Asus introduces ZenFone 8 and ZenFone 8 Flip – The Verge

Asus is taking a slightly different turn with this year’s ZenFone series. While the ZenFone 8 Flip looks a lot like previous years’ phones, with its large screen and flip-out camera mechanism, the company went back to the drawing board for the flagship ZenFone 8 and redesigned it as a smaller one-hand-friendly device: kind of an Android iPhone mini. The two phones make their global debut today, priced at €599 for the ZenFone 8 and €799 for the ZenFone 8 Flip. Asus says that only the ZenFone 8 will come to North America; it is expected this summer. The US price is still being finalized, but the company says it will cost somewhere between $599 and $799.

The ZenFone 8 and 8 Flip both use a Snapdragon 888 chipset, but that’s about as far as the similarities go. The ZenFone 8 features a 5.9-inch 1080p OLED display with a fast 120Hz refresh rate. It will be sold in configurations of up to 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage and includes an IP68 waterproof rating. Both the 8 and 8 Flip support 5G — but when the ZenFone 8 arrives in the US, it will only work on AT&T and T-Mobile’s LTE and sub-6GHz 5G networks.

The ZenFone 8’s two rear cameras are borrowed from the ZenFone 7 series: a 64-megapixel standard wide with OIS that kicks out 16-megapixel images and a 12-megapixel ultrawide. Since the camera array doesn’t flip forward to play the role of a selfie camera, there’s now a 12-megapixel camera under an off-center hole punch on the front panel.

The phone’s compact size is reflected in its 4,000mAh battery, which is much smaller than previous years’ 5,000mAh cells. It supports 30W wired charging with the included charger, but it doesn’t offer wireless charging. There are dedicated dual stereo speakers and even a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The ZenFone 8 Flip is, by necessity, a much larger device with a 6.67-inch screen — a 1080p OLED panel with a 90Hz refresh rate. It offers a bigger 5,000mAh battery with 30W wired charging, includes up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, but it lacks an IP rating.

The main attraction, of course, is its flip-out camera array. The triple-camera hardware is borrowed from the ZenFone 7, including a 64-megapixel main camera, a 12-megapixel ultrawide, and an 8-megapixel telephoto with 3x optical zoom. Asus says the module itself has a stronger motor with better endurance; users can expect to get up to 300,000 “flips” out of it. A custom RhinoShield case will be sold separately in some markets with a sliding cover to protect the housing and a sensor that automatically activates the camera when the cover is opened.