Asus teases ZenFone 6 with full-screen design and no notch, launch set for May 16

The ZenFone 5 was the first Android phone to come with an iPhone X-style notch on the front. Back in the day, Asus received quite a lot of flak for taking such an unabashed inspiration from Apple. Only to be followed by a truck-load of Android phones boasting of the same design scheme in the days to come. It’s been a year since the ZenFone 5 happened – a year in which we’ve seen all kind of notches or display cutouts. Asus is gearing for the launch of the ZenFone 6 now – on May 16 to be precise. 

Not a lot is known about the ZenFone 6-series for now, which is surprising since almost every other phone is leaking left, right and center. The ZenFone 6 remains largely a mystery – even Asus isn’t saying much about it. Until now. 

Asus has started teasing the design of the ZenFone 6 on social media. Although the teaser doesn’t reveal much info, it draws an outline scheme of things to come. The ZenFone 6 will be a full-screen smartphone, without any notch or display cutout to obstruct your view. This means that the ZenFone 6 will either have a pop-up or elevating selfie camera like the Vivo V15 Pro and Oppo F11 Pro or a more comprehensive slider mechanism like the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 – we'll have to wait and watch out on that one.  

Being a next-generation flagship means, the ZenFone 6 will likely be powered by Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line Snapdragon 855 processor but going by Asus’ history, we may see it in the top-level ZenFone 6Z – with the vanilla ZenFone 6 having more toned-down specs.  

Asus will launch its ZenFone 6 lineup of phones at a keynote event in Spain on May 16. One of the Zenfone 6 phones, possibly the high-end ZenFone 6Z (with model number Asus_I01WD), has leaked courtesy benchmark website Geekbench. The alleged ZenFone 6Z with model number Asus_I01WD was previously spotted on the Wi-Fi Alliance website as well – seemingly corroborating the phone’s existence as well as a few hardware specs.  

The ZenFone 6Z (if at all Asus is working on such a phone) will succeed the ZenFone 5Z which has been a runaway hit for Asus, especially in India. It brings high-end specs including a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor at a mainstream price but more importantly it sees Asus finally doing some much-needed spring cleaning when it comes to its in-house Zen UI software. The ZenFone 5Z is the first Asus phone to run a clean, near stock version of Android. The ZenFone 5Z is also the first Asus phone to receive a major Android update (Android Pie) in less than a year after launch. Something similar will be expected from the ZenFone 6Z as well. 

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