You could be forgiven for thinking that the Asus Zenfone 5 is an iPhone X clone from some unknown manufacturer in China. The new handset from Asus looks quite similar to the iPhone X, it even has a notch in the display. Asus has actually launched two variants of this device, the regular Zenfone 5 and the Zenfone 5Z, it’s the latter that features the Snapdragon 845 processor.
The Zenfone 5 and Zenfone 5Z are more or less the same as far as the specifications are concerned with only a few changes. Both devices have the same 6.2 inch display that Asus has managed to find inside the same sized body as the 5.5 inch Zenfone 4 thanks to a 90 percent screen-to-body ratio.
The 19:9 aspect ratio LCD display has a 2240×1080 pixel resolution. The notch appears to be quite similar to that of the iPhone X but Asus claimed during the event at MWC 2018 today that the notch is 26 percent smaller than the “Fruit Phone X.” The notch houses the LED indicator, receiver, front camera, and proximity and light sensors.
The Zenfone 5 is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 636 processor with 64GB of storage and 4GB/6GB RAM options. The Zenfone 5Z kicks things up a notch, pun intended, with the Snapdragon 845 processor and up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Immersive audio is promised by the handset’s five-magnet stereo speakers with dual smart amplifiers for maximum volume. It has support for Hi-Res Audio files encoded up to 25-bit/192KHz.
The new flagship touts Sony’s latest IMX363 1.4μm pixels camera at the back with f/1.9 aperture and 8 megapixel 120 degree wide angle secondary camera. Asus has introduced its own take on the iPhone X’s Animoji and it’s calling the feature ZeniMöji. It’s billed as a fun way to communicate which lets users create animated avatars using their own voice, facial expressions, and head movements. These avatars can then be used in video chats or live streaming as well as in text chats.
Asus has added several AI features to the Zenfone 5 as well. The AI Ringtone feature adjusts the ringer volume automatically based on the ambient noise level to ensure that users never miss a call. AI Scene Detection in the camera app rapidly analyzes the subject and matches it to one of its 16 scene types while AI Photo Learning lets users teach the device how they like their photos to look so that the camera settings can be adjusted automatically for future shots.
Asus is going to release the Zenfone 5 in April and the Zenfone 5Z in June. The latter is going to cost 479 euros when it’s released which will be around $480 in the United States.