A few weeks back, the Taiwanese smartphone maker Asus unveiled the new Zenfone 4 series in Taiwan. The Zenfone 4 lineup includes six new smartphones – the Zenfone 4, Zenfone 4 Pro, Zenfone 4 Selfie, Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro, Zenfone 4 Max, and Zenfone 4 Max Pro. At an event in New Delhi, Asus today launched its Zenfone 4 Selfies series about which the company has been teasing on social media for a while with the #DitchTheSelfieStick hashtag. Recently, Asus was also in news for roping in actress Disha Patani as the new brand ambassador. Speaking of Zenfone 4 Selfie series, it focusses on selfie-centric smartphones, an ongoing trend in India these days, similar to the likes of Oppo, Vivo, and Gionee.
Asus Zenfone 4 Selfies series offers two smartphones, one of which is a standard variant while the other is a Pro variant. Though both the devices look similar in design, the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro offers an upgraded hardware as opposed to its younger sibling. Let’s first highlight the key differences between the two models of Zenfone 4 Selfie.
| Zenfone 4 Selfie (ZD553KL) | Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro (ZD552KL) |
| Metallic finish body | Metal unibody design |
| Snapdragon 430 with Adreno 505 GPU | Snapdragon 625 with Adreno 506 GPU |
| HD IPS display (1280×720) | Full HD AMOLED display (1920×1080) |
| 20MP (f/2.0) + 8MP (f/2.4) dual front camera | 24MP DuoPixel (12MP x 2) Sony IMX362 f/1.8 sensor + 5MP (f/2.2) dual front camera |
| 16 MP Rear camera with f/2.2 aperture and PDAF | 16MP Rear camera with f/2.2, PDAF, 4K video recording and EIS |
| Sunlight Gold, Rose Pink and Deepsea Black | Rouge Red, Sunlight Gold and Deepsea Black |
| 155.6 x 75.9 x 7.8 mm | 154 x 74.8 x 6.8 mm |
As one would expect, both the phones have most aspects in common. The Zenfone 4 Selfie and Selfie Pro sports a 5.5-inch display with 2.5D curved glass. They run on Android 7.1.1 Nougat with a new and refreshed version of ZenUI 4.0. Under the hood, there is 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage which can be expanded up to 2TB. The fingerprint sensor is embedded into the home button on the front. Asus has equipped both phones with a 3000mAh battery but fast charging is limited only to Pro version.
Being selfie phones, both feature dual selfie cameras on the front with a Softlight LED flash. There is a 16MP rear camera with PDAF and RAW format support on both but Pro variant has added support for 4K video recording with EIS. Though the dual front camera setup is different on both the devices, they pack a 120-degree wide-angle lens and offer a Portrait mode that allows capturing selfies with a nice bokeh effect. The 24MP DuoPixel front cameras on Pro variant further enable HDR and 4K selfie videos backed with EIS technology.
The Zenfone 4 Selfie series also features Beauty mode and SelfieMaster app that applies beautification effects like skin smoothening and removing blemishes. The app combined with MiniMovie and PhotoCollage works while taking photos, videos and during live streaming as well. The Beauty Live feature that works with live videos and streams is something that we saw earlier on Asus Zenfone Live.
Connectivity options include 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1/4.2, GPS, USB OTG and FM Radio. The Zenfone 4 Selfie offers a triple-slot tray that lets you use Dual SIMs and microSD card simultaneously whereas the Pro version includes a Hybrid SIM slot. A 5-magnet speaker along with dual internal mics is present across all the variants.
Besides the above two variants, Asus has also launched a new variant of Zenfone 4 Selfie (ZB553KL) which is rather a spec’d down model of the base variant. This newer variant features the same design as Zenfone 4 Selfie. Unlike dual front cameras on its elder sibling, this one packs a single 13MP front camera with Softlight flash and 140-degree wide lens. The rear camera is a 13MP shooter with PDAF. The phone comes with 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage and houses triple slots.
Pricing and Availability – The Zenfone 4 Selfie, Zenfone 4 Selfie (Dual camera version), and Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro are priced in India at Rs. 9,999, Rs. 14,999 and Rs. 23,999 respectively. The devices will be available for sale from 21st September, exclusively at Flipkart. At the moment, there is no confirmation on when Asus will launch rest of the phones under Zenfone 4 series in India.
