ASUS ZenFone 2 Smartphone Review: The Budget Android Wonder

[PAGETITLE=Introduction; A Look At ZenFone 2's Hardware & Specs][Top Ad] A lot of manufacturers claim to pack as much into a given price tag as possible, and when that price tag is modest, it's rare to see that claim lived up to. With the ZenFone 2, though, ASUS has proven that it is possible to give people more than they're expecting. At $200, the ZenFone 2 is an inexpensive smartphone, but it manages to pack in a couple of features not even found on most higher-end models. I should note right from the get go that like most smartphones out there, ASUS' ZenFone 2 comes in multiple versions. The most common one is the ZE551ML, which I'm taking a look at here. What helps this model stand out from the crowd is that it's one of the few to take advantage of some Intel hardware, which includes the CPU and modem. A new ZenFone 2 variant is due out soon, dubbed Laser. This one swaps out Intel's Atom for a Qualcomm Snapdragon and will see reductions elsewhere, either by offering less RAM, a smaller resolution, or even a drop from 802.11ac wireless down to 802.11n. Personally, I find this ZE551ML model to be more appealing than the Laser. But enough about other ZenFone 2 models; let's take a deeper look at this one. ASUS' ZenFone 2 (ZE551ML) SoC Intel Atom Quad-Core Z3580 (2.3GHz) CPU PowerVR G6430 GPU Display 5.5-inch 1080p (401ppi) IPS Corning Gorilla Glass 3 Storage 16/32/64GB Up to 64GB microSD 5GB Lifetime ASUS WebStorage Memory 2/4GB LPDDR3 Wireless Intel 7262 + Intel 2230 Modem Supports LTE, GSM & HSPA Supports 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4, GPS & NFC Camera Front: 5 megapixel Rear: 13 megapixel Battery 3000mAh Li-Polymer Weight 170g Dimensions 77.2 x 152.5 x 3.9mm Et cetera Support for 2 SIMs Connects to a PC through microUSB Supports FM radio Phone DRAM can't be that expensive if ASUS manages to pack 4GB of the stuff into a $200 phone. (Edit: I somehow missed the fact that the $199 phone has just 2GB of RAM; it's the $299 model that has 4GB). On the processing side of things, Intel's Atom Z3580 is no slouch, boasting four cores that can operate at 2.3GHz. The graphics might leave a bit to be desired, however. The ZenFone 2 comes in a few different sizes, but this 5.5-inch model will again be the most popular. As someone who appreciates a larger screen, I am at the point where I couldn't imagine using a phone much smaller than this - the large screen reduces eye strain and makes it far easier to navigate while on-the-go. This particular panel is also great to look at; crisp and bright. Under this phone's belly is a 3,000mAh battery, but that in itself isn't too impressive. What is, is the fact that ASUS promises the ZenFone 2 to be one of the quickest-charging phones out there, able to restore 60% of its life in a mere 39 minutes. Part of this is thanks to the included 18W "BoostMaster" power adapter. I'll talk more about this on the testing page, but I'll say this up front: be sure to use this charger and not some other one you have hanging around. I've mentioned a couple of times that the ZF2 is a $200 phone, but I should elaborate on the fact that that represents the 16GB model. If you're media hungry, the 64GB model will add $100 the price (as well as increase the RAM to 4GB). I should also note that in addition to the red model I'm looking at, gold, silver, and black models are also available. As some of the shots above highlight, the ZenFone 2 has a curved back, and overall, I've found it to be very comfortable to hold. Also, while the back may look like brushed aluminum, it's in fact plastic. While it would have been great to see a metal back, it's clear that it couldn't have happened while retaining the phone's desired price point. Part of me wishes ASUS sold replacement backs to satiate the appetites of those who love heavier, more durable devices. Thanks to its slim, curved design, ASUS relegated the volume rocker to the back. At least to me, this has proven to be a little more convenient than having it on the side since my index finger sits right on it as I hold the phone. Overall, I have no complaints about this particular design. Finally, one of the shots above shows one of the coolest perks I wouldn't have expected to see on a $200 full-featured Android phone - dual SIM capabilities. There is a caveat to this, though: the second SIM will be unable to transfer Internet data. That means that the first card will be used for everything, while the second will be for calling and texting only. I found out the hard way last week while out-of-town that this was the phone's design; I could have saved about a half an hour of time had I realized it in advance. [PAGEBREAK][PAGETITLE=A Look At ZenFone 2's Software][Top Ad] When a phone is as packed as the ZenFone 2 is and costs just $200, there has to be a catch, right? Of course! In this particular case, it's that the phone comes with a good amount of bloatware. To be fair to ASUS, most of the bundled software is its own, and a lot of that happens to be quite good. In total, the