Zenfone – Tech Raman

Asus ZenFone 4 Dual Camera Review – Light weight, Dual Happiness!

Lakshmi Rajan — Sat, 14 Oct 2017 12:23:56 +0000

People take lot many photos, tons of it. The memories keep getting stamped and unlike earlier days the photos rarely get printed but mostly socially shared and saved on computers and cloud. My very first camera phone had a VGA camera at the rear and I used to be super thrilled back then, technology especially Smartphones have made giant strides in a short span and now we have cameras on Smartphones that has made point and shoot cameras almost obsolete. Asus has always been on forefront when it comes to innovation. They packed in super-resolutions with pixel technology, Zenfone Zoom was a game changer with its 3x optical zoom and Zenfone AR gave a glimpse of the future the Smartphone industry is headed with the Artificial Intelligence packed in three cameras to enable motion tracking, depth, and room mapping. The AR also had the highest resolution mobile camera sensor on the rear of the phone and uses this sensor to combine four native 23-megapixel photos to create a single image —something the company is calling a 92-megapixel “super resolution” photo. With a proven record of camera innovation, with the Zenfone 4 series the company focussed on the rage these days – the selfie obsession with the launch of the ZenFone series. What I got here is the ZenFone (dual camera version) that accommodates to two important factors that weigh in a consumer mind – a selfie camera and dual camera. Yes, it has a dual selfie camera for the selfie generation. Before we delve into the camera, let’s take an overlook of the phone. What impressed me about the ZenFone (dual camera version) is its feather weight design. At 144 grams the phone is pretty light and holding it for a long time doesn’t bother, even if you decide to case it up. The dual has a 5.5-inch IPS HD LCD display that is graced with a 2.5D curved glass that gently melds in along with the curved sides, thus making it a joy to hold in the hands without any fatigue. On the back, it’s got a metallic matte finish. Additionally, it is powered by a well optimized Snapdragon 430 chipset with a 4GB RAM and 64GB on-board storage. Making communications and storage easier on the Zenfone 4 Selfie ‘Dual Camera version’ is the Triple Slot bay that lets you to not just insert two SIM cards, but also a MicroSD card up to 2TB, at the same time with a dedicated slot for the same. Now you can store a lifetime of photos and videos, and still have some space remaining. Let’s get the attention to the camera, here is how the specs read:

Front camera:

(Primary)

20-megapixels
5140 x 3860 pixels
F/2.0 aperture
Soft LED flash

(Secondary)

8-megapixels
120-degree wide angle lens
200% wider view for more friends and scenery in the frame
12mm equivalent focal length in 35mm film camera
6p lens

Rear Camera:

16 megapixels
Phase detection auto-focus
26mm focal length
F/2.0 aperture
80° field of view
LED flash

