The Asus Zenfone Zoom ZX551ML is Intel Atom Z3590 2.5GHz quad core powered smartphone running Lollipop with 4GB RAM and 128GB storage. But this is not what makes the Zenfone Zoom unique, the camera in fact is, read on to know more.
Zenfone Zoom Unboxing
Inside the small black box you will find the handset, data cable, travel charger (fast charger 9V ~ 2A), premium quality earphone, user guide, warranty card and hand strap. SAR Value : 0.343 W/Kg head and 0.432 W/kg body.
Design
This handset comes with a very good build quality and finishing. It is using a metal frame, the one I got has metallic grey coloured sides with shiny silver borders. Zoom has got a curvy design and the back panel comes with leather type textures (made of plastic).
Handset is comfortable to hold though it is slightly bulky because of the camera module on the rear. Zenfone Zoom camera comes with 3x optical zoom and in spite of having this feature the camera module does not take any extra space. When you are using the optical zoom features there is no movement outside.
Zenfone Zoom weight with battery is 202 grams and dimensions are 78.78 mm x slightly over 154 mm x 12.04 mm.
Volume rocker and power button is placed on the right side. The volume button can be used to zoom in / out when using camera app. There are two extra buttons on the right side those are dedicated for camera use.
Audio jack and secondary mic is on the top and at the bottom there is micro USB port and primary mic. Speaker vents are on the rear side.
This is a single SIM handset you need a micro SIM, along with the SIM slot there is a micro SD card slot too.
Zoom comes with LED notification and loaded with following sensors – accelerometer, light, proximity, gyro, hall and magnetic.
Display
The Zoom sports a 5.5 inch screen protected with corning gorilla glass 4 and supporting 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution. Viewing angles, colour reproduction and touch response are very good.
Memory, Storage and OS
Zoom is packed with 4GB RAM and a good 128GB storage. On first boot you will get around 112GB free internal space and 1.8GB free RAM. OTG is supported and you can install apps on the external storage.
Zenfone Zoom is running Asus ZenUI with Lollipop 5.0.
Performance
This smartphone houses the Intel Atom CPU Z3590 clocked at 2.5GHz coupled with PowerVR Rouge G6430. Performance is buttery smooth, battery temperature is well under control – max temp I encountered was 41 degrees. The Zoom can play 4K videos with ease.
Benchmark (in performance mode)
- Quadrant – 24164
- Antutu (32 bit) – 1st time 61081, 2nd time 59934
- Nenamark 2 – 59.7fps
- Internal storage Speed – Read (141 MB/s), Write (118 MB/s)
- Multi Touch – 10 Point.
Gaming
I played asphalt 8 in the high visual quality mode in normal performance mode. The game was extremely smooth with hardly any lags. Zoom can play many high end games with ease.
Camera
There is 13MP primary laser AF camera (10 element HOYA lens with 4 step OIS) with dual tone LED flash on the rear and front camera is a 5MP shooter. The rear camera comes with 3x optical zoom and 9x digital zoom a total of 12x zoom. It is better to stick with optical zoom.
You can use the volume buttons to zoom in and zoom out. When the phone screen is off you can press the dedicated camera button and hold it until the screen switches on, unlocks automatically and loads the camera app. This feature will help you instantly shoot images without having to go through multiple steps – unlock/ load camera app. There are two buttons one is for clicking still images and the other tiny circular button for recording videos.
Rear camera can shoot FHD videos and slow motion videos. Slow motion videos will be in 720p resolution only.
The manual controls give you almost similar kind of experience that you will get from a DSLR camera. For example you can manually focus, set the White Balance and shutter speed up to 32 seconds. Max ISO is 3200.
Camera quality is excellent, do check the samples listed below – don’t forget to check 3X zoom / 12x zoom / 8 second shutter.
Rear Camera Sample
Rear Camera Sample video FHD
Front Camera Sample
Taj Mahal shot using the Zenfone Zoom
Others
4G worked for me (I am using 2300 band). No issues with WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth and NFC. Loudspeaker sound is very loud and clear. Did not face any network issues so far. Some unique useful apps come pre-installed including the Laser Ruler.
Battery
The 3000 mAh non-removable battery does a decent job. You can expect 3 to 5 hours of continuous moderate to heavy usage on a single charge. It takes almost 2 hours to charge the handset to full 100% using fast charger.
Battery Performance
- Ran Benchmark – 18 minutes / battery % dropped by 8 / battery temp = 38 degrees.
- Played Asphalt 8 – for 20 minutes / battery dropped by 10% / battery temp = 41 degrees.
- Watched FHD video with full brightness (WiFi /4G on) – for 33 minutes / battery dropped by 13% / battery temp was 36 degrees.
- Handset charging (wall charge) 1 hour 46 minutes from 33% to 100%.
Zenfone zoom mage Gallery
Video Review
Verdict
The Asus Zenfone Zoom cannot completely replace you DSLR but it is a very good option compared with other smartphone camera. Overall performance is smooth, camera quality is excellent, battery is decent – I am getting 25 hours of battery backup with mixed usage.
Zenfone Zoom is an awesome handset with impressive features however all this comes for a premium price, way too on the higher side.
Asus Zenfone Zoom is available for ₹37,999.