Asus renews the Zenfone range with a "small top" and a new phone with a "flip" camera: here's what the Zenfone 8 and Zenfone 8 Flip look like.
The top of the range of Asus' ZenFone series from 2019 onwards were all "flips", but only those who documented or bought one generally noticed. The reason is trivial: Asus only now chooses to highlight from the name the feature that makes one of the two ZenFone 8 peculiar. So here come Asus ZenFone 8 and ZenFone 8 Flip.
Unusual compared to the recent past is the return to the size compact, with the ZenFone 8 "smooth" that is proposed as a smartphone much smaller and therefore handy than his older brother and many other proposals of equal technical caliber. The top of the range compact as Asus ZenFone 8 are counted with the fingers of one hand, as well as scarce smartphones with a camera module capable of rotating 180 degrees (for this Flip) as that of ZenFone 8 Flip, which in this way centered two goals very coveted nowadays with a single move: get perfect selfie always thanks to the fact that they are taken with the best cameras available, and have the front surface entirely occupied by the display, without notch, holes or other invasive solutions.
Asus ZenFone 8 Flip features and prices
Asus ZenFone 8 Flip stands out because of a large 6.67-inch Full HD+ display provided by Samsung that occupies an impressive 92% of the front surface; it has a refresh rate (or refresh rate) of 90 Hz, a claimed very high color accuracy, a maximum brightness of 1.000 nits and is protected from abrasions and drops by Corning's Gorilla Glass 6.
The Asus ZenFone 8 Flip's chip is the best from world leader Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 888 with Adreno 660 graphics module. Two configurations of memories: 8 GB of RAM type LPDDR5 and 128 or 256 GB of internal memory type UFS 3.1, expandable with a microSD.
Three cameras that thanks to a motorized mechanism can if necessary rotate 180 degrees to take what happens in front of the screen: the main sensor is 64 megapixels, has aperture f/1.7 and is very large by the standards of a smartphone (1/1.7 inches); the ultra-wide angle is 12 megapixels with aperture f/2.2 and allows you to capture macro up to 4 centimeters, and finally there is a telephoto 8 megapixels with 3x optical zoom, up to 12x with the digital zoom.
The connectivity side to Asus ZenFone 8 Flip lacks nothing, except for that audio jack 3.5 mm now dispersed (which instead there is on the model "mini"). There are Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, 5G connectivity, USB-C input, the fingerprint reader is optical and is placed under the display, while the battery is 5,000 mAh and takes advantage of Quick Charge 4.0 and Power Delivery.
Asus ZenFone 8 Flip arrives with the ZenUI 8 interface based on Android 11 and measures 165.04 x 77.28 x 9.6 mm for 230 grams of weight. Two colorways at launch: Galactic Black and Glacier Silver. It will be available in a few weeks from €799.
Asus ZenFone 8 features and prices
There are many similarities between the two products, with Asus ZenFone 8 that even surpasses its older brother in some areas such as the display, however, provided by Samsung. Which is yes smaller (5.9 inches) but boasts a higher refresh rate (120 Hz), a peak brightness just higher (1,100 nits) and a protection with a glass of last generation (Gorilla Glass Victus).
The chip used is the same, the Snapdragon 888 from Qualcomm flanked by 6, 8 or 16 GB of RAM LPDDR5 and 128 or 256 GB of internal memory type UFS 3.1 not expandable. Identical to his older brother also the two cameras, since Asus has decided to do without the telephoto lens on the "small" top of the range. It lacks the rotary mechanism so there is a 12-megapixel front-facing camera.
Identical the connectivity department and the user interface, while it differs the battery capacity that on Asus ZenFone 8 is 4,000 mAh but with the same fast charging technologies. Two colors at launch: Obsidian Black and Horizon Silver. Asus ZenFone 8 measures 148 x 68.5 x 8.9 mm for 169 grams of weight and, unlike its larger brother, also has the audio jack.
Prices start at 699 euros for the variant 8+128 GB (in promo launch until May 30 at 619 euros), serve 749 euros for the one with 256 GB of internal memory with the same RAM and finally 819 euros for the variant 16+256 GB. Asus ZenFone 8 is available for purchase now, while the access version with 6 GB of RAM will come later.