ASUS has been releasing their smartphones under the ZenFone brand name for quite some time now. We’ve all came to know ASUS through their phones in the past through their smartphones in the market. On August of 2017, ASUS announced the ZenFone 4 in Taipei, Taiwan. During that event, ASUS told us that their flagship will be the Selfie Pro that we reviewed here. I personally think that’s an illegitimate heir – but will the ZenFone 4 be the real heir?
Let’s find out what the ZenFone 4 can truly do in this in-depth review.
The ZenFone 4 is indeed one of the earliest smartphones that ASUS had designed for this generation of smartphones, so we’ll cut AUS some slack and not compare too much when it comes to the design and display of the other smartphones within the same family..
Unboxing
I’m rather impressed by how many different types of box designs that ASUS have to whip out just for the ZenFone 4 series of smartphones. Firstly, we saw the ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro here having a plain white cardboard box with a sleeve around it. Then we saw the ZenFone 4 Max Pro and Max Plus (M1) having a very similar box design. The ZenFone 4 however, has a similar design as the Selfie Pro, but has a soft-touch material coated on the black cardboard. That’s certainly something interesting, though I doubt it’s necessary at all.
Opening up the box reveals yet another box that houses the included TPU case. Digging further reveals the similar contents like any other ZenFone 4 series – a USB-C cable, a charger, a pair of earbuds with two more included silicon tip sizes, documentations, and the ZenFone 4 itself, obviously.
ASUS definitely found a way to cut cost as well, since all of the included accessories throughout all of the ZenFone 4 series of smartphones have the exact same colored cables and exact same 5V 2A chargers. More on this later.
[nextpage title=”Design”]
When it comes to design, the ZenFone 4 looks… rather generic, in my opinion. It still has the same old rounded rectangle design with on-screen buttons, but I have no idea why ASUS moved the fingerprint scanner to the front. I personally would prefer it to be the same as the ZenFone 3.
The brand new ZenFone 4 still has the glass sandwich design a la its predecessors, but did away with the camera bump and fingerprint scanner at the back. The rear is now one big piece of glass with no cutouts, which got me worried about the halo effect on its cameras. This is a common phenomenon on many smartphones with a flat piece of glass across the back.
The TPU case does have some little grains on it, so it isn’t exactly in direct contact with the phone itself. This is good, considering any sort of small crystal (even salt) can deeply scratch glass. Also, the buttons are way too difficult to press when the case is installed.
Also, the ASUS ZenFone 4 weighs in at 185 grams with the TPU case. Weighs pretty much averagely compared to others in the market.
[nextpage title=”Connectivity”]
It’s good to know that ASUS did not use back the exact same radio chip as all of the other ZenFone 4 series of smartphones we’ve reviewed since the ZenFone 3 Zoom. It has a proper AC WiFi support and can get very strong WiFi reception too.
At the top here you can see a microphone, and that’s pretty much it. ASUS is the one smartphone company that I know who moved their 3.5mm audio jack to the bottom – and I personally prefer that.
And yes – it’s using USB-C again.
As for the SIM tray, the ZenFone 4 has the commonly-found nano SIM 1 + nano SIM 2/microSD card combo tray. Considering the timeline of ASUS smartphones released, I sure hope that ASUS is transitioning over to dedicated SIM1/SIM2/microSD card slots in the future, as shown on the ASUS ZenFone Max Plus (M1) here.
[nextpage title=”Display”]
Sporting a 5.5-inch 1080p IPS LCD screen, the ASUS ZenFone 4 is right up in the alley of the pre-FullView display smartphones. This is why I mentioned that the release of the ASUS ZenFone 4 is a tad bit too late, as the current trend of smartphones have transitioned to 18:9 displays instead.
Its colors, however, are a little weird. In its standard color space, the icons appear to be washed out. However, once I set it to vivid color mode, the colors turn extremely saturated to the point it’s unnatural.
You can, however, tune the white balance, hue, and saturation yourself if you like.
