She walked in. All Zen, sleek, stylish, a shutterbug’s dream

She walked in. All Zen, sleek, stylish, smooth, a shutterbug’s dream

She arrived at my place.

Said she’d stay for a week.

She looked sleek, stylish.

She was a smooth operator.

She was a shutterbug’s dream.

Her name, the Asus ZenFone 3.

Just recently, my son bought an Asus mobile phone after sitting on the fence for more than month over which phone to buy. Of course, we decided on a budget before we started looking, and pretty soon, decided that it had to be an ASUS phone.  I’ve reviewed one before.  Although we zeroed in on the model we wanted,  we did drool over some of their higher end models.

So imagine my joy when I received the recently launched Asus ZenFone 3, a gorgeous new mobile with a brilliant camera and processor. (if you want to go technical, lots of info here)

I was to use for a week and review. Yep, she was just a one-week house guest, boo hoo! But hey, any excuse to try out a new camera!

Smooth, silky, slippery, and very sleek.

Light, so light. Nice to hold.

Powerful.

A shutterbug’s dream.

Looks-wise? Very Zen. Stylish.

My criteria for deciding on a phone would be:

• camera, because I lovvvvvve clicking pictures
• I don’t want to bother with figuring it out and would just like it to do its job
• Looks do matter. After all, I am going to carry it around, cradled in my hand most of the time, eh?
• While I am not stingy, I do like value for money.

The Asus ZenFone 3 appealed on all counts.

Let me list the features that mattered to me most. (I am saving my favorite – the camera – for last)

The Asus ZenFone 3 – a review

Design

ZenFone 3 is all shimmering glass and metal with the iconic ZenFone spun finish design–gorgeous looking. The front and rear 2.5D Contoured Corning Gorilla Glass makes it scratch free, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that neither surface was a fingerprint magnet! And it stayed smudge free! It also made the phone rather slippery.

The C type charging is good and I found that it did not heat up while charging or while playing games—or surfing the web. Also, it charged pretty fast. I liked the reversible USB, and I didn’t have to fumble to insert it the right way.

The touchscreen is a dream to use and very sensitive.  The user interface is simply fabulous. I mean, sometimes just the static between my fingertip and the screen seemed to set off the action. I liked it!

Processor

Powerful, with a 64-bit, 2 GHz octa-core Snapdragon 625 processor (middle high-end), and the world’s first 14nm CPU with Fin Field Effect Transistors. This lowers power consumption by  35%, and is much more powerful than the previous generation thanks to new full 8 core @ 2.0Ghz.

Good to know, since everything I did on the phone was superfast, with zero lag and excellent user experience.

To my joy, I found that setting up the phone was a breeze, as it asked me if I wanted to import them from my current phone. Of course I chose the easy way out.

Other ZenFone 3 Features :

• 5 magnet Speaker – Audio Feature – solid sound!
• 4G LTE
• Display FHD – 5.2” (there is also a 5.5” variant, but I got the 5.2” for review)
• 3GB/32GB (the 5.5 version has 4GB/64GB)
• Type C 2.0 Charging – Reversible
• OS – Android Marshmallow
• ZenUI – always a good experience

16 MP rear and 8 MP front camera

Ah, my favorite feature. The ZenFone 3 comes with PixelMaster 3.0 camera with Z3Ncredible features like 4K Video recording, Optical Image Stabilisation—4 Axis OIS for steady photographs even when the objects are moving, which means easy to click photos from a moving vehicle. I wish I had had this when I travelled a couple of weeks ago! It has 3 Axis EIS for steady videos and 0.03 TriTech Auto Focus which enables taking photos even if the object moves far or fast. So imagine capturing your pet while it plays. The camera also has a “Super Resolution mode” that can take pictures at 64MP resolution – which is quite a DSLR-like experience.

Now, I prefer to carry my digital camera (a healthy Canon with 50x zoom) whenever I go out, and know I want to get some great photos, but it IS a little clunky to take everywhere. These days, I often make do with my 13MP/5MP mobile phone camera, which is pretty good.

But I loved using the ZenFone 3 camera. The photos are great—although, I am sure I did not do the camera full justice. I had too little time to explore the million settings in the camera. But yes, the ones I did see, were good.

I liked that there was no lag each time I clicked a photo. The phone I currently use takes great photos, and I am used to that one-second lag before it takes a shot. Which is fine, really. But the Asus ZenFone 3 spoiled me a little with the zero-lag.

So I did goof up after my first day of going camera crazy, because somehow the photos did not get saved. So off I went to the market nearby to click some more. Take a look at these pictures #ShotOnZenFone3

Apples are good for health. Here’s a variety to pick from

So are avocados. Powerhouses of nutrition.

Summer delights, coconuts.

There were a couple of instances when the ZenFone 3 apologized on behalf of the camera, which stopped working, but that was momentary and it was up and running again instantly.

This is a feature in almost all malls and exhibitions. Syrup coated fruits that pass off as digestives.

What market photo is complete without flowers?

More flowers. The ladies were too shy to stay in the photo!

Peeled onions, amla (gooseberry), baby corn, ginger, chili, peeled garlic. Talk about making life easy!

Shoes. Oh yes, had to buy a pair!

Man’s best friend, basking in the sun

Traffic. Who can escape it?

A house I covet. It has a movie theater in the basement.

From our own garden

I looked up. I love this bright yellow

And to end on a sweet note, jaggery. Very sweet.

I found that when I cropped a photo, it still looked good without going all fuzzy on me.

All these photos were about 4600 x 2600 in size and I resized them to post here.

Overall, I think the Asus ZenFone 3 is worth coveting if you are looking for a smart phone that combines beauty with powerful brains, is delightful to use and comes with a superb camera. Final whine – too bad I got to use it only for a week!

The ZenFone 3 is available on Flipkart

I got to keep the Asus ZenFone 3 for a week to use and review. All opinions are mine.

Go on. Take one.