ASUS has been producing great Android devices for a long time now and this year’s CES was the day that ASUS finally laid out solid plans for a range of smartphones. With the help of their good friends at Intel, they’ve come up with a range of devices that are not only affordable but, differ greatly in size, offering folks a lot of choice where screen size is concerned. ASUS has gone down the affordable route on the whole here and we really can’t blame them, with the high-end Android market dominated by Samsung, it’s probably best to spend your money entering a segment you might have a chance of making some money in. The Zenfone range comes in 4, 5 and 6 flavors which, as you’ve already guessed refers to their screen sizes. Here, we’re going to take a look at the Zenfone 6.
The Zenfone 6 features a 6-inch IPS display that packs in a resolution of 1280 x 720, which is in turn powered a dual-core Intel Atom CPU (of the Z2580 variety), 1GB of RAM and 13-megapixel rear-facing and 2-megapixel front-facing cameras. Specs wise, these aren’t the greatest devices and the Zenfone 6 is no exception but, considering this will only set you back $199, you can’t be too upset with ASUS really, can you? What ASUS is going for here is experience, and the Zenfone 6 features enough performance to get through everyday tasks at a satisfying clip and features some great little software enhancements to improve photos on the device. One such tweak is ASUS’s exclusive Pixelmaster technology, which works similarly to HTC’s UltraPixel system but, is in software as oppose to hardware. By lowering the resolution of capture in certain situations, the Zenfone can gain up to a 400% increase in brightness thanks to the technology.
Another area in which ASUS is changing things up is with their new skin, the ZenUI. With over 200 enhancements – according to ASUS – the ZenUI apparently makes it easier to get around Android in general and get to the apps and services you care about quicker than anything else. Speaking of Android, all of the Zenfones will be shipping with Android 4.3 but, ASUS has already promised an update to Android 4.4 KitKat. While none of the Zenfone devices support 4G LTE, it’s hard not to see why, when they cost so little. There are other devices in the Zenfone range, such as the Zenfone 4 and 5 which will retail for $99 and $149, respectively.