Forget the Galaxy Note 20 - this rival could be just as powerful for half the price

Forget the Galaxy Note 20 - this rival could be just as powerful for half the price

Asus' ZenFone 7 is coming next week. And based on new information from leaker Roland Quandt, it should be a pretty good deal.

According to Quandt, the ZenFone 7 with Snapdragon 865 will start at 500 euros (about $600). For this price, you get a phone with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage; spend €550 (about $650) and Asus will reportedly raise both amounts to 8GB and 256GB, respectively.Quandt's findings reach us via PhoneArena .

These are by no means poor performance vs. dollar value and cement the ZenFone as a compelling OnePlus alternative for those whose main concern is getting the most powerful hardware for the absolute least amount of money. The ZenFone 7 is reportedly equipped with The Snapdragon 865 chipset, which is said to be in the ZenFone 7, is still a very capable chip, albeit losing out to the 10% faster Snapdragon 865 Plus found in a small but growing number of ultra-premium devices, such as Samsung's new Galaxy Note 20.

The difference is that the Note 20 starts at $999 and goes up to $1,299 for the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, which has far superior features and is said to start at more than twice the price of the ZenFone 7.

Of course, great mobile devices are not defined by specs alone. But as the top end of the market continues to skyrocket in price, it's nice to see companies like Asus offering affordable choices, often with some nifty special features. [For example, last year's ZenFone 6 had a dual-camera system that flipped from the back to its own side when taking selfies. This is a clever trick that makes the ZenFone 6's front-facing photography far superior to rival models, and was employed on a device that costs only $500 when new.

Asus has not confirmed whether the flip camera system will return on the ZenFone 7, but it looks like we could see it again, as a teaser image the company posted to the top of Twitter depicts no separate front camera on the top bezel. While the ZenFone 6's camera wasn't perfect, the flip camera system was a legitimately useful addition and one of the device's key features, along with killer battery life.

It is a little disappointing that the ZenFone 7 could be priced $100 more, but even $600 could undercut the $700 OnePlus 8 by a considerable margin; if Quandt's leak is true, it would be the least expensive Snapdragon 865 chipset-powered The ZenFone 7 will debut in a virtual event via YouTube on August 26.

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