Many smartphones in the medium price segment are noteworthy, but often underneath it all regular state employees who can be easily calculated from the materials and processor to a stable firmware. However, there are decent machines that don’t hide anything: his vision of a quality affordable smartphone offers the example of the ASUS device ZenFone 5. Watch him closer.
The company is positioning the smartphone as a more affordable alternative 5z ZenFone, but ASUS has not sacrificed, for example, quality materials, screen and camera. Yes, some factors are simpler, but the General impression of the device they are not affected. In General, the ZenFone 5 is no longer a novelty on the market of mobile phones, and to talk about it, we decided, because in the few months that the smartphone is on sale, it became one of the most popular among buyers. Moreover, many speak of him only from a positive side after a long period of use.
To begin with — a bit of technical parameters.
- Display: 6.2 inch Full HD+ (2246х1080) Super IPS+
- CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 (8 cores Kryo 260 up to 1.8 GHz)
- Graphics: Adreno 509
- Operating system: Android 8.0 + ZenUI5
- RAM: 4 GB
- Built-in memory: 64 GB
- Memory card support: microSD up to 2TB
- SIM: nano-SIM + nano-SIM (combo slot)
- Wireless interfaces: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 2.4/5 GHz, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC
- Camera: primary — 12 MP (f/1,8) + 8 MP (f/2,2), front — 8 MP (f/2.0)
- Battery: 3300 mAh
- Dimensions: 153×75,7×7.9 mm
- Weight: 155 g
The package
Stylish minimalist box ZenFone 5 hides a very rich equipment. In addition to battery charger high power (2A) and USB cable-C, the kit put the protective silicone case and a decent headset (already with replaceable ear cushions!).
Well, without a standard set of documentation and “needles” to eject the SIM card has not been.
Design
The smartphone looks quite different at 25 000, which he asked for. No, visually it is much more expensive: the role played by the glass surface from both sides, and clean lines, and frame made of aluminium. Special attention deserves the back surface where are placed the optical effect, due to which it is similar to brushed metal. Fingerprints, of course, it also collects, but it can be.
On the front panel is the traditional “bangs”, where you placed the earpiece, sensors and front camera. If you look closely, you’ll see the notification light is a useful thing, to activate the screen of the phone. Frame around the screen is minimal, so a 6.2-inch display in the hand felt very small.
On the right side there was a place the power button and the button twice changes the volume on the left is a tray for SIM-cards and memory cards microSD.
On the rear panel is a fingerprint scanner, dual (!) duchonova camera and flash.
It is worth noting that the smartphone has two microphones: one placed on the top, one at the bottom. Downstairs also features a 3.5 mm audio Jack and USB-C port for charging.
Interface and ergonomics
Despite the large screen, the smartphone is very comfortable to hold in your hand a little to the side faces and the shape of the device has significantly improved the ergonomics of the device. The operating system also pleased with the different chips, which ease the work with the smartphone: to include mode of operation “one hand”, just double click on the home button, and open Windows with notifications and settings using a swipe on the fingerprint scanner.
The fingerprint scanner works very fast, small indentation you can find it. However, there is an alternative way to unlock your smartphone — in the face of the owner (no wonder they made a cutout in the screen). The more you use the device, the better the recognition system have to say thanks to the built-in artificial intelligence.
The screen is very high quality, saturated colors and the pixel density is so high that involuntarily you catch yourself thinking that you are looking at OLED display. No, here it is IPS, but with the settings adjusting the color scheme you can change it by myself.
As the operating system in the ZenFone 5 uses Android 8 with a proprietary shell ASUS ZenUI 5. The latter looks perfectly and seems to be specially made in the style Material Design by Google. Shell close to “pure” Android, but it has your chips: for example, the quick launch bar (the system displays the application according to the preferences and activity of user). There’s a special app to create animated smileys — ZeniMoji, as well as a whole section devoted to various proprietary tools and services.
Preinstalled programs are not very many (for that special thank you), there are only standard apps and small packages from ASUS and Google. By the way, has a built-in ability to record phone conversations.
Performance
In the heart of the smartphone is Qualcomm Snapdragon processor 636. This is not a top chip, but not a budget — a real “Golden mean”. Therefore, ZenFone 5 no problem coping with daily tasks and running heavy games or multiple apps in the background RAM is enough, but if 64GB is not enough, it can be expanded with memory cards up to 2 TB.
Camera
The main camera of ASUS Zenfone 5 consists of two sensors. One of the lenses has a matrix of 12 MP (aperture f/1.8 and a pixel size of 1.4 µm) and chetyrehluchevoy optical stabilizer. The second lens is wide angle of 120 degree coverage: the matrix of 8 MP with an aperture of f/2.2 and a pixel size of 1 µm. The application of the camera simple and intuitive interface with the main elements on the main screen. To navigate to additional options and effects, enough to make a swipe to the left or right.
The line ZenFone 5 has the support of the intelligent assistant, so the smartphone is capable of real-time to analyze the scene, caught in the viewfinder, and choose the optimal shooting mode. Front camera at 8 MP with their problems, too, cope, giving detailed images. Selfies turn out perfectly, thanks to the built-in “uluchshat”.
The example photo on the main camera ASUS ZenFone 5
The example photo on the main camera ASUS ZenFone 5
The example photo on the front camera of ASUS ZenFone 5
The verdict
ASUS ZenFone 5 is clearly not similar to other smartphones in the medium price segment. Yes, some elements of the design can remind someone the other devices, but otherwise this is a unique smartphone that is not just worth the money he do not mind to pay more. The advantages of the device should include a quality screen, great camera, NFC and HD aptX codec. Well, with fingerprints on the rear panel to be put up. We can safely say that this should be the smartphone middle class.