ASUS has announced the ZenFone 4. While the number “4” for 4 variants would’ve been ideal marketing (ASUS had 3 variants for the ZenFone 3), the Taiwanese Android OEM has emerged with five ZenFone 4 variants: ZenFone 4 (Original), ZenFone 4 Pro, ZenFone 4 Max Pro, ZenFone 4 Selfie, and ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro.
All ZenFone 4 variants come with 5.5-inch displays with either HD (720p) or Full HD (1080p) screen resolutions, though you do get an AMOLED panel on the Pro. Dual cameras come on all ZenFone 4 variants, though the Selfie and Selfie Pro both feature dual front-facing cameras while the Original, Pro, and Max Pro feature dual rear cameras. Dual Pixel phase detection autofocus (PDAF), a camera bragging right first inaugurated on the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge last year, is now a standard of the entire ZenFone 4 series.
64GB of storage is present on the Original, Pro, Selfie, and Selfie Pro, but the Max Pro disappoints in this regard (it only features 32GB of internal storage). MicroSD card slots and fingerprint readers are present on all five variants, too, so perhaps the Max Pro won’t prove underwhelming in the storage department.
The monster differences between all five ZenFone 4 variants can be found in the processor, RAM, battery, and charging specs. The Pro model packs Qualcomm’s premium octa-core Snapdragon 835 SoC; the Max Pro and the Selfie pack the Snapdragon 430, the Selfie Pro the Snapdragon 625, and the Original the Snapdragon 630 or 660. In RAM capacity, the Max Pro offers the smallest amount of the pack, with 2GB or 3GB of RAM max; the Selfie Pro offers 3GB or 4GB of RAM, the Selfie 4GB, Original up to 6GB, and the Pro offers 6GB of RAM as its standard.
As for batteries, the Selfie and Selfie Pro offer 3,000mAh batteries, the Original a 3,300mAh battery, the Pro a 3,600mAh battery, and the Max Pro a whopping 5,000mAh battery (matching the ZenFone 3 Zoom’s battery capacity). The Original and Pro offer USB Type-C charging while the Max Pro, Selfie, and Selfie Pro feature the dated microUSB standard out of the box.
All five ZenFone 4 variants come with Android Nougat, but ASUS has said it will update them to Android 8.0 (or Android O) after Google’s update release. The ZenFone 4, ZenFone 4 Pro, ZenFone 4 Max Pro, ZenFone 4 Selfie, and ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro will be available first in Asia, then globally.
