ASUS ZenFone 3 Deluxe and the rest of the ZenFone 3 series handsets haven’t had the best start in the U.S.
First, they came in late and as such, haven’t been very competitive in the market when compared to other devices, despite the very affordable pricing. Furthermore, the tech giant has really lagged behind when it comes to rolling out software updates to the few people out there rocking the ZenFone 3 Deluxe, the flagship variant of the said ZenFone 3 series.
The good side of the story, though, is that those using the ZenFone 3 Deluxe can now be sure of receiving the update to Android 7.0 Nougat anytime from now. This is the first wide rollout for the Taiwanese company and it goes out to model number ZS550KL. If anything, this is the low-end variant of the ZenFone 3 Deluxe series, which has a high-end ZS570KL model. You can check them out via the official ASUS U.S. store.
ASUS has done a pretty impressive job in trying to free up the phone’s ZenUI skin that comes on top of the Nougat update. You will no longer see the company’s Share Link app, which came preinstalled on the phone and allows you to share files with other devices. The ZenMotion no longer supports the ShakeShake gesture and if you enjoyed the wallpapers of the ZenFone 3 Deluxe in Marshmallow, well, not all of them have been retained, with the company citing incompatibility as the reason they have been removed.
The ZenFone 3 Deluxe variant that is currently receiving the update to Android 7.0 Nougat comes with a 5.5-inch display screen with Full HD resolution. It is a dual-SIM phone with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 SoC and 4GB RAM under the hood. Internal storage is 64GB, which can be expanded via a microSD card. The phone’s back has a 16MP camera while the front comes with an 8MP shooter. There’s support for 4K recording on the main snapper alongside laser AF.
Update: ASUS has just begun sending the new Android 7.0 Nougat OTA to the high-end variant of the ZenFone 3 Deluxe, which carries model number ZS570KL. Similar to the ZS550KL, you won’t find Share Link and the PC Suite after the update and there are also some improvements to NFC performance. If you have not been notified to download the OS just yet, ASUS recommends that you go to your phone’s Settings>About phone>System Update and proceed with updating manually, otherwise, you may have to wait for a week or so for the OTA notification to arrive.