ASUS ZenFone 5 - review of a smartphone that offers excellent features at an affordable price tag

Most buyers primarily associate Asus with various laptops and computer components. However, the company has been present in the communications market for a very long time. So, for example, the author of this review back in 2008 had one of the Asus communicators on Windows Mobile. Those days are long gone, and the company has to some extent lost its share of the communications market. But she didn’t stop developing, and currently Asus has a very successful line of Asus Zenfone smartphones. Today our editors will introduce you to the representative of the mid-price segment, the Asus Zenfone 5 ZE620KL smartphone.

Review and technical specifications of ASUS ZenFone 5

Not everyone can afford flagship smartphones, the cost of which increases every year, so mid-price models are becoming more and more popular.
As a rule, when you buy them, you get almost the same opportunities that flagships provide, but they only cost much less. The main thing here is to strike a balance in order to offer an inexpensive, but at the same time good phone. Each manufacturer follows certain principles, and ASUS tries to install the highest possible hardware for its price, offering a high-quality processor, cameras and autonomy. The ASUS ZenFone 5 review makes it clear that we are being offered just such a smartphone, which differs from the flagship 5Z only in slightly more modest hardware. At the same time, the body assembly materials were left unchanged, as was the stunning FullHD+ display with a 19:9 ratio. Let's see what Zenfon is and how good the updated line of Asus phones is. Specifications:

• Screen:​ 6.2″ Full HD+ (2246x1080) Super IPS+
• Processor: Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 (8x Kryo 260 up to 1.8 GHz)
• Graphics accelerator: Adreno 509
• Operating system: Android 8.0 + ZenUI5
• RAM:​ 4 GB
• Built-in memory:​ 64 GB
• Memory card support: microSD up to 2 TB
• Communication: GSM/GPRS/EDGE; WCDMA/HSPA+/DC-HSPA+; TD-SCDMA; CDMA 2000; FDD-LTE; TD-LTE
• SIM:​ nano-SIM + nano-SIM (combined slot), Dual SIM Dual Standby (DSDS)
• Wireless interfaces: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 2.4/5 GHz, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC
• Navigation: GPS, GLONASS
• Cameras: main - 12 MP (f/1.8) + 8 MP (f/2.2), front - 8 MP (f/2.0)
• Sensors: light, proximity, gravity, microgyroscope, compass, fingerprint sensor
• Battery: 3300 mAh
• Dimensions:​ 153×75.7×7.9 mm
• Weight:​ 155 grams

Battery

In theory, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 processor supports Quick Charge 4.0 fast charging. However, Asus does not say anything about this. However, as about QC 3.0. There is only some vague wording - charging at 18 watts.

I tried powering Zenfone 5 from the included power supply (5 volts, 2 amps output). In half an hour the device charged from zero to 33%. A very modest result, which by no means falls under the definition of fast charging.

Next, I connected the device to the Fasttech adapter connector (I talked about it here) with QC 3.0 support. The result turned out to be even worse - in 30 minutes the battery gained only 21% of its capacity. However, one reader (thanks, Mikhail!) told me that his UGreen power supply with QC 3.0 is easily recognized by the smartphone as fast charging. The connection is accompanied by the appearance of two plus signs in the battery icon.

The conclusion is this. Zenfon 5 supports fast charging Quck Charge 3.0, but the feature does not work with all power supplies. Until you try, you won't know.

But the smartphone pleased me with its excellent autonomy. In my case, it lasted two full days!

At the same time, two SIM cards were installed inside, I did not optimize the energy consumption, I used the device as is. As a result, the screen operating time was 6 hours. And this is against the background of competitors who barely reach 4 hours. Let me remind you that under the hood we have a 3,300 mAh battery.

Equipment Asus ZenFon 5

The box is devoid of logos and bright images; it is made in a simple but effective design. It is rough tactile and painted dark gray. But despite the simplicity of its design, a rich package awaits us inside, which includes everything you need to work with the Asus ZenFon 5 phone:

• USB-C cable;
• Charger with parameters 5V/2A;
• A paperclip for quick access to the SIM card tray;
• Transparent silicone bumper, which does not spoil the design of the smartphone, but at the same time protects it from scratches;
• Not bad headphones.

