Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom Finally Arrives With Its Massive 5,000 mAh Battery

The Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom is now available in the United States with a starting price of $239. The handset is the successor to the 2015 ZenFone Zoom, and it features a huge 5,000 mAh battery and dual cameras.

Like its predecessor, the ZenFone 3 Zoom focuses more on delivering fantastic camera performance, rather than the handset’s performance. The device features two 12-megapixel cameras on the back. One lens has an f/1.7 aperture wide-angle 25mm lens, while the other has a 59mm lens with 2.3X optical zoom capable of 12x magnification, according to The Verge.

Asus also added its TriTech+ Technology for the cameras’ phase detection auto focus feature. “Every single pixel on the Dual-Pixel sensor is used for phase detection, enabling auto-focus that’s so incredibly fast, actually the world’s fastest and seamless that even the most sudden movements are caught in the act,” Asus said.

The ZenFone 3 Zoom also comes with Manual mode giving photography enthusiasts more freedom in how they capture photos. The handset is also capable of capturing photos in RAW format for those who like to edit their shots in post.

Another standout feature on the ZenFone 3 Zoom is its 5,000 mAh battery. Asus said that the device can last 42 days on standby even when connected to a 4G cellular network. The massive battery is also capable of providing up to 48 hours of 3G talk time, up to 25 hours of Wi-Fi web browsing and up to 6.4 hours of 4K video recording. The handset can also be used as a power bank to charge connected devices.

As for the ZenFone 3 Zoom’s other specs, the handset features a 5.5-inch AMOLED full HD 1080p display. The phone is powered by the Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 625 octa-core processor with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. Even with Asus cramming a 5,000 mAh battery, the ZenFone 3 Zoom is three millimeters thinner than the original ZenFone Zoom.

The ZenFone 3 Zoom is now available to buy from U.S. retailers like Best Buy and Amazon for $329 unlocked.

For comparison, the LG X Power 2, which arrives in the U.S. some time later this month, comes with a 4,500 mAh battery. The X Power 2 is only capable of providing 26 hours of talk time, 18 hours of video playback and 19 hours of web browsing.

Unlike the ZenFone 3 Zoom, the LG X Power 2 isn’t capable of turning into a power bank to charge other devices. LG’s phone also lacks in performance as it only comes with a MediaTek MT6750 processor with 1.5GB/2GB of RAM.

The only thing that the LG X Power 2 has over the ZenFone 3 Zoom is that it will ship with Android 7.0 Nougat. The ZenFone 3 Zoom will only ship with Android 6.0 Marshmallow and will later receive an over-the-air update to get the 7.0 Nougat treatment. This also means that RAW photo support for the ZenFone 3 Zoom will only be available once the handset’s been updated to Nougat.