Asus ZenFone 3, ZenFone 3 Deluxe, ZenFone 3 Ultra: Specifications, Features, Price

On Monday, Asus announced its three new smartphones, Asus ZenFone 3, ZenFone 3 Deluxe and ZenFone 3 Ultra through the Computex 2016 event held at Taipei, Taiwan. These smartphones not only come with impressive specs but also come with value for money pricing under $500.

Design and Display

The Asus ZenFone 3 ZE552KL is the basic smartphone among the other two ZenFone 3 variants. It sports a metal body design with 2.5D curved glass on front and rear sides. It measures 152.6 x 77.4 x 7.7 mm and weighs 155 grams. It offers a screen-to-body ratio of 77.3 percent.

The ZenFone 3 Deluxe ZS570KL is a flagship smartphone with a metal unibody design. It does not have visible antenna lines on its rear sides. It measures 156.4 x 77.4 x 7.5 mm and weighs 170 grams. It boasts a screen-to-body ratio of 79 percent.

The ZenFone 3 Ultra ZU680KL is a huge smartphone that measures 186.4 x 93.9 x 6.8 mm and its weight is 233 grams. It also sports full metal design and a screen-to-body ratio of 79 percent.

The ZenFone 3, ZenFone 3 Deluxe and ZenFone 3 Ultra are respectively equipped with 5.8-inch Super IPS+, 5.7-inch Super AMOLED and 6.8-inch IPS LCD screens. The ZenFone 3 feature Gorilla Glass 3 whereas other two have Gorilla Glass 4 onboard.

Chipset, RAM and Storage

The Snapdragon 625 chipset fuels the ZenFone 3 along with 3 GB of RAM on its 32 GB model. The 64 GB variant is equipped with 4 GB of RAM.

The ZenFone 3 Deluxe is powered by Snapdragon 820 chipset. It comes in storage editions like 64 GB, 128 GB and 256 GB with RAM options like 4 GB and 6 GB.

The ZenFone 3 Ultra features Snapdragon 652 SoC and storage variants like 32 GB, 64 GB and 128 GB. It comes in two RAM options of 3 GB and 4 GB.

All the three smartphones support microSD cards on their second SIM slot. Asus is offering 5 GB free for life Asus WebStorage space on ZenFone 3 Deluxe and Ultra. The three phones also feature 100 GB free storage on Google Drive for two years.

Camera, Software and Other Features

The ZenFone 3 has f/2.0 aperture 16-megapixel camera whereas 23-megapixel with f/2.0 aperture lens are present on Deluxe and Ultra models. The rear cameras on these three phones offer features like laser/phase detection, optical image stabilization and dual-LED flash. These Asus smartphones also feature f/2.0 aperture 8-megapixel selfie cameras.

All the ZenFone 3 models are equipped with USB Type-C port, but the Ultra model also comes with support for USB OTG. Other common features of the new ZenFone 3 smartphones include Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS with ZenUI 3.0, fingerprint scanner, IR sensor and other sensors.

The Asus ZenFone 3 Deluxe model is the only phone among the three to support NFC connectivity. The ZenFone 3 and Deluxe smartphones feature mono five-magnet speakers whereas the Ultra edition has dual-five magnet speakers.

The ZenFone 3 and Ultra have LTE Cat. 6 modem whereas the Deluxe model has LTE Cat. 12 modem. The ZenFone 3 is available in colors like black, white and gold. The ZenFone 3 Deluxe comes in color editions such as silver, gray and gold. The ZenFone 3 Ultra can be availed in colors like silver, gray and pink.

Battery and Price

Both ZenFone 3 and ZenFone 3 Deluxe have 3,000 mAh batteries, but the fast charging features is only available on the latter. A 4,100 mAh battery with fast charging feature is available on Asus ZenFone 3 Ultra.

The base model of ZenFone 3 is priced at $249. The Deluxe and Ultra editions respectively carry starting price of $499 and $479, GSM Arena reported.