Set

In the box we find wired headphones (not bad, by the way), a USB C cable and a power supply with support for 10 W “fast charging”. I tried to charge my smartphone with it and it only charged 33% in half an hour - this is not fast charging, friends. Not once.

However, it is stated that the device supports accelerated power supply from 18 W adapters. Of course, I checked the operation of this power supply - I will share the results later.

In addition, the kit included a simple case for the first time. There was no protective film in the package, you will have to buy it yourself.

Design

I traditionally start the ASUS ZenFone 5 review with its design, which turned out to be successful, except for the bangs on the front panel, which surprisingly almost all manufacturers now copy from Apple. The body is a monolithic structure, qualitatively assembled from glass. Metal was used only to make the side frame, which makes the case more rigid and saves it in the event of a fall. The smartphone looks quite premium - strict lines and beautifully shimmering glass on the back panel, which looks unusual and very attractive. There is only one drawback and it applies to all devices with a glass body - it quickly gets dirty and tends to slip out of your hands. When the case becomes covered with stains, it quickly loses its attractiveness, so it is better to immediately place it in the silicone bumper included with the device.

When you start using the phone, you immediately notice its feature, which can be classified as a shortcoming - a thin recess on the top, into which a speaker is built, a front-facing lens, as well as a standard list of sensors. In an inactive state, it is impossible to see, but under the speaker grille there is an LED event indicator, thanks to which you will not miss anything important.

The remaining frames are minimal; the 6.2-inch screen occupies almost the entire area of ​​the front panel. This solution looks great; the frameless fashion is already in full use in the budget segment. A minimal margin was left at the bottom. It is slightly larger than the others, but does not contain any functional elements; the navigation keys are on the screen. Its presence provides a comfortable hand grip in landscape orientation.

A review of ASUS ZenFone 5 2022 shows that a dual main camera is located on the back side, in addition to which there is a bright flash. A fingerprint scanner is located a little lower in the center and I must say they chose a good place for it. The finger rests on it itself, the operation occurs quickly and accurately.

The left side is occupied by a hybrid tray, into which you can install two Nano SIM cards or one, but paired with microSD.

On the right is the power button and a rocker to control the volume level.

ASUS ZenFone 5 ze620kl review moves to the bottom edge, which is pleasantly surprising. The fact is that the manufacturer has retained a 3.5 mm audio jack, to which you can connect your wired headset. It is located close to the USB Type-C port, main speaker and microphone.

Thanks to the elongated screen and minimal frames around its perimeter, it was possible to fit it into a fairly compact body. And the successful shape of the side edges provides a comfortable hand grip. But the 6.2-inch display simply won’t allow you to comfortably operate it with one hand - you won’t be able to reach the top of the screen without grabbing the body, so it will be easier to connect a second hand.

But so that this does not cause any discomfort in everyday life, the manufacturer has offered several convenient functions. So, double tapping on the “Home” key activates the one-handed control mode, in which the working area of ​​the screen becomes smaller, so you no longer have to reach for its top point. You can set the size of the work area at your discretion. As the review of the ASUS ZenFone 5 smartphone showed, there is another, no less useful feature - if you swipe your finger over the fingerprint scanner, the notification panel will open. Due to this, you don’t have to reach for the top curtain, which is much more convenient.

By the way, the fingerprint sensor copes with its task perfectly, but not as quickly as we would like and as we are accustomed to in terms of the best flagships. It works much longer than the 0.3 seconds stated by the manufacturer, at least on the current firmware version. Although there are no problems with recognition accuracy. The scanner's shortcomings do not end there - it was not installed in the most successful way. The fact is that it is placed in a small recess, which is why it practically merges with the body. Because of this, at first it is quite difficult to find it by touch.

In good lighting, you can use a more modern method - face unlocking. The technology is implemented using a front camera; the quality of recognition is highly dependent on lighting conditions. In the dark, recognition will be erroneous and you will be asked to enter a password or use a fingerprint scanner. But the recognition accuracy is at the highest level; the system cannot be fooled by a photo of the owner. In addition, artificial intelligence helps her.

