This year, the Asus ZenFone 2 emerged as one of the most inexpensive smartphones on the market but it does not deserve to be underestimated as its high end specs allow it to take on the best flagships including the Galaxy S5 from Samsung, which was released last year. Here is how these two devices compare.

Design

The Galaxy S5 might be Samsung's flagship smartphone from last year, but it has nothing special going for it in terms of design, as it is simply made of plastic and has a back panel layered with faux leather. Just like the S5, the ZenFone 2 also has a plastic body but with curved edges and a metallic finish, which gives it a premium look. As for the colors, the Galaxy S5 has four options: black, white, gold and blue while the ZenFone 2 comes in gray, gold, black, red and white.

Display

A big advantage that the ZenFone 2 has going in its favor is its bigger display. It has a 5.5-inch IPS screen with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels and a density of 403 pixels per inch, while the Galaxy S5 has a super AMOLED screen measuring 5.1 inches with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels and a density of 432 pixels per inch.

Specs

In terms of hardware, the ZenFone 2 still takes the lead as it comes with an Intel Atom Z3580 chipset, a CPU with four cores clocked at 2.3 GHz and a PowerVR G6430 GPU. The Galaxy S5 has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chipset, a Krait 400 CPU with four cores clocked at 2.5 GHz and an Adreno 330 GPU.

Memory

Both devices come with memory slots. The version on the ZenFone 2 allows for the addition of up to 64 GB while the Galaxy S5 can be used to add up to 128 GB of external storage. Comparing their RAM, the ZenFone 2 has 4 GB on board while the Galaxy S5 has 2 GB.

Price

The Samsung Galaxy S5 is priced at $99 with a two-year contract while the unlocked Asus ZenFone 2 sells at $300 from several retailers.