The main part of Asus' MWC 2018 conference was the Zenfone 5z and Zenfone 5, both of which share a lot of similarities. Both the Zenfone 5z and the Zenfone 5 are built around a 6.2-inch 2246x1080 Super IPS touchscreen with 19:9 aspect ratio, 90 percent screen-to-body-ratio, and a top-notch that is "26 percent smaller than the Fruit Phone X". The screen has DCI-P3 support and comes with 500-nits of maximum brightness.

Despite their large 6.2-inch screen and thanks to slim bezels, the Zenfone 5z and Zenfone 5 come with a body of a 5.5-inch smartphone. Although we do not have precise dimensions, so we have to take Asus' word for it, the company did say that the Zenfone 5z and Zenfone 5 will weigh 163g and 155g, respectively. Both phones use a glass front and back with metal frame and rear-placed fingerprint sensor.

Asus also equipped both the Zenfone 5z and Zenfone 5 with a rear dual-camera setup featuring a main 12-megapixel camera with Sony IMX363 sensor, f/1.8 aperture, 1.4um pixel size, phase detection autofocus, 83-degree FoV, and OIS as well as a secondary 120-degree wide-angle camera. The front will use an 8-megapixel camera with f/2.0 aperture and 84-degree FoV.

A big part of the announcement was reserved for AI, as Asus announced AI Boost, which should provide a bit more performance when needed, AI Photo Learning, which automatically applies effects that you might like, AI Camera, which selects best mode, AI Charging, which adjusts charging of the phone depend on your needs, as well as AI Ringtone and AI Display.

Both smartphones also come with special stereo speakers, USB Type-C connector, Android 8.0 Oreo with ZenUI 5 on top of it, and a 3,300mAh battery.

The main and the biggest difference is the fact that the Zenfone 5z will feature Qualcomm's flagship Snapdragon 845 SoC, and be available in 4GB/64GB, 6GB/128GB and 8GB/256GB configurations, while the Zenfone 5 will get Snapdragon 636, with 4GB/64GB and 6GB/64GB configuration. In case you missed it, the Snapdragon 635 SoC comes with eight Qualcomm Kryo 260 CPU cores (4+4) clocked at up to 1.8GHz and uses the Adreno 509 GPU.

The biggest surprise is the price, as the flagship Zenfone 5z is likely to start at €479, which is a decent price for a flagship smartphone with Snapdragon 845 SoC, and should give other players a run for their money. Unfortunately, Asus did not reveal the starting price for the cheaper Zenfone 5 and we won't see either of them before June this year.