Let’s talk selfies first. Equipped with a dual camera at the front and taking advantage of the wide angle lens of the secondary camera, the camera mode offers a groupie to accommodate more people in your selfies. There is also a portrait mode that gives you a depth of field to you while taking a selfies, after all people like to be in limelight don’t they? The camera app offers beauty mode, GIF animation and a selfie panorama for selfies. One of the surprising revelations of the advent of selfie camera is that most people love to apply some levels of beauty filters when taking selfies. The ZenFone dual offers an array of beauty customization for people to dabble with including options like auto-beauty mode where the algorithm does the job or if you are finicky you can adjust the skin softness, skin brightness , enhance the eye and cheeks. When you hang out with a group of friends , we don’t want to leave a few in our selfies and the groupie mode in the camera app which is easy to access gives a wide angle view. The following picture is a regular selfie. Enabling the groupie selfie, gives more space in case more friends wants to join in. Even in an artificial low light scenario like the pictures shot above, the camera manages pretty well to capture the fun and frolic of the situation. The front camera also includes a portrait mode that softens the background brings the subject to the focus and makes sure you are the highlight of the image. Selfies can be taken in the 18:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios. You can also time the selfie on 2 sec, 5 sec or 10 secs. You can shoot videos up to 1080p with the front camera. Few months back Asus announced the world’s first Smartphone with a live beauty mode for social videos – the Zenfone Live. They have brought the feature to the ZenFone and that would impress many of those who go live on Instagram and YouTube and you find quiet as many these days. There is a separate Selfie Master app that does this job. Moving to the rear camera, the 16-megapixel is a capable shooter. What I really liked is the fact that at this budget it offers EIS for image stabilization and can even shoot on RAW mode, something you don’t come across on every other phone in this price range. . It also makes use of the Dual-microphones to cancel out ambient noise and keeps your voice intact while you live-stream to the world. The focus is pretty fast and locks in a mere 0.03 seconds with its Phase Detection Auto Focus and a 16-megapixel means you can blow it up considerably big if you choose to take prints. My interaction with people on Smartphones have indicated a fact people love various modes in their camera app. They want pre-sets that would satisfy their photography needs. Asus has always made sure to provide this in their camera app and their camera app is very user friendly and easy to navigate. The manual mode is something I look at in all the Smartphones I review. The Zenfone UI offers a Pro mode that gives control over white balance, exposure, ISO and manual focus something I appreciate. Dabbling with many Smartphones, I have notices very few phones manages to capture the natural green in the sceneries, most cameras tend to over saturate them. Asus has managed to reproduce the natural tone of the green. [gallery link="file" columns="5" ids="12579,12580,12581,12582,12583" orderby="rand"] The rear camera also has a portrait mode and it works well to add a bit of drama to the picture composition. Overall the rear camera satisfies you with the output. The pictures shot makes for a good social sharing ,which is what most of us look at. To conclude, the ZenFone (dual camera version) with its dual camera capabilities at the front and a good 16-megapixel camera would be a good pair of lens that most would be happy with. The portrait mode on the front and back is something people look at these days and the ZenFone dual offers it. Plus, the Live beauty should interest most of the instagrammers and Youtubers out there.]]>

Asus Zenfone 4 Selfie Dual Cam Review (ZD553KL) : Tapping into the Selfie Obsession

Lakshmi Rajan — Sun, 24 Sep 2017 21:34:33 +0000

Asus didn’t had much success with last year’s Zenfone 3 lineups except for the Max lineup which did see some traction with the mammoth battery backpack but can the new Zenfone 4 series infuse fresh energy into the Taiwanese brand? While we need to wait for that answer but meanwhile let’s check the Zenfone 4 Selfie with dual camera in this review. World loves taking selfies and Indians are no different. Last couple of quarters we have seen companies tapping on the selfie mania with selfie-centric phones with good measure of success. So Asus too has joined the fray with the Zenfone 4 Selfie series in India. They recently launched three Selfie phones in India from their Zenfone 4 lineup – the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro and two variants of Zenfone 4 Selfie with one sporting a single camera for selfie and another a dual camera. What we got here is the Asus Zenfone 4 Selfie Dual Cam review. First let’s take a look at what you get out of the box.

Zenfone 4 Selfie mobile
User guide
MicroUSB cable
Power adapter 5.2V/1.35A
Pin to eject SIM tray

Design and Build Quality

Poly-carbonate body
155.7 x 75.9 x 7.9 mm
144 grams

When you hold the Zenfone 4 Selfie for the first time, what springs to your mind immediately is it’s lightweight. At 144 grams its quiet lighter and it also has to do with its polycarbonate body. While we are accustomed to metal body phones these days that ups the stakes for the premium quotient, poly carbonate or in common parlance plastic body, is not something we fancy upon but nevertheless it has its own advantages like keeping the weight less and also not prone to dents on occasional falls. It does gets a metallic finish to give it a faux-metal look. The back has the rear camera on top in the middle with a dual LED flash to its side. There are antenna lines on top and bottom of the phone and Asus branding towards the middle. The rear camera has a frame flaunting the signature Asus concentric pattern. The right side has the power button and volume buttons, both offering good tactile feedback. The left houses the SIM tray. Opening it reveals a triple tray that accommodates two SIMs and one dedicated microSD card which is refreshing, considering most phones comes with only a hybrid SIM tray these days. The top has a 3.5mm audio jack and a microphone. The bottom has a speaker grille and a micro USB port. It’s strange Asus has not considered an upgrade to USB Type C. The front has a capacitive button as home button flanked by back and menu buttons. The home button also doubles up as fingerprint sensor. The buttons are not backlit. At the top there is the dual selfie camera, ear piece grille and sensors. There is also a LED flash light for selfies during low light scenarios. While a metal body could have scored more brownie points for premium factor, ergonomically the Asus Zenfone 4 Selfie is comfortable to hold and handle and also has a decent looks to it.

