Smartphone makers like to trumpet how their handsets are “quadcore” or “octacore.” There was a time when this may have sounded impressive, but not anymore. I’ve tried and tested several smartphones, all stuffed with more cores than my desktop. While they all seemed great at first, sooner or later they ran into an issue which rendered all that processing power practically useless --memory.
If you think it’s a chore to “free” memory and erase app caches on your smartphone because because it’s getting unbearably slow and you can’t install new apps, you can blame the paltry 1GB or 2GB spec’d on your phone. Thankfully, smartphone makers are wising up and addressing this issue instead of continuing this largely meaningless contest over cores.
Asus blazed the trail on this front when it unveiled the Zenfone 2 earlier this year at CES. While most flagship handsets were still doing fine with 3GB of RAM, Asus made gadget-geek headlines when it announced that its next flagship phone would feature 4 frigging glorious gigabytes of RAM.
As a mid-end handset, the flagship Zenfone 2 ZE551ML already stands out from the competition on just its specs.
5.5-inch full HD IPS display
64-bit Intel Atom 2.3GHz Z3580 quad-core processor
4GB of RAM
32GB of storage, expandable via microSD
13MP rear camera, 5MP front camera
Dual SIM
3G, LTE, NFC
Android 5.0 Lollipop
3000mAh battery
Costing less than P16,000, Asus’s top-of-the-line smartphone is practically a steal as it boasts of LTE connectivity, NFC, and 32GB of internal storage.
The Zenfone 2’s build quality is also pretty good for phones in this price range. The back cover may be made of plastic instead of aluminum or glass like in many high-end phones, but the Zenfone doesn’t look or feel cheap. Its brushed metal finish gives it a premium look. The phone also feels solid and sturdy in the hand and never slippery.
Its screen is also pretty impressive. The colors on the 5.5 inch full HD display are vivid, and the pictures and graphics are sharp and clear. While a lot of flagship phones today are already spec’d with QHD screens, all those extra pixels aren’t really going to be noticed in everyday use. They also just end up eating more processing power and battery life.
The Zenfone 2’s 1080p screen is more than adequate for a lot of users. Strangely though, my locally branded phone seems to have a much brighter screen than the Zenfone even when the latter’s display is set to brightest.
Asus uses a proprietary Android skin called the ZenUI on its phones, similar to Samsung’s TouchWiz and HTC’s Sense. I must admit that I wasn’t really a fan of the ZenUI when I first tried it. The minimalist interface was too stark for my taste.
But Asus put a lot of functionality into the ZenUI. taking its cue from the iPhone 6, the Zenfone 2 allows you to use the 5.5 inch phone with just one hand. When you tap “one-handed operation” icon on the ZenUI home screen, the viewable screen shrinks and moves to the left-hand corner so that all the icons can be reached by your left thumb.
Another nifty trick, borrowed this time from Cyanogenmod, is the ability to access a few basic apps via a feature called ZenMotion. You can double tap on the screen to wake up your phone, or draw patterns like “S” to access messaging, and “C” to launch the camera.
Speaking of the camera, selfie-shooters will also be happy to know that Asus has bumped up the front-facing camera on the new Zenfone to 5MP from the previous generation’s 2MP. Asus kept the main camera at a midrange 13MP, but announced a slew of improvements to the hardware and software.
I was quite excited to test the Zenfone 2’s camera in the great outdoors after playing around with it during the Zenfone 2’s Southeast Asian launch in Jakarta. I got a test unit from Asus Philippines, and took it to a mountain biking trip in Benguet. I was expecting to be blown away by the photos I took with the Zenfone 2. After all, Asus had the audacity to compare its camera with industry-leaders Apple and Samsung during the Jakarta launch.
So how did it go? The Zenfone 2’s low-light mode was excellent when shooting in the more shaded areas of the pine forest I biked through. Its HDR mode was also very good when shooting against the light -- much better in fact, than the Samsung Galaxy S6.
But its camera was surprisingly not as spectacular in normal light. The quality of the photos was average. When you zoom in, the pictures look like they’ve been oversharpened. Many of the details were lost and the output was nowhere near that of the Samsung Galaxy S6 or the iPhone 6.
But while the Zenfone 2’s camera was a bit underwhelming, it’s multitasking performance was almost unbelievable. Thanks to its 4GB of RAM, the Zenfone 2 blasted through all of the heaviest apps I could throw at it.
Games like “Injustice: Gods Among Us,” “Electronic Arts UFC,” “The Walking Dead,” and “Redbull Air Race” loaded and ran without a glitch. The graphics were truly impressive. I could even switch between these very heavy games without the phone telling me that I was running out of memory. And all the while, I was still running Chrome, Facebook, Pages Manager, Twitter, Instagram, and Sketchbook X in the background.
4GB of RAM may seem like overkill, but a lot of people also said that about smartphones with multi-core processors. And look where we are now.
Asus made ripples in the smartphone market last year when it launched its line of cheap but capable phones. This year, the Taiwanese electronics giant is again pushing the envelope.
The Zenfone 2 is set to be launched in the Philippines this May 16.
Pros:
4GB of RAM means you never run out of memory
Bright Full HD screen
LTE
NFC
32GB of storage (64GB, 128GB options available)
Awesome specs at an affordable price
Cons:
Camera is average
Battery life is also average
source: www.abs-cbnnews.com
