Samsung had last launched Galaxy K Zoom with the same technology about two years ago. The 10x optical zoom was the most special feature of this phone but it looked more like a digital camera than a smartphone.
Asus often experiments with its hybrid devices and now the new name in this series is Zenfone Zoom. This smartphone has optical zoom and the good news is that its smartphone-like nature has not been compromised to a great extent. Will Zenfone Zoom be able to give a new life to this ‘new’ smartphone segment? Is Asus Zenfone worth buying? Today we will review this smartphone of Asus.
Look and design
Asus Zenfone Zoom is priced at a premium smartphone and its look also gives the same feel. The unibody aluminum frame of the phone looks good and also gives a good grip to the phone. Apart from this, its rounded edges also make it comfortable to hold. Overall, the look of the phone is good.
The 5.5-inch Full HD IPS display is surrounded by fairly thick bezels. The capacitive navigation buttons are not backlit and a notification LED is provided.
The phone has a standard micro-USB 2.0 port at the bottom. On the right side there is a two-step camera button and a separate button for video recording. A short press on either of them will open the camera app. The volume and power buttons are provided on the top which are easy to use.
The real leather rear cover is removable, although it can easily be mistaken for faux leather. There is a large disc in the camera area where Asus has neatly fixed the zoom lens. Which means it is not a protruding lens like Samsung and other phones. Hence, the Zenfone Zoom is quite light and can take some good pictures.
This Asus phone comes with a single micro-SIM and expandable storage (via microSD card) support. The battery of the phone is non-removable. The Zenfone Zoom comes with a lanyard, data cable, charger and in-ear headset. The quality of the accessories that come with the Zenfone Zoom is quite good as per the price of the phone.
Overall, the phone looks different from other phones because of the camera placement at the rear. But other than that, it is similar to other Zenfone smartphones. The build and look of the phone is quite good and Asus should be praised for making a smartphone with an optical zoom lens that is just 11.9 mm thick.
Specifications and software
Asus is probably the only smartphone manufacturer that is consistently offering Intel processors in its smartphones. Zenfone Zoom has a quad-core Intel Atom Z3590 processor. The phone has 4 GB LPDDR3 RAM and 128 GB internal storage. The inbuilt storage provided in the phone is quite good and if you need more storage, it can be increased by 128 GB. For connectivity, the phone has features like Wi-Fi B / G / N / AC, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, USB OTG, FM radio, GPS and GLONASS.
The phone comes with the slightly older Android Lollipop, although Marshmallow has started to arrive now. The ZenUI 2.0 skin is provided on top of Android 5.0 and like previous Asus phones, you will find many Asus apps pre-installed in this phone as well.
Splendid app is provided to adjust the color temperature and toggle the blue light filter and Audiowizard app is provided for sound profile of movies, music, games and voice calls. Auto-start manager is provided to control the app during boot, Mobile Manager to get rid of junk files, Power Saver to save battery as per your usage, ‘Do it Later’ as a task manager. Apart from this, some third-party apps are also pre-installed in this phone which can be removed as per your need.
Some default Android apps like the Gallery app will always show you photos and videos from the cloud service. Asus apps like PhotoCollage and MiniMovie are provided with the gallery to share and customize photos and videos. Apart from this, you can also customize the interface through themes, animations and icon packs.
Performance
In terms of performance, the Zenfone Zoom is just like any other premium smartphone. Apps run smoothly and heavy games can be played with ease. However, the phone gets a little hot while playing games and this drains the battery quickly. 4G on Band 40 works well and we did not face any problem in using it. With a software update, we got to see a new feature called Quick Find which can be seen by swiping down on the home screen. This is a universal search tool that not only allows you to access files on your phone but also allows you to easily search the web and apps.
The Zenfone Zoom also got impressive benchmark results. However, it lags far behind phones with today’s top hardware.
Although the phone cannot record 4K videos, it can play 4K videos. The default video player is decent but the music player is better. You can organize songs into folders, change the theme of the player and set the audio using the Asus Audio Wizard. The headset that comes with the phone delivers good quality audio.
Camera
Now we have come to the most important feature of the phone, i.e. the phone’s camera. The phone has a 13-megapixel camera and comes with a 10-element Hoya lens. The lens is arranged in such a way that you can enjoy 3x optical zoom without taking the lens out. The camera has features like laser autofocus and optical image stabilization to take great pictures.
In daylight, landscape and macro photos appear in detail on the phone’s screen. The colors are good, although the colors definitely become oversaturated during auto optimization. Even at 3x zoom, the lens can take blur-free shots. At maximum optical zoom, a slight loss of sharpness can be seen in the object, but this is visible only when the picture is zoomed.
Photos taken in artificial light indoors also come out noise-free. But in low light, photos come out with less detail. The focus speed of the camera is also quite good, but while zooming the picture in the viewfinder, it takes some time to reach the zoom level. In good light, great selfies can be taken with the 5 megapixel camera.
Asus’ camera app is well designed. Some shooting modes and manual mode are given just above the software shutter button. The physical button also works quite well. Good quality video recording can also be done up to 1080 pixels. Slow-motion video option is also available in the camera. But, 4K video recording is not possible. Dual LED flash also works quite well but only for short distances.
battery life
The 3000mAh battery in the phone lasted us 6 hours and 58 minutes in our video loop test which is below average. With normal use and a lot of shooting and using 4G, we were able to use the Zenfone Zoom for 18-20 hours without needing to charge it. The good thing is that the phone supports fast charging and the battery gets charged up to 40 percent in just half an hour.
Our verdict
The Asus Zenfone Zoom is a premium phone in all respects and is the only phone available in the market with optical zoom. Priced at Rs. 37,999, it competes with the Samsung Galaxy S6 range and the Nexus 6P. Both these smartphones have cameras equipped with some great features. In terms of innovation, the Zenfone Zoom is indeed better than the others but when it comes to image quality, it lags behind both these smartphones. Apart from this, low-resolution display, old Android version, poor battery life and lack of 4K recording are also drawbacks of the Zenfone Zoom.
The high price of the phone can also be a hindrance to its sales but if the company reduces the price then there is no harm in buying a new phone. Asus has done a good job with the design and build of the phone. Optical zoom leads to a lot of compromises in the phone and this is the reason why such phones never became popular.
This camera is definitely a good idea but we think a camera with a bigger sensor and better image quality would be better than this. The Zenfone Zoom is not Asus’ flagship smartphone. It seems that the company has tried to give something new to the customers before the next generation phone comes.