ASUS might not feature in the list of top 5 smartphone brands yet but it is very close. Their Zenfone series of smartphones, which was launched about 2 years ago in 2014 started as budget yet feature rich offerings. 2 years later, the Zenfone 3 is launched and Asus has completely different plans for the device. The Zenfone 3 is being marketed as a high-end flagship device that is ready to take on the likes of Samsung and Apple. How will it fare in this battle? Let’s find out.
Specifications:
- 5 inch full HD display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3
- Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chipset
- Adreno 506 GPU
- 3 GB RAM, 32 GB on-board storage expandable upto 256 GB
- 16 MP rear camera with dual tone LED flash, 8 MP primary
- Fingerprint sensor
Look & Feel:
Trying to stand out from the crowd, Zenfone 3 has ditched the popular all metal look on flagship smartphones and decided to go with a 2.5D curved Corning Gorilla glass on the front and the back. This makes the device really stand out but also makes it a fingerprint magnet. Under the glass you have the Asus “concentric circles” design. The device is held by a metallic phone with curved edges which make holding the phone a lot easier.
The home, back and menu keys on the front are capacitive and unfortunately not backlit. The large 5.5 inch screen paired with the double glass body give the device a premium finish but at the same time also make it difficult to use with one hand.
Display & Camera:
Sporting a 5.5 inch screen with full HD resolution, our first views were that Asus should have gone for a quadHD resolution but on using the device we were more than satisfied. The display which interestingly also supports glove touch is quite sharp and images and videos on the screen are crisp. We had no problem using the display in bright sunlight as well, thanks to good viewing angles and vivid colors.
Equipped with a 16 MP rear camera with TriTech auto focus, Zenfone 3’s rear camera focuses really fast. Asus claims the camera focuses in about 0.03 seconds and while we had no way to measure that, the camera did focus pretty quickly. The images captured were full of detail and color in outdoor lighting. In low light however, there was more loss of detail and graining than expected. OIS and EIS held rectify shaky images. The front camera equipped at 8 MP more than suffices for your selfie clicking needs with a good amount of detail and colors even in low light.
Our Verdict:
Priced at Rs. 27,999, the Zenfone 3 sure offers more features than what it costs. In the age of metal clad smartphones, this glass design sure does stand out. That along with the features loaded could mean serious competition to the likes of OnePlus 3 and Xiaomi Mi 5.
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