Though I have to say, I never liked ASUS’s decision to put the fingerprint scanner at the front. Thankfully with the emergence of 18:9 displays, the fingerprint scanner is forcefully moved to the rear, and ASUS did just that for the Max Plus (M1).
[nextpage title=”Camera”]
ASUS is bagging on the whole dual-camera bandwagon since the grand launch back on August 17th 2017 at Taipei. I’m not surprised, since they really want to get a piece of the latest trend after all. If the ZenFone 4 was made available instantly after the launching, I think it would get a lot of attention in the market – but alas, they did not.
That aside, the ASUS ZenFone 4 comes with a hybrid lens dual-camera system – a wide-angle lens plus a prime lens, to be exact. I personally prefer a zoom lens with a prime lens like the ZenFone 3 Zoom instead.
Learn more about the different types of dual-camera systems here.
- Rear cameras
- 12MP f/1.8 25mm with OIS and dual-pixel PDAF
- 8MP 12mm wide-angle lens, no autofocus
- Selfie camera
- 8MP f/2.0 24mm
You can actually look at the camera lenses’ diameters and pretty much determine what type of dual-camera system that a particular smartphone has. Here’s a closeup shot of the ASUS ZenFone 4’s dual-camera lenses.
Alright, with the specs out of the way, let’s take a look at some pictures now.
Check out the full album of all pictures taken with the ASUS ZenFone 4 over at our Flickr album here.
Rear camera prime lens
Then there are some taken with HDR.
For all I can say, the pictures turn out pretty spot-on in terms of white balance. When it comes to vividness of the colors, I actually quite like what the ASUS ZenFone 4 is offering here. HDR mode does bring the exposure more equal, but still looks rather natural. I personally like it.
Rear camera wide-angle lens
Now here’s the thing – wide-angle lens at the back does not have autofocus – so there are some pictures where the subjects aren’t far enough will appear blur. I find this rather frustrating, as even indoor shots with the subject at about 1.5 meters away.
For scenery shots, the ZenFone 4’s wide-angle lens is perfect. And yes, the fisheye effect is really, really prominent here.
Selfie camera
I’m not much of a selfie person, but for all I care, the selfie does look like it has the white balance pretty on point. However, the noise level is just too much. The room that this picture is taken isn’t really that dim either.
Camera UI
Honestly speaking, I can just take the screenshot from the ZenFone Max Plus (M1) review and use it here and most people won’t even realize the difference. Actually, they have the exact same user interface.
I’m really glad that the ASUS ZenFone 4 actually has the capability to go ISO 25 – just like the ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro that we reviewed here.
[nextpage title=”Software”]
Alright, time to talk about ZenUI again. Equipped within the ASUS ZenFone 4 is ZenUI 4, but I’m unsure if ASUS had pushed any updates since ZenUI 4.0, because the ZenFone 4’s user experience is… different from others.
Throughout my experience with ASUS smartphones, I’ve seen different smartphones from ASUS with different hardware having a different software experience entirely. It’s possible that ASUS is adding and removing features from ZenUI depending on what hardware a particular smartphone model has.
This time around, Android 8.0 Oreo update is available for the ASUS ZenFone 4, and I have updated and currently using it while writing this review.
The ASUS ZenFone 4 has this weird little notice at the notification that says Facebook Messenger is drawing on top of other apps when the chat head is active. I find it very annoying – as I’m always using Facebook Messenger and the chat head is always active.
I know what I’m doing, and ASUS doesn’t seem to have an option to disable that.
Other than that, ASUS has finally added the rolling screenshot. It’s a feature that I’ve been begging ASUS to add since the days of ZenFone 3, and I’m really glad that they finally do. Though, there are a few quirks here and there. For example, the chat head will be in the screenshot every single roll you take.
One more characteristic I realized about ZenUI on the ASUS ZenFone 4 is the animation. For some reason, ASUS really takes advantage of the extra processing horsepower that’s available here. Animations are more flamboyant and ASUS really did sprinkle them all around.
