ASUS has been on a roll this year. They made the ASUS ZenFone 3 which we have reviewed here – one of my all-time favorite smartphones as of writing this review. When I heard and saw the ASUS ZenFone 3 Zoom, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. Here’s my full review of the ASUS ZenFone 3 Zoom, also known as the ZE553KL.
Unboxing
The ASUS ZenFone 3 Zoom takes the same box design and aesthetic as the original ZenFone 3. Same matte dark grey box, but this time with the words “ZenFone 3 Zoom” debossed in gold. Nice touch by having that infinity sign too!
Opening to box reveals quite a different set of included accessories too. Compared to the original ZenFone 3’s box, there’s a brand new compartment on the lid itself – right above where the ZenFone 3 Zoom sits.
Right in here is where you’ll find the warranty information, user guide, an excellently-designed TPU case, and the SIM ejector tool. Finally, ASUS has included a TPU case with the phone itself – and it’s clear that ASUS has been listening to our feedback and improving throughout the months.
At the compartment below the ZenFone 3 Zoom is where all of the other usual items are found – the charger, USB-A to USB-C cable, and surprisingly – a pair of in-ear earphones! That’s certainly not something to be found in all smartphones these days.
[nextpage title=”Design”]
The ASUS ZenFone 3 Zoom takes on the same general geometry of the original ASUS ZenFone 3. However, instead of having a glass sandwich like its predecessor, the ZenFone 3 Zoom now has a more commonly-found metal back instead.
Other than that, its overall design didn’t vary much. The navigation keys are still below the screen, which I find to be too low. Both volume rocker and power button are still situated at the right side.
One thing that they did change is the shape of the fingerprint sensor. Instead of having a long rectangular shape like its predecessor, ASUS opted for a rounded square shape for the ZenFone 3 Zoom. Honestly speaking, I like this new square better, just because of how comfortable it is when I lay my fingertip on it.
You might have seen it, but the aesthetics around ZenFone 3 Zoom’s rear-facing cameras have been revamped. Both the lenses are placed together at the corner, whereas the slew of sensors and LED flash are placed right below it, separated by a gap. It does look a little like a little jarring, but whichever works – since I don’t stare at the back of my phone anyway.
That included TPU case deserves the spotlight too
The reason why I want to put that case in the spotlight because of how well made that soft shell case is. I mean, you can’t really tell what’s so great about it without feeling it. ASUS specifically crafted a comfortable slope around the fingerprint sensor, so you can have a smooth gliding motion. That’s something special indeed.
My only complaint about the TPU case here is the power button and volume rocker that’s sunken a little too deep. It’s a little too difficult to press, in my opinion. However, ASUS’s ZenUI has this thing called ZenMotion – and that solves the need for the power button entirely.
[nextpage title=”Connectivity”]
ASUS took a rather interesting turn when it comes to the ZenFone 3 Zoom’s connectivity. Perhaps a little puzzling – as it does not support 5GHz WiFi bands since they removed support for the less-popular 802.11ac standards and 5GHz signal.
I personally don’t really care or bother much, as there are still many routers out there that do not support AC-WiFi standards. Also, 5GHz signals cannot travel as far as 2.4GHz signals, so that’s a plus. But then again, still a tad disappointed by this. Having a choice to choose between 2.4GHz and 5GHz would be a lot better than just being locked at 802.11N at 2.4GHz.
Other than that, the ZenFone 3 Zoom does not have NFC either, which is seemingly becoming the new standard nowadays – at least until mobile payments start to become more mainstream again.
Moving on to the SIM card slots – the ZenFone 3 Zoom takes on the similar engineering choice like its predecessor – dedicated nano SIM slot 1 and a combo microSD/nano SIM 2 slot. Pretty basic stuff here.
[nextpage title=”Display”]
Surprisingly, ZenFone 3 Zoom has a different screen than its predecessor. I mean, given its design choice of not having on-screen navigation keys, why not use OLED, am I right? This is exactly what ASUS did for the ZenFone 3 Zoom – swapping in an AMOLED display.
