Asus ZenFone Zoom now available in the US: 3X optical zoom and 64 GB of storage space on board

Just as promised, today, February 1, Asus started selling its ZenFone Zoom smartphone in the US. At the moment, the handset is available exclusively via B&H Photo, which is offering it for $399.99 unlocked.

Initially announced in January 2015 (over 1 year ago), the ZenFone Zoom wasn't made available until December 2015, when it went on sale in Taiwan, Asus' home country. It looks like the US is the second market where the smartphone is being officially released.

The Asus ZenFone Zoom comes with LTE connectivity, and can be used on AT&T or T-Mobile, but it doesn't work on Verizon and Sprint. The phone's main selling point is its 13 MP rear camera with 3x optical zoom and optical image stabilization. Unlike digital zoom (which most camera phones offer), optical zoom lets you take clearer and sharper photos of distant subjects. We haven't tested the rear camera of the ZenFone Zoom, so for now we don't know how good it is. What we do know is that the optical zoom mechanism makes this Asus device thicker and heavier than many smartphones on the market: 11.95 mm, and 185 grams. On the plus side, the handset is made out of premium materials, including leather (on the back) and aluminum (on the sides).

Powered by a 2.5 GHz Intel Atom Z3590 processor, the Asus ZenFone Zoom features a 5.5-inch 1080p display, 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB of expandable internal memory, and a 3000 mAh battery. On the front, you'll find a 5 MP camera that should be capable of taking decent selfies.

At the moment, the ZenFone Zoom runs Android 5.0 Lollipop, which is a shame, since Android Marshmallow has been available for quite some time. We assume that the smartphone will eventually be updated to Marshmallow, though Asus didn't say anything about this.

Let us know if you're planning to buy the ZenFone Zoom, won't you?


source: B&H Photo