Asus has announced a lite-variant of the Zenfone 5 (A501CG) smartphone, dubbed ZenFone 5 (A502CG), in the Philippines at PHP 5,595 (approximately Rs. 7,600). The smartphone will go on sale next week across authorised resellers in the Philippines. As yet, there are no details of the smartphone’s global release.
The dual-SIM Asus ZenFone 5 (A502CG) runs Android 4.4 KitKat out-of-the-box. It features a 5-inch qHD (540×960 pixels) display instead of a HD (720×1280 pixel) display seen on ZenFone 5 (A501CG).
The processor and RAM have also been downgraded in ZenFone 5 (A502CG). It is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core Intel Atom Z2520 processor with Hyper-Threading (implying four threads) coupled with 1GB of RAM, as opposed to the ZenFone 5 (A501CG) – which comes with a 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Atom Z2560 processor with Hyper-Threading that’s coupled with 2GB of RAM.
Of course, not everything on the Asus ZenFone 5 (A502CG) has been downgraded from the original by the company – in fact, there is also a bump-up – the smartphone packs a larger up battery with a 2500mAh capacity instead of the 2110mAh battery in the ZenFone 5 (A501CG). The rest of the specifications of the Asus ZenFone 5 (A502CG) are almost the same as the Asus ZenFone 5 (A501CG). It will also be available in Charcoal Black, Pearl White and Cherry Red colour options in Philippines.
The smartphone listed on the Asus Philippines website as the ZenFone (A502CG) is also known as ZenFone 5 Lite, as per the site that first spotted the listing – Yugatech.
Notably, Asus CEO Jerry Shen last week confirmed the company would launch a second series of ZenFone smartphones next year, the ZenFone 2 series, which will be cheaper and priced as low as NTD 4,990 (roughly Rs. 10,000). The ZenFone 2 series will be powered by a second chipmaker, and will be available early next year with two of the biggest Chinese carriers – China Mobile Ltd and China Telecom Corp – while the refreshed models of the original series will be designed for the global markets, as per Shen. Notably, the Shen says smartphones due at CES 2015 will be the new Intel-powered ones.Last month, Asus had confirmed that six of its devices (and their variants) will be receiving an update to Android 5.0 Lollipop next year. The list of devices scheduled to receive the Android 5.0 Lollipop includes the popular Asus ZenFone series of smartphones – ZenFone 4, ZenFone 5, and ZenFone 6 – alongside Padfone S and Padfone Infinity (second gen).
