Asus announced in a blog post today that Android 6.0 Marshmallow will finally be rolling out to the ZenFone 2. Although this update comes almost a year after Marshmallow was released, this update will bring familiar features such as Google Now on Tap, application permissions, and Doze to one of the best budget phones of 2015.
I first took a look at the ZenFone 2 when it was announced back at CES, and I remember standing at the ASUS press conference actually very impressed with what ASUS managed to do here. While many that I talked to immediately discounted the device — because, well, it is another ASUS ZenFone — I stood behind it as someone who had actually tried it out first-hand. The phone packs some great hardware, and while it was assumed that this was just going to be another underwhelming mid-range handset to clutter the 2015 lineup, I thought this one actually deserved a second look.
Four months after the phone’s announcement in January, it finally went up for sale for North American customers on Amazon. There are two variants here, the first being a lower-end model that costs just $200 and sports 16 GB of storage, and the second is the 64 GB model, coming in at $300. We’re going to be taking a look at the higher-end model in this review, and that’s worth noting because storage space isn’t the only differentiator between these two devices. The high-end $300 model also sports a better processor, as well as that record-breaking 4 GB of RAM…
As announced would happen earlier today, the Asus ZenFone 2 is now available on Amazon in unlocked and contract-free fashion. The device is available in a 16GB variant for $200 and a 64GB variant for $300.