ASUS launched the Zenfone 4 Selfie series in India with 3 new phones in different price segments. The ASUS Zenfone 4 Selfie (ZB553KL) is the cheapest of the lot and it is priced Rs 9,999. The phone comes with 5.5 inch HD display and is powered by Snapdragon 430 Octa-core processor with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage. It packs a 13MP rear camera and 13MP front camera for selfies. So how does this device stack against the competition? Let’s find out in the detailed ASUS Zenfone 4 Selfie Review.
Here is the video review.
Design and Build:
ASUS has done quite a good work in terms of the design language of the Selfie series and the Zenfone 4 Selfie looks pretty good. While the build is plastic and not metal which we have seen on most of the phones these days, it actually feels quite good to hold with smooth texture and extremely lightweight design. ASUS has cut down on the weight drastically and it feels nice in hands with curved edges and rounded corners.
The front panel has the 5.5 inch HD display, fingerprint scanner at the bottom and, 13MP selfie camera on the top along with flash and regular sensors. The power and volume keys are on the right side while the SIM tray is on the left. The bottom panel has micro USB charging slot and also the speaker unit while the top panel houses the audio jack. The rear panel has the 13MP camera unit which looks good and also the LED flash along with the logo at the bottom. Overall, ASUS has done a good job with the design.
Display:
The Zenfone 4 Selfie comes with a 5.5 inch HD display with 1280 X 720p resolution and has 2.5D glass. The display colors look good and the clarity is pretty good. The viewing angles are also acceptable although at times the colors do change when you tilt the display. The touch response is smooth on the display. The phone does not come with any screen protection.
Software:
Zenfone 4 Selfie runs on latest version of Zen UI. When we reviewed Zenfones last year, we mentioned that the UI is not polished and is a bit sluggish at times. But with the latest version of Zen UI, it looks much better. The UI has been overhauled and it feels a bit more polished with new icons and layout. ASUS hasn’t changed much on features, but it comes with the new settings panel and also the quick toggles area.
The Zen UI is one of the highly customizable UIs available and ASUS hasn’t changed it. There are a plethora of options to customize along with the ability to change the themes. The new UI also comes with dual apps feature wherein you can run multiple instances of social apps like WhatsApp and Facebook.
The review unit we received still had some bloatware installed which ASUS could have avoided. Mobile Manager is also included, which offers to free RAM and storage space as well as check performance and app permissions similar to other Chinese OEMs. Zen UI also comes with lots gestures and features like One handed UI, Kids Mode and Easy mode which are handy features in the UI.
Performance:
The Zenfone 4 Selfie is powered by Snapdragon 430 Octa-core processor with 3GB of RAM. The phone is quite responsive to day to day tasks and we did not notice any sort of lag in regular usage. But when you push it harder with heavy multitasking, you could see some minor hiccups. The gaming performance of the device was also not great, but considering the price segment, it was pretty average. You could see some lag and frame drops while playing high graphics-rich games.
The call quality of the device was pretty good and speaker performance was also decent. The phone comes with dual SIM cards and micro SD card along with VoLTE support. There is also 32GB of internal storage offered on the device.
Camera:
Zenfone 4 Selfie comes with 13MP rear camera with LED flash and 13MP front camera with LED flash. The camera interface is improved with new Zen UI and looks more polished and it packs all the options and modes you see on Zen UI. You also get pro mode and full HD video recording.
The rear camera samples taken in daylight was quite acceptable with good colors and decent clarity. But the low light performance was not that great and you can clearly see a lot of noise when the light drops. The selfie experience of the device is really good and one of the good selfie-focused smartphones in this segment with good clarity in selfies. There is also a bokeh mode or portrait mode in selfies. Here are some of the samples taken with the phone.
Battery Life:
The Zenfone 4 Selfie comes with 3000mAh battery and it does not have fast charging. The battery performance of the device was quite decent and we could get around a day of battery life. The screen on time would be around 3-4 hours on an average usage.
Verdict:
ASUS Zenfone 4 selfie, priced at Rs 9,999 offers a great experience on a budget for people who are looking for selfies. It also has a good design and decent build quality and day to day performance is also acceptable. But there are some cons for the device as well including gaming and average battery life.
If you are looking for great selfies in sub 10k price segment, then Zenfone 4 Selfie is worth considering.
