Asus Zenfone 5z review: Sleek, swift and power-packed mid-range smartphone

The Zenfone 5z shows strength in all key areas; its AI engine is more than a gimmick and its system-wide implementation adds to the smartphone's smooth performance.

The Zenfone 5z, a premium smartphone from the stable of Taiwanese computer peripheral manufacturer Asus, boasts premium innards, coupled with system-wide artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities that learn, adapt and customise user experience based on machine-learning algorithms. Importantly, it is the phone’s starting price of Rs 29,999 that makes it an interesting proposition in the mid-range flagship smartphone segment.

First unveiled at the Mobile World Congress, the Asus Zenfone 5z was the first Android-based smartphone to showcase iPhone X-inspired notch-based screen. However, other smartphone manufacturers rolled out similar offerings before Asus, rendering the Zenfone 5z a late comer to the party. But the phone’s user interface is optimised to support the notch – be it in apps or otherwise – which makes it one of the few Android offerings with a usable notch screen.

Design

In terms of outlook, the Zenfone 5z sports a glass-metal-glass sandwich design reminiscent of the Huawei P20. It looks plush, feels light in hand and has a solid feel to it. The front is dominated by a 6.2-inch IPS LCD screen of fullHD+ resolution stretched in a 19:9 aspect ratio. The screen leaves a nominal cutout area (notch) on the top, accommodating an earpiece, sensors and a notification LED. On the back, there are vertically aligned dual cameras positioned on the top left corner and bulging out of the chassis; this makes the phone uneven on flat surfaces. The glass on the back features three-dimensional (3D) reflective properties which do not change colours like the Huawei P20 Pro or Honor 10 but shows an arc line that moves with light. Overall, the Zenfone 5z offers no-frills lightweight design with a modern outlook.

Screen and multimedia

The screen is an eye-candy – bright, vivid and full of colours. Though it is of the IPS breed, it offers deep blacks and good viewing angles which puts it on a par with some of the best LCD screens that we have seen in smartphones, including those of HTC. The screen is HDR-compliant which boosts colours while playing HDR content – it is the only mid-range flagship at present that has this feature.

In terms of multimedia playback, like any other notch-based smartphone, the screen supports operations with or without the notch. However, unlike any other mid-range smartphone, the option to enable or disable notch pops up on the navigation bar as soon as video content is played, either through in-built video player or apps like Amazon Prime Videos, YouTube, Netflix, etc. This makes it easier to switch between notch and without notch operations without getting into the settings menu.

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Is Asus Zenfone 5z better than OnePlus 6, Honor 10, Vivo X21? Click to vote

The Zenfone 5Z is priced at Rs 29,999, Rs 32,999 and Rs 36,999 for 6GB/64GB, 6GB/128GB and 8GB/256GB variants, respectively. It will be available in midnight blue and meteor silver colours.

Asus, a Taiwanese electronics manufacturer, on July 4 launched the Zenfone 5z in India. The phone is priced at Rs 29,999, Rs 32,999 and Rs 36,999 for 6GB/64GB, 6GB/128GB and 8GB/256GB variants, respectively. The phone will be available in two colours -- midnight blue and meteor silver – and will go on sale starting from July 9, exclusively on Flipkart.

First unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in February, the Asuz Zenfone 5z is a flagship smartphone with top-of-the-line innards, notch-based screen, dual rear cameras and system-wide artificial intelligence capabilities. Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 system-on-chip (SoC), the Zenfone 5z boasts 90 per cent screen-to-body ratio, thanks to its 6.2-inch fullHD+ screen that covers almost the entire front. The 19:9 aspect ratio leaves just a small notch on top to accommodate an 8-megapixel camera, earpiece and sensors.

On the back, the smartphone sports a dual-camera set-up, which features a 12MP primary shooter and a wide angle 8MP shooters. The primary 12MP sensor boasts f/1.8 aperture and the 8MP sensor features 120-degree wide-angle lens. Both the front and rear cameras are backed by AI for automatic scene selection and portrait photography, and machine learning to improve the output by learning usage patterns.

In a quick hands-on experience, the phone seemed to be on par with other smartphones in same segment, which includes the OnePlus 6, Honor 10 and Vivo X21. But, is Zenfone 5z the smartphone that can take on these smartphone and set a new benchmark for midrange flagships? Take the poll and let us know: