ASUS ZenFone 6 First Impression: One of a kind camera phone

I don‘t know where to start! We were invited to a closed room session to try out the ASUS ZenFone 6. Before we got hands-on, we were taken on a roller coaster ride by ASUS. Not literally! For long, I was waiting for a phone that has every thing. Finally, ASUS has answered my call and created a phone that has ticked nearly every single box. Battery life, camera, look n feel, speed, features, display. This phone has everything! Here is our first impression of the ASUS ZenFone 6.

Camera

We always start our review/preview articles with specs and Camera comes at the end. But this time, we are going to start with the Camera. The camera on the ASUS ZenFone 6 is so unique that we cannot talk about anything else. We were holding on to this secret for nearly two weeks and it was killing. We wanted to shout out loud screaming ‘This is one of the best implementation of camera module on a phone’. But we had to wait till ASUS launched the phone today.

There is a 48mp primary camera and a 13mp secondary wide angle camera at the back of the phone. If you want to take a selfie, the rear camera module flips to the front. Primary camera is IMX586, sourced from Sony and has f/1.79, 1.6um. The second wide angle lens has 125 degree FoV with 2x lossless digital zoom.

When you switch camera to selfie mode, the camera module is moved to the front by a stepper motor that can be stopped at any position. The stepper motor has 13 gears and supports 100+ flip scenarios. Take, for example, you want to take a low shot of a short plant. Instead of bending low, you can move the camera module 90 degrees and take a photo of the object (like how you record a video using handycam). In another scenario, if you want to take full image of a really tall building from the ground floor to the very top, you can turn on panorama mode . The camera then starts at the base of the building and starts moving up. Once you have the desired shot, you tap on ‘tick’ on camera application and the photos is saved.

When you are recording someone talking while moving, it is not easy to keep the person in the middle of the frame. Thanks to the amazing movable camera module, all you need to do is tap on the subject and camera module will start moving to track the subject if he/she is moving while talking into the camera.

A moving part is always at risk from fall. Fortunately, the camera module is made from liquid metal and is incredibly strong. Also, the module closes the moment the phone senses a fall. Thanks to high speed stepper motor, it takes less than a second for the module to shut into the phone.

Coming to video recording, this camera can record 4K resolution videos at 60fps and EIS is enabled. You can also record slo-mo vidoes at 480 fps (HD), 240fps(FullHD).

Build

The ASUS ZenFone 6 is a very well built phone, with premium metal and glass body. While the display is protected by Gorilla glass 6, the rear glass is Gorilla Glass 3. If you want to use this phone, like any other phones with glass back, you have to use a case. ASUS may ship the phone with transparent case so that you can protect the phone right from the moment you pick the phone.

On the right side, there is a smart assist key that can be configured to quick shortcuts/actions (screenshot, camera, app launch etc) or can be used to launch Google Assistant. In Google assistant mode, a single press will let you speak to Assistance, double click for personal updates and long press will enable conversation mode. You can also find the volume rocker and power button on the right side. Triple card slot (2 Nano-SIM+ 1 microSD) is placed on the right side. Below, there is a Type-C USB port, stereo speaker, 3.5mm headphone jack. The top part is clean as there is the camera module.

The fingerprint sensor is mounted on the back panel. There is no under display fingerprint sensor. While this may disappoint a few, we are glad that ASUS went with much faster capacitive reader. ASUS logo is etched on the back side and the blue logo against deep blue panel looks dope. The camera module is placed at the top.

Battery

ASUS had made huge in roads with respect to battery life with ZenFone Max Pro series and with Zenfone 5Z. Thanks to near stock Android and clean UI, those phones came with very good battery life. The ASUS ZenFone 6 comes with a massive 5000 mAh battery life. We were actually shocked when we were told that this phone will come with 5000mAh battery.

The Snapdragon 855 is very power efficient, the display, being 1080p FullHD will not drain battery. ASUS has also incorporated lot of great RAM management features that save battery life. You can easily expect 8+ hour SoT with this phone.

Making a thin phone with a large battery is not easy and you can ask Samsung what happens when one squeezes in too much into too little space. There need to be a balance between thickness of battery, speed of charging and heat generated by charging. ASUS had to take a call whether to add large battery with ultra high speed charging (30W+) and increase thickness of phone or to add smaller battery with 30W+ charging and keep phone thin or go with slightly slower charging and retain huge battery while keeping phone thin. ASUS ZenFone 6 comes with 18W charging support and the bundled charger can charge the battery at this wattage.

Display

ASUS ZenFone 6 comes with a 6″ FullHD IPS display. You can push the brightness all the way up, to 600nits. The display is completely edge to edge and is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 6. ASUS said that the display covers 100% DCI P3 color gamut.

We did feel a bit that ASUS should have gone with AMOLED panel but hey, you cannot beat the color accuracy and viewing angles of an IPS display. From our usage, the display had very good color accuracy and outdoor brightness was very good. Not having a notch and having 92% screen to body ratio is a definite advantage as the edge to edge display gives lot of room for content.

For notifications, there is a tiny notification LED above the display (top right side).

Software/Performance

ASUS ZenFone 6 comes with near stock Android with very very few pre-loaded applications. The focus has been on speed and this phone excels at that. In many scenarios, ASUS ZenFone 6 was faster than phones like Pixel 3 XL (launching camera, clearing apps, launch keyboard, opening call application etc). This is mainly because of huge optimizations that ASUS did to the kernel and Android. ASUS Zen UI comes with full dark mode and if all the applications that you use support dark mode, you will have a phone that has dark skin throughout the OS.

There is a really cool feature called ‘Private Listening’. With this feature enabled, if you are listening to something on phone’s loud speaker, as you move your phone towards your ear, the phone wills witch audio to earpiece.

Another great feature is ‘Smart Volume’ where speakers volume is set according to ambient noise.

Key Highlights of Zenfone 6

• Display: 6.4“ FHD+ NanoEdge display with 600nits brightness & Corning Gorilla 6
• CPU: Snapdragon 855
• RAM: 6/8 GB DDR4
• Storage: 64/128/256 GB UFS 2.1
• Rear Camera and Front Camera: Flip IMX586 48MP f/1.79 + 13MP 125-degree Wide angle, Laser AF assist. + Dual LED flash
• Battery: 5000 mAH
• SIM card slots: Dual Nano
• microSD: Dedicated Card Slot
• OS: Android 9
• UI: Zen UI 6
• Thickness: 9.1 mm
• Weight: 190 grams

Conclusion

From our brief usage, we were impressed with the ASUS ZenFone 6. When ASUS asked what we thought of about the phone, we told them that we rarely see a phone that has everything in it and that it all comes down to the pricing and how the phone is marketed. I joked to colleague that if this phone had an Apple logo, it would put Apple back on #1 spot in many many countries. This phone is ‘that’ good. Unique and capable camera, premium look and feel, lightweight OS, huge battery, Android Q beta ready, FM radio, notification LED, headphone jack, edge to edge IPS display! The list of features are endless. ASUS engineers have put their heart and soul in it and we really wish that the phone kills handful of flagship phones from other brands.