It’s finally here. The highly anticipated ASUS ZenFone 2 has been with me for some time now, and here are all the data I gathered. It’s all for your viewing pleasure. The ZenFone 2 has improved in almost every aspect from its predecessor – from the packaging design right up fo the texture widths, the ZenFone 2 is truly their all new flagship.
Before we begin, I should disclose that the ZenFone 2 used for this review is the ZE551ML variant – 4GB RAM and 32GB of storage to be exact.
Without anymore nonsense, here is the review of the ASUS ZenFone 2.
UPDATE : We even reviewed the pair of included earphones!
[nextpage title=”Packaging”]ASUS did a great revamp on the ZenFone 2, including the packaging, making some actual sense out of its design and overall layout of smartphone boxes.
Brightly coloured to reflect the colour of your ZenFone 2. Also, the first ever phone that I’ve come across that has a rotated printing.
Opening the box, we can see that the phone is fitted nicely, having all of the edges touching the box. No space to waste.
Removing the phone and flipping the flap over, we’re presented with the usual things.
To my surprise, the ZE551ML version does come with the standard things – a charger, some manuals, a micro USB cable, the phone itself, and a bonus pair of ZenEar – ASUS’s very own pair of earphones. As far as I know, only the 4GB of the ZenFone 2 has ZenEar bundled together.
Taking a step back to appreciate the look and feel of the box design, ASUS had been very consistent with its new design language. This style is seen throughout all other ASUS smartphones in the market, and I’m glad to see that the design is improved on the ZenFone 2.
[nextpage title=”Design”]
We’ve seen the first generation of ZenFone devices – they all look and feel good. The ZenFone 2 manage to make it even better – a curvier back, removable plastic back cover with brushed aluminium texture. ASUS claimed that the brushed aluminium texture provides better grip and feel, while looking nice too.
The ZenFone 2 also made its return with the trademark concentric circle at the bottom chin of the phone. This time however, the texture is much more smoother – and has a lot less dirt gathering in the ridges.
Let’s not forget about the buttons on this phone. Seriously – the buttons are a big deal in this phone.
It might seem like a menial thing to care about, but once I personally got to use it for the first time, I instantly fell in love this this brand new design philosophy.
Being a left hand user myself, the volume rocker placed at the centered back allowed my natural finger placement to really get a good grip on the phone while still able to press the buttons without shifting my grip at all.
“Where’s the power button?”, you might ask. It has been moved to the top.
The power button is placed between the 3.5mm audio jack and a microphone. It is definitely not the ideal position for the power button, but the power button isn’t really needed as there is ZenMotion (explained in later sections) to replace the need of a power button. However, to reach the power button with one hand only, the forefinger will most likely smudge the camera lens. Bummer.
Also, the curvature on the ZenFone 2 might look a little too extreme – but oh my, this phone literally redefined how phones should shape like – not only pleasing to the eyes, but shouldn’t cause aches while using! Ultra-thin anorexic phones should be ashamed of themselves, because they don’t provide enough grip and uncomfortable to hold!
[nextpage title=”Camera”]
First of all, I have to say that I love the camera on the ZenFone 2. Absolutely stunning.
There are a number of modes available on the ZenFone 2 too.
The 13MP rear-facing camera is decent enough to take pictures with decent quality, as the noise level is low, and yet have a very sharp image. The Low Light mode is amazing – it takes very bright pictures.
You can check out some of the images that I have taken here!
There is however that one feature which I absolutely love. Truly love. Hands down the social conversation starter and impresses everyone I showed – the Super Resolution mode.
Before I begin – if you haven’t catch up with the a camera comparison of the ZenFone 2 with the OnePlus One, check it out here!
I can say that the camera is really fun and powerful. Super Resolution is definitely the best new feature on the ZenFone 2. I’ve definitely had fun with it – heck, even my friends playing with the ZenFone 2 dropped their jaws to the ground.
Though I didn’t actually try taking photos of my eye though…..