ASUS ZenFone 5 ze620kl 64gb review showed that the case is assembled perfectly. There are no backlashes or gaps, the smartphone feels high-quality and solid.

Software

ASUS Zenfone 5 runs Android 8.0 Oreo, which is complemented by a beautiful and lightweight ASUS ZenUI 5.0 proprietary shell.
In addition to her, he received many other “bonuses”. This is the contactless payment system Android Pay, live emoji ZENIMOJI and support for heterogeneous computing systems, reminiscent of artificial intelligence systems. In any case, the smartphone will be able to learn from the user. Live emoji, which can replace the user’s face during online broadcasts and video calls, are another pleasant innovation. This option is found on a few smartphones. ZENIMOJI technology was developed exclusively for ASUS smartphones, and it does its job remarkably well.

Another useful feature that cannot be kept silent about is automatic ringtone volume control. If this option is activated, Zenfone 5 will evaluate the ambient volume level and automatically adjust the ringtone volume according to external conditions. Zenfone 5 also received active noise reduction function, which is useful during calls from noisy places.

To protect Zenfone 5 from unauthorized access, a fingerprint scanner and user face recognition technology are provided. The scanner memory can store up to 5 “fingers”, and the front camera can recognize the owner of Zenfone 5 even in a dark room.

Display Asus ZenFon 5

The device has a high-quality IPS matrix with FullHD+ resolution (1080x2246 pixels). With a diagonal of 6.2 inches, this gives a juicy and well-detailed picture; a higher resolution would come at the expense of performance and battery life, and the difference would not be noticeable to the eye. The only thing that doesn’t please me is the unibrow on top, although you gradually get used to it and stop paying attention to it. For the same reason, there is not enough space at the top for notifications, battery percentage and other important information. But otherwise, using the smartphone is comfortable; it clearly benefits from minimal frames.

As shown by the Asus ZenFon 5 2022 review in Russian, the picture looks beautiful and realistic; even if you try, you won’t be able to see individual pixels (403 ppi). The color reproduction turned out to be very rich, in this the screen is very reminiscent of the OLED panels that are installed in the best flagships of 2022. In the settings, you can customize the color temperature or turn on the blue filter, which significantly reduces eye strain. Asus ZenFon 5 can adjust the color temperature of the screen depending on the conditions in which you are currently located. When changing the viewing angle, the display behaves perfectly, except that the white color begins to slightly reddish.

The screen is covered with Corning Gorilla protective glass, and during testing of the ASUS ZenFone 5 it performed very well - there was not a single scratch left. A high-quality oleophobic coating is applied to its surface. You can feel it - the prints are removed in one movement of the hand.

Interface

There isn't the same level of control over screen brightness. Switches and sliders are offered to manually change the brightness and time before the screen turns off, but the automatic brightness mode is not very reliable. It responds slowly to changes in ambient light. Sometimes the brightness is set incorrectly, often in the dark the screen remains too bright.

Navigating on such a large screen is also a concern. Fortunately, there is a one-handed interface display mode. Enabling it will solve the problem, but first users need to figure out what it is and how to enable it.

This mode is located in the advanced settings section of the system menu. Double-tapping the Home button zooms out the interface, which moves to the bottom left of the screen. You can change its size and expand it back to full screen with one click. For right-handed people, working with such a screen will not be very convenient.

You need to dig deep into the poorly translated help menu. Only then will you learn that the white bar with two controls can itself be customized.

Performance

The technical characteristics of the Asus ZenFon 5 2022 are based on the best processor in the mid-budget price category, the Snapdragon 636, which includes 8 cores with a frequency of around 1.8 GHz. In games, it is helped by the Adreno 509 graphics accelerator. On top of that, there is 64 GB of user memory, which will be enough for most users. But if this is not enough for you, then it is possible to install microSD with a capacity of up to 2 TB. The only thing is that when installing it you will have to give up the second SIM card.

