<div>Asus was always a well known brand in the computing world and when the company announced its Zenfone series last year, it established the fact that it has the potential to manufacture sturdy Android smartphones as well. The smartphones not only offered a great package, but received a healthy response from the consumers for its simple yet attractive design and a satisfying Android experience.</div><div> </div><div>The company announced Zenfone 2, an upgrade for the series, a couple of months back at CES 2015 in Las Vegas with various variants coming in at different price ranges and hardware configurations. The top end Zenfone 2 boasts a 5.5-inch full HD IPS display with slim bezels, however the display isn’t of very high-quality, but does the job well. On the inside there is a new 2.3GHz Intel Atom Z3580 chipset along with a staggering 4GB of RAM, making it the first smartphone in the world to pack such high capacity of memory. This 4-gig of memory makes the experience very smooth, and multitasking on the smartphone is just a delight. The 4GB version comes with either 32GB or 64GB of inbuilt storage along with a microSD expansion.</div><div> </div><div>Asus has done its homework and has crafted the smartphone nicely, although it seems like the designers were inspired by the LG G3. The back is made out of plastic with a brushed metal look and similar volume buttons below the camera lens, just like the LG G3. The only design flaw is probably the power button placed on the top edge which is hard to reach due to the large size of the device. Even if you do reach the button, it’s a little tricky to use as it doesn’t offer a good feedback. There is however a good solution as the new Zenfone 2 comes with a ‘tap-to-wake’ feature which wakes up the display when you tap the display twice and locks it if you do the same on any of the homescreens.</div><div> </div><div>The camera has also seen an improvement thanks to a 13MP f/2.0 camera dual-tone flash. It has an impressive HDR mode and a Manual mode which lets you manually set the ISO, shutter speed and the focus. For the selfie lovers there is a 5MP front camera with an 85-degree field of view and Selfie Panorama mode. Overall the camera performance is impressive for its class, but it is not the best that the company offers as it saved it for the Zenfone Zoom, which was also announced with the Zenfone 2.</div><div> </div><div>The smartphone also gives us a first look at how Asus’ proprietary ZenUI will look over Android Lollipop. The new UI now offers more customizations including themes, fonts, icons, etc. There hasn’t been a huge visual change but there are certain additions which make the UI experience great, especially a new privacy app which lets you lock your apps and files.</div><div> </div><div>If priced right, the Zenfone can be a cracker of a deal and give the likes of Xiaomi Mi-4, OnePlus One and even the Huawei Honor 6 Plus a run for their money. With an international pricing of $320 (Rs 19,800 approx) for the 64GB version and $288 (Rs 17,800 approx) for the 32GB version, the Indian pricing is not yet revealed but expected to be announced on the 23rd of April.</div><div> </div>