Display

5.5 inches
IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen
720 x 1280 pixels
267 pixels per inch
70.6% screen-to-body ratio

It’s disappointing to note that Asus has opted for a 720p resolution instead of a fullHD panel. It’s a 2.5D curved glass, there is no mention of any protective layer to it though. The panel is very responsive and smooth. While the color reproduction is good, the color doesn’t pop out nor lively especially if you like your display panel to be a bit more saturated. The viewing angles are good and the reading is also good under direct sunlight.

Software and ZEN UI

Android 7.0 Nougat
ZenUI 4.0

ZenUI has also been long accused of being a bloatware, that has changed a bit with the ZenUI 4.0. The new UI comes with minimal set of apps. The UI feels light and snappy. The app drawer is left untouched. There is no FM app pre-installed. There is also two special modes in the UI – easy mode for elders and a kids mode for children. Asus customized settings offer dual apps feature that can duplicate apps like Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram etc for two accounts to run parallelly in the same phone. Game genie mode allows to record the screen like when playing games. Long press the menu button can activate split screen feature. The UI also offers gesture feature and you can draw certain gestures on the lock screen to launch certain apps and tasks. Double tapping the home button minimizes the screen for one- hand mode. [gallery link="file" columns="5" ids="12478,12479,12480,12481,12482" orderby="rand"]

Fingerprint Sensor

The fingerprint sensor is at the front with the home button doubling as the sensor. Unlocking is fairly faster and is accurate too. Apps can be secured with the fingerprint sensor and it can also be configured to answer calls by touching the sensor area.

Performance

Qualcomm Snapdragon 430
Octa-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A53
Adreno 505
4GB RAM
64GB ROM, expandable

Its baffling that Asus has settled for Snapdragon 430 which they have used in the Zenfone 3 Max too. Since the Max days there has been new chipsets dished out by Qualcomm and Asus could very well opted for something from the new lineups. Neverthless, the Snapdragon 430 is a time tested chipset and it fares fairly smooth for normal tasks. Considering the low-end specs, the skimmed down new UI helps in making the operations smoother. If you are a gamer, let’s be realistic here, the Adreno 505 is tad weaker, while most games play well, you can spot slightly weaker graphics and stuttering during heavy games. Call quality is good. The loud speaker output is satisfactory too. The Zenfone 4 Selfie dual packs in a 3000mAh battery. With a 720p panel and a 430 chipset, the battery can sail through a day. The absence of fast charging is a dampener though. The 1.3A of the charger doesn’t help either and it takes a painful 3 hours for a full charge from scratch. Asus believes the target audience for the Zenfone 4 Selfie would not be bothered much about the specs story and they could compensate it with the camera, but does the camera live up to the expectation?

Camera

Front camera: 20-megapixel, F/2.0 aperture + 8MP, F2.4 aperture with 120 degree FOV
Rear camera: 16-megapixel, F/2.0 aperture
upto FullHD videos
EIS
PDAF
LED flash on front and back

Talking point of the Zenfone 4 Selfie dual is the dual camera setup in the front. While, higher megapixels doesn’t promises a better picture quality, it makes for a good marketing data. The secondary camera in the front offers a 120 degree field of view to accommodate more people and surroundings in your selfies. The camera app also has a group selfie mode to fit in more people into your selfies. The camera app also offers few modes for selfies in addition to auto mode. As expected there is a beauty mode and apart from that there is a GIF, portrait and a selfie panorama mode. The beauty mode has adjustments for skin softening, skin brightening, eye enhancement and cheek thinning, in case you want to pamper yourself with an image makeover. A few months earlier, Asus launched the Zenfone Live as the world’s first Smartphone to offer beauty mode while streaming live videos. These feature has now find its way into the Zenfone 4 Selfie series. There is a selfie master app for this purpose. You can apply beauty filter while going live on Instagram and Whatsapp. The rear 16-megapixel camera is equipped with Phase Detection Auto Focus (PDAF) , EIS (Electronic Image Stabilization) . There are presets for timelapse, manual mode, super resolution in addition to beauty, GIF, Panorama and portrait modes. Both the front and rear camera offers portrait mode and the background blue is much better than some of the other phones we have seen in recent times in this range, the effect is smooth. [gallery link="file" columns="4" ids="12471,12472,12473,12474,12475,12476,12477"]

