Asus ZenFones: An Android Army with Intel Inside
After years of bringing you the horror/glory that is the PadFone and FonePad, Asus is branching out on its fone offerings and introducing not one, not two, but three flavors of “ZenFone,” Android handsets with ultrabook lineage.
Context & Ripple Effects
Asus has spent years testing the phone-tablet boundary with devices like the original PadFone announced in 2011 and the FonePad, a 7-inch tablet that doubles as a phone — experiments that earned attention more than market share. Its credibility in building polished Google hardware, from the Nexus 7 to a confirmed role on the Nexus 10 refresh, is what makes a serious handset line plausible.
The new twist is silicon: the three ZenFones put the same Intel chips behind Asus's ultrabook line — the lineage praised in the 2011 Zenbook hands-on — into Android phones. Announced at CES alongside a PadFone X headed to AT&T in the US, per The Verge's pickup, this reads as Asus consolidating scattered phone experiments into one branded lineup.
First-order effects
- Intel lands a multi-model Android smartphone design win with Asus at CES, giving its mobile chip effort a visible flagship partner beyond reference designs.
- Asus now fields a conventional Android handset brand alongside its PadFone/FonePad hybrids, competing directly in the entry-to-mid tier where it already sells tablets.
Second-order effects
- Qualcomm and MediaTek face a rival courting the same budget-Android vendors with x86 silicon, pressuring pricing and bundling in the sub-premium segment.
- Other PC makers watching Asus — which also used the show to enter small Windows tablets against Dell, Lenovo, and Toshiba with the VivoTab Note 8 — have a template for leveraging their Intel relationships across both OS camps.
Third-order effects
- If Intel's phone designs gain traction through partners like Asus, the PC and phone supply chains blur further, with the same ODMs and chip platforms serving Windows laptops and Android handsets — a structural threat to ARM's default hold on mobile.
The trend: PC makers are exporting their Intel chip relationships into Android handsets, turning the phone into the next battleground for x86's mobile ambitions.