Asus unveils metal-clad Zenfone 3 series with Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC
Asus unveils metal-clad Zenfone 3 series with Qualcomm Snapdragon SoCAsus Press Kit

Asus launched its latest Zenfone 3 series devices — the ZenFone 3, ZenFone 3 Deluxe, and ZenFone 3 Ultra — at the Zenvolution event in Taipei on May 30, but did not share details of their availability at the time. The company simply gave a vague timeline, stating that the new Zenfone 3 series would be available sometime in the third quarter of the calendar year. Fans, however, needn't wait more as a fresh leak has pointed to an August timeline for the launch of all three smartphones.

According to Manila Shaker, which leaked the latest information, the Zenfone 3 trio will be released in Philippines in August. But the report also claims the Zenfone 3 Deluxe model will be launched outside Philippines and in other Asian markets including India with a slight bump in the specs. The original Zenfone 3 Deluxe is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset, but the company might launch the handset with an upgraded Snapdragon 823 CPU in India, the Philippines and other Asian countries.

With the upgraded processor, the Zenfone 3 Deluxe can clock speeds of up to 3GHz. The CPU is capable of handling up to 8GB RAM, but the handset comes in 6GB or 4GB RAM options, which is quite capable of handling multiple tasks with ease.

Diving into the specifications of the Zenfone 3 Deluxe, the handset sports a 5.7-inch Full-HD Super-AMOLED display with Gorilla Glass 4, a metal unibody, and a fingerprint sensor at the back. The handset offers 23MP PixelMaster rear-facing camera with f/2.0 aperture, laser autofocus, OIS, EIS and dual LED flash, and also an 8MP f/2.0 aperture front-snapper.

The Zenfone 3 Deluxe is equipped with 4G LTE dual SIM support, a 3,000mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0 and a USB Type-C port with USB 3.0 speed. The device comes in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB storage options with support for microSD card (up to 128GB) and runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow with ZenUI 3.0 on top of it.

The pricing of the Zenfone 3 Deluxe in India is still a mystery, but since it was launched for $499, the 64GB storage and 6GB RAM variant could cost around Rs. 34,000.