ASUS announces the ZenFone Selfie, a phone all about 13MP laser auto-focused selfies

The past few weeks, ASUS's mobile squad has been operating in "storm the market" mode, releasing aggressively priced smartphones that take no prisoners! After introducing the ZenFone 2, a handset that, with a few caveats, could be considered a fine "affordable flagship" for stateside customers, ASUS is back with the ZenFone Selfie.

Announced at Computex in Taipei, the ZenFone Selfie sort of mimics HTC's move of releasing the Desire EYE, which is, basically, its former flagship phone (the One M8) tricked out with a 13MP camera on its front panel. The ZenFone Selfie isn't as high-end as ASUS' latest and greatest, though. Its spec sheet describes a fine upper mid-range smartphone powered by a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 with an unknown amount of RAM memory (but we're pretty sure there are at least 2GB of the stuff in it). In addition to that and a pair of 13MP 1/3.2" Toshiba cameras with laser autofocus, the ZenFone Selfie boasts a 5.5-inch 1080p resolution IPS LCD screen, and ships with Android 5.0 Lollipop. Notably, the smartphone's front cam features an 88-degree field of view, which multiplies to as much as 140 degrees when the panorama mode is used.

Design-wise, the handset looks almost exactly like the ZenFone 2, down to the vibrant color selection. The Selfie phone will be available in seven shades, that is white, pink, and aqua blue out of the box, and optional metallic back covers in black, gold, grey, and red.

ASUS hasn't spread the word on availability in different markets, but so far in selfie-centric smartphone history, these devices have been positioned chiefly in Asian markets. Then again, ASUS' competitor from Taiwan, HTC, did bring its Desire EYE phone over to the United States, and we imagine that if ASUS wants to compete in this category and expand its mobile presence in the US, it will offer the ZenFone Selfie stateside as well.