Time and time again Asus has proven that you don’t need to shell out huge sums of money for a reliable phone. The same stands true for the Zenfone 5 here checking all the right boxes at just the right angles making a good phone available for just about everyone.
Let’s get things out of the way first, yes, the Zenfone 5 will not be sporting the latest chipsets nor the latest and fastest technology. But, at this price range, it’s getting really difficult to find a good performing phone.
Design
Right off the bat the most noticeable design change from Zenfones past will be the notch. It’s not as big as the iPhone’s and will contain all the hardware you’d expect including the front camera, the speakers, and sensors.
The display is stretched to most of the front apart from a chin that’s hard not to notice.
The entire phone is covered in glass held together by a metal frame that feels really solid and sturdy with a little bit of a slip on the fingers. It’s a touch wider thanks to the rounded sides to aid in the keeping-the-phone-in-your-hand department.
The back focuses the signature Asus concentric circle design towards the fingerprint scanner; while the cameras are placed on the upper left corner, followed immediately by the flash right underneath.
It’s all standard button placements where the power button and the volume rocker will be located at the right side and the opposite end houses the hybrid dual nano SIM tray where you are given the option to forego a secondary SIM for more memory.
Not much else is present apart from the headphone jack, mono speakers, and USB-C port at the bottom and mic ports all the way up top, at the side by the SIM tray and at the bottom; in case you’re wondering, this is for both noise cancelling and to aid in audio capture while recording videos.
Display
Don’t be fooled by how clear and bright the screen is on the Zenfone 5, it may only be IPS LCD but you’re going to need to be holding one in front of you to see how crisp this display is.
It will be the standard 18.7:9 stretch at FHD+ OR 1080×2246 pixels. In case you’re wondering why not AMOLED, is for power efficiency, and well, we’re in an era where LCD and LED technology are really really close to being negligible.
The display gets really bright and is very manageable under direct sunlight.
Experience
You’re looking at a Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 processor with 4GB/6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. In case you didn’t know, that’s really decent and generous for a phone at this price range. Considering, also, everything else that you are getting.
We are very very pleased to announce that Asus has made do without the crappy Asus apps that hardly anyone ever uses. No, really, no more Zen this and Zen that apart from a few specialized ones like the SelfieMaster and other performance enhancing ones. The entire structure is near stock Android. It’s fast and snappy wih just about anything you need to do in your daily lives.
The Zenfone 5 will come with Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box. Knowing Asus, too, you can expect timely security updates on a monthly basis and the next firmware update a short while after Android P is released. Kudos, Asus!
What Asus is claiming to be Artificially Intelligent is not really adaptive to ever changing needs like making sure the ringtone will go up to 11 the moment it notices you’re in a noisy environment. Rather, they have implemented an if (this is the case) then (do this) function integrated into the system.
The notch management feature simply tucks away lesser important notifications and indicators since the system deems it is so
Speaking of the notch, it’s not really bothersome to use where the notification tray is basically posted away from the usual real estate for screen viewing. At the same time, Android will need a better implementation as to when the part of the notch disappears when viewing inside apps as it only sometimes stretches and sometimes it stays put.
Camera
The only other phone offering a wide-angle camera is LG and most of its flagship line until Asus decided to chime in the same category with the Zenfone 4 last year. They’re keeping true to the line with a dual camera setup with the primary lens at 12MP set at f/1.8 and a secondary wide angle at 8 MP set at f/2.0.
What this means is better low-light shots for just about anyone who wants to get in on the mobile photography game.
Shots in broad daylight provide all the details needed though the software seems to want to focus on getting brighter and more vivid images compared to getting color accuracy. HDR mode gives more of the shots.
Low light shots slow the shutter speed down instead of compensating on post processing so make sure to have really steady hands.
Manual mode goes up to 30 secs which allow galaxy shots if you’re into that sort of thing.
Selfies are always super bright and super saturated thanks in part to the 8MP front facing camera set at f/2.0 and the SelfieMaster integration that manages self portraits for you. Images will suffer a touch in low light scenarios but Asus did a good job in finding the right balance of determining whether to adjust shutter speed or a bit of brightness to compensate.
Battery
It’s a standard 3,300 mAh battery here with not much else going for it aside from good battery management from the processor and the very efficient LCD panel for the screen. The phone can get through most days with about 20% battery life left at about 4-5 hours of screen-on-time on average daily usage.
Verdict
The Asus Zenfone 5 is a reliable daily driver for just about anyone who needs a good phone packed with a lot of the things many of us would be looking for in a phone. Good camera, good performance, good screen, good battery life, and it still supports an audio jack. Granted it doesn’t have water and dust resistance but you’re not getting a flagship phone, you’re getting a mid-ranged phone packed with 2017 flagship features for the very generous price of 19,995 PHP or about 350 USD.
What do you think of the Asus Zennfone 5? Hit us up on the comments below or over on Twitter @MNLMash.
Mabuhay, Manila.
The @Asusph #Zenfone5 should be your next daily driver #MabuhayMNL Time and time again Asus has proven that you don't need to shell out huge sums of money for a reliable phone.