ASUS ZenFone 5 and ZenFone 5Z launched with Smart AI, Dual-lens camera setup

Asus announced their latest flagship from the ZenFone 5 series along with a few other phones, the Asus ZenFone 5Z and the ZenFone 5 come with a 6.2-inch display and have a dual camera setup that harnesses the power of Artificial Intelligence. The devices both come with very identical designs and vary only in terms of specifications, The Asus ZenFone 5Z is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset and has AI enhanced features that make use of the Qualcomm Artificial Intelligence Engine while the ZenFone 5 comes with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 processor. The ZenFone 5Z has 8GB RAM and 256GB of internal storage for the best performance while the ZenFone 5 slightly cuts it down to 6GB RAM and 64GB Storage. Talking about the camera, the manufacturer has placed a lot of emphasis on the Optics and AI implementation to make it better.

The Asus ZenFone 5Z and the ZenFone 5 come with the flagship Sony® IMX363 sensor which is a 120° wide-angle lens as the secondary camera and uses AI enhanced camera features for Auto Scene Detection, Real-time portrait mode, AI Photo Learning ability and real-time beautification of images. The ZenFone 5Z and the ZenFone 5 have been built with the best of premium materials and have an extremely slim bezel which gives the device an all-screen design increasing the screen-to-body ratio to its ultimate potential of 90%. Despite the 6.2-inch display, the devices come with the form-factor of a 5.5-inch smartphone and are covered in metal and glass all around.

In these devices, the manufacturer has emphasized on a few details such as the Performance, AI, Cameras, Display and Audio which helps make the device an all-around performer.

Performance

In terms of performance, the ZenFone 5Z is powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset that helps the device with the Artificial Intelligence enhancements being offered while the ZenFone 5 comes with a more modest Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 chipset powered by Adreno 509 GPU. The chipset on the ZenFone 5Z comes with the 3^rd generation AI platform that has the Hexagon 685 Vector DSP and Adreno 630 Graphics and the Kryo 385 architecture GPU. This is aided by the 8GB RAM that the device comes with, internal storage on the device is a massive 256GB and the ZenFone 5Z delivers the best in terms of accelerated AI experience using the SoC hardware acceleration. Both the devices are kept cool using four slim carbon cooling pads that help dissipate the heat efficiently and keep the devices cool under extreme loads.

The battery on both the smartphones have a capacity of 3300mAh, this in sync with the battery optimizations being offered help pull the device battery backup to impressive levels. The ZenFone 5Z and the ZenFone 5 come with ASUS BoostMaster Fast charging technology and the company goes a step ahead in introducing the revolutionary AI charging to maximize the battery lifespan and provide an overall better experience. This technology dynamically adjusts the charging rate by keeping a track of the user’s charging cycles and thus helps slow down the battery aging.

Camera Optics

The ASUS ZenFone 5Z and the ZenFone 5 come with a dual camera setup consisting the Sony® IMX363 sensor having a pixel size of 1.4µm a bright f/1.8 aperture paired with a six-element lens that captures images up to 5 times brighter and clearer in low light conditions. There is also a wide-angle lens that offers a 120-degree field of view enabling you to capture expanded landscapes and easier group shots in cramped up spaces. The camera can record in 4K UHD resolution and has three axis electronic image stabilization to make the videos better.

The ZenFone 5Z and the ZenFone 5 also comes with dual-pixel phase detection autofocus that helps it gain a lock on the focus in just 0.03 seconds, this paired with the 4-axis optical image stabilization helps record some of the best video clips even when zoomed in.  Apart from the hardware features of the camera, the company has placed emphasis on the AI part of the camera and it uses special enhancement features to adapt and learns as the device gets used, thereby helping the device deliver perfect photos each time the user clicks a shot.

Some of the AI based camera features include the following.

AI-Based Scene detection

The ASUS ZenFone 5Z and the ZenFone 5 come with AI scene detection that harvests the power of AI to analyze the image and then compares it to one of 16 trained scene types to then optimize the camera settings for the best result. This helps the device come up with some of the perfect shots in an effortless manner, the ZenFone 5Z and the ZenFone 5 use big-data analysis to enhance the scene-detection algorithms and the performance only gets better with usage.

Real-time portrait capture

The ZenFone 5Z and the ZenFone 5 come with professional grade real-time portrait capturing that allows users to take professional close up shots of people or other objects with the right amount of bokeh. The Real-Time portrait feature with AI technology helps ensure that the main subject always stays sharp while rest of the background is blurred out with a sense of depth using a progressive bokeh effect.

Pro Mode

The ZenFone 5Z and the ZenFone 5 come with a powerful pro mode that gives complete control to the users allowing them to change advanced features like the white balance, focus, ISO and even shutter speed ranging from 1/10000 to 32 seconds. The devices also support capturing in RAW format giving you more control on the captures.

Display

Asus has chosen to go with an ultra slim bezel profile that helps bring the screen-to-body ratio to a staggering 90% on the 6.2-inch ZenFone 5 and the ZenFone 5Z by going with the unique 19:9 aspect ratio.This uncommon aspect ratio brings a notch to the device, this notch is automatically hidden when a video is being played and automatically adjusts the display to the content being displayed. The 2.5D curved glass helps deliver an impressive visual experience for the users and the display also supports DCI-P3 color space with wide color gamut thereby enhancing the color saturation. The ZenFone 5 and 5Z implement intelligent display technology that uses sensors to automatically adjust the display’s color temperature based on the ambient lighting conditions. The device also comes with Smart Screen on that keeps the device awake as long as a face is detected.

Audio

The ZenFone 5 and the ZenFone 5Z come with a five-magnet stereo speaker setup that delivers deep, rich and expanded stereo sound driven by dual smart amplifiers ensuring maximum volume without causing damage. The devices also support Hi-Res Audio files encoded at up to 24-bit/192KHz that is four times better than CD quality. The ZenFone 5 and the ZenFone 5Z are both supplied with Hi-Res audio capable earbuds that enhance the listening experience and the devices also support DTS for a 7.1 channel virtual surround experience over headsets.

Integrated Smartness

The ZenFone 5 and the ZenFone 5Z come with smart face unlock that unlocks the device in just 0.1 seconds, you can alternatively use the Fingerprint unlock technology that still takes a very acceptable 0.3 second to unlock the device. The NFC capability allows for the secure use of Google Pay to make payments using your credit and debit cards. The AI Ringtone functionality automatically adjusts the volume to be heard amongst the ambient noise, this helps the users be aware of the calls even in busy environments while not getting embarrassed by load ringing in more silent environments. There is also ZeniMoji that comes with both the smartphones allowing users to create their own avatars and use their facial expressions and voices to send in chats or use in live-streaming.

Availability

The Asus ZenFone 5 will be available starting March 2018, the ZenFone 5 will be available April onwards and the availability of the ZenFone 5Z will be June onwards. The ZenFone 5Z will be coming in three variants with options of 4GB RAM + 64GB Storage, 6GB RAM +128GB Storage or 8GB RAM + 256GB Storage. The pricing of the Asus ZenFone 5Z will be starting at 479 EUR.