ASUS ZenFone 5: tested in humans

Perhaps no other device - of course, except for fresh iPhones - has recently caused so much talk as a new smartphone from ASUS. On the one hand, ZenFone 5 is swept from the shelves of shops, on the other - the voice of skeptics is quite clearly heard: what, they say, is this in the smartphone, which others do not? Let's figure it out.

The ZenFone line of devices was introduced by ASUS in January of this year. It consists of three devices, whose name completely coincides with their diagonal - ZenFone 4, 5 and 6. They have a similar design and ... and that is - the stuffing of these gadgets is quite different from smartphone to smartphone.

In order to understand the excitement about the “five”, it’s enough to compare the price and the device stuffing: inside a five-inch smartphone with an HD screen - an Intel Atom processor, 2 gigabytes of RAM, 8 or 16 - user memory, microSD slots and 2 SIM cards. And the price of ZenFone 5 - attention! - starts from 7 thousand.
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The selection of smartphones by similar parameters does not provide so many devices. But competitors at ZenFone, what is there to hide, there are. What's the catch? Almost all of them belong to brands like ThL, Explay or Micromax. But even taking into account the growing respect for Chinese manufacturers, in a situation like ours, the hand reaches for something more familiar. Oh, this psychology!





ASUS ZenFone 5
price: from 7 000 rub.

OS: Android 4.3
processor: Intel Atom Z2560, 1.6 GHz
Video: PowerVR SGX544MP2
screen: 5 '', 1280x720, IPS, 294 ppi
RAM: 2 GB
memory: 8/16 GB (+ microSD - up to 64 GB)
3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS
Camera: 8/2 Mp
battery: 2110 mAh
dimensions, weight: 72.8x148.2x10.3 mm, 145 g

More famous competitors are also available. But they are either more expensive - sometimes perceptibly - by 1-2 thousand rubles, or they differ in some parameters. For example, the combination of 16 gigabytes of user memory and the possibility of its expansion due to microSD up to 64 gigabytes is practically not found in smartphones of this price category.

As in any holivar, both sides have murderous arguments. But in the situation with smartphones there is an indicator that speaks for itself - sales. Judging by the replicas on the Internet - ZenFone 5 at the right price this afternoon with fire you will not find. However, if you turn on the internal skeptic, you can respond as follows: “Ha! Or maybe they just could not fill the sales channels? So the people see empty shelves! ”

We will not kindle the fire of righteous war, but let's come constructively - we will list all the pros and cons of buying a smartphone.



ZenFone 5 is available in five different backs. The design of the smartphone, in our opinion, is neutral, which will only expand the user audience. A slight hint of "Zen-style" - a narrow, grooved strip under the display with concentric circles (voice of skeptics: well, yes, it is excellent in collecting micro dust in its micro-grooves!). Possible claims - and we consider them fair - a longer body compared to other 5-inch and lack of illumination at the touch buttons. If it is quite possible to get used to the latter feature, then an extra centimeter in length can affect the usability of the smartphone - ZenFone is often intercepted.

Turn on the gadget - and here it is IPS-matrix in all its glory! If you find fault, then with a diagonal view of the display at a large angle you can see a change in brightness and contrast. Well, under the sun's readability of the screen is reduced. But it is covered with Gorilla Glass 3 and has an excellent oleophobic coating.



Inside the ZenFone is a 2-core Intel Atom Z2560 and a 2-core PowerVR SGX543MP2 graphics processor - this can be found inside the second ipad, iPhone 4S and iPad mini. Both the experience of using and the benchmarks testify unequivocally that the smartphone - sorry for the commonplace! - copes with most tasks - it does not slow down, does not buggy, does not lag.

But skeptics have skeptics: “Asusu” was reminded that last year, a more powerful version of the processor, the Z2580, was released by the Lenovo K900. Ay-yay-yay, greedy! It is not good to be! Okay, at least in ZenFone guessed to put 2580!







On top of Android 4.3, the ZenUI shell is stretched, which is often compared to the best indie developments. Intuitively, easily, visually - even here, ill-wishers are ashamedly silenced. Especially convenient notification panel, combined with the quick settings buttons. As they say on our raena: ces't magnifique!



ASUS makes a particularly strong emphasis on the photo capabilities of the smartphone - more precisely, on its 8-megapixel main camera. The set of PixelMaster includes a lot of interesting things - from shooting in low light conditions and adjusting the depth of field, to rapid and “Time Control” mode, which starts shooting before you can press the shutter release.









There is also a lot of manual settings that allow you to make great photos easily and naturally. One “but”: whether we are not in love with the camera during the testing process, or the firmware is damp, but there are problems with color rendering and artifacts when processing images in various modes (a survey of ZenFone 5 owners showed that they were problems after all our test sample - other such problems were not observed).





Yes, it's time to look under the back cover. ZenFone allows hot-swappable SIM cards and memory cards. True, the radio module is one, so, for example, during a conversation the second SIM card will be inaccessible.





With 3G, respectively, only one of the SIMs will work - a similar restriction is standard for smartphones in this price category. Switching between cards when making calls and sending messages is easy, but you can “transfer” 3G only through settings (LTE is not for obvious reasons).

By the way, you probably noticed that the battery is not removable. Its capacity by modern standards is small - just over 2000 milliamp-hours. In principle, this is enough for working during the day in a more or less gentle mode. But, for example, watching a video does not last even 5 hours. And in the case of the use of gluttonous applications - for example, a navigator - it is unlikely that it will last more than 3-4 hours even with regard to the power saving settings.



To summarize ASUS has chosen an excellent tactic: you can compete for first place among the flagships, participate in patent wars and use human psychology to the full. And you can make a neat, without showing off the design, put a stable working iron, lead the segment of available devices - and remove the maximum amount of cream, froth and just a lot of money.





Yes, ZenFone has a lot of useful and pleasant things - like a simple mode (basic design with large buttons), a reminder system, What's Next (event message is displayed on the lock screen), a mode for reading (the screen becomes yellowish, conducive to long-term reading) and a set of ASUS branded applications, but we hope that you still have an opinion about ZenFone 5 - in general, despite the choir of skeptics, this is one of the well-balanced and optimal in terms of price-quality ratio of smartphones today.

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