Verdict:

The Zenfone 4 Selfie Dual is priced at Rs 14,999 and during the big billion debut sale offered a 1000 Rs discount. The segment sees a tight competition online with the likes of the crazily popular Redmi Note 4, Honor 6X and the recent launches like K8 Note, Moto G5s Plus etc. Compared specs to specs, the Zenfone 4 Selfie Dual might look a bit watered down but everything is not about the specs for the average consumer. Asus as a brand still has a bankable reputation, the Zenfone 4 Selfie Dual offers a decent mix of everything including the 20-megapixel dual camera to grab the attention of the selfie nation. While I might not outright suggest the Zenfone 4 Selfie Dual, you might not be disappointed either if you are looking for a phone that does the normal daily tasks and along with being a selfie phone.]]>

Asus Zenfone Live Review (ZB501KL) : Live and beautiful !

Lakshmi Rajan — Tue, 30 May 2017 10:56:52 +0000

good beautiful and the ugly side of this Smartphone. Box contents:

Zenfone Live Smartphone
Some documents
Power adapter
microUSB cable
Pin to eject SIM tray

https://youtu.be/5tPzThGac10

Design, Build Quality and Display

Out of the box, the first thought that goes into your mind is ‘this phone is feather light‘ , and it is. It weighs only 120 grams and measures 8mm in thickness. The body is polycarbonate with a metallic finish to it and that helps to maintain a healthy body mass ratio while the metallic finish gives it a sheen and glamour to the look. Apart from the immediately noticeable light weight, there is nothing exceptional about the design and it is generic. A black border is prominent around the white front. The trio of home, back and menu button at the bottom, and the top face has the the 5-megapixel front camera, LED flash, earpiece grille and sensors. The back side has the 13-megapixel rear camera at a corner with the LED flash little below it. Two antenna lines at the top and bottom and Asus branding. There is no fingerprint sensor here nor is it at the front, oh well, there is no fingerprint sensor in this mobile! At the right side there is the volume buttons and power buttons both offering good tactile feedback and both the buttons flaunting the concentric circles, an Asus insignia. The bottom has the speaker grille, microUSB port and a microphone. In fact the phone comes with a dual microphone the other one nesting at the top. The top has the 3.5mm audio jack and a microphone as I mentioned above.

5-inch display
IPS LCD display
720 x 1280 pixels resolution
294 ppi
68.1% screen-to-body ratio

For a casual buyer, the screen might look decent and colors well balanced but not if you are a taskmaster. While the color tones look natural and likeable, some deep black would have enriched it. Sunlight readability is pretty average. This is 2017 and the expectation levels have pitched higher while the Zefone Live would have been more appreciated some quarters back. Neverthless, it is not a bad deal either. Like the other Zenfone devices, there is the display settings that allows an user to fiddle around with the color temperature, screen mode to customize the hue and saturation and also a bluefilter toggle, so if you know what you do, you can tune the display for better.

Software and UI

Dressing the phone is Android 6.0.1 Marshmalow with ZenUI layered on top. I love the custom UIs if done well, as I staunchly believe the end consumers prefer the added flavour to the UI which is not in the case of stock android. Zen UI has been my favourite for its colorful layout and ease of use inspite of the bloatware they add up. With many bloatware apps pre-loaded with many non-removable, it takes a toll on the storage plus causes the device to lag. At lease, you could disable them in the settings and I would advice users to do so, if the apps are not relevant for you. There are the usual features of ZenUI like kids mode, easy mode, glove mode and also game genie app to record your screen especially when playing games.

