The Asus ZenFone 6 is now available for purchase in the US starting at $499.99. Asus differentiates the ZenFone 6 with a camera that flips up from the back of the device to also act as a front-facing camera. It’s a smart idea that maximizes use of the 48-megapixel main camera and 13-megapixel wide-angle lens, all while allowing the 6.4-inch display to run edge to edge without interruption. The camera can rotate on its own for panoramas, and it can follow a subject in motion-tracking mode.

The Verge’s Chaim Gartenberg found the camera to be pretty good during his initial preview of the device, but we’ll need to do further testing to see how it compares to others. Asus says the camera housing is made of durable liquid metal protected by a sensor that returns the camera to a safe position in case of a drop. But, given the number of moving parts, there’s always the risk that something could go wrong over time. Same goes for Samsung’s Galaxy A80, which employs a similar rotating mechanism.

The ZenFone 6 comes in two colors, Twilight Silver or Midnight Black, and has a Snapdragon 855 processor, a giant 5,000 mAh battery, dual SIM slots, a microSD slot supporting up to 2TB of additional storage, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. It does not have water resistance or wireless charging, however.

It’s a lot of phone for a starting price of $499.99, which gets you 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage that can be maxed out up to 8GB/256GB. The ZenFone 6 is available for purchase now from the Asus Store, Amazon, B&H, and Mobile Advance.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/5/20756055/asus-notchless-zenfone-6-flip-top-camera-availability-pricing-release-date-us