Introduction
Asus has been making phones for a few years now but the company but hadn't quite managed to leave a mark on the market and the consumers' mind. That changed a bit with last year's ZenFone 2 series that offered unheard of specs at incredible prices, which made them quite popular among the budget conscious users.
This year the ZenFone 3 series is a bit different. Asus seems to have no interest to appeal to the budget market and is going straight for the flagship segment.
The first phone in the series to be launched is the simple named ZenFone 3. Okay, calling it 'simple named' downplays the fact that there are in fact two distinct model names - the ZE552KL and the ZE520KL - and that's without counting the extra Zenforne 3 phones in the family - Max, Deluxe, Laser, and Ultra. Confused enough? Well, don't be, these models will likely never be available on a single market simultaneously, so it's only websites that cater to several regions that need to make sense out of it.
Today we're previewing the Asus Zenfone 3 ZE552KL to be more precise. It's got a bigger screen, more memory and storage, and larger battery than its similarly named sibling and yet, with a price around $300-350, it costs less than the other Zenfone 3 phones.
Here's a brief version of the complete specs list before we continue.
Asus Zenfone 3 ZE552KL at a glance:
- 5.5-inch, 1920x1080 IPS LCD
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 625; 2.0GHz octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU, Adreno 506 GPU
- 4GB RAM, 64GB storage with microSD expansion
- Dual SIM support (hybrid slot)
- 4G LTE, VoLTE, Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS/GLONASS/BeiDou , USB Type-C 2.0
- 16 megapixel rear camera, f/2.0, laser/PDAF, OIS+EIS, 4K video, dual LED flash
- 8 megapixel front camera, f/2.0
- 3000mAh battery
- Android 6.0.1 with Asus ZenUI 3.0
We spent a few days with the new ZenFone 3 to get a feel of how Asus's smartphone lineup is looking this year so join us on the next page for our impressions. Spoiler alert: It's looking pretty good.
Design
The ZenFone 3 design is a complete departure from the ZenFone 2. Gone is the weird polygonal back and oddly placed controls of the previous model. In its place, we find a much safer and traditional looking design. It is quite an attractive looking phone and should appeal to far more people than the previous one ever did.
Front and back
The front of the phone has a large glass panel that stretches end to end and has a subtle but palpable curve around the edges. In the middle is the 5.5-inch display flanked by sizable but not substantial bezels.
Above the display are the earpiece, the sensors, and the front camera. Below the display are the three navigation keys. Unfortunately, these aren't backlit, which makes them hard to find in the dark. Asus continues to leave these keys without a backlight, even on expensive phones, which makes no sense and something the company should reconsider.
Side view � Top � Bottom
The phone employs an aluminum frame around the side that has a bead blasted finish and chamfer on either side. On the right side are the power and volume control buttons with Asus' tradition spun metal finish. The buttons are well placed and fall easily to hand and a far cry from the awkwardly placed power button on the top on the ZenFone 2 and the stiff volume buttons on the back.
On the right side is the hybrid SIM tray with support for one micro SIM + microSD or one micro SIM + nano SIM. On the bottom of the phone is the loudspeaker, Type-C connector, and a microphone.
On the top are the headphone jack and another microphone. The metal frame has very subtle and symmetric antenna bands on the top and bottom that are barely noticeable.
The back of the phone once again is covered in the same glass with curved edges. Underneath there is a spun metal pattern that isn't as clearly visible on our white model but looks quite fascinating on the darker colored models in the way it catches light.
Near the top is the raised camera with a sapphire crystal lens cover, so you don't have to worry about damaging it. Flanking it are the laser sensor on the left and dual LED flash on the right.
Below it is a fingerprint sensor. Near the bottom is an Asus logo. The phone is thankfully free of any other brandings.
The combination of glass and metal give the ZenFone 3 a very premium feel in the hand. Beyond the materials, the phone is very well designed, and the smooth curvature of the glass and metal give it a very pleasant feel in the hand. The 5.5-inch model we tested here is slightly on the larger size and those who want a smaller phone should perhaps consider the 5.2-inch Zenfone 3 model.
Display
The ZenFone 3 comes with two display options; there is a smaller, less popular 5.2-inch model (ZE520KL) and the larger 5.5-inch model (ZE552KL) we have here for a preview. Both have an identical resolution at 1920 x 1080px and the other specifications are also identical on paper, including the maximum brightness of 600nits.
Display settings
Since we only have the bigger model with us, our observations are based on this model only. Regarding image quality, this is one of the better displays we have seen, and one of the best Asus has pushed out. Never mind the 600 nits of brightness, which is almost unbearable indoors and more than perfectly visible outdoors even under direct sunlight. But the display calibration seems to be on point, at least to the naked eye.