[nextpage title=”Performance”]Here’s the best bits of the ZenFone 2 – it’s insanely quick. With an Intel Atom Z3580 – a full-fledged 2.3GHz quad-core processor – to be coupled with 4GB RAM and PowerVR G6430 graphics, the ZenFone 2 is a total beast to use.
With the best ever quality settings on Epic Citadel, the ZenFone 2 can breeze through the test and score a solid 47FPS. Forty seven. That’s even better than the Galaxy S5 and on par with the critically acclaimed OnePlus One.
Of course, I never believed in numbers and scores from benchmarks. So why not put it through another test?
The ZenFone 2 passed the test with minimal lag – it mostly maintained above 60FPS consistently throughout the test. After the test, I can still switch to my many other tasks without needing to reload the app from scratch. To that, I can only give them an applause and tell them – job well done. I’ve never tested any other phone with such an amazing multitasking capability.
Everything is snappy – and ASUS wants to keep it that way. That’s why they included an auto-start manager and a task manager, just so you that end users can take total control over what goes running about in their phones. 4GB RAM is plenty – but why waste it on some rogue app that runs for no beneficial reason when the phone is booted up? Disable them on the Auto Start Manager so more useful apps can be switched back and forth in intense multitasking times.
I’ve tried switching back to apps that I’ve been using two days ago and it is still the way I left it before. This incredible feat can’t even be done by flagship devices that costs at least twice the price of the ZenFone 2. Did I mention that I switched back to apps that I left two days ago? TWO. DAYS.
Let’s not forget that the ZenFone 2 is the first ever phone with 4GB RAM. It’s not just any other RAM – it uses LPDDR3 RAM, which stands for Low Power Double Data Rate 3 RAM, or Low Power DDR3 RAM. That means it uses the latest DDR3 technology while using low power – saving up even more battery than usual.
[nextpage title=”ZenUI”]ZenUI. It’s beautiful. It’s functional. It’s enjoyable, yet it’s very customizable with the new version of ASUS Launcher. Actually, I enjoyed ZenUI so much that I feel Cyanogen OS on the OnePlus One to be bland. Who would have thought ASUS to bundle a launcher onto a smartphone with the ability to change icon packs, change fonts, change up to 9 different home page scrolling effects, and many more?
I can feel that the ZenUI is made with passion. There are two other modes besides the normal ASUS Launcher – Kids Mode and Easy Mode. They both do exactly what it is made to do. The Kids Mode locks kids from randomly answering your boss’s phone call or do something that will empty their parents’ bank account, and Easy Mode makes everything larger and buttons larger and easier to press.
Now I can feel that ZenUI is truly made with the user in mind – it has a lot of productivity-based apps and feature built into it. There are a lot of apps from the other ASUS smartphones that is included in the ZenFone 2, but with even better integration with each other. Shake Shake to Do It Later is an amazing example. It’s usable system-wide, just shake your phone and it’ll take a screenshot, put it on Do It Later, and have an alarm notification later. It’s a simple feature, but I really love it.
Then there’s SnapView. It’s a neat function that separates your user profiles, if I may, from each other’s contents. The brief summary is this – set two user accounts with one unique unlock pattern, pin, or password each, and it’s done. The unique unlock password will bring you to your intended user account automatically! You can separate a few accounts – 1. Main account; 2. Work account; 3. Things that the wife cannot see. Yes, it keeps all data separated between each profile, including your pictures, videos, contacts, and even notifications.
Nifty! Check out more about SnapView here!
Remember when I said the power button isn’t going to be used much? ZenMotion is the reason why.
ASUS designed the hardware – in this case the button placements – and software so tightly together that it just felt like it works. The usability of this phone in its software and hardware has not been felts since the HTC One.
But of course, the ZenFone 2 still screams bloatware. Some of them are removable, but most of them are not. Although it does take some storage space, it doesn’t degrade any part of its powerful performance.
The built in apps take off 2 pages on 5×5 grids. Not all of them are bloatware – but a fair amount of them are. The folder Apps4U have some pretty useful apps for some – Amazon Kindle, CleanMaster, and Trip Advisor for example, but 50 Games????
