Right on schedule, ASUS has taken the wraps off of its newest flagship smartphone, the ZenFone 6.
One of the biggest features of the ASUS ZenFone 6 is its flip camera design. In order to shrink the bezels around the display while also avoiding a notch or hole-punch, ASUS created a mechanical flip system that will rotate the dual rear cameras up and around to face you when you're taking a selfie. In that dual camera setup is a 48MP Sony IMX586 sensor with f/1.79 aperture and a 13MP ultra wide angle snapper with a 125-degree field of view.
What's more, you can control the angle of the flip camera module from 0 to 180 degrees. This can help you get a perfect shot without having to put yourself or your phone into an awkward position.
ASUS is also touting some of its software camera features that've been packed into the ZenFone 6. There's an HDR+ Enhanced feature that captures multiple short-exposure shots and combines them into a single photo, keeping the highlights and shadows correctly exposed, to get you better daylight shots. And when nighttime rolls around, the ZenFone 6 can use Super Night mode to combine several photos with different exposure values to help bring out details and colors.
Thanks to that flip camera, the ASUS ZenFone 6 has a 6.4-inch 2340x1080 display with a 92 percent screen-to-body ratio. The IPS display supports DCI-P3 and HDR10 and is covered with Gorilla Glass 6, and there are stereo speakers on the ZenFone 6, too. A fingerprint reader lives on the back of the phone, and on the side is a Smart Key that can be used to summon the Google Assistant or set up with custom commands. On the bottom are the USB-C and 3.5mm ports.
Powering the ASUS ZenFone 6 is the combination of a Snapdragon 855 processor, 6/8GB of RAM, and a whopping 5000mAh battery with 18W fast charging support. Storage options include 64/128/256GB, and there's a microSD card slot in case you need to add more storage later on. Dual SIM slots are included here as well, and ASUS is also touting the ZenFone 6's audio capabilities, which include DTS:X Ultra 1.0 for realistic 3D audio rendering and hi-res audio at the 192kHz/24-bit standard.
The ZenFone 6 comes preloaded with Android 9 Pie running below ASUS's ZenUI 6 user interface. ASUS promises that ZenUI 6 is "smoother, faster, more mindful" and that it's made its custom UI "simpler and cleaner" with only the essential apps. There's a one-handed mode included and a dark mode for when you don't want to be blinded by a bright white UI.
ASUS is now taking orders for the ZenFone 6 in Europe, with a launch expected to happen on May 25th. Pricing starts at €499 EUR ($557 USD) for the model with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage and goes up to €559 EUR ($624 USD) for the 6/128GB model. The top-end ZenFone 6 is equipped with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage and is priced at €599 EUR ($669 USD).
With its notch-free display, high-end specs, and pricing, the ASUS ZenFone 6 looks like it could be a solid Android phone. While its not running totally stock Android, ASUS does appear to have made ZenUI 6 more closely resemble vanilla Android, and the touches like a one-handed mode and dark mode will likely be welcomed by a lot of folks.
What do you think of the ASUS ZenFone 6? Would you use it as your daily driver?
