Asus ZenFone 3 Review: Price Specs Pros and Cons

With launch of ZenFone 3 Asus is now directly in competition with premium segment smartphone, Here we are going to describe about Mid range phone Asus ZenFone 3 (ZE552KL), however there are multiple variants of this smartphone; 5.2-inch Asus ZenFone 3 (ZE520KL) @ ₹21,999; 5.5-inch Asus ZenFone 3 (ZE552KL) @ ₹27,999; Asus ZenFone 3 Ultra (ZU680KL) @ ₹49,999; Asus ZenFone 3 Laser (ZC551KL) @ ₹18,999. and Asus ZenFone 3 Deluxe (ZS570KL) @ ₹49,999 and a Special Edition @ ₹62,999.

Asus had incredibly redesigned the look of smartphone, feels shiny and unique in hand, it is featuring Android v6.0.1 (Marshmallow) OS, 2.0 GHz Snapdragon 625 processor, 5.5 inches FHD display, 16MP rear and 8MP front camera, 4GB RAM, 32GB internal storage, 2 TB SD card support and 3000 mAh battery.

Design of the Phone 
Body of the smartphone is built on 2.5D curved Corning Gorilla Glass both on the front as well as rear and a metallic strip is running on the corners, this combination made it looks exclusively premium. Although it is not best but its 7.69 mm thickness and 155 grams of weight its quite impressive to hold and carry. fingerprint scanner placed rear side below camera. right corner includes power and volume buttons and left houses hybrid SIM slot. On the bottom USB Type-C port as well as a speaker grille and microphone is located and 3.5mm earphone jack is on top.

Full HD Display
Display is sweet spot of phone which has balance of colour, brightness and saturation. It is configured with full HD (1080p) resolution supported by the 401ppi of display density which is accurately defining the definition of High Definition. It is quite exciting to watch your favorite shows in the phone. I am personally impressed with the minimum bezels, they have maintained to make actual display larger. The display also support 10-finger capacitive touch, as both sides are covered with Gorilla 2.5D glass so we can expect that it will be resistible to scratches.

Camera and Selfie
Company is advertising the camera of this smartphone intensively, There is 16 MP camera in rear side and 8MP camera in front. The camera is equipped with latest Sony IMX298 sensor, The TriTech auto-focus technology helps in tracking the subject within the microseconds. The camera has 6P Largan lens, Quick focus optical image stabilization (OIS) and electronic image stabilization (EIS) which will definitely going to take much better photos; as we observed phone is capable to take impressive photos in daylight but the lack of light breaks the arrogance of smartphone where photos become little grainy. The front camera is pretty good to take selfies, even in low light final pictures from the front camera become neat and clean. 

Performance
Phone has Snapdragon 625 processor, In Qualcomm’s chipset category it is under the middle segment with clock speed of 2.0 GHz. So it is worth to explain that with Snapdragon 625 processor + 4GB RAM + ZenUI 3.0 based on Marshmallow 6.0.1
This combination force handset to deliver a lag free user experience. Multitasking is smooth and you can shift from one app to other within very little span of time. Most of graphic intensive games are running smoothly in the handset.

Battery Backup
The battery inside the phone is able to deliver 13+ hours battery backup in Video loop test, it has about 4.5 hours SOT (Screen on time). for a mediocre users battery can easily run for more than a day.

Specification of Asus ZenFone 3

Operating System
OS- Android 
OS Version- v6.0.1 (Marshmallow) 
  
Chipset
CPU- Qualcomm MSM8953 Snapdragon 625
Clock Speed- 2.0 GHz Cortex-A53
Core- Octa-core 
GPU- Adreno 506

Screen and Display
Type- Super IPS+ capacitive touchscreen
Size- 5.5 inches  
Display Resolution- 1080 x 1920 pixels  
Display Reinforced- Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Display Density- 401 ppi 
Screen-Body Ratio- 77.3%

Camera
Rear- 16 MP
Front- 8 MP  
Max. Video Resolution- 3840 x 2160p
Max Video Frames- 120fps

Form and Dimension
Phone Dimension- 152.6 x 77.4 x 7.7 mm
Form- Bar 
Weight- 155 grams

Data Connection and Connectivity 
4G- LTE band 1(2100), 3(1800), 5(850), 8(900), 40(2300)
3G- HSDPA 850 / 900 / 2100 
Bluetooth- v4.2 
WiFi- 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Headphone Jack- 3.5mm

Sensors
Proximity- Yes 
Accelerometer- Yes 
Light- Yes 
Gyroscope- Yes
Fingerprint- Yes 

Memory and RAM
Internal (ROM)- 32 GB
External (SD)- 128 GB
RAM-3/4 GB

SIM
SIM Type-  Nano/ Micro SIM
SIM Support- Dual SIM

Battery
Capacity- 3000 mAh

Phone’s Available Colour- Sapphire Black, Moonlight White and Shimmer Gold

Pros of Asus ZenFone 3

• A decent 3000mAh which supports Quick Charge 3.0
• 5-magnet speaker at the bottom delivers 40 percent better performance.
• A stunning 16MP rear and 8MP front camera.
• Crystal clear 5.5 inches FHD display.
• Supports OTG cable.
• Fingerprint and smudge-resistant oleophobic coating.
• Supports Micro SD Card up to 2TB.
• 2.5D curved Corning Gorilla Glass both on the front and rear looks modish.
• Super Resolution mode capture neat pictures even for 4X.
• Supports 10-finger capacitive touch.

Cons of Asus ZenFone 3

• Phone doesn't have NFC.
• Mediocre Chipset inside the phone.
• Slightly expensive than counterpart devices.
• Battery is non-removable.
• Hybrid SIM Slot - Only use the nano SIM card or the microSD card at a time
• IR blaster is not supported.
• Navigation keys in rear side are not backlit.

Why to buy and Final words about Asus ZenFone 3

The Asus Asus ZenFone 3 is launched with multiple variant ranging from ₹21K INR to ₹62K INR. Here we have reviewed the ZE552KL ₹27K version, which is quite impressive with unique design built on quality material. It has 16MP camera equipped with EIS and OIS, which can capture photos close to natural view. The CPU coupled with 4GB RAM and 32 GB Internal memory able to deliver smooth user experience. As it has Mediocre CPU Phone looks slightly overpriced; in this range OnePlus 3, Mi Max, Mi 5 and Oppo F1 Plus also can be great alternative.