Oh right – you can claim your 100GB worth of storage for free on Google Drive with the ASUS ZenFone 2.
[nextpage title=”Battery and charging”]Ho boy. The battery on the ZenFone 2 is decent. It has a generous 3,000mAh battery which is pretty sufficient for daily uses. Over my course my usage, it lasted me for the entire work hours and it performed about the same as my OnePlus One – which lasted about the same on its 3,100mAh battery.
I’m not quite sure if there is something to with the ZenFone 2’s amazing ability to pick up reception on 3G and 4G with its 5 laser direct structuring antennas as compared to the OnePlus One, but that seem to have somehow made the experience on the ZenFone 2 even snappier and enjoyable to use.
Let’s not forget about the charger itself. The ZenFone 2 has a relatively huge charger, and comparing it to the phone itself…
Yupe, it’s huge. But the size of it brings a brand new feature to the ASUS ZenFone 2 – its Fast Charging ability. By far the most used feature on the ZenFone 2. Just take a look at this charging curve. It took less than 1 hour to charge from a mere 5% to 100%!
It’s just too good. On a long busy day where I just drop by the house for a quick shower, this feature saved me from bringing another power bank and a micro USB cable with me.
Speaking of micro USB cables, the Fast Charging function only works with certain cables. Fortunately, the ZenFone 2 is able to tell which cable is compatible with the function by showing the charging sign with a small + sign.
If you see the charging sign with the +, you know it’s gonna be good. The phone does get a little uncomfortably warm while Fast Charging, but only for a short while – after that, it’s all good. There is not clear indication on which cable is compatible with Fast Charging. There are no clear documentations on this issue, and even Qualcomm’s information is vague and scarce. Some short cables I tried works, but some doesn’t. The situation happens to longer cables too.
The only way I can tell is by looking at the charging sign while connected to the ZenFone 2’s charger.
[nextpage title=”Other features”]There are some other features which the ZenFone 2 has, and ASUS definitely thought ahead of time while creating the ZenFone 2.
Take the back cover design for example. It’s entirely red and not a piece of plastic with some red paint on it. However when observed meticulously, there are no other hints of red on the phone other than the back cover. That’s because if you feel like changing the back cover to another colour or design, you can do that without any problem.
While on the subject of removing back covers, there’s also a micro SD card slot and two micro SIM slots.
The ZenFone 2 has Dual SIM Dual Active, or DSDA for short. This means that it is capable of having two SIM cards active at once – both receiving calls at the same time, and is able to put one call on hold and listen to another at the same time. However, only SIM 1 is able to get 3G and 4G LTE, whereas SIM 2 can only get 2G signals. As for the micro SD card slot, the ZenFone 2 can support up to a 64GB card. Effectively that means a whole lot of full HD movies, pictures, and movies together.
[nextpage title=”Conclusion”]
The ZenFone 2 is near perfect – it’s beautiful, comfortable, and the user experience is just amazing. Sure, there are some of the things that I can nitpick about, like the small but loud rear-facing speakers which is oftentimes covered by my palms while holding the phone. However, the goods things about this phone totally tips the scale, as the phone is a gemstone among piles and piles of smartphones.
There are few things that stood out from the crowd, and in no particular order :
- Beautiful, modular-ish design
- Comfortable grip
- Excellent cell reception
- Fantastic ZenUI
- Amazing camera features
- Superb battery and Fast Charging
- Groundbreaking performance
- Jaw-dropping prices
Oh wait – I forgot to mention about the price. The model used in this review is the ZE551ML version with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. The one that costs only RM1,099, and you can check out other variants’ specs and prices here. You must have thought it’s twice the price, and you’re wrong.
So grab your friends and family and brace yourselves, the ASUS ZenFone 2 will rock its competition off the stage.
The ZenFone 2 is now available on the market for purchase, and hey – I highly recommend you guys to check out this phone.
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