First time that I had a twin offering of first impressions on a blog post. It falls on the 2 of the 4 official available variants of Asus Zenfone 2, the ZE551ML with 1.8 Ghz Intel Atom Z3560 and 2.3 Ghz Intel Z3580
The top has 3.5 mm. audio jack, power/unlock button and noise-cancelling microphone. The bottom has USB OTG capable micro USB slot and pin-hole microphone.
So it goes nothing at the left and right sides of the device.
And the camera samples:
The rest of the specs here below are identical to the 1.8 GHz (Php 9,995) and 2.3 Ghz variants.(4 GB RAM, 32 GB ROM - Php 13,995)
One big reason for a twin offering, they have the same exact physical appearance. The front has 5 MP Omnivisions front camera (according to a separate Zenfone 2 tech sessions that I attended with some bloggers and media) and 5.5 inch IPS Full HD display. The back has 13 MP AF rear camera with Asus logo and volume rocker.
So it goes nothing at the left and right sides of the device.
This info is something that I didn't saw in most international and local tech sites and blogs. Both the 13 MP rear camera and 5 MP front camera of the 2 variants featured are both at 4:3 aspect ratio. In rear camera if you wish to go 16:9 aspect ratio, you can have a maximum of 10 MP.
The left picture tells the "control center" which I really love way back from Zenfone 5 with a lot of settings. The right picture is the 2 GB RAM in action in the ZE551ML 1.8 GHz variant.
I'll be updating soon for the pictures of this observation. In the 16 GB ROM of ZE551ML 1.8 GHz version, you'll gonna get over 10 GB for app storage while for ZE551ML 2.3 Ghz with 32 GB ROM, you'll have over 20 GB (which in my own opinion, they could have it a little bigger)
And the camera samples:
Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML 1.8 GHz 13 MP rear camera sample
Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML 1.8 GHz 5 MP front camera sample
Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML 2.3 GHz 13 MP rear camera sample
Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML 2.3 GHz 5 MP front camera sample
First impressions and side story: Before this Philippine launch and watching a lot of recent Asus Zenfone 2 videos and hands-on from various known international tech sites (and even one from my fellow tech bloggers who had a variant before this launch), my no.1 concern on the Zenfone 2 is the camera shutter speed which one of the reasons why I didn't have the Zenfone 5. A few days before the PH launch, Asus had an update which includes the camera improvements. The number of Asus PH officials that I talked to were consistent that they updated all of the demo units in the World Trade Center were updated. The 2.3 Ghz variant has a bit faster shutter speed than the 1.8 Ghz variant but the bottomline in my opinion, both are evidently faster than in Zenfone 5. The selfie cameras of both variants are not as fast but for some reason, the 2.3 Ghz variant has a better output. With its curved back, it really helped me to navigate both devices on one hand although the challenge for me is reaching the power/unlock button at the top. In terms of navigating the phone, looks like the 1.8 GHz variant is not that far behind in terms of performance in terms when I switched a lot of times in non-gaming related apps.
The rest of the specs here below are identical to the 1.8 GHz (Php 9,995) and 2.3 Ghz variants.(4 GB RAM, 32 GB ROM - Php 13,995)
5.5 inch IPS Full HD display with Gorilla Glass 3, 13 MP AF rear camera with flash and f/2.0 aperture, 5 MP front camera with f/2.0 aperture, quadband 2G and 3G, LTE bands 1,2,3,4,5,8,9,18,19,28 (Globe and Smart LTE supported), WiFi b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, GPS with GLONASS, measures 152.5 x 77.2 x 3.9 mm., weighs 170 grams, 3,000 mAh non-removable Li-Po battery.
