ASUS ZenFone V Is Another Odd Verizon Exclusive

Verizon has just lost its exclusivity with Motorola's Droid series and with Sprint's Essential exclusive as well as AT&T's BlackBerry KEYone, the carrier might be in need of a new partner. It seems that the new partner is ASUS. After the now practically useless, thanks to Google's own ARCore, ZenFone AR, Verizon and ASUS have apparently collaborated on a never before seen ZenFone V. And while it might not be the ZenFone 5, it could very well be the ZenFone 3.5.

To be clear, the ZenFone 4 series is still ASUS' 2017 flagship, and it has only just started rolling it out in the US, beginning with the ZenFone 4 Max 5.5 inch. Given that, it seems odd that ASUS would put out a "ZenFone V". Perhaps the two are trying to ride on the iPhone X wave. Then again, they can easily make an excuse that "V" stands for "Verizon".

While not a 2017 flagship, the ZenFone V could definitely pass for a 2016 one. It sports a 5.2-inch Full HD AMOLED screen and runs on a 2016 Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, both features rare in any ASUS phone. These are joined by 4 GB of RAM and, disappointingly, 32 GB of internal storage. There's a non-removable 3,000 mAh battery inside, though, which is quite good for a phone of its caliber. It also runs Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box.

One highlight of the ZenFone V is its main camera, with a 23 megapixel sensor and an f/2.0 aperture. It boasts of 4-axis OIS for stills, but only 3-axis EIS for videos, the latter of which can be recorded in glorious 4K. The front camera gets an 8 megapixel sensor only.

Other than its existence, however, ASUS and Verizon have so far been mum about the ZenFone V's details. Pricing and dates are still anyone's guess, as well as why the would want to get this carrier exclusive in the first place.

SOURCE: ASUS