Performance

Snapdragon 410
Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A53
Adreno 306
2GB RAM
16GB storage (32GB in select markets)
microSD, up to 256 GB (uses SIM 2 slot)

The ZenUI is equipped with a Snapdragon 410 chipset which is an entry-level segment and coupled with a modest 2GB of RAM. On average it uses 1GB of memory, with 861MB free. Out of the 16GB of internal storage close to 10GB is user available out of the box. If you are a gamer, this is not the phone to lay your hands on. Even games like Nova Legacy, type of game I would suggest for phones like these with less storage and memory shows signs of frame drops when there are too much action on screen. The SD 400 is 2 years old and for a phone that sports a tag of Rs 9,999 it is unpardonable. In fact, Qualcomm is pushing the chipset for wearables now. The chipset shows clear signs of lags at many tasks and when you go live it is evident. In short, the phone is sluggish. The Zenfone Live comes with a mono 5-magnet loudspeaker. At the launch, the company went a little overboard to flaunt the audio capabilities of the phone. It sounds good but nothing to make it stand out in the crowd. It also comes with a pair of MEMS microphones to send clearer noise during video calls and live stream. Network reception is good, I didn’t face any drops or bad call quality.

Camera

13MP rear camera
f/2.0 aperture
5P lens
1080p@30fps
5 MP selfie camera
f/2.2, 1.4 µm pixel size, autofocus,
LED falsh
82 degree field of view

[gallery link="file" columns="5" ids="12213,12214,12215,12216,12217" orderby="rand"] Asus had some of the best in the segment camera optics in some of their phones , I quiet liked the camera in Zenfone 3 and the Deluxe totally surprised me with its capabilities but sadly it cannot be said about Zenfone live. Like the rest of the phone, the camera performance is also mediocre. The problem with Zenfone live is many of the other phones in the same price bracket has set the bar much higher. The pictures comes out slightly washed out. The colors are not natural and are dull. Even in bright light, the picture quality suffers. The focus also is not swift, overall the Zenfone Live pictures are not lively enough. As usual , the ZenUI offers many presets in the camera app like HDR pro, super resolution, low light, QR code, panaroma, time lapse, beautification, children, night. Now let’s shift to the front camera. [gallery link="file" ids="12218,12219,12220"] I detest beauty mode but there are many who love it. I like the blemishes of my face to be shown, that is what I am and I don’t hide it but then the Smartphone companies have figured out in the land of ‘fair and lovely’, people love to have a blemish free , smoothened face and the beauty filter is a craze and a hit. So the Asus Zenfone Live comes with a 10 level of beauty filter that even allows the user to make cosmetic changes to their eyes, chin and color! I found the beautification algorithm to be too aggressive, if you like it that way, then good for you. The main selling point of the Asus Zenfone Live is that it proclaims itself to be the world’s first smartphone to offer live beautification while live streaming. There is a Beauty live app, that allows you to connect with Facebook, YouTube and Instagram account for live streaming. You can apply your desired live filter level and bingo! you can go live beautifully! (with the added makeup to your face)

Verdict

It is hard to recommend the Asus Zenfone Live but it is appreciable fact that Asus want to try something different and come up with the Live beautification mode while streaming live. This feature I feel might become part of the future Zenfone devices and why not? I have seen many people love taking selfies and merrily applying beautification filter. So if they also happen to live stream often, they would definitely hit the beauty mode on live and that is what Asus offers. So the the live beauty feature might be here for a longer run and Asus has taken the lead with it.]]>

Top 5 features of Asus Zenfone devices on Marshmallow 6.0

Lakshmi Rajan — Sat, 11 Jun 2016 07:42:36 +0000

The new Zenfone Max (2016) comes with Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box and Asus also has started rolling out the Marshmallow update to other ZenFone devices like the first generation Zenfone Max, Zenfone Laser and soon will cover many other devices in their portfolio. In case you wonder what changes the Marshmallow update brings in, here are the top 5 features that are worth mentioning.

Google Now On Tap

Arguably the best feature of Marshmallow now comes to the ZenFone devices. Press the home button and Google Now picks the relevant keyword from the screen you are and tries to pull related info, apps, and actions. You can quickly access the keyword(s) in search, Youtube, twitter, news and images.

