Dual-Camera Equipped Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom Now Finally Official

After being spotted at TENAA listing in early December of 2016, the dual-12MP camera equipped smartphone from Asus called the Zenfone 3 Zoom is now finally revealed. The official announcement was made at Asus Zennovation event that was held on January 5th, during the CES 2017 week in Las Vegas. This is actually first of the two new Zenfone devices that was unveiled Asus, the other one is Tango-enable phone named Zenfone AR.

As you may have already guessed, the Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom is the official follow up to last year's Zenfone Zoom smartphone that was locally launched during the Sinulog Festival in Cebu. However, in terms of design, it does not look very much like its predecessor. Gone is the bulging camera lens on the original Zenfone Zoom's back panel. What users will now get is a two camera lenses with 12MP each, and this is the main star of this device.

The main camera on the back is pegged at 12MP with new technology Asus calls "SuperPixel" that promises the camera to work better in fast focusing and in low light scenes as well as in noise reduction algorithm. It has Sony IMX362 sensor, Dual-Pixel PDAF, 2.5x Light Sensitivity and 2nd Generation Laser Autofocus. The second 12MP rear camera is equipped with 2.3x Optical Zoom which if combined together with the digital zoom functionality can reach up to 12x total zoom. A 59mm focal length is also on-board this second camera. The two shooters work in concert to produce photography worth images including those photos with blurred background in Portrait Mode.

With a single tap on the camera screen, users can take advantage of the 2.3x optical zoom. This means the shooter can get closer to the subject with the user actually moving towards the subject and without losing any image quality since they are dealing with the phone's optical zoom and not digital. Beyond the 2.3x will be digital zoom up to 12x. Optical Image Stabilization aka OIS, 4K recording, and F/1.7 aperture are also in this phone.

Smartphones with two rear cameras is now becoming the trend in the industry. Huawei's P9 and P9 Plus and Apple's iPhone 7 Plus are just some of the most popular smartphones in this category.

Now in the front panel, there is a 13MP camera with Sony IMX 214 sensor and f/2.0 aperture for the best selfie photos possible.

In addition to the dual rear cameras, one of the stunning features of the Zenfone 3 Zoom is its battery pack. At only 8mm thick, Asus managed to pack in a massive 5000mAh battery inside it. That huge of a battery can last the phone turned on for up to 42 days on standby mode.

Is it a flagship device? Not really, it's more of a midranger smartphone. The Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom sports a 5.5-inch Full HD AMOLED display. Inside it is a 2.0GHz octa-core Snapdragon 625 processor paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB internal storage. It does support microSD card up to 128GG for storage expansion but with the use of the second SIM card slot. See more specs below.

Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom specs:

• 5.5-inch Full HD AMOLED Display
• 1920 x 1080 resolution
• 2.0GHz octa-core Snapdragon 625 processor
• Adreno 506 GPU
• 4GB RAM
• 64GB internal storage
• Supports microSD card up to 128GB
• 12MP dual-rear camera with 2.3x Optical Zoom
• 13MP front camera
• Android 6.0 Marshmallow with ZenUI 3.0
• 4G LTE
• Dual-SIM (hybrid type)
• WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS
• 3.5mm jack
• USB-C
• Fingerprint Scanner
• 5,000mAh battery

Asus did not mention how much the Zenfone 3 Zoom is going to be for. But said that it will be available sometime in February 2017. A post from YugaTech claimed they were told pricing is not to exceed Php20K mark.