Asus is all set to launch its flagship smartphone series for this year, the Asus Zenfone 8. The series has been on swings in the rumor mill and was officially scheduled to launch on May 12 in the global market. Amid these official confirmations, news broke out that the company is planning to toss the series in the Indian market as well. It was said that the series will debut in May of this year but there wasn’t any official confirmation from the company. Now, a tweet from Dinesh Sharma, the Business Head of Asus India has officially confirmed the arrival of the series in the region.
Well, before you get all buckled up, let us tell you that the launch has been indirectly confirmed but it has been postponed. According to the tweet, Sharma says “While the world is excited for the launch of our new smartphone, we at ASUS India have consciously decided to defer the launch till the current scenario improves” indicating that the global launch event is commencing but the Asus India team will delay the launch for now until the Covid-19 situation curtails in India.
Now that we know that the launch is surely out of the way, at least for this month, we can speculate cues for the next month. For now, let’s take a look at the specifications of the smartphone series.
The Asus Zenfone 8 series will comprise two phones, the Asus Zenfone 8 Flip and Asus Zenfone 8. The former is said to have a flip-camera that will swivel and can be used for both front and rear captures. The latter will possess a regular camera module. The duo is expected to power the same flagship chipset. Let’s briefly take a look a the phones.
Asus Zenfone 8 and Zenfone 8 Flip Specifications
Design and Display
The Asus Zenfone 8 Mini a.k.a the Zenfone 8 will be a compact offering from Asus. With a display size of 5.9-inch, the Zenfone 8 will sport a 120Hz refresh rate. It will be a punch-hole panel with Full-HD+ resolution. The screen will be a Samsung E4 AMOLED panel which will double up as an in-display fingerprint scanner. Interestingly, the screen will have Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protection.
On the other hand, the Zenfone Flip is expected to feature a mammoth 6.67-inch full-screen AMOLED panel. It will have support for 90Hz refresh rate and Full-HD+ resolution. As of now, we aren’t sure about its protection and the fingerprint sensor.
Cameras on the Zenfone 8 and Zenfone 8 Flip
In terms of the optics, the Zenfone 8 is expected to have a 64MP Sony IMX 686 sensor + 12MP ultra-wide-angle lens at the rear. It will boast a 12MP front-facing camera for selfie shots. One of the major highlights of the cameras will be the support for 8K video recording from the rear sensor. It will also support 4K slow motion video at 120 fps. The device will have pretty solid video capturing as it will be powered by OZO audio with three dedicated microphones.
The Zenfone 8 Flip will feature a motorized swivel camera with a 64MP Sony IMX 686 sensor + 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens + 12MP macro sensor. It will be the same camera for the selfies as it will swivel to be used as a selfie shooter.
Processor, Battery, and Software
Under the hood, the duo will come powered by the monster Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset paired with up to 16GB of RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.1 onboard storage. The Zenfone 8 will be backed up by a 4,000mAh battery with 30W fast charging support, whereas, the Zenfone 8 Flip will houses a 5,000mAh cell with the same fast charging solution.
The duo is expected to have a stereo speaker setup and unlike other brands, the phones will retain the 3.5mm headphone jack. Sources suggest that Zenfone 8 will have Hi-Fi audio playback with the headphone jack. The device will be able to be juiced up via the USB Type-C port at the bottom. Accompanying the hardware will be the linear vibration motor in both devices.
The 5G handsets will run on Android 11 out of the box with ZenUI 8 on the top. The series will have Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth v5.2 support.
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