Doze

A feature that silently runs on background. When you leave your phone idle and there is absolutely no movement and the sensors are just resting, Doze kicks in. It puts the phone to near sleep except for high-priority apps like basic phone calls and SMS that wants to reach your attention but there is also an option where you can pick and choose the apps you want to keep awake when the phone is on doze. For that go to settings > Battery > you find three dots on the top right corner , tap that > battery optimization > choose all apps > from the list of apps, tap on the app you want to change the setting there you can choose if it should be optimized or not. Doze is a great power saver and can extend the battery life of your phone.

App Permissions

This might seem annoying in the beginning but it gives you freedom over what the apps do or access on your phone. You can install an app and allow or deny permissions on a per-app basis. For example, If you think a gaming app has no business accessing your contacts, you can deny permissions.

Memory management and Apps Insights

Another great addition to come with Marshmallow. The feature gives you comprehensive insights on the memory consumption by individual apps along with other relevant data. The memory pattern can be tracked for 3 hours / 6 hours / 12 hours and 1 day. It shows all the apps that used memory in those duration. Along with other noticeable data like battery drained by the apps. So next time if you are worried by the sudden battery drain, you can pick the app that plays havoc. Alternatively you can go to settings > Apps and from the list of apps displayed, you can tap any app to get complete picture pertaining to memory, battery consumption and permissions it uses.

DND Alarm

The Do Not Disturb mode sees a refresh in Marshmallow. The DND can be accessed easily from the volume control or from the quick access settings panel from the toggle. You can also set your disturb rules.]]>

Asus ZenFone Max with 5000mAh battery launched in India; Pre-order begins

Lakshmi Rajan — Mon, 04 Jan 2016 08:43:01 +0000

12 pm today on Amazon.in and Flipkart.com. The phone will also be sold at ASUS Exclusive Stores and with other retailers from the second fortnight of January. Asus says the Max would offer 37.6 hours of 3G talk time or 32.5 hours of Wi-Fi web browsing or 72.9 hours of music playback or 22.6 hours of video playback. It also features OTG charging, with the big battery it can act as a powerbank and charge other phones via it As for as the specifications goes, the Zenfone Max has a 5.5-inch display with a HD resolution (720p) and Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection. It is powered by Snapdragon 410 SoC with a 1.2GHz quad-core CPU, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage with an expandable microSD card slot. It runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop with Zen UI 2.0 layered on top of it. On the camera front, the Max comes with a 13MP front unit and a 5MP front shooter. Connectivity options include dual-SIM 4G LTE, 3G with HSPA+, GPS, and Bluetooh 4.0.

Asus Zenfone Max Specifications

5.5-inch display
1280 x 720 pixels resolution
Corning Gorilla Glass 4
Android Lollipop 5.0
Zen UI 2.0
Snapdragon 410 chipset
1.2GHz quad-core
2GB RAM
16GB ROM, expandable
13MP rear + 5MP front camera
5000mAh battery
4G dual-SIM

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Asus Zenfone Go finally gets a price tag in India at Rs 7,999

Lakshmi Rajan — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 11:17:04 +0000

While the Asus is having a pretty good run with their Zenfone range, they are giving a another push to it with the ZenFone Go, which will be available both on Flipkart as well as offline retail channels including their exclusive stores. The Go features a 5-inch IPS display with a 720p resolution. The budget Asus device is a dual-SIM 3G Smartphone that runs on Zen UI based on Android 5.1 Lollipop. For the Zenfone Go, Asus has opted for MediaTek (MT6580) chipset instead of the Intel and Qualcomm chipsets. It is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core processor combined with a 2GB of RAM. It gets a 8GB of internal storage which can be exported via microSD card up to 64GB. On the camera side, it features a 8-megapixel rear camera with autofocus with f/2.0 aperture. The front houses a 2MP camera. The Go is backed by a 2070mAh battery and on the connectivity side it includes Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPRS/ EDGE, 3G, GPS/ A-GPS, and Micro-USB connectivity options. The sensors include accelerometer, e-compass, proximity, and ambient light sensors. The ZenFone Go will come with 100GB of Google Drive storage, which will be free for 2 years.]]>