Asus ZenFone 6 launched with Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, 5000mAh battery and flip-up dual cameras, coming soon to India

Last year’s ZenFone 5 was the first mainstream Android phone to come with an iPhone X-style notch. Back in the day, Asus had received quite a lot of flak for taking such an unabashed inspiration from Apple - only to be then followed by a truck-load of Android phones that boasted of the same design scheme. A year later, Asus has launched the ZenFone 6 – a premium flagship phone that’s still trying to offer an all-screen experience, albeit differently. Unlike the ZenFone 5, the ZenFone 6 takes a whole new route to achieve its goal, flipping the concept of a conventional smartphone, quite literally. 

The ZenFone 6 has no notch or display cutout whatsoever. The ZenFone 6 does not have a pop-up or elevating selfie camera either. Which is where things start to get interesting. The ZenFone 6 does not have a selfie camera in the literal sense – instead, the rear cameras double as the front cameras. The phone has a dual camera module on the back (48MP plus 13MP) which is part of a mechanical lifting or flipping mechanism – and when it does lift or flip, the whole module rotates on its axis by a full 180-degree to function as the front camera(s). We’ve seen Samsung do something similar with its Galaxy A80. Asus says its motorized flip-up camera module can be used at any position in between (the two end stops), giving users “the unprecedented ability to take professional-grade shots from any position.” 

Asus says the flip-up module is made of liquid metal which is 4x stronger than steel - it is designed for 100,000 flips at least. Also, the module auto-retracts as and when it detects free fall.

Asus ZenFone 6 specs and features 

Speaking of cameras, the ZenFone 6 has a 48MP primary camera with Sony’s IMX586 sensor (that’s also seen in phones like the OnePlus 7 Pro and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro) with f/1.79 aperture. There’s also a secondary 13MP ultra-wide camera with a 125-degree field-of-view.  

The flip-up dual cameras allow Asus to offer a notch-less ‘NanoEdge’ all-screen display on the ZenFone 6. More specifically, the ZenFone 6 has a 6.4-inch display with 1080p+ resolution (600 nits) and Corning Gorilla Glass 6 protection.   

The ZenFone 6, being a 2019 flagship, unsurprisingly packs Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line Snapdragon 855 processor paired with up to 8GB RAM and up to 256GB storage which is further expandable via a dedicated micro-SD card slot. The dual-SIM phone runs Android 9 Pie-based Zen UI 6 software - the ZenFone 5 was the first Asus phone to run a clean, near stock version of Android, and it’s nice to see Asus carrying it forward in the ZenFone 6 as well. 

Elsewhere, the ZenFone 6 is the first mainstream flagship phone in the world to house a massive 5,000mAh battery inside. Asus is claiming up to 2-day battery life on this one. The phone supports 18W fast charging – but there’s (still) no wireless charging here. 

In terms of design, the ZenFone 6 has a glass and metal sandwich design – with Corning Gorilla Glass 6 on the front as well as on the back. The phone will be available in Midnight Black and Twilight Silver colour options. Fans and enthusiasts will be glad to know that Asus is retaining the 3.5mm audio jack in the ZenFone 6 – something that is fast becoming a rarity in flagship phones. There are also dual stereo speakers here. Asus has also added a customizable smart key in the ZenFone 6. Lastly, the ZenFone 6 comes with a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner. 

Asus ZenFone 6 price, India launch 

The Asus ZenFone 6 is coming soon to India, and it will available for buying from Flipkart – the online retail website has already started teasing the ZenFone 6 India launch through a dedicated landing page. We believe Asus will launch the ZenFone 6 in India at a highly aggressive price, in line with the ZenFone 5Z from last year. 

Globally, the Asus ZenFone 6 has been launched at a starting price of Euros 499 (roughly Rs 39,145) for the base variant with 6GB RAM and 64GB storage, going all the way to Euros 599 (roughly Rs 47,000) for the top-end variant with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. The ZenFone 6 variant with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage has been launched at Euros 559 (roughly Rs 44,000).

Also Read:  This Is The Asus ZenFone 6 Will All-screen Design And Dual Flip Cameras