Opinion | What is going on with the Asus Zenfone 7?

Forget the Galaxy Note 20 or Google Pixel 5; the Asus Zenfone 7 is the phone I look forward to the most. And yet, for some reason, almost a year after the launch of the Zenfone 6, there seems to be a complete lack of ripples on the grapevine about Asus's next flagship phone. What's going on with the Asus Zenfone 7?

The Zenfone 6 was impressive. By all metrics, it held up brilliantly well as a flagship phone, and was indubitably the best value premium phone in the US last year. A big display? Check. A huge battery? Check. A premium SoC? Check. An innovative design? Check. A headphone jack? Hell yeah, check. Lots of checks for a phone with a base MSRP of US$500. Even on the global market, you'd have had to go with Xiaomi or Realme to get something offering that performance to price ratio. And that's why the Asus Zenfone 7 interests me so much.

In a world filled with US$1000 flagships, the Zenfone 7 may just be the flagship phone for the masses. OnePlus took the black, and Xiaomi joined the dark side. The LG V60 ThinQ comes close, but it's, well, LG, and that comes with a number of cons. The Zenfone 7 should be the phone for the people.

Last time we heard about the Zenfone 7, it was touted to sport an LCD display, a triple rear camera setup, and eschew the innovative swiveling camera that debuted on the Zenfone 6 in favor of a dual punch hole. That was over two months ago, though, and there's been nothing but static on the airwaves since then.

The Zenfone 6 will complete its first anniversary in a few weeks, and it doesn't look like we'll be getting a successor anytime soon. That could be due to a number of factors, most notably the current pandemic, but it breaks my heart regardless.