It seems like Asus is having change of plans for its upcoming flagship Zenfone 2 which was announced at CES 2015 last month. The device might retail in different variants (processors, specifically) for different market types.
The Zenfone 2 which was announced originally housed with an Intel Atom Z3580 or Z3560 chip will soon have Qualcomm and Mediatek variants as well. According to CEO Jerry Shen 40-50 percent of the devices will have Qualcomm chips, with the remaining 50-60 percent split between Intel and MediaTek.
The specs are expected to remain the same which consist of a 5.5-inch 1080 x 1920 display powered by a 2.3GHz processor alongside 4GB/2GB RAM with 16-64 GB storage capacity and a 13+5 megapixel rear/front snapper combination.
The Qualcomm variant, expected to be released in the second quarter is likely to cater to the lower price segment whereas the Mediatek version is directed towards markets such as India where the omission of the LTE (long term evolution) capacity can go unnoticed.
The availability road map as outlined by Asus points towards Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, and France as the first destinations of the Smartphone variants (in march) followed in April by Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Italy and the US. While if you live in Japan or Brazil, you might have to wait a couple of months longer to get your hands on the Zenfone 2.