Speaking of extra processing power, that leads us to the next section – the performance.
[nextpage title=”Performance”]
If you look closely, there are actually two variants of the ASUS ZenFone 4. The one we have here in Malaysia is with the list of specs below:
- 5.5-inch IPS LCD i1080p display
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 with 4x 2.2GHz Cortex-A53 + 4x 1.8GHz Cortex-A53 processor; fabricated with 10nm process technology
- Adreno 508 graphics
- 6GB RAM
- 64GB eMMC 5.1 storage
- 3,300mAh battery
Surprisingly, the ASUS ZenFone 4 is one of the first smartphones to be equipped with Qualcomm’s next-generation of super battery efficient chipset – the Snapdragon 630. I personally love the Snapdragon 625 a lot, and the Snapdragon 630 improves upon that. With an even tinier process technology, it promises more performance with less power consumption.
Let’s take a look at what the ASUS ZenFone 4 truly holds.
Honestly speaking, the Adreno 508 is really impressive here. Compared to any other Snapdragon 625 smartphones, the new chipset really shines when it comes to performance. I think this is also a turning point for the performance criterion in choosing a smartphone. Snapdragon 630 is actually very good for day-to-day usage.
Thanks to its 10nm process technology, the Snapdragon 630 has lower power consumption and it’s more efficient than ever. Speaking of efficiency, that leads us to the next segment.
[nextpage title=”Battery & Charger”]
With the Snapdragon 630 chipset and a 3,300mAh battery combined into a smartphone, I can foresee that its battery life will be great. And its battery life is considered okay, in my opinion. Sure, it’s not the longest lasting smartphone with a 3,300mAh battery out there – the Selfie Pro for some reason lasts a lot longer.
It truly boils down to software optimization at this stage. Honestly speaking, the new ZenUI has a lot of under the hood processes that might have slowly draining the battery in the background.
Charger
Seriously, I expect ASUS to be better than this. We still get the same old 5V 2A charger – the same one that is found on all the Max Plus (M1) too. I honestly expected a 9V 2A charger instead – a true Qualcomm QuickCharge 3.0 charger. But instead, we have this 5V 2A charger.
Here’s how long it took to charge the ASUS ZenFone 4 from about 14% battery to a full 100%.
It literally took about 2 hours to charge from about 14% to 100%! If ASUS would’ve just included Qualcomm QuickCharge 3.0 into the ZenFone 4, it would’ve shaved off about 45 minutes off the charging curve.
Though, you can reach about 50% at around 36 minutes, and 75% of battery at about the 1 hour mark.
[nextpage title=”Wrapping up the ASUS ZenFone 4 review”]
Honestly speaking, the ASUS ZenFone 4 should be the true heir of this generation of ZenFone smartphones – not the Selfie Pro. One thing I have to agree with many commenters out there, is the price of the ASUS ZenFone 4. For the SRP of RM2,099, I think ASUS is insane. I can get the beloved Nokia 8 with that kind of price! I wouldn’t pay more than RM1,799 for the ASUS ZenFone 4.
Though, if you can put the price aside, I think the ASUS ZenFone 4 is a solid smartphone for those who want a current-generation core specs of a smartphone in terms of power efficiency. However, it ends there as the charger that comes together with the ASUS ZenFone 4 is just… disappointing.
Also, the ASUS ZenFone 4 arrived with a 16:9 aspect ratio screen. That’s because its released date stuck in between the transition to 18:9 displays. Quite saddening, honestly.
- Pros
- Great performance and power efficiency
- Plentiful of RAM to play around with
- Included TPU case
- Cons
- Wide-angle lens is pretty sub-par
- ZenUI feels weird here
- No 18:9 display
- Subjective
- Front-facing fingerprint scanner
- Should have a zoom lens instead of a wide-angle lens
Where to buy?
At Lazada right now, for the price of ~RM1,950, if you know where to look.
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