It still has 5.5-inch 1920px x 1080px resolution, resulting to 401ppi. Nothing spectacular when it comes to the specs, but the color on the AMOLED display really do shine and pop. ASUS even provided a simple tool to adjust the colors too. I just leave mine in Super Color mode because Standard is way too dull for me.
Colors on the AMOLED display really do shine and pop
Now, AMOLED displays will only enhance the ZenFone 3 Zoom’s battery life even further, as pixels that are not in use will be turned off completely. More on this later when we talk about the Zoom’s battery life. 😉
[nextpage title=”Camera”]
Firstly, I have to clear off one big misconception. The dual-camera setup here that the ZenFone 3 Zoom has is totally different from Huawei’s, but similar to what LG G6 has. For the sake of relevancy, I’ll give you a brief summary – the ZenFone 3 Zoom’s camera is like a fine sir wearing a monocle. Instead of being a vision-correction monocle lens, it’s a zoom lens.
The ZenFone 3 Zoom has two Sony IMX362 12MP sensors – one coupled with a 25mm f/1.7 lens with 4-axis OIS, and the other coupled with a 59mm f/2.8 lens. It uses an improved version of ASUS’s signature TriTech+ auto-focusing technology – now with 2nd generation laser AF, subject-tracking AF, and dual-pixel PDAF just like the OPPO R9s.
The dual-camera setup here that the ZenFone 3 Zoom has is totally different from Huawei’s, but similar to what LG G6 has
I’ve taken quite a lot of shots with the ZenFone 3 Zoom – and I have to say, the camera is fun to mess around with. It has a shortcut button to toggle between zoom levels of 1.0x, 2.3x, and 5.0x at an instant. I find it pretty useful if I’m ever lazy to reposition myself before taking a shot. Just hit that button and find a better angle instead.
Pictures taken by the ASUS ZenFone 3 Zoom
Here is the full album of pictures I’ve taken with the ZenFone 3 Zoom. All of them are unedited and come straight out from the phone’s camera themselves. Yeah, it’s plural for “camera” since it has two cameras after all. ?
Overall, the picture quality is quite okay – however, image quality quickly degrades when in low-light conditions. While it is much more sensitive than any other smartphones in this condition, it lacks dynamic range – and hence producing a mushy-looking image with poor colors. It’s significant too, especially through that AMOLED screen that the ZenFone 3 Zoom has.
As for the selfie camera, the ZenFone 3 Zoom is using a Sony IMX214 13MP sensor coupled with a f/2.0 aperture lens. Unfortunately, it’s a fixed-focus lens. Selfie image quality isn’t the best, especially in low-light conditions. This is something that I think ASUS can improve on.
By the way, RAW format is already supported. It’s under Manual mode as of now.
[nextpage title=”Software”]
To be honest, the ZenFone 3 Zoom’s software is a little better than before. In the unit that I have, there is way less bloatware than before, although there are still a few of them. There is also a slew of included ASUS apps but most of them can be uninstalled, actually.
ASUS’s ZenUI 3.0 provides a few useful features here and there – like double tapping on the fingerprint sensor to launch the camera app, and tapping the finger sensor within the Camera app to take a photo. I mean, at least they make good use of the fingerprint sensor, unlike what Huawei did to the P10’s fingerprint sensor.
One thing I do like is their Gallery app, which sorts things in a rather functional way – categorized by album or sort all images chronologically.