The characteristics of ASUS ZenFone 5 easily cope with everyday tasks. 4 GB of RAM ensures good multitasking - you can open many tabs in the browser and easily switch between them without reloading.

Test in Antutu and Geekbench

Games also do not become a serious obstacle to the phone's hardware. You can comfortably play Tanks on maximum graphics, getting an average of 58 FPS. Even the system-demanding Injustice 2 goes with a bang, delivering an average of 30 FPS. As the ASUS ZenFone 5 ze620kl 64gb review showed, it can easily handle any task, be it gaming, watching movies in high quality, or multitasking.

AI functions

The new hardware platform has made it possible to implement some AI functions (“artificial intelligence”). First of all, they work in the camera - they recognize the image and can set the appropriate settings for one of 16 scenes, as well as in portrait mode.

In addition, it is stated that there are “smart” algorithms for increasing performance and adjusting power consumption, adjusting ringtone volume and display color temperature. Perhaps it was the work of the last function that was noticeable and I liked the most - regardless of the time of day or external lighting, the image on the screen looked great.

Sound

The sound quality from the multimedia speaker is close to ideal and, without exaggeration, is one of the best in its segment. The speaker pleasantly surprises with its impressive volume reserve and clear sound, even when you listen to music at maximum. Even low frequencies, which many phone models have difficulty with, are clearly visible. In addition, a review of the frameless Asus ZenFone 5 showed that the sound is reproduced in stereo format. The effect is achieved due to the fact that the main speaker plays in tandem with the conversational speaker. The difference compared to mono sound is clearly noticeable under any conditions of use - when playing, listening to music or watching a movie. This is a very positive point with which the manufacturer wants to attract music lovers.

The sound in the headphones is not disappointing either. It is good even with the initial settings, allowing you to enjoy your favorite musical compositions, but if you wish, you can always use the equalizer and customize it for yourself and your type of headset.

Screen cutout

In fact, the most interesting issue related to the software is the implementation of the “unibrow”, because native support for cutouts in screens will appear only in the ninth version of Android.

During the presentation, ASUS boasted that they were able to make the element smaller than in the iPhone X, but there is no need for it to be larger - the smartphone does not have all those sensors that are “hidden” in the iPhone X, and even in comparison with the same Huawei P20 Pro it is visible that this element may be smaller.

Based on the experience of using two smartphones with a notch, I will say that the biggest problem with the notch is the reduction in space for displaying status indicators and notification icons. In the ASUS interface they are made quite large, so literally two or three elements can be placed on each side.

On the left it can be the icon of the turned on Wi-Fi and the latest notification, on the right - the clock, charge indicators and Do Not Disturb mode, the Bluetooth icon no longer fits and three dots hint at its presence. Accordingly, you can either open the entire panel and get acquainted with the detailed content of all notifications, see the indicators that are turned on, or simply tap on the status bar, then an additional bar with all the indicators will appear at the bottom.

ASUS also implemented a logic for opening the notification list similar to the iPhone X. If you swipe on the left side of the screen, a list of notifications opens, with only the top row of toggles on top. If you swipe to the right, the list of switches will appear immediately in expanded form. There is also - the position of the image changes slightly when you twist the smartphone in your hands.

The presence of the cutout does not affect the operation of third-party applications in any way. Most of them have already learned to work with 18:9 screens, so the “ears” of the screen are either painted in the background color of the program or simply become black. The only thing that upset me was the work of YouTube. The test device ran on beta firmware and received software updates almost every day. At some point, the company added a full-screen video playback mode with iPhone X-style content display, when part of the image is hidden behind the cutout, but then left everything as it was originally - playback without the ability to stretch the image to the full screen. We hope that by the time the service goes on sale, the service will be implemented properly - so that the video is stretched only to the “unibrow”.

Autonomy of the ASUS ZenFone 5 smartphone

The brand's smartphones have always been famous for their good battery life, but how will ASUS ZenFone 5, which has a built-in 3300 mAh battery, perform? Initially it seems that this is not enough, because a 6.2-inch display must be very power-hungry. But real testing showed more than decent results - 5 hours of screen activity with fairly active use. In FullHD video playback mode on YouTube video hosting, the battery lasted 8 hours. A review of the Asus ZenFon 5 2018 smartphone showed that everything is fine in games - it sat down only after 6 hours of active play.

