So I finally found a phone that both looks good & functions even better, & I don’t go anywhere without it!
The rise of instagram & snapchat over other social networks have confirmed something I’ve known for a while – We live in a very visual culture. As someone who creates digital content, I need to make sure that my pictures & videos always look good. As a fashion influencer, I need to make sure I always look good. And none of that is easy!
I recently had the chance to test the new Asus Zenfone 3. It makes a lot of promises – good looks, great front & back camera, excellent processor. Does it deliver? I’m going to address the same in this post. I’m not a tech blogger of course, but I am definitely interested in technology & I do know more stuff. So this post is just going to focus less on specifications & more on usability. OK? Let’s get started.
My Experience with the Asus Zenfone 3
Design
I used to be an all silver girl, but nowadays I seriously can’t get enough of gold! The Asus Zenfone 3 also has this muted, classy gold look that’ll go with all your gold accessories. But there are a lot of gold phones on the market, what truly sets this apart is the concentric circle design, it’s hard to capture in photos but the way light reflects off it is simply stunning & unlike anything I’ve seen until now!
The phone is available in two sizes, 5.2″ & 5.5″, so you can pick according to your preference & I have the smaller one. If you aren’t into the shimmer gold variant, it’s also available in moonlight white, aqua blue & sapphire black!
The front & rear panels of the Asus Zenfone 3 have Corning Gorilla Glass, so you don’t have to worry about scratches or cracks (a huge pro for incredibly clumsy people like me).
Camera(s)
The tagline of this phone is Built For Photography, & it’s a claim I was eager to put to the test. For photos / video for this blog & my YouTube channel, I’ve relied on a series of trusted dslrs to get the job done. Dslrs are ugly, bulky & cumbersome to carry, but they’re popular for a reason – the quality is unmatched! The main magic of a dslr lies in the size of it’s sensor (part of the reason they’re so bulky!) so I’ve never thought that any phone, regardless of brand could capture ‘dslr quality’ photos. And yet, it’s not possible for me to take my big camera everywhere, so when it comes to vlogging or social media updates (such as instagram) I rely on my phone quite a bit. For live updates from an event or a stunning sunset on holiday, I’ll always post pictures from my phone so I do need something of a decent quality.
So the Zenfone 3 is a total photographer’s delight, whether you don’t know much about cameras & just want to snap the best possible pictures or you’re a control freak like me that needs to be able to adjust settings etc. to get the perfect snap.
Here’s a preview of some of the different modes, from HDR pro to beautification & low light, to slow motion, timelapse & more, you can use any of them to capture just what you need!
Here are some pictures taken with the main (back) camera. They’ve been cropped & straightened & in the case of the collage above, stitched together, but I have made no other exposure or tonal adjustments whatsoever. These are how my pics look, #ShotOnZenfone3. I think they absolutely speak for themselves.
Here’s an example of the kind of photo you can get with the depth of field option selected. You can see how the subject is sharply in focus, while the background is aesthetically blurred. The awesome f2 aperture plays a large part in making this possible. It also has subject-tracking TriTech auto-focus for variable distance and lighting clarity in just 0.03 seconds! Obviously I didn’t lab test this claim but it is fast & a total pleasure to use!
I wanted to test how this functions with very fast moving subjects & who better to test the camera on than my cats? They move constantly & it’s a task to photograph them. Here are how the Asus Zenfone 3 captures them. Again the pics have just been stitched together with no other post processing by me. Go ahead, enlarge them. They’re crystal clear & sharp, with every detail visible without blur. I usually have very blurry pics on my iPhone.
And now let’s talk selfies…
These are how my selfies look on the Asus Zenfone 3. Yes I did use beautification, which made my skin look ah-may-zing, but again the best part if how vibrant & natural the colours come straight out of the camera – not dull or oversaturated, just right.
Here’s a selfie taken at the same time, same angle with my iPhone 6 Plus. Again, totally unedited. I kinda want to run & hide…
A few other camera specifications – it has a four axis optical image stabilizer (which will prevent excessive shaking especially in video!) & you even get 4K video, I’m convinced the camera of this might rival my dedicated vlog camera. Other than that, it has all the features one could want in a smartphone including a 64-bit, 2.0GHz octa-core Snapdragon™ 625 processor, dual SIM 3G or 4G slots, fingerprint sensor & more.
With all these amazing features, I was expecting a very steep price to boot, but the phone is priced at just ₹ 21,999 (I would’ve honestly expected double that). The Asus Zenfone 3 seems perfect in every way & I just can’t fault it.
