Asus is finally bringing its smartphone with a 3X optical zoom lens to the United States. The company unveiled the Zenfone Zoom at CES 2015. A year later, the company says the phone is just about ready to launch: it should be available in the US in early February for $399.

zenfone zoom

The phone’s most distinctive feature is the rear camera, which features a 10-element HOYA lens and a 13MP image sensor. Measuring about 0.48 inches thick, Asus says the Zenfone Zoom is the thinnest phone to feature an optical zoom.

The Zenfone Zoom’s other features don’t look bad either:

  • 5.5 inch, 1920 x 1080 pixel IPS display with Corning Gorilla Glass 4
  • Android 5.x with Asus ZenUI
  • Intel Atom Z3590 processor
  • 4GB of RAM
  • 64GB or 128GB of storage plus a microSD card slot for up to 128GB of additional storage
  • 802.11ac WiFi, Blueooth 4.0, and NFC
  • Bluetooth 4.0
  • 3,000 mAh battery
  • 5MP front-facing camera

Asus is a relative newbie in the smartphone space. But the PC maker made a pretty big splash in 2015 with the Zenfone 2. It was one of the first smartphones to ship with 4GB of RAM, and it also offered reasonably decent performance at a price that was hard to beat.

While the Zenfone Zoom is a little pricier, folks dissatisfied with the digital zoom features found on most smartphones might be willing to pay a little more for a phone with an optical zoom lens.

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