(Pocket-lint) - Asus this week launched the Zenfone 5 but according to its head of global marketing, it is still learning a lot about the smartphone market.

“In terms of smartphones, we’re just babies. We’re still learning” said Marcel Campos at a press event attended by Pocket-lint during Mobile World Congress (MWC) this week.

Campos was also bullish that the ZenFone 5 – and it’s beefier 5Z variant – have not been inspired by Apple’s so-called notch on the iPhone X. “Probably the first thing [the media would say] is that you are copying the fruit company” said Campos.

“But Essential phone was the first notch. If you say we are copying Essential then I accept. But the iPhone is not the first notch. I don’t know why people hate it but I know why [it’s there].

Campos was clear that he expects more phones to have notches, a trend we certainly saw at MWC. It seems that the notch is simply something we’ll just have to get used to.

“Many others are going the same way. Why a notch? Because the end user wants the biggest screen possible…it’s nothing to do with the sensors, the notch is there for a bigger panel.

“That’s the value for the end user.”

Campos also said that the best way to use biometrics in a phone still remains the fingerprint sensor because of security concerns, especially that face recognition can be duped. “Fingerprint in the back? We keep it. It’s the best and fastest way.”

The Asus marketing head also expanded on Asus not having made a big splash at MWC previously: "We were not ready. Now we feel we are ready. It’s the most competitive market ever and it’s not easy. We came from [producing] graphics cards and PCs to phone. The experience for the user is quite different [from PC market]."

In a clear dig at Huawei he added: "we are not here to launch a notebook" - Huawei didn't launch any phones at MWC and will debut the P20 next month.

Revealed at MWC, the ZenFone 5 is a slick Qualcomm Snapdragon 636-powered, 6.2-inch handset that will be released in the UK in “Q3” – so expect it in the late Summer.

The ZenFone 5Z ups the ante with the flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, a huge 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. We have confirmed pricing for it, too, and it’s tasty – it’ll be £500 in the UK or €479 in mainland Europe and feature dual-SIM.

Now why not check out our ZenFone 5 initial review

Writing by Dan Grabham.