KUALA LUMPUR, June 17 — The Asus ZenFone 6 is one of the most interesting smartphones to launch this year. While most manufacturers are ditching traditional things like the microSD card slot and headphone jack, the ZenFone 6 defies convention by offering even more features than the usual. Previously, it doesn’t seem like we will be seeing the device in our local market but now it appears that the latest flagship smartphone is coming to Malaysia after all.
It was revealed at a recent Asus event that the ZenFone 6 will be coming to Malaysia soon. According to one of our sources, it’s arriving in Q3 2019 which is sometime between July-September.
In the US, the ZenFone 6 is priced from US$499 (about RM2,080) which is quite value for money for the hardware it packs. Meanwhile, in Taiwan, the ZenFone 6 is priced at NT$17,990 (about RM2,379) for the 6GB RAM + 128GB model and NT$20,990 (about RM2,776) for the 8GB RAM + 256GB version.
To recap, the ZenFone 6 comes with a 6.4″ FullHD+ Nanoedge IPS display that features an all-screen edge to edge viewing experience that has no notches. Under the hood, it runs on a top-of-the-line Snapdragon 855 processor that comes with up to 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM and up to 256GB of UFS 2.1 storage. Not only it has a memory expansion slot, but it is also a dedicated unit which allows you to insert a microSD card and two nano-SIM cards at the same time.
For taking pictures, the device comes with a 48MP f/1.79 + 13MP ultra-wide-angle camera setup which can flip to the front for selfies. The flip-camera module uses liquid metal amorphous alloy and it moves with a small stepper motor. The device was recently given the best selfie camera crown by DxOMark with a score of 98 points in the selfie camera test.
Apart from having a 3.5mm headphone jack, the device also has stereo audio playback and it even supports FM Radio. There’s also NFC, 802.11ac WiFi with 2×2 MIMO, Bluetooth 5.0 and dual-frequency GPS.
Powering the ZenFone 6 is a huge 5,000mAh battery that supports Quick Charge 4.0. According to Asus, the device can last up to 2 days on a single charge. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come with wireless charging or IP-rated water resistance. Out of the box, it runs on Android 9.0 Pie and this time the ZenUI skin is significantly cleaner with a stock-like interface. — SoyaCincau
