The new Asus Zenfone 6 is just one of the many recently launched phones that show fullscreen displays with no notches or hole punches are among the big smartphone trends for 2019. The device was unveiled Thursday with several premium features and an impressive $499 price tag. The device is set to release May 23.
The Asus Zenfone 6 features a 6.4-inch display with a 92 percent screen-to-body ratio, which leaves no room for a front-facing camera. The manufacturer was able to resolve this issue by fashioning its rear-lenses to flip up and double as a selfie camera. The camera has a motorized mechanism that allows it to rotate up and make the lenses face front. The dual set up on the Asus Zenfone 6 includes a 48-megapixel lens with f/1.79 aperture, dual LED flash and 4K 60fps video with EIS, and a 13-megapixel ultra-wide sensor. Despite the oddity of this camera setup, it at the very least ensures that the photo quality for selfie and subject phones are the same. Some early reviewers have noted that the camera does appear fragile when flipped up.
One aspect that keeps the price of the Asus Zenfone 6 low is its FHD+ IPS LCD display. The device is already being compared to the OnePlus 7 Pro, which released earlier this week with a popup selfie camera to aid its fullscreen display. OnePlus has now begun to test its feature and pricing limits by outfitting the 7 Pro with an AMOLED display and a $669 cost. Asus has included some other specs to beef up the Zenfone 6, such as the latest Gorilla Glass 6 display cover, but not enough to have the device teetering into the premium range for pricing.
Another main feature of the device is its 5,000mAh battery. Asus claims the Zenfone 6 can support up to two-days of battery life on a single charge, but opted for an 18W fast-charger to keep the device slender.
Outside of the abovementioned features, the Asus Zenfone 6 gets pretty standard spec-wise. It features the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chip and Qualcomm Adreno 640 GPU. RAM options include 6GB and 8GB, while internal storage options include 64GB and 256GB with microSD card expansion up to 2TB. The device supports dual nano-SIM, making it more of an international model. It also has a rear-facing fingerprint scanner.
Asus has opted to keep the headphone jack on the Zenfone 6 and has also included audio features such as dual speakers and an NXP TFA9874 smart amp.
While running a near-stock version of Android 9 Pie, the Asus Zenfone 6 is apart of Google’s Android Q beta program and is also slated to update through Android R.
Dimensions for the device are 159.1 x 75.44 x 9.1mm and connectivity including 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, 2x2MIMO, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO, and QZSS. Color options include Midnight Black and Twilight Silver with Gorilla Glass 3 covering the back panel.