There is also a slew of included ASUS apps but most of them can be uninstalled
There is already RAW format support in Manual mode. However, there are still some glitches and bugs with the camera. So far, ASUS had already released two updates for the ZenFone 3 Zoom. One of the updates is to fix the small little lag and to improve seamlessness in switching between the wide angle lens to the telephoto lens. I’m looking forward to an even smoother Zoom camera experience in the future! 😉
[nextpage title=”Performance”]
The ASUS ZenFone 3 Zoom uses the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chipset that is manufactured with a 14nm process as its predecessor, the ZenFone 3. We talked about why the manufacturing process matters right here. Both are sporting the same Cortex-A53 octa-core processor, same Adreno 506 GPU, still 4GB of RAM – but the ZenFone 3 Zoom has 64GB of storage.
I don’t expect the performance to be any different, either. And I was right, as the ZenFone 3 Zoom scores a 47.1FPS on our usual Epic Citadel. Again, pretty much the same as its predecessor. Temperatures are always below 50℃ too.
Moving on to Vellamo, the scores are pretty much the same as its predecessor too. Nothing out of the ordinary here, actually.
[nextpage title=”Battery”]
Oh boy, this is the most interesting part of this review. While the ZenFone 3 Zoom touts its camera’s zoom ability in its name, I think I should give more emphasis on its battery. The ZenFone 3 Zoom has a massive 5,000mAh battery. That’s right – just let that sink in for a moment.
We did praise the original ZenFone 3’s battery life for being out of the ordinary, and the ZenFone 3 Zoom just pushes it to the limit. This massive 5,000mAh battery is so humongous that I can’t complete even a single run of PC Mark for Android’s battery life test. That’s because the app constantly crashes itself – and the reason is because that it ran for too long.
The ZenFone 3 Zoom has a massive 5,000mAh battery
And by the way – I got 12 hours, 34 minutes and 10 seconds of screen-on time before it hit 20% battery.
The closest I got to completion is at about 14 hours before the app crashed. Even on that test run, I still had about 20% of battery remaining.
Putting the ZenFone 3 Zoom’s battery to the test
Since ASUS pushed the limit of the ZenFone 3 Zoom’s battery life, I thought that ASUS deserves a complete battery benchmark from us here at Nasi Lemak Tech.
I took a deep breath and accepted the challenge. I was very impressed by how the ZenFone 3 Zoom’s battery performed! It totaled up to more than 34 hours of usage before needing a recharge on my daily usage! Just check out the graph below!
I unplugged it in the morning and went about my day. Played a lot of Hyper Heroes too, since I was a little addicted to that game at the time of this review. I went to sleep the first day and I realized there as still about 61% of battery left. So I went to sleep without charging it. I continued on to the next day with more Hyper Heroes – and by the time I went to sleep, there’s still about 8% of battery left!
It totaled up to more than 34 hours of usage before needing a recharge
With great battery comes greater charging times…
Alright – what about that charger? Honestly speaking, I think ASUS skimped out on the charger part by including a 5V 2A. It takes nearly 2.5 hours to charge it from about 5% to 100% – but it’s not a big deal. Here’s why.
As the battery on the ZenFone 3 Zoom can last for such a long time, I never found myself looking for a charger at all. That means I have to freedom to choose when I want to charge the ZenFone 3 Zoom. For me, it’s been a habit for me to plug it in before I go to sleep and wake up to a 100% charged up battery.
[nextpage title=”Wrapping up the ASUS ZenFone 3 Zoom review”]
Final words from me – the ASUS ZenFone 3 Zoom is an instant personal favorite. For me, I don’t need the speediest smartphone out there. If it can do what I need it to do without lagging, it’s fine with me. What I do need is an extensive battery – and that’s what the ASUS ZenFone 3 Zoom can provide. The dual-camera setup that the ZenFone 3 Zoom has is certainly worth highlighting too, as there are not many smartphones out there with a wide angle and telephoto lens combo while having a low price tag.
Speaking of price tags, the ASUS ZenFone 3 Zoom is currently only available in Black color and 64GB storage option while priced at only RM 2,099. Lazada link here. I seriously can’t recommend any other smartphones that have a superior battery life like no other smartphones in the market today.
Great job ASUS, please make your future smartphones revolving around this hunger for super long battery life.
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