Two months after Asus launched the ZenFone 2 in its home fort Taiwan, the device touched down in Malaysia. As it happens, Xiaomi is also a major player in the country where most of its offerings are available, including the Xiaomi Mi 4. With these two offerings now out in the Malaysian market, will the new Asus handset send the 2014 device from Xiaomi into oblivion?
The Asus ZenFone 2 has multiple flavors and they are all expected to be launched in Malaysia. The top-of-the-line model comes with a 5.5-inch display that renders a pixel density of 403 ppi. In comparison, the Xiaomi Mi 4's 5-inch screen has a 441 ppi pixel density, making its display crisp and sharp, but it may not appeal much to those who like their screens full-size. It is to be noted that the Asus device has a 5-inch variant as well, but it only generates a 720p resolution.
Under the hood, the top Asus ZenFone 2 handset makes use of an Intel Atom Z3580 chipset complemented with a quad-core processor clocked at 2.3 GHz. It also has a hulking 4 GB RAM, which makes it powerful, along with 32 and 64 GB storage options.
The Xiaomi Mi 4, on the other hand, houses a 2.5 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, which should make for a pretty fast device, too. It has one gig less RAM than its rival but its 16 GB and 64 GB storage capacities should work nicely.
The great thing about the Asus ZenFone 2 is that it already has Android 5.0 Lollipop straight out of the box. The Xiaomi Mi 4 still runs Android 4.4.3 KitKat.
In the power department though, the smartphone from the Chinese company is slightly better. It uses a 3080 mAh battery, while Asus makes use of a 3000 mAh unit for its new offering. Nevertheless, users will be able to juice up either product fast. The former charges 60 percent in 40 minutes while the latter only needs 30 for the same amount of charge.
Both handsets utilize a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera that allows high definition video recording. However, the Xiaomi Mi 4 takes it up a notch in the selfie department by opting for an 8-megapixel shooter. The Asus ZenFone 2 has a 5-megapixel snapper, which should, nonetheless, take great selfies as well.
GSM Arena lists the Xiaomi Mi 4 at 240 euro, which roughly translates to $268. The top-of-the-line Asus ZenFone 2 is priced at $362 (64 GB) and $306 (32 GB).
