ASUS Zenfone 2 review
RelationshipThe ASUS Zenfone 2 is a mid-range smartphone and, although it cannot be considered a flagship model, it has a lot of aces up its sleeve.
The model that we are going to review is the one with a 5.5-inch screen, 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage.
Design
Zenfone 2 features a plastic case with a brushed metal finish, smooth rounded corners, and shiny bezels. At first glance, the phone may look premium, but after a second look and holding it in hand, the case feels a bit cheap.
The Zenfone 2 is somewhat bulky, at 6.0×3.0x0.4 inches and weighs 6 ounces, but overall the build quality is solid, it doesn’t retain fingerprints, the grip is reasonably good, but we found another flaw in the design.
Like the LG G4, ASUS opted for the buttons to be on the back, but although LG got it right ASUS seems to have failed, the power button is oddly positioned on top of the case and the controller. volume is too thin and uncomfortable. .
The back of the phone can be removed to access the dual SIM and MicroSD slots.
Note: The Zenfone 2 integrates dual microSD cards into the interface, making it easy to travel between SIM cards.
Audio is provided by a single tiny speaker under a large grille at the bottom of the back of the phone.
Show
The Zenfone 2 features a 5.5-inch LED-backlit IPS screen with a resolution of 1920x1080p and a pixel density of 403ppi. Also, the screen is protected by Gorilla Glass 3 and has excellent viewing angles.
The Zenfone 2 will work well with Internet games or videos, but there is a problem with brightness, as trying to see the screen in direct sunlight is quite difficult.
Still images look sharp, it has almost full sRGB gamut, colors are balanced enough, albeit a bit unsaturated (blacks could have been darker), it is reasonably accurate with primary color saturation and considering that it is a medium range. phone, the screen does its job.
Performance
The Zenfone 2 features a 2.3GHz quad-core 64-bit Intel Atom Z3580 processor, backed by a PowerVR Series 6 G6430 GPU, 4GB DDR3 RAM (there is a cheaper phone version that only features 2GB of RAM), 32 GB of native storage memory and a possible addition of up to 64 GB through the microSD slot.
Surprisingly to some, Intel is as capable as Qualcomm and the 4GB RAM is a great feature that helps a lot and you can definitely see the strength of the phone while multitasking or playing resource-heavy games.
Overall, we felt that the Zenfone 2’s performance was on par with any other high-end phone (Samsung Galaxy S6 or iPhone 6), the apps were released quickly, we played a wide variety of games (from the basic ones to the ones using lots of resources) smoothly and without any hassle, watching Netflix was straightforward and as stated before multitasking was handled incredibly well.
software
ASUS Zenfone introduces the latest Android Lollipop 5.0, but it’s heavily tweaked into the more complicated and intriguing ASUS Zen UI.
Zen’s UI interface looks minimal, runs smoothly, and has a wealth of customization available, from theme packs to icon style to title font size, leaving you with an interface really unique and truly to your liking.
ASUS has included some cool apps that will definitely help make your phone easier to navigate and use. Some noteworthy ones are File Manager, Do It Later app (built-in task list), Autowizard, Power Saver, and more.
Unfortunately, most “native” applications cannot be uninstalled (and there are a lot of them), resulting in some bloatware, so be prepared to spend a few hours deactivating the application.
In terms of connectivity, the Zenfone 2 has Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, WiFi 802.11ac and LTE.
Camera
The main camera has a 13 megapixel sensor and an f / 2.0 aperture, which means that it is a fairly basic camera that manages to capture quality photos.
Note: Unfortunately, there is no optical image stabilization.
Some minor drawbacks we noticed are that in bright settings the colors seemed a bit oversaturated and in low light it may brighten the image but it will cost you 3 megapixels.
The camera has 17 shooting modes and some cool features are the HDR option and the super resolution mode.
One great thing about the Zenfone’s Camera 2 is that it is fast and there is no lag between shots.
Both the front and rear cameras can record 1080p video at 30 frames per second.
Battery duration
The Zenfone 2 features a non-removable 3000 mAh battery. Because it has a reasonably powerful CPU, the power consumption is quite high.
Still, when the rally matters, the phone has a smart save mode that balances performance with power consumption (when the battery is running low).
With medium to light use, the phone will help you throughout the day.
The Zenfone 2 charges relatively quickly and, like the LG G4, reaches 0-100 in about an hour and a half.
Conclution
To cost $ 300, the ASUS Zenfone 2 cut a lot of corners, the design is not that great, the camera is good but could have been better, but looking at how well it works, the excellent software and the 5.5 ″, the Zenfone 2 is definitely a bargain.
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