Asus ZenFone Zoom (Unlocked) Review - Review 2022

The Asus ZenFone Zoom is a camera-oriented unlocked phone with i large selling point: a 3x optical zoom. Nigh phones feature prime lenses that rely on digital zoom—essentially in-camera cropping—to bring distant subjects into closer view. The end result is a soft, grainy image. The Zoom ($399.99; 64GB) has a lens with a 3x optical zoom range. Combined with laser autofocus, optical image stabilization, and manual camera controls, the Zoom has the potential to offering stellar imaging operation. Unfortunately, information technology fails to alive upward to expectations—the photographic camera app is slow, sensor quality is boilerplate, and it lacks 4K recording. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-CM1 has the all-time camera of whatsoever unlocked Android phone on the market, just the information technology'south non the almost well-rounded phone nosotros've reviewed. The Moto 10 Pure Edition and the Google Nexus 6P offer better overall experiences.

Design, Features, and Display

At that place'due south a reason why near smartphone manufacturers don't include an optical zoom lens: It makes the device bigger and bulkier. At 6.3 by 3.1 by 0.5 inches (HWD) and 6.5 ounces, the ZenFone Zoom ($229.00 at Amazon) is thicker and heavier than both the Moto Ten Pure (six.i by 3.0 by 0.4 inches; half-dozen.iii ounces) and the Nexus 6P (half-dozen.3 by 3.i by 0.3 inches; 6.3 ounces). That said, it'southward lighter than the Panasonic Lumix DMC-CM1 (five.3 by 2.seven by 0.8 inches; seven.2 ounces), which has a large prime lens that is required past its huge (for a telephone) ane-inch image sensor.

Bulky build aside, the Zoom is the all-time-looking ZenFone I've seen. It'due south banded by a sturdy metal frame and has a burnished-leather back, like a photographic camera. The back console peels off to reveal a microSD card slot that was able to recognize a 200GB SanDisk card.

The correct side of the phone is a busy place; from left to right you accept the volume rocker, Power, Video Record, and Camera Shutter buttons. Each of these controls are metal and satisfyingly clicky. The audio jack is on the meridian edge, the micro USB port is on the bottom, and an unimpressive speaker sits on the back. The lesser left corner has a lanyard attachment; design decisions like these get in clear that Asus envisions you using Zoom like a point-and-shoot camera. That's not a surprise, at the low end of the marketplace smartphones take largely replaced point-and-shoots.

Zoom back

The Zoom'southward 5.5-inch display is the same i you lot'll find on the ZenFone two and the ZenFone two Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation ( at Amazon) . It's a 1,920-past-1,080 IPS LCD with a 403-pixel-per-inch density. Viewing angles are adept, and while the display could afford to be a scrap brighter, it's withal usable in direct sunlight. The screen temperature is a fleck cold out of the box, just Asus lets yous arrange its vibrancy and color temperature.

Network and Connectivity

The Zoom can exist used on both AT&T and T-Mobile, though y'all'll probable get better performance with the onetime. It supports LTE bands 1/2/three/4/five/7/8/17/20, with T-Mobile's band 12 being a notable omission, which limits indoor connectivity. I tested the Zoom on AT&T in Manhattan and saw average download speeds of 15Mbps and upload speeds of 11Mbps.

Call quality and dissonance cancellation are decent. Merely voices can sound a touch robotic, and I noticed some hiss during conversations due to background noise or current of air.

The standard bevy of connectivity protocols are supported: Bluetooth 4.0, dual-band Wi-Fi, and NFC.

Processor and Battery

The Zoom has an Intel Cantlet Z3580 processor paired with 4GB of RAM. It performed well in our benchmark tests, scoring 59,399 on AnTuTu, which measures overall system performance. That puts it on a similar level equally the Nexus 6P (56,621) and the Moto X Pure (49,257) in terms of raw numbers, just the Zoom's heavy custom UI sometimes makes for sluggish screen transitions, as well every bit latency when multitasking. Gaming performance is skilful; the phone's Ability VR G6430 GPU had no trouble with Asphalt 8 or GTA: San Andreas.

