Asus launched the Zenfone 3 in India with price starting from Rs. 21,999. Here is the review of Asus Zenfone 3 packed with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. This handset is powered by Snapdragon 625 octa core processor, is it worth the price, find out.
Zenfone 3 unboxing
Box pack content : handset, user guide, warranty card, SIM tray ejector pin, data cable (USB Type C) and premium quality earphone with earphone plug caps.
Zenfone 3 Design
Asus has completely changed the Zenfone 3 design. It is completely different when compared with the previous Zenfone models. The new Zenfone 3 has got a curvy design, symmetrical body – metal frame with 2.5D curved glass on front as well as on the back.
Handset is available in Black, White and Gold colour options. I got the Gold colour version. The front, and back panels are also golden colour with circular texture, even the wallpaper follows the same pattern (check image above).
Handset weight with built in battery is 157 grams and dimensions are 77.54 x 152.62 x 7.85 (mm). This is a dual SIM handset you can use micro SIM + micro SD card or micro SIM + Nano SIM. 4G LTE with VoLTE is supported.
Asus Zenfone 3 is comfortable to hold, however the handset gets a bit slippery, be extra careful or use a flip cover.
There is LED notification and good list of sensors – accelerometer, light, proximity, step, hall, magnetic and gyro.
Display and OS
Zenfone 3 is available in two variants – one comes with 5.2 inch screen, 3GB RAM, 32GB ROM and 2650 mAh battery. The other one that I used for this review comes with 4GB RAM, 64GB ROM, 5.5 inch FHD screen and 3000 mAh battery.
As mentioned the one used in this review sports a 5.5 inch 2.5D curved screen (with gorilla glass protection) supporting 1920 x 1080p resolution. The 2.5D glass is on the front as well as on the back. Colour reproduction, touch and viewing angles are very good.
Asus Zenfone 3 is running ZenUI 3.0 with Android Marshmallow 6.0.
Memory and storage
This handset came with 4GB RAM and 64GB ROM. There is micro SD card support too of up to 2TB. On the first boot you will get around 52 GB free space and on an average 2.2GB free RAM.
Performance
This smartphone is loaded with the latest qualcomm snapdragon 625 64 bit octa core processor clocked at 2GHz with Adreno 506 GPU. The handset is powerful, hardly heats up max battery temperature I encountered was 36 degrees. Performance was also lag free.
Benchmark
- Quadrant – 40857
- Antutu – 62058 | 3D score – 12964
- Nenamark 2 – 50.1fps
- Internal storage Speed – Read (208MB/s), Write (218MB/s)
- Multi Touch – 10 Point
Gaming
I played MC5 and Asphalt 8 in high quality mode. Both games played really well, very smooth and lag free. I could easily switch between MC5 and Asphalt 8 and resume the game from where I left (multi tasking).
Camera
The primary Pixelmaster 3.0 camera is of 16MP resolution using IMX298 sensor it’s with a f/2.0 aperture, 6p lens with 0.03s TriTech AF (includes laser AF). The camera lens also comes with sapphire protection. This rear camera can shoot 4K videos and in HDR mode. Front camera is 8MP resolution.
Camera quality is excellent, focusing specially close-up is very fast. This camera is also perfect for shooting moving objects. There is built in OIS and EIS that does give a good stable video shoot – do check the professional video shoot made using the Zenfone 3 camera (listed at the end of this review).
Slow motion (1 / 4) shots are not that smooth. And if you want to use video stabilization (OIS / EIS) then that works only up to 1080p resolution.
Others
Speaker / in call speaker sound is loud and clear. No issues found with 4G LTE, WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth. I also did not find any issues with network signal / quality.
Finger print sensor on the back is fast and accurate, just tap to unlock.
Battery
The Asus Zenfone 3 comes packed with 3000 mAh non-removable battery that does a very good job. You can expect 5 to 7 hours of non-stop moderate to heavy usage on a single charge. With normal mixed usage over 2 days, with moderate mixed usage up to 2 days and with heavy usage up to 1 day battery life.
Asus Zenfone 3 (64GB) Battery Performance (time / battery % drop / estimated battery temperature).
- Running Benchmark app – 16 minutes / 4% / 33 degrees
- Asphalt 8 + MC5 game play – 31 minutes / 8% / 36 degrees
- 4K video playback with full brightness (WiFi /4G on) – 26 minutes / 8% / 35 degrees.
It took me 1 hour 57 minutes to charge the handset using wall charger from 8% to 100% (5V / 2A provided in the box).
Verdict
The Asus Zenfone 3 is a beautiful handset that is powerful, well built, can capture 4K videos and also gives very good battery backup, and not to forget hardly heats up.
The Zenfone 3 3GB / 32GB is priced at Rs. 21,999 and the 4GB / 64GB is priced at Rs. 27,999. The 4GB version price wise is competing with the OnePlus 3. If you compare OnePlus 3 and Zenfone 3 both the handsets are powerful, can shoot/play 4K, excellent camera and can play high end games, but technically OnePlus 3 is much more powerful (benchmark wise).
There are 3 powerful handset Redmi Note 3, Zenfone 3 and OnePlus 3, so which one is the best? If you have not seen / used any of the handset it is easier to make a decision, most probably you will go with the price.
But if you have personally experienced / played around with these handsets it will get really difficult deciding which one to choose specially among OnePlus 3 and Zenfone 3.
Rating 4 out of 5.
Asus Zenfone 3 price starts from Rs. 21,999.
Asus Zenfone 3 product Image Gallery
Asus Zenfone 3 video review (English)
Asus Zenfone 3 video review (Hindi)
Asus Zenfone 3 rear camera sample
Front camera sample
