ASUS ZenFone 2 Deluxe Special Edition

If you caught our review of the CUBOT H1 smartphone, you may have read the paragraph where I (Ian) was interested in the ZenFone 2 for a long time as a potential upgrade device from the HTC One max. When the ZF2 was announced, at $200 for 2GB/16GB with a quad core Bay Trail-based Atom processor and 5.5-inch 1080p screen with dual-SIM functionality, I was certainly interested. Unfortunately, the availability of the 128 GB ZenFone 2 Deluxe model was spotty outside of India and Brazil at best, and even here in the UK my attempts to purchase the right model for a family member ended up in the Chinese version being delivered. Fast forward a few months, and it turns out there is a reason why the 128 GB model didn’t have a big reach – ASUS is now producing an even higher up model.

 

The ZenFone 2 Deluxe now gets the Special Edition treatment, featuring a more powerful processor in the Z3590 (quad core, up to 2.5 GHz) as well as 256 GB of storage. The 4 GB of DRAM and other specifications stay the same, with the same color styles as the ZF2 Deluxe, but I’m pretty sure that most users will never need more storage in their phone after this, negating the need for a micro-SD card.

Prices and dates were not said, though I’d imagine this to be north of $350 when it hits the shelves.  There was another model next to it for which I forgot to take pictures, called the ZenFone 2 Max, which a larger 5000 mAh battery but Snapdragon 410 and only a 720p screen. I’m all for larger batteries, and this one sounds like a direct competitor to my CUBOT. GSMArena has the device listed as due on shelves in January.

Internet of Things, ASUS SmartHome and Google Weave Republic of Gamers: Monitors, Peripherals and Lego
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  • DanNeely - Tuesday, January 19, 2016 - link

    Is the back of that phone actually made up of a bunch of triangular panels at angles to each other; or does the finish just fake the look?
  • WorldWithoutMadness - Tuesday, January 19, 2016 - link

    It is 3D (source http://www.androidcentral.com/hands-asus-zenfone-2...
  • Panzerknacker - Tuesday, January 19, 2016 - link

    I just dont understand why did 10G never become mainstream and is it so damn expensive? Back when 100mbit was mainstream the price of 1G was higher but nowhere near $760 for a switch. 1g is now mainstream for a decade or so, what takes it so long? Did we reach the limit of copper networking? I mean, in datacenters there has to be a enormous market for fast networking, I cannot understand why prices are still so high because on a huge market you would expect a lot a competition and fast development of hardware. Or did they completely move to different networking standards in datacenters, like fibre?
  • Reflex - Tuesday, January 19, 2016 - link

    Power consumption is very high compared to gigabit, and wireless replaced ethernet for most home and small office use, thus negating economies of scale which normally would drive prices down.
  • Lieuchikaka - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link

    http://mavangvn.vn/ma-vang-dien-thoai/dien-thoai-s...
  • TwistedKestrel - Tuesday, January 19, 2016 - link

    It's mostly the ubiquity of 1GbE vs the handful of vendors making 10GbE parts. 1GbE PHYs are cheap as dirt, and 10GbE is two orders of magnitude more expensive... and there aren't that many people that want it yet. Once 1Gb+ throughput on 802.11ac radios becomes more commonplace instead of mostly theoretical, that would be something of a driver for consumer 10GbE.

    Interesting that a few US ISPs have upcoming or available service in excess of 1Gb, I wonder what kind of connections their equipment would have
  • DanNeely - Tuesday, January 19, 2016 - link

    For consumer service, I'd be really surprised if it was anything but a combined modem/pretend it actually is able to achieve multi-gigabit speeds wifi router.
  • iwod - Tuesday, January 19, 2016 - link

    They have new standard NBase-T which provides 2.5Gbps and 5Gbps on Normal CAT 6 Cable. But no idea why no company are getting products out.
  • Alex_M - Wednesday, January 20, 2016 - link

    The real benefits for NBase-T will be 2.5/5 Gbps over exisitng Cat5e (not Cat6) upto 100m. It means we don't have to replace all those existing cable runs to benefit from the higher speed. Its fairly new but I hear that the silicon has started sampling....
  • Lieuchikaka - Thursday, June 2, 2016 - link

    http://mavangvn.vn/ma-vang-dien-thoai/dien-thoai-s...

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