• Michael
• On January 6, 2015

Asus presented a camera-centric phone with 3x optical zoom

If you were watching the Asus press-conference at CES you might have gotten a glimpse of the past – when Nokia unveiled the unique 41MP Lumia 1020 with this huge camera module. Of course, yesterday, the CEO of Asus was not holding a Nokia Lumia 1020 – it was a brand new camera-centric smartphone called ZenFone Zoom.

The similarities between Lumia 1020 and ZenFone Zoom are obvious as both devices have almost identical camera humps on the back. But, the camera sensors and phones’ hardware are quite different. The ZenFone Zoom has a 13MP camera with optical image stabilization and 3X optical zoom, but without oversampling technology. Of course, the phone is loaded with a modern processor, has the better screen and innards, but we are not sure if it will outperform the Lumia 1020 in terms of photo and video quality.

This is not the first smartphone to offer optical zoom and advanced optics in attempts to take the crown from the best smartphone camera today. Samsung Galaxy K Zoom, equipped with 10x optical zoom and latest optical technology from Samsung, is losing constantly in photo tests from the Lumia and other modern smartphones – iPhone 6, Galaxy Note 4, ect. So, what should expect from the ZenFone Zoom? Surely, will will offer satisfactory image quality but probably not the best possible.

But Asus’s new line-up is proving one thing – there is a demand for niche products like camera-phones and Microsoft should release the Lumia 1020 successor as soon as possible. We, however, do not expect such as device to be announced before April 2015.

Source: Asus