(ThyBlackMan.com) The Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom is the latest entry in the Zenfone series. The strong specs, powerful performance and price tag of its predecessor attracted many smartphone enthusiasts, and as a result, this year’s Zenfone 3 Zoom fulfills those promises again.
The series already holds several phones, and the Zenfone 3 Zoom comes in a highly competent design and also sports incredible features. The camera is not so good, but overall it is a great value phone available now.
With its camera-centric name, the new phone by Asus claims to
combine dual-lens optics and the best camera technology for the smartphone. The device sports ƒ/1.7 SONY IMX362 sensor and an optical zoom of 2.3x. Asus has strategically chosen the name to attract photography lovers, but in some conditions, you won’t feel very convinced with the picture quality it produces. Although, the camera is good, but the way Asus projects it, the smartphone camera is not the best in class.
Available in three different internal storage capacity options 32GB, 64GB and 128GB, the phone brings support for microSD card up to 2TB. So, you won’t have to worry about storage, as you can expand the memory at any time you want. Additionally, the device comes with 4GB RAM, meaning that you won’t have to worry about lagging issues even when the phone is kept under high performance pressure.
The Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom comes in a beautiful 154.3 x 77 x 8mm design. The phone sports a 5.5-inch AMOLED display that gives a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels, which is at approximately 401 ppi. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5, meaning that you can be a little rude to its screen without damaging the phone’s display.
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S625 octa-core processor empowers the Zenfone 3 Zoom and the smartphone comes equipped with Adreno 506 GPU. With a 5000mAh non-removable battery, the phone’s battery life is incredibly the best in the segment. Lack of quick charging appears to be a major drawback here, because to get this battery charged, you will still need to wait for hours. Now when the majority of new smartphones are supporting Quick Charge, not adopting the technology seems like a poor strategy by Asus.
Despite housing a giant battery, the phone doesn’t lose its premium looks. The device accommodates plastic caps for antennas at the top and the bottom. There’s a fingerprint sensor on the backside of the phone. Asus has strategically placed the sensor and it is very clear that the company didn’t make the mistake Samsung did. Although, the placement is good, but you cannot expect faster performance from the sensor on the Zenfone 3 Zoom.
The Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom sport a 12MP dual camera setup that includes a main camera and a zoom camera with dual LED flash. For selfie lovers and video callers, there’s a 13MP camera on the front side. As the company markets the product by stressing about its camera capabilities, Asus has added several features to the camera settings and improved image quality.
The offering is undoubtedly good because the phone has excellent battery life, a fair price tag, premium design and several improvements over its predecessor, but apart from these qualities, the Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom has nothing to convince anyone to invest money on.
The phone runs on ZenUI which is boring and dull. Or even if you don’t find it boring, it is not engaging at all. The camera is one of the most sought after aspects of this phone, but you cannot expect the best quality pictures from it. There’s no OIS on the zoom camera lens and the phone’s camera also doesn’t perform in the way it is being advertised. Overall, the drawbacks make the Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom a not-so-smart choice. To learn more about mastering your camera, check out this affinity photo course.
Staff Writer; Corey Shaw
Have any Tech Tips? News? Hit up our Tech Guru at; CoreyS@ThyBlackMan.com.