In difficult situations, proprietary energy saving modes come to the rescue, which can operate in several modes:

• Productive, which is indispensable in games;
• Standard;
• Energy saving;
• Super energy saving.

The last two use cases reduce system performance and suppress background activity, which significantly extends battery life. The model supports BoostMaster fast charging technology, which is carried out using artificial intelligence. This is necessary so that the phone not only charges quickly, but also its battery lasts as long as possible.

Continuation

Long press on the home screen opens the interface settings. There are plenty of options here, including the ability to hide apps from the lock screen if you don't want anyone to see them. You can change the location of applications and the behavior of the application list. For example, whether a frame will be displayed around the icons or not. Currently, ZenUI loves rounded rectangles. If you don't share this love, you can disable this shape for third-party application icons.

Game streaming services such as Twitch, YouTube Gaming and Mixer are available for gamers. Access to it is located in the Game Genie program. It can open on top of the game, allowing you to broadcast gameplay, change the resolution and control the microphone.

You don't have to broadcast the game live, but record and post the file afterwards. You can program macros to set the sequence of actions in the game with one click. This is a powerful tool, although it will have few users.

Perhaps not everyone will like the appearance of the shell, but the interaction and the number of functionality settings are not satisfactory. Experienced users should appreciate this.

Wireless communications

As the review of the Asus ZenFon 5 phone showed, it has one radio module installed, so SIM cards operate in alternating mode. There is support for 4G frequencies, which gives a data reception speed of 600 Mbit/s and an upload speed of 100 Mbit/s. But what the manufacturer was really able to surprise was the presence of an NFC chip, which is convenient to use to pay for your purchases in the store. Wi-Fi works in all bands and frequencies, and in addition to it, Bluetooth 5th generation, GPS and GLONASS are available. Alas, the recognition accuracy has become a weakness; at best, the location error was determined with an accuracy of up to 7 meters. And this despite the fact that it connects to satellites quickly and finds them in large numbers - up to 40 pieces in open areas.

Continuation

The reliability of Wi-Fi is questionable. Network connections are weaker than many other smartphones in similar conditions at similar distances.

It would be much better if Asus tried to fix such shortcomings before introducing advanced functionality like artificial intelligence. However, artificial intelligence is everywhere these days, and Asus doesn’t want to be left behind.

Adaptive technologies allow you to redistribute resources depending on what programs and how often you use. The same applies to battery consumption and your charging habits. It's hard to say how effectively all this works.

ASUS ZenFone 5 camera review

The main camera includes two lenses with very good characteristics. The main one received a resolution of 12 megapixels and an f/1.8 aperture, as well as 1.4 micron pixels and a 4-axis optical stabilization system. The feature of the additional sensor is an expanded viewing angle of 120 degrees. This is an 8 megapixel module with f/2.2 aperture. The pixel size is 1 micron. ASUS ZenFone 5 camera review shows that the additional sensor is not at all suitable for shooting in low light, but it helps to photograph a large company or place an entire building in the frame.

The Camera application has a simple and intuitive interface, in which all the main modes are located on the main screen. Particularly pleasing is the manual mode, in which you can manually aim at an object, adjust ISO, shutter time, exposure, and white balance. It opens up full-fledged camera control capabilities and is ideal for those who are interested in mobile photography and want to get the highest quality results.

But most users rely on automatic mode, so we’ll look at it in more detail. A review of the ASUS ZenFone 5 2018 camera introduces the fact that this is the manufacturer’s first smartphone to receive an artificial intelligence system that is involved in the process of taking photos. It analyzes the current conditions in front of the camera lens and selects the ideal settings based on this to get the best result. Additionally, the quality of the AI ​​will improve as you use the phone as it learns itself. Consequently, each new photo will turn out better than the previous one.

The quality of daytime images is, as expected, at the highest level. The photo boasts good detail and natural color reproduction.

