Priced at Rs 23,999, the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro is on the costlier side, but a good bet if you are always on the go and like to capture a lot of photographs, says Khalid Anzar.
At the unveiling of Asus Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro, from left, Dinesh Sharma (Asus India, Director Mobile Product Center, System Business Group), Peter Chang (Asus India, Country Head'Regional head, South Asia) and Ajay Veer Yadav (VP-Mobiles and Mobiles Accessories, Flipkart) Photographs: Courtesy asus.com
Dual cameras have been a key feature defining the smartphone industry all this year.
But Taiwanese electronics major Asus takes the dual-camera game to the next level with the Zenfone 4 Selfie series – three selfie-centric smartphones, two of which have dual front camera set-ups.
While one variant of the Asus Zenfone 4 Selfie and the premium Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro have dual front cameras, the Zenfone 4 Selfie also has a single-front-camera variant.
The Pro version has a dual 24-megapixel plus 5 MP shooter on the front, along with a soft flash and features like the portrait mode and wide-angle shot.
Business Standard took the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro for a spin and here is what we found:
Photographs: Courtesy asus.com
Design
The metal-clad smartphone with dual front cameras looks premium from all sides.
At 147 g, the device is light, and its 6.85 mm chassis makes it slim and comfortable to hold.
But, for a 5.5-inch device, the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro looks quite big because of its extended top and bottom bezels.
The side bezels are slim and the curved Gorilla Glass on the front adds to the overall aesthetics of the smartphone.
On the back, a grainy metallic body with Asus engraved right below the primary camera unit looks premium.
Overall, the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro is a good-looking smartphone with a rugged build and slim chassis.
Display
The Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro's 5.5-inch AMOLED screen boasts a full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution.
The screen looks sharp in the default setting but colours seem over-saturated -- something seen with most OLED screens.
However, the screen colours can be optimised in settings.
There are three modes -- Super colour, Bluelight filter and Standard -- and there is also an option to customise the screen's hue and saturation.
The screen is bright and easy to read under direct sunlight.
The auto brightness setting works flawlessly and the phone bumps the brightness even more in bright outdoor conditions, making it easier to view the content on the screen.
Photograph: Courtesy asus.com
Camera
This camera-centric smartphone has a major focus on front-facing cameras.
The Zenfone Selfie Pro has a 24-megapixel camera lens and a 5MP wide-angle lens on the front and a 16MP one on the rear.
The dual selfie cameras in the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro work in tandem to take very good shots.
The front-facing dual camera set-up of the smartphone is as good as the back dual-camera set-ups that we have seen in several devices this year.
For selfie lovers, the addition of a portrait mode makes it convenient to click DSLR-type shots, focusing on the subject and an enhanced bokeh effect blurring out the rest of the objects in the frame.
The wide-angle lens increases the field of view to accommodate more people in the frame.
Besides selfie wizardry, the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro allows video recording in 4K resolution using the front-facing cameras.
The quality is not exceptional but a future update might resolve this issue.
As for the rear camera, the primary 16MP lens is not bad, either.
The focus is fast and the captured shots have a lot of detail and limited noise.
Even in low-light conditions, the rear camera captures satisfactory shots with optimum detail and balanced colours.
The camera interface for both front and back has several options.
These might stuffed to those who do not like fiddling with the default setting, but with all settings almost visible within the camera interface, it is easy to tweak the performance for desired results.
Hardware and software
The Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro is powered by the ageing Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor, an octacore SoC, coupled with Adreno 506 graphic processing unit.
The performance is not spectacular, but satisfactory.
The heavily customised Zen UI 4.0 over Android Nougat puts a lot of strain on processor.
And bloatware, the default apps that cannot be deleted, are another disappointment.
The smartphone does feel smooth during normal use, with no signs of a lag or stutter, but on heavy tasks like playing Asphalt 8 or Need for Speed, it shows some stress on the processor.
The smartphone offers 64 GB of internal storage and 4GB RAM, enough to let you multitask like a pro.
Battery
The smartphone packs a 3,000 mAh battery with fast charging capabilities.
The battery delivers more than a day's back-up, thanks to an energy-efficient processor and proper optimisations at the operating system level.
Processor-intensive tasks and regular use of cameras, however, drain the battery faster than other processes and the smartphone runs out of juice after about 10 hours.
Verdict
Priced at Rs 23,999, the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro seems to be on the costlier side.
But if you are always on the go and like to capture a lot of photographs, it could be a good bet for you.
With its premium design, top-notch camera performance and durable battery, the smartphone is a fine product.
