News & Reviews:   ASUS ZenFone 3 Zoom

Not only is the ASUS ZenFone 3 Zoom the first Zenfone to have a dual rear camera but it also marks a number of other firsts including the first Zenfone to pack in a 12MP dual pixel rear camera sensor. Other notable features include a 5.5-inch display with Always On display capabilities, 2.3x optical zoom, up to 12x zoom and more. Check out everything with our unboxing and hands-on video.

ASUS certainly has made an impression at the CES 2017 last week, showing off the latest dual camera smartphone Zenfone 3 Zoom. In case you missed it, the Zenfone 3 Zoom works similar to the Apple iPhone 7 Plus, just that it has a 2.3x magnified option before zooming in digitally. Not much information was shown at the event, not even the price until today that is.

Dual sensor cameras are currently dime a dozen, and as more companies are starting to come out with new products featuring these sensors, new standout features needs to be incorporated to make them stand out from the crowd. Take ASUS for example. Their latest ZenFone 3 Zoom, the successor to the original Zenfone Zoom, is now official – featuring dual sensors and a really huge battery.

So it's official, on 4 January 2017 at CES, ASUS will announce some brand new devices and even released a teaser video about it, mentioning "incredible exploration without limitations." and nothing else.

Again, last week had no really dominating news but there were some notables. Caving in to the pressure, Microsoft have announced that the full Windows 10 experience may soon run on Qualcomm Snapdragon processors. Fitbit are buying Pebble, effectively marking an end to the initially crowd-funded Pebble smartwatch.

ASUS has always been in the forefront of trying new technologies in their products. One of the memorable products (but maybe a bit flawed in certain situations) is the ASUS Zenfone Zoom. We actually reviewed the smartphone, right here. Now we may see an update to this smartphone, in the form of the Zenfone 3 Zoom.

This weekly TechNave we've had quite a number of small but potent bits of news like Nokia smartphones coming in 2017, Huawei making a breakthrough in graphene-assisted heat resistant li-ion batteries and a well-known print magazine like Sports Illustrated actually using a smartphone for the image of its cover. Netflix now allows offline viewing and MediaTek announced new Helio X23 and X27 deca-core processors.

As ASUS continues to churn out their ASUS ZenFone 3 iterations, rumours from a reliable Mr. Anonymous has appeared stating that we may see the ASUS ZenFone 3 Zoom and ASUS ZenFone AR in Q1 of 2017. According to this Mr. Anonymous, the ZenFone 3 Zoom will have dual rear cameras with one of them being a telephoto lens with more than the 3x optical zoom that the original ZenFone Zoom had (probably 5x). It will ditch the Hoya lens system though and probably use a Snapdragon 821 processor with 4GB to 6GB RAM tech specs.