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ZenFone 3 Deluxe The great phone of 2016

The Asus Zenfone 3 Deluxe specs, not the screen, are what really pop. On paper, it matches and exceeds almost all of the phones we've tested - again, on paper.

Its 6GB of RAM is supposed to give you more breathing room to open apps and multitask without slowdown. Whether or not that happens is going to depend on how efficient it is at running the Asus-themed Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system and the Android Nougat update, whenever that comes about.

The Zenfone 3 is also future-proofed with the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor. It's a step up from every major Android phone right now (LG G5, HTC 10 and the US version of the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge).

Running a quick GeekBench 3 benchmark test at Computex while it had the older Snapdragon 820 chip * (and before getting shooed away and told this is just a prototype), the phone was able to hit a multi-core score of 5,420. That beats the US Samsung Galaxy S7 (5,398) score I logged when it first came out.

That's still slower than the international Galaxy S7 (6,500) that is equipped with Samsung's Exynos processor, but there's a chance Asus can make those numbers better by the time the Zenfone 3 Deluxe launches, especially with the Snapdragon 821 onboard now.

I should note that the performance of the other new Zenfones won't be better. Both the Zenfone 3 and massively sized Zenfone 3 Ultra have Snapdragon 600 series CPUs.

Camera Asus is paying more attention to the camera with its two larger Zenfone 3 phones.

It cranks up the megapixels with a 23MP Sony IMX318 sensor for a camera that it dubs "PixelMaster 3.0." Sounds more like a bad 90s screen name for a pompous camera guru.

That translates to a f/2.0 lens that takes 0.03 seconds to autofocus. There's optical image stabilization onboard for shaky hands and a dual tone LED flash for night shots.

Don't let the high megapixel count fool you. The Samsung Galaxy S7 camera is the best in the biz right now and it's only 12MP. It's all about the quality of the sensor and post-processing, especially when it comes to low-light photos.

The Zenfone 3 can surely top the average murky-looking photos out of the Zenfone 2, and I can't wait to see if it belongs in the 2016 class of really great Android phone cameras that beat the iPhone. I'll be sure to give it a full photo test outside of Computex soon.

Battery life It'll be interesting to see how the better specs of the Zenfone 3 affect the battery life when we get this phone in for a full review.

Right now, we know that the battery capacity is 3,000mAh and utilizes Quick Charge 3.0 for faster recharging.

Like megapixels, the battery life number can be deceiving, so it'll take a few days of testing to see whether or not it meets the needs of power users over a full day's time.

It doesn't match the 4,600mAh battery of the 6.8-inch Asus Zenfone 3 Ultra, or have its reverse charging feature to power your other accessories with juice, but that phone is just a ridiculous monster that not everyone can manage. Asus Zenfone 3 Deluxe the faster performing, more reasonably sized variant.

Early verdict The Asus Zenfone 3 Deluxe is the grown up version of the cheap Zenfone 2 I reviewed and easily broke a year ago. It's now ready to play with the adults at the best Android phones table occupied by Samsung, LG and HTC.

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