Taiwanese tech giant ASUS yesterday launched the ZenFone 5Z in India. The ZenFone 5Z is a flagship smartphone that comes with Snapdragon 845 SoC, up to 8 GB RAM and up to 256 GB internal storage. Its price starts at ₹29,999 and goes all the way up to ₹36,999 for the top-end model, giving a tough competition to the OnePlus 6 which is the first Snapdragon 845-powered smartphone to have launched in India. Well, after launching the ZenFone 5Z, ASUS has confirmed that it will also be launching the ROG Phone in India.
The ROG Phone is a gaming smartphone that was announced earlier last month at the Computex tech show in Taipei, and, while speaking to Digit at yesterday’s ZenFone 5Z India launch event, ASUS CEO Jerry Shen confirmed that the ROG Phone will indeed be launched in India. While Shen didn’t provide any exact date of launch, he did say that the ROG Phone will debut in India in Q3 2018.
“For sure, we will launch the ROG phone here in India. I cannot tell you the exact date, but it will arrive in Q3. It is already Q3, so we have three months to do so” said Jerry Shen, CEO, ASUS.
Well, considering that the Q3 has already started, we can expect the ROG Phone to launch in country soon. A report that surfaced last month stated that the ROG Phone would be launched in India in the month of September. Hence, even if ASUS doesn’t launch the ROG Phone this month or in August, it will very well launch the ROG Phone in September.
There’s no word on how much the ROG Phone will cost in India, but, considering the specifications of the ROG Phone that are way more high-end than the ZenFone 5Z, we can expect the ROG Phone to be priced no lower than ₹50,000.
“The consumers here are not like the ones in the US. Indian consumers are reasonable and care about the value and the features. Definitely, ROG will be priced higher than the Zenfone 5Z. The combination of 8 GB and 512 GB that will be the key to its success. It’s better than PC. On top of the specs, we have Optiflex which is our technology that speeds up the phone. We also have a lot of accessories and technology to prevent CPU throttle. Expect to see more and more Asus technology in it. I will ask my team to bring this device to India as soon as possible” Shen further added.
Also Read: Top 3 Gaming Smartphones in India
If you want a smartphone for gaming, and couldn’t wait for the ROG Phone to launch in India, you can consider buying the ASUS ZenFone 5Z or the OnePlus 6 – both of which are powered by Snapdragon 845 SoC and come with up to 8 GB RAM.
ASUS ROG Phone Specifications
- CPU: 2.96 GHz speed-binned Snapdragon 845 octa-core processor
- RAM: 8 GB LPDDR4X
- GPU: Adreno 630
- Operating System: ROG Gaming X mode UI based on Android 8.1 Oreo
- Display: 6-inch Full-HD+ (2160 x 1080 pixels) 18:9 Always-On AMOLED Display with 2.5D Curved Gorilla Glass, 550 nits brightness, 10,000:1 contrast ratio, 90 Hz refresh rate, 1 ms response time, Gaming HDR, Mobile HDR and glove touch support
- Primary Rear Camera: 12 MP Sony IMX363 Dual Pixel with f/1.8 aperture, 1/2.55-inch sensor size, 1.4 µm pixel size, PDAF, 6P Lens, AI Scene Detection, Portrait Mode, PixelMaster Tech, 4-axis OIS and LED flash
- Secondary Rear Camera: 8 MP with 120-degree wide-angle lens
- Front Camera: 8 MP with f/2.0 aperture, 84-degree field of view and PixelMaster Tech
- Internal Storage: 128/512 GB UFS 2.1 (with 100 GB Google Drive space for 1 year)
- SIM: Dual Nano
- Connectivity: 4G LTE, GPS, Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, NFC, FM Radio, 3.5 mm headphone jack, USB Type-C port
- Other: Fingerprint Scanner, Water Resistance, Dual front-facing stereo speakers, 5-magnet speaker with dual NXP 9874 smart amplifier, Hi-Res 242-bit/192 KHz audio, DTS (Digital Theater System) Headphone:X™ 7.1 virtual surround sound for headphone, Qualcomm aptX for Bluetooth Wireless audio
- Battery: 4000 mAh with ASUS HyperCharge 20W Fast Charging and Quick Charge 4.0 support
