Asus ZenFone 5Z is coming soon to India, will be Flipkart-exclusive

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Asus is gearing to launch its high-end flagship phone, aka the ZenFone 5Z, in India soon. The ZenFone 5Z will be a Flipkart-exclusive, which isn't surprising, since Asus has signed an MOU with the online retail website that makes Flipkart the exclusive distributor of Asus products -- preferably smartphones -- in India for the next few years. Flipkart is gearing to make the reveal on June 26, but chances are that the phone as such may not launch on the same day. Flipkart, to recall, had done something similar with the ZenFone Max Pro M1.

Note that Flipkart does not explicitly say that it's going to reveal the Asus ZenFone 5Z for the Indian market on June 26. The teaser that's out today has a stripe of colours that closely resembles the primary wallpaper/theme of the Asus ZenFone 5Z. And because it also mentions 8:45 (the time at which the reveal will go live) and the tagline, flagship redefined, clearly suggests it is the ZenFone 5Z and not the mid-tier ZenFone 5. The ZenFone 5Z is Asus' flagship phone for 2018 and it comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor under the hood.

The Asus ZenFone 5Z is virtually identical to the iPhone X. From every perceivable angle. The phone is carved out of glass -- unspecified Corning Gorilla Glass -- and metal, and boasts of an impressive screen-to-body ratio of 90 per cent that's 6-7 per cent higher than Samsung's Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ phones. The phone is almost border-less, barring a notch up-top and a chin portion at the bottom. Asus says its notch is smaller than Apple's.

It has a 6.2-inch 1080p+ screen inside a 5.5-inch form-factor. And an unusual 19:9 aspect ratio that can be toned down -- to 18:9 and 16:9 -- via settings for specific apps to make best use of apps that don't support it for now. The panel is LCD.

The ZenFone 5Z is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor with up to 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of internal storage. It is backed by a 3,300mAh battery with support for fast charging -- but sadly no wireless charging -- and charges over Type-C. There are stereo speakers on-board, and the phone supports High-Resolution audio via compatible wired and wireless headphones.

The ZenFone 5Z comes with a dual camera system consisting of a primary 12-megapixel sensor -- a Sony IMX363 -- with large 1.4um pixels, and large f/1.8 aperture, with dual-pixel phase detection autofocus, four-axis optical image stabilisation, and electronic image stabilisation for videos. The secondary camera, meanwhile, consists of an 8-megapixel wide-angle sensor that assists in portrait photography or photos with shallow depth of field. On the front, the phone comes with an 8-megapixel camera with f/2.0 aperture.