Zoom right

Battery life is only average. The Zoom's iii,000mAh battery clocked 5 hours and sixteen minutes of run fourth dimension when we gear up screen brightness to maximum and streamed total-screen video over LTE. That beats out the Moto X Pure (iv hours and 42 minutes), but compared with the Nexus 6P (9 hours and 59 minutes), information technology falls way short. On the plus side, the phone features accelerated charging that tin can bring an empty battery upward to lx percent in 39 minutes.

Camera

With a proper name like Zoom, camera performance deserves special attention. The phone has a thirteen-megapixel rear-facing sensor with a 3x optical zoom, optical image stabilization, and laser-assisted autofocus.

Iphone and Zoom tree

Zooming in to the telephoto extreme results in images with less grain, dissonance, and loss of item than a phone that uses digital zoom. To demonstrate, check out the example above of a zoomed-in scene shot with the ZenFone (right) and the Apple iPhone 6s Plus ($351.99 at AT&T Tv + Cyberspace) (left). As you tin can see, the Zoom retains more detail, with less grain and dissonance than the iPhone. At present, I'm not sure how often yous'll be putting this feature to use on your phone snaps, merely it's nice to have it.

That said, sensor quality and software hold the overall camera experience back. The camera app is slow to launch, dull to focus, and wearisome to zoom (since optical zoom requires the lens to physically move). In automatic mode, both the LG V10 and the Nexus 6P outshoot the Zoom in terms of detail captured, low-light functioning, and overall picture quality. The Zoom's transmission control options fifty-fifty the playing field somewhat, but not plenty. Even though it has a prime lens, the Panasonic CM1's twenty-megapixel 1-inch image sensor (the same type that's found in premium compacts like the Sony RX100 Three ($598.00 at Amazon) ) gives you aplenty room to crop images and still have a shot that's worthy of Instagram.

Video is smoothen and stable, but the Zoom is unable to capture 4K content, which is a major omission for a camera-axial telephone. The LG V10 has the upper paw here—it captures 2160p footage at a smooth 30fps capture rate.

Zoom camera

Software and Conclusions

The Zoom ships with Android 5.0 Lollipop, which is starting to experience a bit long in the tooth at present that Android six.0 Marshmallow is showing up on more devices. Asus has confirmed that the ZenFone 2 line volition get Marshmallow. Presumably, the newer Zoom volition go information technology every bit well, but there's no indication as to when.

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As information technology stands, the Zoom runs Asus' ZenUI, which is a heavy UI layer that changes app icons, menus, and screen transitions, and adds new modes and a built-in retentiveness director. It too adds touch and movement gestures that allow you to double-tap the phone screen to wake it, and draw letters like S to take a selfie or E to open email.

The Zoom comes with 64GB storage, of which 46.74GB is really available due to the hefty software load. The telephone comes with a ton of Asus apps like Audio Wizard, Do It Later (for note-taking), Laser Ruler, Mini Motion-picture show, Photo Collage, Power and Boost, Weather, and Web Storage, amidst others, most of which cannot be deleted. Thakfully, the phone comes with 100GB of costless Google Drive storage, plus the microSD bill of fare slot, so memory shouldn't be an upshot.

At $399, the ZenFone Zoom doesn't offer a big performance boost over the ZenFone 2 or the ZenFone Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, and it'southward a good deal more than expensive. For the same price, you can pick upwards Moto X Pure or the Nexus 6P, both of which offer sharper displays, 4K video capture, and the latest Android software. And if y'all simply want the best camera on an Android phone, you can opt for the Panasonic CM1 (at present selling at a steep disbelieve) or the LG V10. And if you're looking to salve some money, both the ZenFone 2 and ZenFone Laser remain solid options, albeit without the optical zoom.