Asus' flagship ZenFone 2 lands in the US and Canada tomorrow, starting at $199 off-contract

[Shawn Knight]

Asus is bringing its flagship smartphone, the ZenFone 2, to the US and Canada. Starting tomorrow, the handset will be available in two flavors with pricing starting at $199 off-contract. Here’s everything you need to know about the new phablets.

Both handsets will ship with a 5.5-inch, 1080p display (403 PPI) that’s coated with Gorilla Glass 3 and embedded in a brushed aluminum chassis. As for internals, the cheaper of the two new phones will include an Intel Z3560 quad-core processor ticking along at 1.8GHz with 2GB of RAM on tap and 16GB of internal storage.

The beefier of the two will be powered by Intel’s Z3580 quad-core running at 2.33GHz. It’ll also have twice as much RAM at 4GB and 64GB of flash storage. The speedier of the two phones will set you back an additional $100 but will likely be worth it, especially for power users.

Each handset will come with a 13-megapixel rear camera with f/2.0 aperture lens and a 5-megapixel front-facing shooter. A large 3,000mAh battery should keep Android 5.0 Lollipop (with a custom Asus overlay) up and running for a full day. And as you’d expect from a modern smartphone, it’ll come equipped with LTE Cat4.

Both will be available in red, black, gray and silver from May 19. Look for them at Amazon, B&H, Groupon and Newegg in the US and Newegg.ca, NCIX.com, Canada Computer and Memory Express in Canada.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/60710-asus-flagship-zenfone-2-lands-us-canada-tomorrow.html

 

[hahahanoobs]

I'm interested in this phone. Will TS be doing a review?

 

[veLa]

All of a sudden I'm reconsidering the G4.

 

[Burty117]

I have to admit, that is pretty swanky! I'm tempted to go Android more and more...

 

[misor]

A flagship phone for 200$ off-contract?
aren't high-end phones usually cost north of 500$ or did I miss something?

on second note, I found PH pricing:
ASUS Zenfone 2 ZE551M, 5.5" full HD IPS, lte/hspa+/3g/wifi, 13mp rear cam, 5mp front cam
2.3GHz, 64gb, 4gb ram
Php 14,995

2.3GHz, 32gb, 4gb ram
Php13,995

1.8ghz, 32gb, 2gb ram
Php9,995

ASUS Zenfone 2 ZE500CL, 5" 720p IPS
16gb, 2gb ram, 8mp front cam, 2mp rear cam, lte/hspa+/3g/wifi/bluetooth, microsim, 2500mAh battery
Price:Available at Php7,995

on this price range (~8000php-15000php), these asus offerings will be in the same league with Microsoft lumia 640 and 640XL.

 

[Greg S]

A flagship phone for 200$ off-contract?
aren't high-end phones usually cost north of 500$ or did I miss something?

It will actually be $299 for the flagship model of this Asus phone. $199 is for the lower spec'd version. Still though, it's tempting for the price.

 

[mosu]

Not tempted because of Intel inside(r). I love my privacy.So, no phone, no tablet & no computer with Intel processors.

 

[Kevin82485]

I really need to get rid of Sprint so I can get on a GSM carrier. I'm missing all these sweet phones because Sprint is CDMA. I have Sprint Framily Plan though so I'm only paying $55 a month cost of phone included. It's hard to break away when I get it so cheap.

 

[hexDb]

Amazing its a worth Buy
I got one few Days back 4gb Ram. 2.3 ghz 32gb memory, it got it in INR 19999 Approximately 315 USD,
Guys this is an amazing phone especially these specs ant this price. using it for a week. no problems and amazing performance. the bad thing it comes with lot of bloatware. lot of applications installed by asus. I wish I could install pure android.

MIUI is the best rom no bloatware. only simple apps not even useless google apps. I wish I could install MIUI rom on Asus Zenfone 2

 

[hexDb]

Not tempted because of Intel inside(r). I love my privacy.So, no phone, no tablet & no computer with Intel processors.

Come on!!! Whatever u buy intel, snapdragon, amd , or Apple everything have backholes and govt can spy into any device. It's reality...no privacy is there now if you use any gadget.