Right after the official launch of the ASUS ZenFone 5 and ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M1 smartphones, we had the opportunity to sit down with the top ASUS officials to discuss their latest smartphones. Get the inside scoop on the two new ASUS smartphones, and the direction of the ASUS Mobile team in this exclusive interview!
ASUS ZenFone 5 + ZenFone Max Pro M1 Exclusive Interview
Four top ASUS officials sat down with us for this exclusive interview. They are, from left to right, :
Li Huai Pin, ASUS Malaysia Business Development Manager (Mobile)
Rex Lee, ASUS APAC General Manager
Eric Chen, ASUS Corporate Vice President
Leo Tseng, ASUS Malaysia Country Manager
Facilitating this interview was ASUS Regional Director (Australia and New Zealand), Portia Chang.
Here are the key takeaways from this exclusive interview :
There will be something interesting coming up at Computex 2018 (It was the ROG Phone).
The market is trending towards mobile gaming, so ASUS will have appropriate products to cater to this trend.
ASUS is the top gaming notebook brand in Malaysia, with a 30% market share as of April 2018, beating the runner-up by 18 points.
The market share for ASUS smartphones in Malaysia is currently at around 3%, but ASUS expects to improve that with the ASUS ZenFone 5 and ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M1 smartphones.
ASUS expects to sell about 1,000 – 2,000 units of the new ASUS ZenFone 5 and ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M1 smartphones per day, which translates into an average of 45,000 units per month.
ASUS chose to decouple the Max brand from the generational numbering of the flagship ZenFone series, to allow faster and more frequent launches.
[adrotate group=”2″]Due to increased interest in stock Android smartphones, ASUS will look into creating more smartphones with stock Android, although they may not necessarily be under the Android One programme.
ASUS will provide the ASUS ZenFone 5 and ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M1 smartphones with at least two new generations of Android upgrades – to the future Android Q at the minimum.
ASUS is shrinking their product models in the new generation to reduce market confusion, and to keep prices low.
ASUS plans to launch the ZenFone 5Z in Malaysia in early Q3 2018.
The 6 GB version of the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M1 is in shortage worldwide, with an expected availability only around July 2018.
ASUS chose to use a wide-angle camera as the secondary camera because it’s more useful for landscape shots, and a telescopic camera produces noisy and/or shakier photos indoors.
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We were invited to the ASUS Zensation event on the 13th of January 2016 for the official launch and first look of the ASUS ZenFone Zoom smartphone. Thanks to a unique periscope arrangement of the 10-element Hoya lens array, the ASUS ZenFone Zoom is the world’s thinnest smartphone to feature an actual optical zoom lens! Join us as we take a look at this exciting new smartphone from ASUS.
Launching The ASUS ZenFone Zoom
ASUS held the exclusive media launch event at the swanky Pan-Asian restaurant, Ruyi & Lyn in Bangsar.
In this video, Li Huai Pin, Country Product Manager (Smartphone) from ASUS Malaysia gives us a technical briefing of the new ASUS ZenFone Zoom smartphone. He also revealed that the new ASUS ZenFone Zoom smartphone will be priced at RM 2,099 (~US$ 489) and available for sale by the end of January 2016.
Then Peter Tan, an award-winning photographer and photography judge, shared his experience trying out the ASUS ZenFone Zoom‘s photographic capability for the previous 4 days. He also showed off the various photos he took with the ZenFone Zoom, to demonstrate its photographic prowess.
The ASUS ZenFone Zoom was definitely designed to offer the ultimate photographic capabilities in a compact smartphone. The emphasis on its photographic features is obvious in its list of key features :
See the world up close: 3X optical zoom and OIS, 10-element lens, Real Tone flash and laser focus
ZenFone Zoom is the world’s thinnest smartphone optical-zoom smartphone, with a 13MP PixelMaster rear camera and 3X lens in a body that measures just 5mm at the edges. The innovative 10-element digital eye was created by the optics experts at Hoya. Glass, synthetic and prismatic lenses are meticulously configured in a dual-prism periscope arrangement to maximize incoming light and capture the best possible photo quality. Built-in optical image stabilization (OIS) ensures sharper, steadier shots every time — even at maximum 3X optical magnification.
The rear camera benefits from dual-LED Real Tone flash to create the most natural illumination for indoor portraits, generating the perfect combination of yellow and white to capture lifelike colors and skin tones. ZenFone Zoom’s rear lens also has laser auto-focus to point and shoot with total clarity in just 0.03 second.
