Earlier this year, back in January, ASUS unveiled the ZenFone 2 line during CES 2015. We were all blown away by the price of ASUS’ latest mid-range device, but we were all wondering when it would be available. The ZenFone 2 has steadily been making its way across much of Asia as well as Europe, and now it’s finally going to be available in the US. Earlier today, the Taiwanese giant announced the ZenFone 2 for the US, and it’ll be available starting tomorrow at a number of retailers starting at just $199. If you were looking for a device with specs reminiscent of a high-end Android smartphone, without the price tag, it looks like ASUS has what you need.
The ASUS ZenFone 2 will be available in a range of colors including red, black, gray and silver and there will be two versions. The $199 version will feature a 5.5-inch Full HD IPS display, an Intel Atom Z3560 64-bit quad-core CPU clocked at 1.8 Ghz and 2GB of RAM, with 16GB of storage. For an extra hundred though, the $299 version features a whopping 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, a more powerful Z3580 CPU clocked at 2.3 Ghz and a BoostMaster charger which puts out 2 Amps at 9 Volts, charging the ZenFone 2’s 3,000 mAh battery even faster. Starting tomorrow, May 19th, both models will be available in the US at Amazon.com, B&H, Groupon.com and NewEgg.com as well as ASUS’ own site, presumably. Meanwhile, in Canada, the ZenFone 2 can be found at NewEgg.ca, NCIX.com, Canada Computer and Memory Express.
For $299, it’ll be hard to find anything else that offers quite such good value, and if you’re looking for more info you can read our review of said model here. ASUS have thought about pretty much everything when it comes to everyday performance in the ZenFone 2, and they’ve been making bold claims about their 13-megapixel PixelMaster camera. We’ve been impressed with the ZenFone 2 and it’s nice to see that the device is finally coming to the US in an accessible manner, but whether or not it’s the phone for you is for you to decide.