Asus Zenfone 2 : Picture 8

Slideshows ›› Smartphones introduced in CES 2015

Slide 8 : New additions to the smartphones category at CES 2015

Asus Zenfone 2

Asus made a big deal of the new ZenUI, but the good news starts from Android 5.0 Lollipop. The custom UI itself respects the Material design guidelines and adds important features like increased security with per-app and per-file permissions. ZenUI apps will be updated separately from the main ROM to keep them up to date, even if the major update is running late.

Asus has kept the capacitive keys below the display on board, while most phones looking to remain compact with a huge screen drop them in favor of on-screen buttons. The company seems to have borrowed some inspiration from LG G3. The Asus Zenfone features a button on the back, positioned in the middle, right below the camera and its dual-LED flash.

Asus has strong ties with Intel and the Zenfone 2 is powered by an Atom Z3580 quad-core processor. The SoC also includes a PowerVR G6430 GPU (like the one in the iPhone 5s). Most impressively, this is the first smartphone to crack the 4GB RAM barrier.

The Asus Zenfone 2 is powered by a 3000mAh battery. It supports a fast charging technology that will bring the battery from 0-60% in 39 minutes. The base model starts off with the slower chipset - Z3560 clocked at 1.8GHz instead of 2.3GHz – which provides only 2GB of RAM. Still, it sounds like a great deal, considering you're also getting 150Mbps LTE and Wi-Fi 802.11ac.

For the camera, Asus picked a 13MP shooter with a fast f/2.0 aperture and software enhancements to improve low-light and HDR shots. This camera records 1080p video. On the front is a selfie-friendly 5MP camera with an 85° lens, which can be expanded to a virtual 140° with the Selfie Panorama mode. The main camera has a dual-LED true tone flash and it has manual controls.