ASUS is perhaps not a name that many of us first think of when it comes to smartphones, but the Taiwanese giant is looking to change that, particularly here in the US. The ZenFone line of devices have been on sale for some time now, but only a few of them have ever been made available in North America. The ZenFone 2, which was announced way back in January during CES 2015 was one of those devices and it’s free to order from Amazon unlocked and ready to go, providing you’re on a GSM carrier, of course. Now, they’re introducing a new variant with another trick up its sleeve.
The ZenFone 2 Laser was announced earlier this year for customers in India, but this version is something a little different and actually ends up being a better device overall. For those particular folk out there, this version of the ZenFone 2 Laser will carry the model number ZE551KL and will cost $199 for a 16GB model and $249 for a 32GB model. As of right now, Newegg and the ASUS Store are listed as carrying the device. This version of the ZenFone 2 Laser still carries the same 13-megapixel PixelMaster 2.0 camera with dual-LED and yes, laser auto-focus, but it’s powered by 3GB of RAM (with no 4GB option) and a Snapdragon 615 octa-core CPU. A 3,000 mAh removable battery as well expandable storage join the sizeable list of specs for this 5.5-inch 1080p Android smartphone. Speaking of Android, the ZenFone 2 Laser will feature Android 5.1.1 Lollipop onboard.
It is becoming a little confusing which ZenFone 2 is which at this point, but at least with the ZenFone 2 Laser – in the US, anyway – they’re only offering up one SKU in two different sizes. This will certainly be a lot easier to keep track off compared to the three different models of the original ZenFone 2 and of course, the ZenFone 2E. Either way, this is another solid offering from ASUS and we hope to get our hands on one sooner, rather than later so stay tuned.