Asus Zenfone 4: £450 OnePlus 5 rival gets November release date
Asus has revealed the price and release date of its latest smartphones, the Zenfone 4 and Zenfone Max.
The Zenfone 4 is a mid-range Android Nougat handset designed to take on the likes of the OnePlus 5. With pricing starting at a modest £450, its headline feature is a super swish dual-camera system that combines a 12-megapixel Sony IMX362 image sensor with a secondary 8-megapixel, 120-degree wide-angle lens.
Related: Asus Zenfone 4 hands-on
Asus claims the camera is significantly better in low light, where it will reportedly take “five times brighter and clearer photos” than competing handsets, like the OnePlus 5 and Honor 9. We here at Trusted Reviews haven’t had time to fully test the camera, but if our opening impressions of the Zenfone 4 are anything to go by, there may be some truth to this claim.
Outside of this, the Zenfone 4 is a pretty by the numbers device, featuring a mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 CPU, 4GB of RAM and a bog standard 5.5-inch FHD display. The phone’s set to go up for preorder on October 6 with a shipping date of “early November”.
Asus Zenfone Max battery life and specs
The Zenfone Max is the cheaper of the two phones, with pricing starting at a modest £250. It looks set to be a decent replacement for the discontinued Lenovo P2, which had one of the best battery lives we’d ever seen, thanks to the use of a giant 5000mAh battery.
An Asus spokesman at the event told Trusted Reviews that this cell will last two-to-three days of moderate use off one charge, and even offer 22 hours of video playback.
Overall, however, the Max has slightly lower specs than the Zenfone 4 and will be powered by a less demanding, and much slower, Snapdragon 430 CPU.
Sadly Asus hasn’t announced a UK release date for its top end Zenfone Pro, which got a US release date earlier this week. The phone caught the headlines because of its support for Gigabit LTE, which is also yet to hit the UK.
Related: Best smartphones
Interested in any of the new Zenfones? Let us know in the comments below.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