In difficult conditions, HDR comes to the rescue, an example of which you can see below. It draws out detail and normalizes color rendition. The good news is that the mode does not work too aggressively, maintaining the realism of the image.

C HDR

Oddly enough, the Asus ZenFon 5 camera performed well even when shooting at night. This is thanks to software algorithms and good aperture, which allows you to get a decent shot even at night. Considering the price category of the smartphone, the result looks more than decent - the exposure is set correctly, which preserves the detail of objects in the frame. Of course there are noises, but they are minimal and until you enlarge the photo they are not noticeable. Also helpful in night photography is the two-color flash, which effectively illuminates nearby objects.

When shooting indoors, we get high-quality shots.

The ASUS ZenFone 5 takes panoramas well, with only a slightly distorted perspective to complain about.

To capture more objects in the frame, you can rely on an additional module, examples of which you can find below.

The same photos, but without using the wide-angle module

The Camera app has a unique mode that allows you to take super-resolution photos. In this case, several pictures are taken at once, which are combined into one with a resolution of 49 megapixels in the case of shooting with the main module and 21 megapixels in the case of an additional one. This allows you to get a usable frame with no noise even with significant scaling.

There was also the Bokeh effect, which we can’t live without now. The algorithms work quite well.

The front camera is represented by an 8 megapixel sensor and it is not as good as the main cameras of the Asus ZenFon 5. Even despite this, in good lighting you can get excellent shots with it. The user has access to various filters and facial skin enhancement mode.

The device can shoot video in 4K at 30 frames per second or FullHD at 30, 60 or 120 FPS. the result is more than worthy, as you can see by watching the example video below. Another interesting feature is the function of recording short videos in GIF format.

Conclusion

The ASUS ZenFone 5 smartphone really surprised us, because for its price it offers excellent features. Although you can’t call it absolutely perfect. First of all, we are talking about borrowing details, and when there is absolutely no need for this - there was no point in copying the unibrow from Apple, without it the design would have been much more beautiful. But the back side looks beautiful, and the materials of the case provide a pleasant tactile sensation.

Despite the use of a 6.2-inch display, the case has thoughtful ergonomics and will be comfortable to use. The power of its hardware is sufficient even for modern games that are demanding on the system, and its camera takes good pictures not only during the day, but also at night. As a result, we are offered an excellent phone in the mid-price category, which is good in almost everything.

Advantages:

• Good display;
• High-quality stereo sound;
• Availability of NFC chip and aptX HD codecs;
• A decent main camera that takes good pictures in any conditions;
• Self-learning artificial intelligence that helps when taking photos and speeds up the phone;
• Good autonomy.

Flaws:

• The back is slippery and quickly becomes covered with fingerprints;
• The quality of the photo taken with the front camera greatly depends on the lighting conditions.

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System

This time, the programmers have done a great job on their own ASUS ZenUI 5 shell. It is still extremely functional and, perhaps, the most customizable launcher on the market that I have seen. Even MIUI and Flyme OS can envy everything that can be configured on a Taiwanese smartphone.

However, before the release of the 5th version of the shell, everything was spoiled by endless prompts after the first turn on of the device. Like, set up this, then that, keep in mind that you can do this, and after that something else, it wouldn’t hurt to make a backup, log into your account, agree to the newsletter, provide access here, here, back and forth, and so on continue until your cuckoo goes away. The first day of communicating with a brand new device turned into endless customization. Moreover, it was the semi-compulsory conditions of using the device that were stressful.

Now there is no such thing. The system is wow, so customizable, but it has become much more silent. If you want to customize it, you want to use it as is. This is cool. Well done Asus!

About stability.

Unfortunately, there are problems and they are not as rare as we would like.

A couple of times the smartphone froze in third-party applications, did not respond to any buttons, and only after 10 seconds everything returned to normal. Sometimes the standard keyboard is glitchy: sometimes it gets stuck, sometimes it misses your keystrokes and as a result you point at the screen, which is located behind the key block.

Let's attribute all this to the relative freshness of the software, especially since updates arrive regularly. During the week of testing, two new firmware were released, and therefore there is a chance that all the rough edges will be removed in the next updates.