ASUS has enjoyed some relative success with their ZenFone line of devices since they first launched a couple of years ago, and now it looks like 2015 is going to be the year they really go after the smartphone market. At least where the Far East is concerned at least. ASUS recently announced the new ZenFone 2, but that won’t be with us for some time yet and as such, they’re continuing with variants of their original lineup. Their latest introduction is the ZenFone C, a 4.5-inch variant of the original ZenFone 4 (pictured above) with similar specs and a very impressive price tag, rolling out in Malaysia first.
The ZenFone 4 we reviewed last summer comes with a model number of A450CG, where this new ZenFone C comes with a model number of ZC451CG. On the inside, we’re looking at a fairly budget affair with Intel’s Atom Z2520 running the show with 1GB of RAM to back it up. That slightly larger 4.5-inch display features a resolution of 854 x 480 which is hardly stunning, but at this sort of price, how much complaining can we do? Where storage is concerned, there’s 8GB of expandable storage on board and considering the cameras here are just 5-megapixel and 0.3-megapixels at the rear and front, respectively, you won’t fill that storage with photos any time soon. There is however, 5GB of free cloud storage space from ASUS’ cloud service.
The ZenFone C is not a device meant to show off the absolute best that ASUS can do, rather it’s more about offering an affordable smartphone to the key regions that need them the most. For MYR 349, which is roughly $95 US, this is a pretty decent device and like I said in my review of the original ZenFone 4, these are devices meant for the first-time smartphone buyer, teens and those not interested in spending hours and hours on their smartphones. For those people, ASUS have managed to create a line of devices that are great, and the ZenFone C should be a nice option for those in Malaysia looking for a good device without breaking the bank.