We are happy to announce that the new ASUS ZenFone 2 is available for purchase in Canada at an unlocked price starting at $249. The ZenFone 2 is available for purchase at Newegg, NCIX, Canada Computers and Memory Express. The ZenFone 2 will be sold in two different configurations – one with an Intel Atom Z3560 64-bit quad-core processor clocked at 1.8GHz with 2GB of RAM and 16GB storage, for $249 CAD; and the more powerful Intel Atom 64-bit Z3580 quad-core CPU clocked at 2.3 GHz with 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage for $379 CAD. The ZenFone 2 does offer expansion up to 64GB of additional memory via a microSD card slot.
ASUS unveiled the ZenFone 2 line this past January at CES and everybody was curious about the specs versus cost of the device. The smartphone has slowly made its way to North America by way of Asia and Europe. We have not seen too many ASUS smartphones in North American, but the few that have made it, went to AT&T in the US. In collaboration with Intel’s newly released Atom chipset, the Taiwanese company is forging its way into our everyday lives. Intel was late to the smartphone party and this is a way for them to get some exposure. Their Atom chipset is using low-powered x86-based Silvermont cores and a PowerVR GPU. When you saw the words, “Intel Inside” on a PC or laptop, you know you were getting the best – the question now is can they parley that feeling inside a smartphone.
Once you get past the processor and memory, both models are identical. They sport a 5.5-inch IPS LCD Full HD display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and 403 pixels-per-inch. A 13MP sensor is used for the main camera with autofocus and a dual-tone LED flash and a 5MP front-facing camera (FFC) will capture social media selfies and video chatting. It will be running Android 5.0 out-of-the-box with ASUS’ ZenUI as an overlay. The ZenFone 2 is a dual-SIM device and has LTE-Advanced band access for speeds up to 250Mbps for downloading. The ZenFone 2 will work on the following bands – GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz) – UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100 MHz) – and LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 17, 20). The LTE bands will work across all Canadian carriers and the HSPA+ ensures that it will work on WIND Mobile, Mobilicity, Videotron and others. Both variants will be available in red, black, gray and silver.