Update 3: Well finally something “official” from ASUS. They have just tweeted that the wait is just about over. In the same tweet, they link to a Forbes article that indicates a US launch of the ZenFone 6 by the end of the month. So now we have three different sources saying something similar. The release is most definitely happening soon, maybe in seven days or less!
Update 2: (July 26) Whelp, that didn’t last long. Another pre order date change and this time it’s not so great news:
Update: The pre order date has been changed. One day earlier! Now it’s 12am ET, Wed July 31.
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There has been growing frustration expressed by those of you looking to buy a ZenFone 6. Adding to this frustration has been the lack of communication from ASUS regarding release dates in various markets. To this point, Europe is the main focus for ASUS and there has been decent availability up until this past week. Now it appears the US market has their pre order date, at least according to one US retailer.
Mark this on your calendar now! US pre orders for the ZenFone 6 start August 1st at 12am ET. That means July 31 is the date you want to be staying up until midnight to place a pre order. Miss this window and you risk waiting for the second batch of ZenFone 6 units to ship. Given the spotty availability that has been available in Europe, this risk isn’t worth taking if you can avoid it.
What we see so far is both Midnight Black and Twilight Silver in either 64GB or 128GB storage options, both with 6GB of RAM listed on B&H. If you’re hoping for a 256GB storage and or 8GB RAM configuration, it’s not happening initially. That said, it’s possible the ZenFone 6 Edition 30 with its 512GB storage and 12GB of RAM could be sold exclusively at the ASUS US online store. At this point we think it’s unlikely to see an 8GB model of the ZenFone 6 hitting the North American market. Perhaps when things settle down ASUS may consider it but they typically pigeon hole certain markets to a set number of configurations because they try to meet a pricing strategy that they believe a market will accept.
Prices you ask? Well we can only go with what information that was initially slipped for the US market and quite a lot of time has passed since then. However, at the official ZenFone 6 unveiling, the presenter did say the ZenFone 6 was NOT more expensive than the previous generation ZenFone 5z. With that, the 64GB model will be $499 USD and the 128GB model will be $579 USD. These are not officially announced prices by ASUS so they are indeed subject to change!
It’s important to note that the actual shipping date has not been announced by ASUS or anyone else for that matter. Given that we’re still two weeks away from August 1st, maybe there is a chance the shipping date moves up sooner and a ZenFone 6 can be in your hand by the end of July. Wishful thinking on our part, but let’s try to be optimistic! Would you blame ASUS if they went on the side of caution rather than promising a date they can’t fulfill?
We are relying on one retailer at this point and without official confirmation from ASUS. As a result, we recommend checking in with our website or sign up for our newsletter for updates or changes to the current information. We believe that places like Best Buy and Amazon will have listings up as the time draws closer. Certainly more than one retailer will provide us more confidence on the dates being listed so far.
B&H Photo now lists August 5 as the pre-order date.
Your thoughts on this? I think it’s the third date change by B&H in the past couple weeks. With no other retailers even listing the item at this point, I’m very untrustworthy of the date at this point. That fact is the source of a bit of frustration on my part.