ASUS Zenfone 2 - Review

 
A few days back I got my hand on the new Asus Zenfone 2 and tested it to the fullest. 

The first generation of zenfones were a great success for Asus and people loved the features they provided in the below ₹10000 price segment.

On 23rd April 2015 Asus launched its new phone the Zenfone 2 in an event held at the Kingdom of Dreams and like the older one, this also comes in a great price with lots of great features.

Design

In the design point of view it definitely stands out, with its curved back to the metal like finish on the back cover its a charm.

Due to the curved back and the thin edges Asus had to move the volume rockers on the back below the camera just like in LG G2 or LG G3. 

The power button is placed on the top along the 3.5mm audio jack and is not that easy to reach but that's where the Double tap to lock & unlock feature kicks in and saves the day.

The speakers are on the bottom back of the phone. There are 2 microphones given on this device, one is on the bottom of the phone alongside the charging port and the other is on the top along with the power button and audio jack.

Camera

The Phablet comprises of a 13mp Rear Camera and a 5mp Front Camera with Toshiba Image Processing Sensor. 

Daylight images are as good as other high end smartphones. 

Images taken in the night are not so sharp and if you use the Dual-Tone flash it sometimes over exposes the image.

There are some options/presets in this camera like, Low-light, Super resolution, Depth of Field and many more.

At CES 2015 ASUS displayed the Low-light mode in Zenfone, which did a pretty nice job against many High-end smartphones like NOTE 3, LG G3 and many more.

In day to day use the camera does a pretty decent job but sometimes over sharpens the image leaving a bad impression.

In overall it is a good camera for a Budget phone.

Display

Zenfone 2 comes in two different variants one is the ZE551ML and the other is ZE550ML.

ZE551ML comes with a 5.5inch FULL HD display ,i.e, 1080 x 1920 pixels (~403 ppi pixel density) , whereas the ZE550ML model comes with a 5.5inch HD display ,i.e, 720 x 1280 pixels (~267 ppi pixel density)

Viewing angles are good and the clarity of the screen is good too.

It comes with 4 screen type presets 

1.Balanced.      2.Reading.      3.Vivid.     4. Custom

UI - User Interface

Zenfone comes with the in house ZenUI which is made on top of ANDROID 5.0 Lollipop. UI is nice and clean and not a mess and many customisations can be done in it.

One can change the whole theme of the phone or apply an icon pack or can also change the Font.

It has a feature called SmartGroup which automatically groups the application in the App Drawer in folders and name them.

For eg. You get a separate folder for Games, Communication, Tools, and many more.

You can also change the Grid Size of the App Drawer.

It's a really clean and simple interface with lots of customisation options.

Processor / Chipset

Like I said in the display section it comes in 2 different variants, the ZE550ML & ZE551ML, and both these models comes with different processors along with different RAM.

In the ZE550ML variant you get a Intel Atom Z3560 processor which is a 1.8GHz Quad Core processor along with 2GB RAM.

In the ZE551ML variant you get two options 

1). Intel Atom Z3580 (4GB RAM model) with 2.3GHz Quad Core Processor

2). Intel Atom Z3560 (2GB RAM model) with 1.8GHz Quad Core Processor

Both ZE550ML & ZE551ML variant come with PowerVR G6430 GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) 

Multitasking in this phone is a charm and works flawlessly in both variants 

But, sometimes in the 2GB variant heavy games have to reload, still keeping that aside all the normal day to day applications open without Lag & load in the place where you left.

In the 4GB variant all the applications and even heavy games load at lightning fast speed and one cannot see any Lag in opening that App or Game.

Cons:                                                Solution 

1). Call drop frequently.            But can be fixed with an update.

2). Grainy photos in night.        Can be fixed with an update. Image processing issue

3). Battery drains fast.              Fixed by disabling bloatware.

Verdict

Zenfone 2 is a great phone for the mid-range price segment.

It's main competitor is the OnePlus One and both these devices are great in their own fields, but if you want an awesome phone in the Below ₹20,000 price segment it is the best phone you can get.

With its features and built quality it definitely stands out, from its curved back to its display to the camera it's a phone you should go for.

If you are willing to pay more than ₹20,000 then you should opt the OnePlus One or wait till October for the OnePlus Two / OnePlus 2.

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