Out of the box, the display has quite natural colors and pretty well sorted white point that is free of any color casts. On top of that, Asus even offers a basic calibration tool that lets you adjust the color temperature, hue, and saturation of the display. There is also the trendy blue filter that cuts off the blue light and makes the display warmer for reduced eye strain. We found it best to leave it at the default settings as they looked perfectly fine to us.
Software
The ZenFone 3 runs on the new Asus ZenUI 3.0 running on top of Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. The software has traditionally been a weak point of Asus phones in the past, and things haven't changed much now.
Asus continues to load the device with as many unnecessary applications and features as they can. While other companies often pile on bloatware from third-party developers, Asus phones come loaded with first-party bloatware, and then some third-party one also to add further insult to injury.
Asus ZenUI 3.0
The sheer number of applications and features thrown in your face when you start the phone for the first time is overwhelming even for us, and we can't even imagine what the average consumer goes through.
Some of it just seems to be added to the app drawer for no good reason. For example, Asus adds the already mentioned display calibration utility right there in the app drawer when the same can be found in the Settings menu. Same for the Software update option. There is also an icon for the flashlight when there is one already right there in the notifications.
Asus ZenUI 3.0
What's worse, some of the installed apps also have a tendency to repeatedly push notifications at you until you disable the app itself, something an average user will never know how to do. One particular item just insisted on staying in the notification area and annoyed us to the point where we just went to locate the app to blame for it and disabled entirely.
Settings
Lastly, when you plug in the headphones, there is a persistent notification that tells you that yes, indeed there is a pair of headphones connected to the phone as if that's something you need to be informed of. And because there is no way to dismiss this notification, it even appears on the lockscreen so any music app you might be using cannot show full-screen artwork.
More settings
Now, yes, most of the annoyances here can be fixed by some prodding under the hood. After spending a good hour we finally managed to hide all the unnecessary apps from the app drawer, dug into individual app settings and disabled everything we could, and for things we couldn't disable, we disabled the entire app itself.
After this housekeeping, the phone genuinely became a pleasure to use. The problem is that this had to be done in the first place, and that precisely is the problem with the software on Asus phones. It reminds us of Samsung phones of yore that came with everything but the kitchen sink. Thankfully, Samsung finally saw the light and hopefully someday, so will Asus.
Battery Life
One advantage of going with the bigger Zenfone 3 ZE552KL is that you get a much larger 3000mAh battery. With an efficient processor and a relatively large battery, we expected the ZenFone 3 to have a good battery life, and it delivered. The phone consistently provided around 6 hours of screen-on time with two SIM cards and medium use. The phone easily gets through a full day of use and those using it sparingly could even get through two days on a single charge.
Standby time � Screen-on time � Battery settings
Unfortunately, Asus skimped out when it came to providing fast charging support. The phone ships with a standard 5V 2A charger and no support for a faster charging solution. The fastest we managed to get it to go from 1% to 100% was just under two and a half hours. That's not a lot, but the rate of charging is more suited to overnight charging than a quick top-up when you are in a hurry.
Performance
The ZenFone 3 is one of the first few devices to be running on Qualcomm's brand new Snapdragon 625. Unfortunately, it's not a particularly powerful processor on paper, so we had our expectations in check.
System info by AIDA64
To our surprise, the UI performance on the ZenFone 3 was excellent. The phone feels amazingly fluid most of the time while moving through the phone UI and also in apps. Multitasking is also quick and with 4GB of RAM, there is plenty of space to keep apps running without things shutting down in a hurry.
GeekBench 4 (single-core)
Higher is better
- OnePlus 3
1719 - ZTE Axon 7
1702 - ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
843 - Huawei nova plus
843
GeekBench 4 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
4080 - OnePlus 3
4045 - ZTE Axon 7
3990 - Huawei nova plus
3100
AnTuTu 6
Higher is better
- OnePlus 3
141764 - Xiaomi Mi 5
131758 - ZTE Axon 7
129926 - LeEco Le Max 2
129461 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
76186 - Huawei nova plus
64680 - Samsung Galaxy C7
62818 - Asus ZenFone 2 ZE551ML (4GB RAM)
62698 - ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
62632 - Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
49094 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
45474 - Oppo F1s
30657
Basemark OS 2.0
Higher is better
- OnePlus 3
2365 - Xiaomi Mi 5
2180 - LeEco Le Max 2
2063 - ZTE Axon 7
1915 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
1426 - Samsung Galaxy C7
1222 - Huawei nova plus
1215 - ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
1205 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
1018 - Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
1007 - Oppo F1s
269
Gaming performance was also quite impressive. The phone managed to run every game we tried quite well. There were some skipped frames here and there and things weren't quite as smooth as with Adreno 530 but for its part, the Adreno 506 on the ZenFone 3 does quite well with the 1080p resolution.
GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- OnePlus 3
46 - Xiaomi Mi 5
45 - LeEco Le Max 2
44 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
14 - Asus ZenFone 2 ZE551ML (4GB RAM)
13 - ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
9.9 - Huawei nova plus
9.9 - Samsung Galaxy C7
9.8 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
8.5 - Oppo F1s
5.1 - Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
4.9
GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
- OnePlus 3
45 - Xiaomi Mi 5
43 - LeEco Le Max 2
28 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
14 - Asus ZenFone 2 ZE551ML (4GB RAM)
12 - Huawei nova plus
10 - Oppo F1s
10 - ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
9.7 - Samsung Galaxy C7
9.6 - Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
9.5 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
7.9
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- OnePlus 3
31 - Xiaomi Mi 5
30 - LeEco Le Max 2
28 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
9 - Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
7.2 - Asus ZenFone 2 ZE551ML (4GB RAM)
6.7 - Samsung Galaxy C7
6.2 - ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
6.2 - Huawei nova plus
6.2 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
4 - Oppo F1s
2.4
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
- OnePlus 3
30 - Xiaomi Mi 5
29 - LeEco Le Max 2
15 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
9 - Huawei nova plus
6.6 - Asus ZenFone 2 ZE551ML (4GB RAM)
6.5 - ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
6.2 - Samsung Galaxy C7
6.1 - Oppo F1s
6 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
3.9 - Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
3.2
GFX 3.1 Car scene (offscreen)
Higher is better
- OnePlus 3
18 - Xiaomi Mi 5
17 - LeEco Le Max 2
16 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
5.3 - ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
3.4 - Huawei nova plus
3.4 - Samsung Galaxy C7
3.4
GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)
Higher is better
- OnePlus 3
18 - Xiaomi Mi 5
17 - LeEco Le Max 2
8.8 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
5.5 - Huawei nova plus
3.7 - ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
3.4 - Samsung Galaxy C7
3.4
Basemark X
Higher is better
- LeEco Le Max 2
33874 - Xiaomi Mi 5
33110 - OnePlus 3
32715 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
14717 - Asus ZenFone 2 ZE551ML (4GB RAM)
13414 - Huawei nova plus
10524 - ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
10494 - Samsung Galaxy C7
10445 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
8540 - Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
5383 - Oppo F1s
419
Basemark ES 3.1 / Metal
Higher is better
- OnePlus 3
625 - Xiaomi Mi 5
580 - LeEco Le Max 2
517 - ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
138 - Huawei nova plus
138 - Samsung Galaxy C7
137
The phone does get nominally warm at the back near the camera during gaming but it never gets too hot, and gaming is pretty much the only time it gets warm, that too with a handful of titles.
Performance in other areas is good too. The loudspeaker, for example, sounds good and also gets fairly loud. The audio quality through headphones is good too. Around the back, the fingerprint sensor is also one of the best we have come across, with fast, reliable scans almost every time.
Camera
The ZenFone 3 has a 16 megapixel Sony IMX298 with deep trench isolation, a six element Largan lens with f/2.0 aperture, laser and phase detection autofocus, and 4-axis optical image stabilization. Finally, it's even able to capture 4K video.
Camera app
The camera software is well designed. On the left side are shortcuts to the flash, front camera, HDR mode, and settings. On the right are the shutter and record button and a quick switch to the manual mode. There is also a mode selection button that shows all the camera modes.
There are quite a few modes here - twenty to be exact. Some of these include a Super Resolution mode that takes multiple images and stitches them into an upscaled 65-megapixel image, a depth of field mode, panorama, miniature (tilt-shift), time lapse, slow motion, and beautification.
There is also a selfie mode that automatically takes a picture from the back camera when it detects faces and a Smart Remove mode that removes moving objects by taking multiple shots. There also seem to be two of some things; for example, there are two HDR modes and two different night modes.
Some of these modes are useful, but you are most likely to limit yourself to the auto and manual mode. The manual mode lets you adjust the white balance, exposure compensation, ISO (50-3200), shutter speed (1/50000 to 32s), and manual focus. Unfortunately, you don't get focus peaking, but there are a horizon leveling aid and even a histogram, making this one of the more sophisticated manual modes on a smartphone. There is no RAW support, however.
