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ASUS' ZenFone Zoom is ultimately held back by a mediocre sensor
ASUS has been trying to make a mark in the US phone market for years, first with its hit-or-miss Padfone line and more recently with the budget-friendly ZenFone 2. Then, for reasons nearly beyond comprehension, the company decided to shoehorn a zoom lens system from Hoya into one of its phones. And lo, the ZenFone Zoom was born.
ASUS' optical zoom smartphone to hit the US next month
All good things take time, which is often the case with products coming from ASUS. In this case, we're looking at the ZenFone Zoom, the world's first modern smartphone to feature a camera with 3x optical zoom sans the protrusion (a homage to the Nokia N93, if you like). Exactly a year after its surprise unveiling at last year's CES, we bring you the good news that this quirky device is finally heading to the US in early February. The price? $399 off-contract, as originally intended. That's not bad given that unlike its closest competitor from Samsung, the ZenFone Zoom doesn't compromise its main specs and materials to make way for the expensive camera module.
ASUS is bringing optical zoom to a reasonably sized smartphone
The last smartphone to feature an optical zoom camera was Samsung's Galaxy K Zoom, but we didn't like it -- no thanks to its inconsistent camera performance plus poor battery life (the bulky body didn't help either). Merely hours away from South Korea, Taiwan-based ASUS decided to have a go at making its own optical zoom-enabled smartphone, which ended up being its surprise announcement at this year's CES: the Lumia 1020 ZenFone Zoom. What we've been told so far is that this $399 device is the world's thinnest smartphone that packs a 3x optical zoom camera, and there's more: It's actually a 13-megapixel f/2.0 imager with optical image stabilization, precise laser autofocus (as used by the LG G3), full manual mode and dual-color LED flash.