Pocket-sized DSLR experience: Periscopic design, pro results and premium finish
Designing the word’s thinnest optical-zoom smartphone required innovative thinking, with ASUS engineers rotating ZenFone Zoom’s lens mechanism to create a compact, intricately-calibrated periscope-style layout. Coupled with a Panasonic SmartFSI® image sensor, ZenFone Zoom captures more light and more color — revealing detail and beauty in both natural and low-light compositions that other smartphone cameras will never see.
ZenFone Zoom’s design takes its cue from the look and feel of professional DSLR cameras, with dedicated buttons for shooting, recording and telephoto operations. Its strong unibody frame is precision-crafted to a metallic finish that’s cool and smooth to the touch, with a choice of premium Pure Black or sleek Ceramic White on the rear — and diamond-cut to create four stunning patterns across the back and sides. ZenFone Zoom even has an integrated a safety loop and many stylish strap options, for confident shooting from any angle.
The intuitive ZenUI Camera app makes it a cinch to capture professional-quality photographs. ASUS-exclusive Super Resolution mode applies multi-frame-fusion technology to create incredibly-detailed photos. Four high-resolution 13MP shots are fused to create a single image of with clarity that’s four times (4X) greater than a single shot. Night or day, ZenFone Zoom captures more detail and less noise — and Super Resolution shots of up to 52MP.
ZenFone Zoom excels at macro photography, enabling extreme close-ups as near as 5cm (2-inch) to reveal new and unseen worlds of detail, and is ready to turn pro with one tap — with Manual mode allowing instant adjustment of shutter speed, exposure value, white balance, ISO and a host of other professional-grade settings.
PC grade performance: 64-bit quad-core power, 4GB RAM, 250Mbit/s LTE and Full HD IPS display
ZenFone Zoom’s 64-bit quad-core Intel® Atom™ processor carefully balances brilliant performance and superb power efficiency, empowered by Intel’s sophisticated 22nm Silvermont architecture. Intel’s new Tri-Gate transistors have three times (3x) more surface area than planar transistors, enabling the flow of more electrons to increase computing performance and reduce power leakage. ZenFone Zoom also has a huge 4GB of fast dual-channel DDR3 RAM, and up to 128GB of storage as an option.
Featuring LTE Category 4+ for download speeds up to 250Mbit/s, and a 60ms touch-response time, ZenFone Zoom delivers fast, fluid experience anywhere; and with a high-capacity 3000mAh battery, users are able to work and play from dawn to dusk. ZenFone Zoom also benefits from exclusive ASUS BoostMaster[1] technology for turbo-speed charging taking the battery from 0% to 60% in just 39 minutes.
[adrotate banner=”4″]ZenFone Zoom’s expansive 5.5-inch 1920×1080 Full HD IPS display offers wide 178-degree viewing angles, and a fantastic 403ppi pixel density to render every image in eye-popping detail. The display includes exclusive ASUS TruVivid technology, which seamlessly transforms the conventional four-layer design into an innovative two-layer construction with full lamination. Fusing the cover-glass and touch-panel layers eliminates the air gap, bringing everything closer to the user’s touch.
The Corning® Gorilla® Glass 4 display offers twice (2x) the drop-damage resistance of its predecessor, a 2.5X increase in retained strength and is 85% less likely to break in daily use — making it safer and stronger than ever before.”
[1] The 18W BoostMaster adapter is included only with the 2.3GHz/4GB ZenFone Zoom model.
- 128 GB internal flash storage
- microSD card slot (supports up to 64 GB)
Location Sensors
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS
Other Sensors
Accelerometer, proximity, ambient light, gyro, digital compass and Hall-effect sensors
Connectors
- 3.5mm audio jack
- microUSB 2.0 port
Battery
3,000 mAh non-removable lithium-ion polymer battery
Dimensions
78.84 mm wide
158.9 mm tall
5 mm to 11.95 mm thick
Weight
185 g
Available Colours
Pure Black, Ceramic White
ASUS ZenFone Zoom Price & Availability
The ASUS ZenFone Zoom has been priced at RM 2,099 (~US$ 489) and will be available for sale by the end of January 2016. If you are overseas, check out these ASUS ZenFone Zoom offers :
