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Asus launched as many as 3 variants of the Zenfone 2 across storage capacities and worth points. The inaugural Zenfone series which was launched last year was a hit and Asus managed to sell more phones within the Zenfone series than in its earlier avatars. The naming convention of the Zenfones is a bit complicated though. Last year we had the Zenfone 4, Zenfone 5 & Zenfone 6 selling available in the market and this year we’ve Zenfone2.
Asus Zenfone 2 Review: Design
At $300, you would not anticipate an extraordinary design from the Asus ZenFone 2, and Asus obliges with palatable mediocrity. The phone has a relatively simple & boring look, though the satisfyingly clicky rear mounted volume buttons imbue it with some much-needed persona. Unfortunately, the identical can not be stated of the power button, which is inconveniently mounted on top of the cell phone and mushy feeling. I have really had to do double takes in order to ensure that I actually pressed the power button.
A 5.5-inch smartphone will never be straightforward to grasp in one hand. however, the Asus ZenFone 2 feels massive even in this dimension class. If solely Asus would trim the sides a bit, we could have one thing extra along the lines of the LG G3 and its successor, the LG G4 when it comes to ergonomics. Fortunately, the grippy brushed feeling of the back cover makes it simpler to wrangle.
The display screen, a 1080p LCD, certainly impresses. It would not ship the punchy colours you have seen on Samsung’s OLED-powered Galaxy S smartphones, however the ZenFone 2’s display is far from bad at this worth. Since it is an IPS panel, it delivers wide sufficient viewing angles, however we do want it got brighter.
Our review unit is powered by a quad-core 2.3 GHz Intel Atom Z3580 CPU & a PowerVR G6430 GPU, together with a whopping 4GB of RAM. Asus additionally makes a less expensive model ($200) that cuts the RAM in half and lowers the clock speed to 1.8GHz. We can not communicate for that one, however the top tier mannequin has loads of power. Going through menus, opening applications, and games is a breeze on the ZenFone 2. It will get quite heat under duress, however you would not want oven mitts to handle it.
Asus Zenfone 2 Review: Software
Asus Zenfones come with the ZenUI skin atop the OS. The look of the ZenUI has not modified a lot from what we had seen from the earlier generation. The Android 5.0 Lollipop OS gives extra features such as modified notification pull down animation, floating notifications, option so as to add in a visitor mode and so on. Majority of the other options have been carried forward.
There is the usual application drawer for applications and widgets, lengthy pressing the homescreen pulls out settings for changing the homescreen, and homescreen widgets and shortcuts could be eliminated by long-pressing and then dragging them to the Remove button.
There is lock screen shortcuts for shortly accessing important functions such because the camera, phone and messages. All you have to do is swipe the locked-screen icon across the display and the phone instantly unlocks the display and puts you through the chosen app.
Thanks to the ZenUI, the phone comes pre loaded with a LOT of applications, most of them unnecessary. There are over 20 pre-loaded apps on the Zenfone2 most of them being Asus’s proprietary apps. With such apps, you can solely uninstall updates. Whereas the app drawer does give you a search bar to search for apps, it’s simple to get overwhelmed by all the unnecessary bloatware. Aside from the plethora of Asus proprietary apps, you additionally get apps such as Amazon Kindle, Clean Master, Zinio, Party link, Omlet Chat and so on. You may change the view mode to include Folder viewing inside the application drawer.
Asus Zenfone 2 Review: Display
Who knows what the reasoning behind it’s, but it seems as though many firms are liking the 5.5-inch display dimension for their price range phones – and the Zenfone 2 follows suit. Particularly, it is usual with a 5.5-inch 1080 x 1920 IPS-LCD Display with Gorilla Glass 3 layered on high for protection. Very similar to the other 5.5-inchers with 1080p resolution, it is more than sound with its detail and sharpness.
Diving deeper into the display’s other characteristics, like its 7622K colour temperature and gamma value of 2.8, they point out that it is not necessarily the most pristine display around. Its colour temperature, means that it exudes a colder tone, which casts a bluish hue on colours. In addition, its 2.8 gamma tells us Asus has gone for a contrasty look, however has ultimately achieved a quite inaccurate picture representation.
Even though it does not hit all of the goal values within the sRGB colour chart, it is not as saturated as another displays. And finally, its 442 nit luminance won’t be as potent as we would like, making it sometimes a chore to view beneath direct sunlight, but it is not completely unviewable either. After our eyes feasted on the astonishing display of the Alcatel Onetouch Idol 3, we find the one right here within the Zenfone 2 to be bland.
Asus Zenfone 2 Review: Camera
One area where the ZenFone 2’s $300 price tag really exhibits is within the camera, which incorporates none of the fancy optical picture stabilization, laser focus, or phase detection you might come to anticipate on highly effective Android smartphones.
Still, it performs adequately, particularly with plentiful lighting. Details were relatively sharp, and colours just like the pink of the flower were captured accurately. Shifting things inside, however, exposes a noticeable drop in high quality, as digital noise silently creeps in.
Asus’ highly-touted Low Light and Night modes do their jobs, producing slightly higher shots when in dim environments. However, you’ll need a very steady hand to take anything near an acceptable image with them. Many of the images I took in Low Light mode ended up blurry.
Video turned out decent, although the lack of bodily stabilization damage the overall quality. Thesettings may be confusing for newcomers: What is the difference, as an example, between “performance” and “quality”?
Asus Zenfone 2 Review: Call Quality
Positive, the earpiece is loud sufficient to make out voices in noisy situations, however there is a bit bit of a robotic tone that accompanies voices – whereas on the other end of the line, callers can still make us out audible, however they mention it is a bit on the subdued side. It is not good, obviously, so there are still times when we are requested to repeat ourselves.
Asus Zenfone 2 Review: Battery
The ZenFone 2 3,000mAh battery saved it ticking the whole day, however only simply. With a number of e-mail accounts pushing e-mails, my standard array of social networking applications, and several sessions of Implosion and Sky Force, together with texting and phone calls, I normally ended my day with 15 to 20% battery life. For me, that is a job well done, though I would be lying if I said I was not anticipating just a bit more, given the massive capacity.
Asus Zenfone 2 Review: Specification
- OS: Android 5.0
- Body: 152.5 x 77.2 x 10.9 mm
- Weight: 170 g
- Display: 1080 x 1920 pixels, 5.5 inch
- Memory: 16 GB internal, 32 GB expandable, 4 GB RAM
- Processor: Quad-core 2.3 GHz Intel Atom Z3580
- GPU: PowerVR G6430
- Camera: 13 MP, 5 MP secondary
- Battery: 3,000 mAh
- Dual SIM: 4G + 3G
Asus Zenfone 2 Review: Conclusion
Asus is smart for attacking the entry level segment of the market, as against to breaking into the high end, which suggests tangling against a few of the juggernauts floating about proper now. Spending an intimate period of time with the Zenfone 2, we are assured that this is the kind of phone that grows on you over time. Initially, the design did not particularly win us over, however the more we use the phone and absorb all of its wealthy features, that is when we truly notice its potential.
Factoring its $199/$299 outright pricing, that’s undoubtedly a competitive providing that is taking it straight to the hearts of its opponents – a cautious, yet essential move for them to garner interest from consumers. Nice savings can be loved by picking up the 16GB variant, however the 64GB one is particularly alluring, as it additionally boasts a better processor and double the RAM. Comparing it with the Alcatel Onetouch Idol 3, the Zenfone 2 can not compete within the areas of design and display, however Asus definitely takes the cake within the software experience.
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