There are plenty of cheap and cheerful smart phones in the market but those who are scraping the barrel would prefer something even cheaper. If you are extremely tight in budget and refuse to settle for a feature phone, you still can get a decent device with the ASUS ZenFone 4. Priced at RM299, this is ASUS lowest entry smart phone that’s impressive in the spec and features department.
It gets a decent 4″ display that does 800×480 pixels resolution and the smart phone build is quite solid with the back having a more upmarket matte finishing. Even the front display is toughen with Gorilla Glass 3 which is probably a first for a smart phone in this price range. It is no slouch either as it runs on a Dual-Core 1.2GHz Intel Atom Z2520 processor with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage. If you need more, there’s also a microSD slot which supports up to 64GB.
For imaging, it gets a decent 5MP camera which is even capable of shooting Full HD 1080p videos. The front camera however settles for a low resolution VGA unit. While it lacks the PixelMaster features of its bigger models, it still gets a couple of high-end smart phone features like HDR, Time Rewind, Selfie and even Best Smile. Although the removable battery is just 1,200mAh capacity, ASUS Malaysia has thrown in another spare battery as an added bonus.
Check out the unboxing video after the break.
ASUS ZenFone 4 Unboxing Video
The box is quite unique as it has cut out holes at the sides showing the device characteristics. According to ASUS, the colour of the box represents the colour of the model so if you’re getting a red colour unit, the box will be red as well. Inside, the contents are quite basic which is similar to what you’ll get from a Xiaomi smart phone. Apart from the device, there’s a compact 3-prong charging adapter which does 1.35Amps and a standard micro USB cable. Nope, there isn’t a pair of headphones included in the box but it is fine considering it gets an additional battery.
Like the rest of the ASUS ZenFone series, it runs on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean with its own ZenUI interface. It also supports Dual-SIM with both micro-SIM slots can support 3G HSPA+ but only 1 slot can be 3G enabled at any one time. For RM299, the ZenFone 4 is considered quite a steal considering most phones in this price range would be having a tiny 3.5″ QVGA display and probably running on a dated single core processor with very little storage. Stay tuned for our hands-on review coming soon.
In the mean time, you can check out our ASUS ZenFone Hands-on from its regional launch in Jakarta.
ASUS ZenFone 4 Unboxed Photos
