When will the Asus ZenFone 8 be released?

With the ZenFone 7 not dropping until September 2020, many assumed that we’d be waiting a little bit longer to see the ZenFone 8 – but apparently, Asus disagrees.

The company has confirmed that the ZenFone 8 launch event is set to take place on 12 May 2021 at 6pm BST (1pm EST/10am PST), complete with the tagline “Big on performance. Compact in size.” suggesting a focus on smaller handsets than previous years as rumoured.

Sadly, Asus opted not to release the ZenFone 7 and 7 Pro in either the UK or the USA, so it’s unclear whether the ZenFone 8 will follow the same pattern, but given the fact that this year’s Asus ROG Phone 5 is both UK- and US-bound, we’re confident that we’ll be seeing the ZenFone 8 in the same regions. 

To see what we thought of the last ZenFone to arrive on these shores, read our Asus ZenFone 6 review. 

How much will the Asus ZenFone 8 cost?

While we’re yet to hear how much this year’s ZenFone 8 could cost, we can get a good idea of what to expect based on previous launches:

• Asus ZenFone 6: £499/€550/$677
• Asus ZenFone 7: £569/€634/US$749 (approx)
• Asus ZenFone 7 Pro: £725/€807/US$953 (approx)

With the standard models sitting between the £500 and £600 mark (with appropriate amounts in US dollars and Euros), it seems likely that Asus will continue this trend with the ZenFone 8, but we’ll find out for sure at the event on 12 May.

What new features will there be in the Asus ZenFone 8?

The previous models have seen Asus introduce flappable camera units, so the main display doesn’t have notches or punch holes for the lenses, and we fully expect this to be the case with the ZenFone 8. If the standard and Pro model structure remains in place, then the ZenFone 8 should come with pretty high-end specs, but the newest silicon and larger storage options will be held back for the Pro model, as we saw with the ZenFone 7 and 7 Pro.

The latter also benefitted from the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865+ processor, while the standard 7 came with the still very powerful Snapdragon 865. The ZenFone 7 and 7 Pro already introduced 5G capabilities and Bluetooth 5.1, so these will no doubt be features on the new model too.

Both also featured 6.67in 90Hz AMOLED displays, but Asus could follow the pattern of many high-end Android phones and bump this to 120Hz for the ZenFone 8.

There are no confirmed details from Asus about the new model, but we’ve already seen some videos from India and other sites claiming to know some of the specs the ZenFone 8 will contain.

This video from the Technology Talks YouTube channel shows a device that it claims to be the ZenFone 8, which comes with a four-camera arrangement on the rear (which flips over to become the front-facing cameras when required).

It also states that the new phone will feature a Snapdragon 875 processor (now in fact known to be called the 888), a 6.67in 120Hz display, 12GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.

How much of this is true is questionable at the moment, and the device in the video could be another Android phone dressed to look like the ZenFone 8, but the specs don’t seem too far off what we could expect Asus to do.

Those specs were backed up by an XDA Developer report in March 2021, detailing a trio of smartphones that make up this year’s ZenFone 8 Series, including a new 5.9in “mini” model.

Per the report, the standard ZenFone 8 (codename Picasso) will feature a 6.67in OLED panel sporting a Full HD+ resolution with four cameras – a main 64Mp Sony IMX686, a 12Mp IMC363, a 24Mp Omnivision OV24B1Q and an 8Mp Omnivision OV08A tailored towards telephoto shots.

The new ‘Mini’ model (codename Sake) is said to sport a smaller 5.92in OLED panel with the same Full HD+ resolution and (expected) 120Hz refresh rate, and it’ll sport the Snapdragon 888 too.

That’s seemingly backed up by benchmark results that appeared in the Geekbench database, detailing a smartphone with a codename corresponding to the mini model with a Snapdragon 888 capable of achieving a multi-core score of 3681, and the regular model followed on days later with a near-identical multi-core score of 3669.

Going by the Geekbench results it seems the smaller model could sport more RAM at 12GB compared to 8GB, but it’s more likely that the benchmarked ZenFone 8 is the entry-level model while the Mini model is likely be the top-end variant. 

The only notable difference, aside from screen size, seems to be in the camera department, with the mini model sporting only two sensors, the same 64Mp IMX686 main shooter as the regular model, and what looks to be a new Sony IMX663 sensor too. 

Not much is currently known about the expected ZenFone 8 Pro (codename Vodka) aside from the inclusion of the Snapdragon 888 chipset. 

ZenFone 8 concepts

A concept video has the ZenFone 8 with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G processor, and dropping the flip cameras in favour of dual-rear shooters. One thing that’s confusing about this is that whereas this would no doubt help with reducing cost, there doesn’t appear to be a front-facing camera at all, which isn’t something we’d consider viable on any modern smartphone.

Concepts aside, it hopefully won’t be too long until Asus lets us know what the ZenFone 8 will actually bring to the table. Until then, check back regularly to this article as we’ll be updating it when more information comes to light. In the meantime, be sure to also read our guide to the best phones coming in 2021 to see what the ZenFone 8 will need to beat.