Asus has launched its budget-friendly Asus ZenFone 2E which it hopes will replicate the success of its ZenFone 2.
On Wednesday, July 22, Asus announced the latest addition to its ZenFone line-up, which will be an AT&T exclusive. The ZenFone 2E will retail under AT&T's GoPhone brand, which is prepaid.
"ASUS is excited to launch the ZenFone 2E with AT&T. The ASUS ZenFone 2E embodies our philosophy of empowering luxury for everyone. Working with AT&T enables us to deliver an excellent smartphone experience on a high-speed 4G LTE network to consumers on a budget," said Benson Lin, corporate VP and GM for mobile communications, ASUS.
The ZenFone 2E will cost $119.99 without contract and will also be available from Target and Walmart. AT&T is slated to start retailing the Asus smartphone from Friday, July 24 and retailer Best Buy will start offering the AT&T-exclusive ZenFone 2E from Aug. 2.
Considering the nominal pricing of the ZenFone 2E, Asus has understandably cut back on the specs when you compare the smartphone to the ZenFone 2. However, the ZenFone 2E's design sensibilities are reminiscent of the ZenFone 2.
The ZenFone 2E sports a 5-inch IPS screen with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 which is a tad smaller than that of the ZenFone 2. Also, the latest Asus smartphone has a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels vis-à-vis- the ZenFone 2's 1920 x 1080 pixels.
Under the hood, the ZenFone 2E packs in a dual-core Intel Atom Z2560 processor which is clocked at 1.6GHz and 1GB of RAM. The on-board storage of just 8GB may also disappoint many, but the saving grace is that the expandable memory slot ensures you can increase the memory up to 64GB via a microSD card.
The AT&T smartphone also houses an 8MP primary camera with f/2.0 aperture. The selfie-camera is a mere 2MP with an f/2.0 aperture as well.
The smartphone is quite compact and measures 5.83 x 2.81 x 0.43 inches and weighs 5.47 oz. It offers support for Bluetooth 4.0, 4G LTE and Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n.
Finally, the handset features a non-removable 2,200 mAh battery and will come pre-loaded with Android 5.0 Lollipop with ZenUI on top.
The ZenFone 2E will be available in Charcoal Black and Pearl White.
