Whether the word “Selfie” irks you or not, the trend is here to stay.  The presence of selfie sticks are increasing and we have begun seeing selfie-centric Android phone variants hit the market that focus on a strong front-facing camera, such as the HTC Desire Eye of 2014.
With the popularity of the recent Asus Zenfone 2, Asus thought it a good opportunity to jump in and give us the Asus Zenfone Selfie, announced at this year’s Computex in Taipei.
Like the HTC Desire Eye, the Zenfone Selfie takes the Zenfone 2 design and slaps in a large front-facing camera, centered on the top bezel.  The front camera is almost identical to the 13 MP rear camera, being that the latter has a slighter wider aperture at F/2.0 versus the F/2.2 aperture on the front.
Interestingly, Asus broke its tie with Intel on the chipset of the Zenfone Selfie, replacing the Atom Z3580 SoC with a mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa-core with Adreno 405 GPU SoC.
Other than these changes, we’re seeing very similar device to the Zenfone 2, only with the drop of the 4 GB RAM option down to 3 GB.
There are also a multitude of features to help you make the most of your selfie-taking experience, dubbed the PixelMaster Selfie Experience:
- ZenMotion – Gesture of swiping “S” on the screen to launch into the selfie camera interface.
- Selfie Panorama Mode – So you can fit all your friends in the shot.
- Beautification Mode – Like artifical makeup, you can improve skin tone and smooth blemishes.
- Backlight (Super HDR) Technology – Improves light balance, such as with the undesirable dark face occurrence.
- Low Light Mode – Ability to capture clearer photos in dark environments.
- Dual-LED “Real Tone” Flash – More natural illumination.
We’ll see how useful these promises turn out to be in our real-world experience with the Zenfone Selfie.  Pricing and availability have not yet been announced by Asus.
