Asus has unveiled the ZenFone 3 Zoom at CES 2017, a mid-range Android smartphone that focuses heavily on delivering the best camera experience. The device looks much more impressive than its disappointing predecessor, borrowing elements from the latest iPhones while listening to the requests of consumers.
The ZenFone 3 Zoom's camera consists of two sensors and lenses, rather than the single sensor with optical zoom mechanism used in the previous ZenFone Zoom. Like the iPhone 7 Plus, one of these 12-megapixel sensors is paired with a standard f/1.7 25mm wide-angle lens, while the other 12-megapixel sensor gets a 56mm lens for 2.3x optical zoom.
Asus also boasts 1.4-micron pixels in each Sony IMX362 sensor they've used, along with Dual Phase Detection Auto Focus, support for RAW image capture, and 4K video recording.
The most impressive ZenFone 3 Zoom feature might not even be the camera, though. This phone packs a beastly 5,000 mAh battery, which Asus claims is good for 6.4 hours of 4K video recording; a task that quickly chews through battery on most phones. Despite this beastly battery, the phone only weighs 170 grams and clocks in under 8mm thick.
Other hardware includes a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 SoC, a 5.5-inch 1080p display, and, disappointingly, Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box at launch. Asus will be upgrading the ZenFone 3 Zoom to Android 7.0 in the future, but really it should have launched with the latest version of Android.
Interested buyers will be able to grab a ZenFone 3 Zoom in February for an as-yet undisclosed price.