ASUS has announced their latest flagship device, the Zenfone 5Z in India today. The last couple of years, although ASUS has had a lot of new smartphones, they never got the pricing right and most of their devices were overpriced. But in 2018, ASUS launched the Zenfone Max Pro M1 which is one of the really good smartphones in the price segment. Now, the company has launched the flagship device Zenfone 5Z in India. ASUS Zenfone 5Z retails for Rs 29,999 for the 6GB RAM and 64GB storage variant. So here is our first impression of the Zenfone 5Z after using it for a week.
Specifications:
- 6.2-inch Full HD+ display
- 19:9 aspect ratio and notch
- Snapdragon 845 Octa Core
- 6GB/8GB of RAM
- 64/128/256GB of storage
- 12+8MP dual rear camera
- 8MP front camera
- 3300mAh battery
- Android 8.0, Zen UI
In terms of design aspect, the ASUS Zenfone 5Z looks pretty good with 90% screen to body ratio and it sports a notch as well. The device is made of glass and metal and feels solid in hands. With the glass finish on the front and back, it feels premium. The rear panel has a dual camera, fingerprint scanner, and the ASUS logo. The power and volume keys are on the right side while the SIM tray is on the left side. The top panel does not have any openings or slots while the bottom panel has 3.5mm audio jack, USB type C port, and the speaker unit. The front panel houses the 8MP camera, earpiece, and the on-screen navigational buttons. The device feels good in hands and gives a feel of the flagship smartphone.
The phone has a 6.2-inch Full HD+ resolution display with 19:9 aspect ratio and the notch. The display quality is good and the colors are vivid and brightness levels are also good. The viewing angles also look good and the touch response is smooth.
One of the major improvements in the device is the Zen UI, while previous generation Zen UI had a lot of bloats and was cluttered, the ASUS team has worked on this and it feels a lot refined in terms of the UI and performance. The features and settings grouping has been done pretty well and there is no bloatware included in the phone which is definitely a great aspect. The Zen UI offers lots of features including dual apps, themes, gestures, one-handed mode and more.
The phone is powered by Snapdragon 845 chipset and we have the 6GB RAM variant and the performance was pretty smooth without any lags or issues. We will be posting about the gaming test and benchmark scores in our detailed review. One area where the Zenfone 5Z impressed us is the audio performance, the quality of the sound from speakers is really good, the same is the case with earphones. The battery life from the 3300mAh battery is quite good and there is also QC 3.0 support.
The phone has a dual camera with a 12MP primary camera with OIS and f/1.8 and a secondary wide angle which is an 8MP shooter. The selfie camera is also an 8MP shooter. The camera looks quite good in our initial tests and here are some of the samples taken with the device.
Overall, at Rs 29,999 pricing for the base variant, the Zenfone 5Z makes great value for money if you want great hardware at a lower price. We will be coming up with the detailed review soon, so stay tuned for that.
