ASUS announced its Zenfone series back in Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona and the devices (Zenfone 4, 5 and 6) were launched in India in July. We already reviewed the entry level ASUS Zenfone 4, Zenfone 4 (A450CG) and also the mid range Zenfone 5. The Zenfone 6 is a phablet in the mid range category and comes with a 6 inch HD display with 720p resolution and runs on Intel Atom Dual Core processor at 2GHz. The phone comes with 2GB RAM and 16GB internal storage.
The phone also comes with 13MP rear camera with LED flash and front facing 2MP camera. The Zenfone 6 was released with Android 4.3 along with custom UI called Zen UI, but the company has already released the Android KitKat update and the phone will probably get the Lollipop update in April 2015. So here the detailed review of the device.
Related Reading: ASUS Zenfone 6 Unboxing
Design and Build:
The first thing you notice about the Zenfone 6 is the design. It is pretty well build phone which gives a premium feel with high quality materials. The back panel has a matte finish and the cover is removable and you can insert the dual SIM cards. The battery is not user replaceable like the Moto G. The power and volume keys on the right side have chrome finish. The 3.5 mm audio jack sit on the top while the micro USB charging slot is at the bottom. The rear panel houses the 13MP camera with LED flash along with the speakers at the bottom.
The front panel has camera, sensors, earpiece and below the 6 inch HD (1280 X720p) display, you have the three touch button. There is also a pattern below the touch keys similar to Zenfone 5. Overall, the build quality and fit and finish of the device is really good and ASUS has done a commendable job.
But since the device is 6 inch phablet, no denying the fact that it is really huge in size and you need big hands to use it.
Display:
The Zenfone 6 features the same IPS HD (720×1280-pixel) display found on the Zenfone 5 and the screen is protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The screen has 245 ppi pixel density which is pretty low on the 6 inch display, but does give a good overall feel. The display is reflective, hence you might find issues using the phone in bright sunlight, but you can also increase the brightness levels.
The viewing angles are good on the device. The touch response is really good and overall we feel the display does pretty good overall job.
Software and Performance:
Zenfone 5 runs on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean out of the box and even though this is not the latest version of the OS, the company has customized the OS and calls it Zen UI. Zen UI is really useful and comes with good set of options and also a beautiful notification center which is actually usable. The notification center and the quick launch icons are well arranged and you can even customize them. The company has already provided the Android KitKat update for the device without any major changes to the UI.
You can sort the apps based on the ones you have downloaded and also the frequently used ones. It also offers options to lock apps so that other users do not have the option to access apps unless you enter the password. There is also option to hide apps.
In the settings, there are quite a lot of ASUS customized options and Power Saver along with the ability to view the apps which are using the battery. The Power save mode allows you to get better out of the battery life based on your preferences.
The phone comes with 16GB of internal storage which is really good. Out of the 16GB, 12.16GB is available to the user. The internal storage can be expanded to 32GB via micro SD card in case you need more storage.
The device is powered by an Intel Dual Core processor with 2GB of RAM. The performance is really smooth and there are no lags when using the Zen UI. The call quality of the device is pretty good and we did not have any dropped calls. The Zen UI also allows you to record calls automatically which is something not offered on too many phones. The speaker output was a bit disappointing with low level output.
The gaming performance of the device is also pretty good and the 6 inch HD display is suited for gaming in this price point. We tested quite a lot of graphic rich games and the gaming performance was pretty good.
Camera:
The camera on the device is a 13MP shooter with LED flash and a 2MP front facing camera for selfies and video calls. ASUS calls the camera as pixelmaster and the interface of the camera is pretty good and totally different from what you see on most Android phones. There are quite a lot of settings available on the camera UI including filters and also shooting modes.
The modes includes Auto, Time rewind, HDR, Panorama, Night, Low light, Selfie, Miniature, Depth of field, Smart remove, All smiles, Beautification and GIF animation.
We tested the camera of Zenfone 6 in carious conditions and found the camera to be pretty decent. While the day light photos came pretty good, the colors were a little dull. The low light photos were decent quality when taken with low light mode. Although the capture was well lit, but there was good amount of noise in the photos as well.
The phone can also record videos in 1080p and the quality was again pretty good. Here are some of the samples from the camera.
Battery Life:
The phone packs a 3300 mAh battery which offers pretty good battery life. In our tests, it could last more than a day with normal usage in 3G. ASUS also offers good amount of features in the Power saving mode which offers Ultra power saver mode, Customized mode and Optimized mode. You can customize the modes and limit the CPU usage as well. Overall, we were pretty happy with the battery performance on this device.
Verdict:
If you are looking for an affordable phablet with great hardware, then your search ends here, ASUS Zenfone 6 is a real good phablet in this category. Priced at Rs 16999, the Zenfone 6 offers good hardware, decent camera and good battery life along with a very useful Zen UI on top of KitKat. With Android Lollipop update coming next year, this is definitely a good device to pick if you have large hands.
