Asus Zenfone 4 Selfie dual camera Vs other selfie mobiles!

Asus is known for its engineering innovations more than a mobile brand. When Asus launches a mobile, we can look at it beyond specifications and we will be able to find innovations in it. Over the period of time, Asus mobiles have been getting better with every generation. It is the time for the 4th Generation of Zenfone and Asus has decided to launch the Selfie line-up of mobiles in India. Though we will get to see the other Zenfone 4 lineups soon, we now have the Zenfone 4 Selfie, Zenfone 4 Selfie dual camera and Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro.

The market is now filled with Selfie centric mobiles and in this article let us see if the Zenfone 4 Selfie dual camera version is better than the competition. Zenfone 4 Selfie dual camera is priced at Rs 14999. This is a very competitive price segment and we have Vivo V5s, Oppo F3 and Samsung J7 Max as well in the market. So let’s check out Asus Zenfone Selfie dual camera and find out if it is better than the competition.

I have already written a review on the Zenfone Selfie Pro Dual Camera, but in this article, I will talk about it from a different perspective. Zenfone Selfie Pro Dual Camera is a mobile that is exclusively built for the selfie lovers. After using it for a while, I realized that this is a much superior selfie mobile compared to other mobiles in this price segment and here is why.

Build Quality

Zenfone 4 Selfie has received a major overhaul when it comes to design. It looks totally different compared to the earlier generation of Zenfones. It has a premium build quality with a metal-finished plastic body. It has unibody construction where the front display seamlessly merges into the plastic body with perfect edges and rounded corners. The mobile is lightweight and slim. It slips into my pocket without any difficulty and I must say that it is a very comfortable mobile to carry around. The ergonomic construction makes the mobile easy to hold and handle. It is available in Rose Pink, Deepsea Black, and Sunlight Gold, while my personal favorite is the Deepsea Black.

Bright Display

Zenfone 4 Selfie Dual has a 5.5 inch IPS LCD panel. It supports 720p resolution and has a 2.5D curved edge on its display. The display has good color reproduction. It feels bright and vivid. The display is responsive and smooth to interact. It has good viewing angles and also has good visibility under direct sunlight. Though it has 720p display, it is very bright and has good contrast levels under direct sunlight.

Just the right performance

Snapdragon processors are without any doubt the best mobile processors around. Zenfone 4 selfie is powered by a Snapdragon 430 with Adreno 505 for GPU. This processor has been around for a while now and it is well established that it has decent mid-range performance. Another advantage of Snapdragon 430 is that it does not overheat even after continuous gaming sessions. Gameplay is smooth and even 30 minutes of continuous gaming increases the temperature by just 8 degrees. It has 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB storage. The memory can be expanded up to 2TB thanks to a dedicated memory card slot. It supports USB OTG. Software optimization gives this mobile a smooth performance. Asus as toned down the UI and optimised it for this low hardware specs. Though this mobile is meant for selfie lovers, it is well equipped to take on your daily tasks as a smartphone companion.

Fastest Fingers

Most mobiles in this price range have fingerprint sensors, but the function is limited to unlocking the mobile. In the Zenfone 4 Selfie, the fingerprint sensor can be used to lock apps and also attending incoming calls. It is also fast and accurate. It can detect for a valid fingerprint from any direction even if the fingers are wet and oily. It doubles up as the Android home button and has a good haptic feedback when touched.

Selfie Camera

Zenfone 4 Selfie is a selfie-centric mobile. It has dual front camera setup. The main sensor is a 20 MP sensor and it has a 31 mm lens. The second lens is a 12 mm wide angle lens with 8 MP sensor. It is not just a depth sensor, but a 120-degree wide angle camera as well. Most selfie mobiles in this price range don’t have a dual camera setup and if you find a dual camera setup, it will be just a depth sensor. The 12 mm lens is a wide angle lens and it can accommodate more friends or more field of view in your background. Speaking of background, it can be blurred keeping the subject in focus. The portrait mode can be activated for both the main sensor and the wide angle camera. The front camera has beauty mode, GIF animation and selfie panorama mode in the UI. It also has a soft LED flash to brighten up your selfies. The quality of selfies is sharp and pleasing on daylight.

Portrait mode is always tricky to implement. Google Pixel 2 does it with a single camera, but along with the help of Artificial intelligence. Many mobiles do with depth sensor which helps in clicking multiple pictures at multiple focus point and still, the software does the blurring of the background after detecting the edges of the foreground. Traditionally it was done with a single camera like in Lytro or Nokia Lumia Refocus. But it was slow and highly reliant on software processing. With dual camera setup, it just becomes faster. Faster does not ensure perfect processing and here is where Asus’ strength lies. Pixel Master is one of the most advanced image processing algorithms in the industry. All Asus had to do was to unleash the dual camera hardware to its Pixel master and rest is up to it. Edge detection is perfect and also the background bokeh is natural, all thanks to Asus Pixel Master algorithm.

The true photographer’s lens

The quality of a photograph is an equation set by the sensor, lens and software processing. At this price bracket, most mobile compromise on any one of these, because they just don’t have the capability. With Asus’s proven track record in engineering innovation and software research and development, the Zenfone 4 Selfie strikes a balance in the equation. The primary camera in Zenfone 4 Selfie is a 16 MP sensor with 26 mm lens and it focuses by phase detection autofocus. It is assisted by an LED flash. It can record full HD videos which are stabilized by Electronic image stabilization, thanks to the gyro sensor. The camera UI offers beauty mode, super-resolution, panorama, time-lapse video, manual mode, GIF animation and slow-motion videos for the rear camera. The rear camera also has the portrait mode and auto HDR mode. I always leave the auto HDR mode on. HDR photos come out well with just the right balance of exposure over dim lit and brightly exposed areas of the frame. It produces images with good color accuracy and decent sharpness. Low light performance is also commendable.

Battery

The mobile is powered by a 3000 mAh battery. But as it has a low powered processor and an HD screen, the battery can keep the mobile up and run for more than a day of moderate usage.

Competition

Here is how the Zenfone 4 Selfie looks like when stacked up against the competition.

Verdict

Asus Zenfone 4 Selfies stands out tall and proud among the bunch of selfie mobiles out there. When compared with all the other phones, it comes out to be a clear choice. It is priced at Rs 14999. At this price range, it is better than Oppo A57, Vivo Y69, Oppo F3 and Vivo V5s. Software optimisation and reduction of bloatware is a huge welcome feature on the new generation of Zenfones. Pixel master algorithm and a strong camera hardware have made it a clear choice when it comes to selfie mobiles in its price bracket.

Also read my review on the Asus Zenfone 4 Selfie Dual.