Originally the Zenfone 3 Zoom was slated for a February release in the US and most markets, but a recent reply by Asus North America indicates it’s delayed until Q2. Let’s be clear here. It’s currently available in Taiwan but the larger rollout of this phone appears to be delayed. Here is the reply from Asus North America to a customer question about the Zenfone 3 Zoom and when it’s going to be released:

Unfortunately, the ZenFone 3 Zoom has been delayed until Q2. We’re reworking it with better specs so you and many others can have an awesome smartphone to use.

Q2 means April 2017.

So what they mean by “reworking it with better specs” is interesting. This could indicate that Asus is working Android 7.0 Nougat onto the Zenfone 3 Zoom which currently has Android 6.0. Perhaps their camera team is tweaking. We can only speculate at this point.

Whenever you hear about better specs it makes me think about price. Will the $399 USD remain or will improved specs mean a higher price? We will update with news as it becomes available.

[source: Asus North America Facebook]

According to Asus CEO Jerry Shen who spoke at the recent investors conference, the company has 70 to 80 people working on the Zenfone camera technology. Many of them are senior engineers with PhDs according to Shen.

There is a lot of challenges with smartphone cameras and the fact Asus is putting together such a large and diverse team says they are serious. It would make sense that with the Zenfone 4, the fruits of their labor should be realized.

It’s interesting in our long running poll on this site that the result indicate that people are far more interested in price.

The Zenfone 3 Zoom should be a hint on where Asus is progressing in terms of their photo taking prowess. With the Zenfone 3 Deluxe having the newest Sony camera sensor, the phone didn’t get top reviews in terms of video quality. The good news is that with the current Zenfone 3 models, Asus has continued to roll out software updates which list camera improvements. Clearly the company cares.

When you think smartphone photo quality, it’s usually Samsung at the top followed by Google Pixel phones. For Asus to continue pushing into the higher end smartphone market, their photo technology needs to compete. Let’s hope that the Zenfone 4 really shines!