ASUS now has a $229 ZenFone 2 variant with 4GB RAM

When ASUS introduced the ZenFone 2 earlier this year, many took to the terrific tech it packed inside. Two variants were released in the United States: a reasonably priced $199 model that included 2GB of RAM, and a slightly pricier $299 model that featured an impressive 4GB. As months have passed, ASUS has brought forth siblings including the ZenFone 2 Laser, the ZenFone 2 Deluxe, and ZenFone Selfie, none of which have yet to officially see a release in North America. There is a new model available, and it looks to be the best possible deal for those eager for higher-end specs, but with a priority on value-for-money.

Just announced is a $229 variant of the cheaper ZenFone 2: it includes all the specs of the lower-end model but adds on an extra 2GB of RAM. The $30 price difference makes it now much more affordable for those who were hoping for a bit of future-proofing yet not willing to go all out and spend for the premium model. Note that at the moment, only a black color option is available, however given the ease of swapping the rear cover, it shouldn’t be too difficult to change that if desired.

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For those in need of a recap, the $199 model includes a 5.5-inch Full HD IPS display, a 1.8GHz Intel Atom Z3560 Moorefield SoC, 16GB of on-board storage, 2GB of RAM, a 13-megapixel rear camera and 5-megapixel front facing camera, microSD support, Dual-SIM LTE support, and Android 5.1. As mentioned the new $229 variant retains these specs yet bumps the RAM up to 4GB.

The $299 model, on the other hand, features the same core specs but comes with a 2.3 GHz Atom Z3580 SoC, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of on-board storage.

Given the fierce competition that now exists in this mid-to-upper range price point, it makes sense ASUS would want to make their product as appealing as possible. The ability to get 4GB of RAM at such a low price is definitely a selling point for those interested in specs but not prepared to spend excessively on a mobile phone. While this new variant may only include 16GB of storage, the presence of microSD card support means that users can swap expandable storage modules as they like and thus manually increase the amount available .

What are your thoughts on this new variant? Does the extra 2GB of RAM justify the $30 price jump, or is it just a better idea to go for the full $300 and get a faster SoC and 4GB of RAM? Leave us your comments below and tell us how you feel!