhance the photography experience further such as – Back Light (HDR) Mode, Low Light Mode, Real Time Beautification, GIF Animation, Night Mode, Manual Mode, Photo Effect Mode, Super Resolution Mode, Selfie Panorama, Selfie Mode and much more.
On the connectivity front, the Asus ZenFone V smartphone offers various connectivity options including 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS/A-GPS/GLONASS, a 3.5mm audio port, USB OTG, and a USB Type-C 3.0 port for super-fast charging and data transfer. Sensors on the smartphone include an Accelerator, E-Compass, Gyroscope, Proximity sensor, Hall sensor, Ambient light sensor, Ambient Light sensor and a Fingerprint sensor (front-mounted). The device also comes with an inbuilt mono speaker with DTS Headphone X technology for virtual 7.1 surround sound. On the battery front, the Asus ZenFone V packs a 3,000mAh non-removable battery with company’s BoostMaster technology support that brings the battery level up to 60 percent in just 37 minutes. Dimensionally, the handset measures 146.55 x 72.6 x 7.6 mm and weighs around 147 grams.
