VERDICT
Asus has stepped up its game this year with the Zenfone 3. It has a gorgeous design and great camera, but the lowly Snapdragon 625 SoC is a big disappointment.
PROS:
- Sleek and svelte design
- Fantastic camera
- Above average display
CONS:
- Mediocre performance
- Little overpriced
The Asus Zenfone 3 is a comprehensive upgrade over its predecessor and brings with it a all new full metal uni-body design, 3GB of RAM, the Snapdragon 652 processor and a fantastic camera setup.
TheZenfone 2 line was a huge success in India and Asus is aiming to build on the same.
The Zenfone 3 line consists of three devices, the Zenfone 3, the Zenfone 3 Ultra and the Zenfone 3 Deluxe, out of which the Zenfone 3 is the entry level model, priced at Rs 21,999/Rs 27,999.
Does theAsus Zenfone 3 what it takes to compete against the like of the segment king OnePlus 3 or the underdog LeEco LeMax 2 ? Let's find out!
The
The Zenfone 3 line consists of three devices, the Zenfone 3, the Zenfone 3 Ultra and the Zenfone 3 Deluxe, out of which the Zenfone 3 is the entry level model, priced at Rs 21,999/Rs 27,999.
Does the
Gorgeous Design
The smartphone has a gorgeous full metal uni-body design, with a metal strip running around the sides on the front as well as the back. The front and back are all glass, and are very glossy, and as a result extremely slippery.
The power and volume keys on the right are a delight to use, and are very ergonomically placed and not too mushy. All in all, the phone feels great in the hand and looks extremely premium and classy.
Display/Software
Brightness levels are somewhat lacking though, and the color temperature of the screen is a bit too cool for my liking. The display doesn’t ‘pop’ and stand out like the display on the OnePlus 3.
On the software front, the device comes with Asus’s own Zen UI, running atop Android 6.0 Marshmallow. What’s great about Zen UI is the fact that you can uninstall most pre-loaded applications and applications get automatically categorized into relevant topics.
Performance - Quite Average
This is where the smartphone struggles a lot when compared to the OnePlus 3 or the LeEco Le Max 2. The Zenfone 3’s Snapdragon 625 SoC simply cannot match up to the flagship Snapdragon 820 found in both of these devices. The benchmark scores, both in AntuTu and Geekbench are quite lower.
In day to day use however, such a huge gulf will not be felt. The smartphone is more than capable of handling tasks like web browsing, using social networking apps, scrolling through photos, playing causal games and so on.
Intensive use however, could slow the phone down. A full verdict on the performance as well as battery life tests will have to wait for our full review.
The camera performs extremely well in outdoor situations with adequate light, producing vivid, detailed, well balanced images with meager amount of noise. What surprised me is the fact that even in low light situations, the camera is more than capable and produces clear and crisp images, albeit with a little loss of detail and some noise.
The 8MP front camera is also great and will suffice for most selfies.The camera application itself is intuitively laid out and the camera is blazingly fast when it comes to focusing and taking photos.
Initial Verdict - Mixed Emotions
What’s disappointing is the fact that Asus has bundled the Snapdragon 652 SoC in the Zenfone 3, which simply cannot match up-to the competition. The LeEco LeMax 2 and the OnePlus 3 demolish the phone in benchmarks. While initial day to day use seems to be smooth enough for now, we have to wait it see how the phone handles intensive use.
The 32GB/3GB RAM variant is available for Rs 21,990, while the 64GB/4GB RAM is available for Rs 27,990. The 3GB RAM variant is a great buy for the price, but the 4GB RAM variant has to deal with stiff competition.
0 comments:
Post a Comment