Review of the Zenfone 4
Looks can be deceiving...
Asus is a really well-known company because of their laptops... It also has a branch in the smartphone industry and until now there are 4 generations. Asus delivered many versions of the Zenfone 4, including the 4 Pro and the Max, Max+ and others. There are however many differences between the versions, one of them is the camera. Asus’ slogan for this line is “We Love Photo” and I’ve got to say... I’m really impressed with this camera quality. The device, however, is somewhat disappointing. Although it was released October 2017, it is certainly not a 2017 flagship.
DESIGN
The Zenfone 4 is a beautiful device with amazing ergonomics. The back has Asus’ logo in a metal colour and the dual cameras on the top left. The back an front of the device is made of glass and an aluminium frame The device is thin coming in at 7.5mm and light (165g) and it actually looks even thinner. On the front of the device, there are some bezels, a fingerprint reader on the bottom amongst capacitive keys. On the top, there’s the camera and the speaker that, along the bottom firing speaker gives a stereo experience. On the bottom of the device, there’s also a USB-C charging port and a 3.5mm Headphone Jack (thankfully).
The phone as a power button and volume rocker on the left and on the right there’s a Hybrid Dual-SIM slot, however, you probably won’t need to expand it thanks to the internal 64GB of storage.
DISPLAY
A con about this smartphone is its display. I was a pretty disappointed with it as it has really poor colour calibration and it’s a FullHD 5.5-inch LCD panel. Although the trend in 2017 is for smaller bodies and larger screens, the device doesn’t follow this trend and has a screen-to-body ratio of 71.4%. There’s really not much to say besides the 401PPI
PERFORMANCE
The 4 comes with the Snapdragon 630 (which is quite disappointing) or the 660, in contrast with some devices like the OnePlus 5T that has the 835 (check the review here). The 660 and 630 are based on power efficiency but aren’t Snapdragon’s top-notch performers, and for a device that initially cost 500€, Asus should be ashamed. Neither the less, the Adreno 508 or 512 respectively amongst 4GB or 6GB of RAM are powerful enough for the average user. I do have to point out, however, that the 660 is a lot more powerful than the 630.
CAMERA
Well, this is where the device really shines... Following LG’s footsteps, the 4 has a normal lens on the back amongst a wide-angle lens, which is amazing for landscape photography. The standard lens comes in at 12MPx and a f/1.8 aperture amongst OIS, and the other one is only 8MPx. The camera is actually amazing and it’s absolutely one of the best you can buy right now at this price point.
The front f/2.0 8MPx shooter is good in good lighting conditions and terrible in low-light.
BATTERY
The device’s battery comes in at 330mAh and is actually pretty good. Thanks to the power efficient Snapdragon processor, the phone generally lasts more than a day of use, which is really good for a device with this price. Fast charging is also a great addition to this smartphone.
FINAL VERDICT
Coming in at under 500€ the smartphone was actually really bad. There are many other devices with top-notch specifications like the OnePlus 5T or the LG G6, which is amazing. Right now, you can buy the version with the Snapdragon 660 for less than 350€, just make sure you choose the 660 instead of the 630 for better performance. Overall, it’s a beautiful phone with good specs and an excellent camera and it’s definitely an amazing budget device for Christmas 2017.Follow me on https://www.facebook.com/NTTNeedTheTech/ and Twitter!
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