Asus is milking its popular ZenFone lineup of phones for all they're worth.
Not too long ago last November, the Taiwanese phone manufacturer released a special edition of the ZenFone 2.
Called the ZenFone 2 Deluxe Special Edition, the amped up handset is equipped with a 2.3GHz Intel Atom quad core Z3580 processor with graphics handled by a Power VR G6430 GPU, 128GB of storage up to an additional 64GB via microSD cards, 4 GB of RAM.
In the second iteration of the ZenFone 2 Deluxe Special Edition – yes, Asus just released another one – the handset gets an even more powerful processor and a two new removable back covers.
Instead of an Intel Z3580, the latest Deluxe Special Edition packs a slightly faster 2.5GHz Intel Z3590 processor. There's still 128 GB of storage as stock but now microSD card expansion has been upped to 128 GB. That's a whopping 256 GB of storage possible on the device.
In addition, Asus does provide two removable rear covers, Drift Silver and Carbon Night. We prefer the sleek faux carbon cover over the faceted grey-ish one. Nonetheless, Asus does boast that the finish on the Drift Silver cover is made up of 500 polygons.
Overall, besides a faster processor, more optional storage and the rear covers, everything else about the ZenFone 2 Deluxe Special Edition remains unchanged from late last year's model.
The second edition ZenFone 2 Deluxe Special Edition still has a run-of-the-mill 5.5-inch 1080p display, a 3,000mAh battery, LTE support, and only Android Lollipop as its operating system. In short, Asus just bumped up the brains of the device and not much else.
At the very least, Asphalt 8 should be running on it buttery smooth. Asus "puts Asphalt 8: Airborne on your starting grid, so you'll feel the speed before you breathe," the company points out on the product's Web page.
All that power may end up draining the battery even faster, however. The Intel Z3590 is a desktop grade processor and its inclusion into a smaller form factor like a smartphone may cut its actual usefulness. All that power but at the expense of having to juice up two to three times a day may not be worth it.
