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At $499+, would you say the new Asus flagship is as tempting as its predecessor?

By Chris P.

Updated: May 30, 2016, 4:05 AM

24comments

At $499+, would you say the new Asus flagship is as tempting as its predecessor?

While Asus isn't at all an obscure brand in general tech, its prominence in the smartphone industry has been limited in relative terms. That is, until the company released the Zenfone 2—and its many variants—at enticingly low prices. Considering its high-end specs and sticker price of around $300, it was probably no surprise to see it ranking highly in our review.

But the Zenfone 2 has come and gone, and obviously it was time for a refresh. And what a refresh it is! The freshly announced Zenfone 3 Deluxe is every bit the mid-2016 flagship we'd expect it to be. Ditching plastic altogether and flaunting a glass-and-metal body, the new star in Asus' phone lineup looks great, offers top-notch hardware, and will sell on the cheap—starting at $499 for the 64GB storage/6GB RAM model.

So you see the problem? The specs are better than before, sure. The design has also been improved upon and Asus is using more premium materials, sure. But these do add to the cost and that may throw some people. Thankfully, for those, the standard Zenfone 3 model should still prove a great bargain. But would you say that the Zenfone 3 Deluxe is as tempting as the high-spec'd variant of the Zenfone 2 at a lower price? Is the bump in specs and the superior selection of materials worth the price hike?

At $499+, would you say the new Asus flagship is as tempting as its predecessor?

The upgrades are well worth it, so yes

69.93%

I would've preferred the old value proposition, so no

30.07%

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Chris Panayotov is a former mobile tech reviewer of phones, tablets and wearables at PhoneArena. However, his contribution to PhoneArena content includes not just reviews, but all kinds of regular and experimental features, such as news stories, buying guides, and an exclusive column on the most notable phones out of Asia.