ZF2 includes 16 apps from ASUS itself, 13 from Google, and 6 from third-parties: Amazon Kindle, Clean Master, Dr. Safety, TripAdvisor, Zinio, and a GameLoft game portal. Own a ZF2 and want to get rid of some of that bloat? There's an article for that. The screenshots above show off the ZenFone's 2 default launcher, which as most of the software bundled is ASUS' own creation. Overall, it's quite attractive, and after having used the phone for more than a month, I can't conjure up a real complaint. One option I would like to see is one that lets you squeeze more than just four apps into the bottom bar, but admittedly that's not something everyone would want. I mentioned a moment ago that a lot of the software available here that ASUS itself develops is good, so I'd like to touch more on that now. After I got this phone, I realized I could forego some third-party apps I install on every single device, including a stopwatch and a file manager. I've relied-upon ES File Explorer for as long as I can remember, but ASUS' own file manager is more than suitable for my needs. It can even access some cloud services, and it never gave me a hassle when connecting to a network share. Not everyone will take advantage of every app ASUS bundles here, but some of them are likely to be really appreciated by those who do want them. We can take the Splendid app, for example, which allows you to apply a bluelight filter or adjust the color temperature very easily. The same kind of tweaking can be done with AudioWizard. Mobile Manager is another one worth looking at, as it will allow you to free up RAM (not that it's ever going to be needed), adjust performance levels, change auto-started apps, and check up on data usage. One thing ASUS seems to care a lot about is flexibility. On the phone out-of-the-box are a number of tools used to tweak how the launcher behaves, but if you want to change a lot more than that, you can take advantage of a handful of alternative themes. At last check, there are 14 to choose from, and all of them are free. You can see a few examples above. What makes these themes a bit cooler than those for some other launchers I've used is that they're also able to skin the slide-down system settings menu, which can also be seen above. Because this is Android, and because the ZenFone 2 is really easy to root and tweak the heck out of, if you don't like the default software configuration, you can customize things to your heart's content. [PAGEBREAK][PAGETITLE=Test Results & Final Thoughts][Top Ad] We've now taken a look at both the hardware and software, so what about performance? It's time to tackle that, but I'll first start out with relaying actual experience, rather than just jump into numbers. The ZenFone 2 is the first Intel-equipped smartphone I've ever used, and I admit that at first, I wasn't sure whether I'd find it slow or not. The phone's $200 price tag encouraged certain thoughts, as well. After over a month-and-a-half of use, though, I can honestly say that I'm very impressed with the performance of this phone, and that I expected it to be a lot worse. While most Android smartphones (and tablets, for that matter) seem to suffer from certain app lag before I know it, I've yet to experience that with this phone. I should note that while I've largely been using the SuperZen ROM, which removes a bunch of the bloat, I didn't find the phone any slower with its stock configuration. The phone simply seems to be very optimized; or, it could be that the Intel Atom SoC used in this phone is not as poor as some who jump to conclusions (including me, in this case) tend to believe. That all said, this phone from a benchmarking standpoint is not going to be as impressive as some other current phones, but it still does perform well in its class. Since I haven't recently benchmarked other comparable phones, I benchmarked the ZenFone 2 using largely the same benchmark suite that we tested out NVIDIA's SHIELD TV and Tablet with. Those sport chips that are designed for gaming, so some of these results won't come as too much of a surprise. ASUS ZenFone 2 SHIELD (TV) SHIELD Tablet Geekbench (Single) 920 1576 1140 Geekbench (Multi) 2881 4694 3632 MobileXPRT - Overall Perf 300 393 315 MobileXPRT - UX 100 104 104 3DMark Ice Storm 20520 45604 29532 GFXBench T-Rex Onscreen 1466 3352 2876 See? Not much of a surprise. Even so, the Intel and PowerVR combo will enable some good gaming - just not on par with what some top-end chips, including NVIDIA's Tegra, can enable. Yet again, for a phone of this price point, the performance is to be expected. On the first page of this article, I mentioned that ASUS touts the ZenFone 2 as being one of the fastest charging phones on the market, able to avail 60% in a mere 39 minutes. Of course, this is something I had to test out. I do need to reiterate one thing, though: the charger that comes in the box of the ZenFone 2 needs to be used to take advantage of this...

ASUS ZenFone 2 Smartphone Review: The Budget Android Wonder

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Rob Williams