Sample images
The image quality from the rear camera is quite good. Images taken in daylight have good amount of detail with a negligible amount of noise. The colors and contrast are ever so slightly bumped up but remain pleasant and close to accurate.
The dynamic range isn't phenomenal, but the HDR mode does help a bit. Unfortunately, there are two HDR modes, and only the one found in the mode selector is the good one, whereas the one that is next to the viewfinder produces blurry, upscaled images with only slightly improved dynamic range.
SDR � HDR � HDR Pro
In low light, the camera does well once again. If things start getting too dim, there are once again two low light mode to deal with. There's one called Night mode that combines multiple images in an attempt to reduce noise and produces decent results.
Then there is one called just Low Light mode (and the one the camera will suggest when in low light situations), which produces much brighter images even in near pitch darkness but at the cost of resolution (4 megapixels) and for some reason, crops the aspect ratio to 16:9.
Auto � Night Mode � Low light mode
The camera utilizes its 4-axis OIS for stabilizing the lens, allowing the camera to use, according to Asus, up to four times slower shutter speed (a 4-stop advantage for you photogs out there) for brighter low light images. The low light images we took were practically blur-free, which is a testament to the usefulness of the system.
The triple autofocus system, on the other hand, is a bit of a scattershot. At a distance, the system works perfectly, and the camera focuses quickly even at macro if there is plenty of light. However, things quickly get blurry in low light, which shouldn't be the case as the laser autofocus system does not rely on ambient light to work and should do a good job even in pitch darkness.
Flash photos, in particular, are completely out of focus nearly 100% of the time, as the camera simply refuses to focus in the darkness and doesn't even attempt to use a pre-flash burst to aid in focusing before taking the shot.
Images were taken with the flash also come out looking overexposed at times, as along with focusing the camera also doesn't seem to be doing metering before taking the shot. The execution is here is so poor and at the same time so incredibly easy to fix that we'll attribute this behavior to the bug section, which Asus will, hopefully, fix down the road via a software update.
Video recording
The phone can also record up to 4K UHD at 30fps, and the quality is once again quite impressive. The limited dynamic range is evident with videos just like with photos, and there is no HDR mode for video.
Additionally, you can also record in 1080p at up to 60fps, which you can use as it is or slow it down in a video editor to get reasonably high quality 2x slow motion video. There is also a built-in slow motion mode that records in 720p at 120fps.
Here's a 1080p@30fps video sample, which we've uploaded to YouTube. Unfortunately, we don't have a 4K video sample to show you as our review unit was collected by Asus earlier than expected.
Unlike still images, the video recording strangely does not benefit from the OIS. Instead, you get the optional EIS, which only works up to 1080p 30fps. It also crops the video although weirdly enough, the viewfinder does not show this while you are shooting and only after you record the video do you see the cropped footage. It makes framing the shot difficult as you have no idea exactly how much is going to get cropped out of the final video.
Overall, the Asus Zenfone 3 has a nicely capable camera, which we enjoyed using despite the fact that it comes with some quirky software decisions and inexplicable performance hiccups in low-light scenarios.
Verdict
The ZenFone 3 is a strong showing from Asus and a good showcase of what the company is capable of when it puts all its effort behind a product. The funny thing is it isn't even the company's flagship device, and we are very much interested in what the ZenFone 3 Deluxe is capable of if the ZenFone 3 is so good.
There is a lot to like about the ZenFone 3. We loved the look and feel of the glass and metal body, and the display is one of the best in this price range. The performance from the Snapdragon 625 is surprisingly good regardless of what you might think based on the spec sheet. And finally, the camera works mostly quite well, and the phone's battery life is superb.
Unfortunately, Asus still has some ways to go, and while the ZenFone 3 is quite good, it's not as close to perfect as we'd like. One area where Asus needs to make strides is in software, particularly in holding itself back with the options. The number of pre-installed apps is bewildering, and there are just too many options and things to distract the user, which is counter-productive to user-friendliness. There needs to be a conscious effort to hold back and focus on the essentials and let the users figure out the rest and install apps and features separately if they wish, instead of making the decision for them and then forcing it on them.
But that's the only major complaint we have with the phone. The price might seem to be a bit on the higher side for the larger model, although we don't think it is a major issue. It is uncomfortably close to the OnePlus 3 price, which includes a more powerful Snapdragon 820 processor, but doesn't necessarily feel any faster in everyday use, and the two phones are more or less on par otherwise.
Overall, the ZenFone 3 is a highly capable device and easily the best Asus has put out so far. We hope the company improves the software experience of its devices, but otherwise, it is on the right track.
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