Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom

A picture is worth a thousand words. So, a phone that claims to be the choice smartphone for taking detail-packed photos without costing a fortune is worth at least as many, wouldn’t you say?

The Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom is the company’s latest attempt at bringing “forget about your DSLR” camera optics to the mid-range smartphone market. And just like any phone should, it succeeds in many places where last year’s model faltered.

Asus’ offering feels more premium than phones at its $329 price range and even some more expensive options. And it’s not just its looks that have it ahead of the pack, it stuffs in a surprising amount of tech, too. In addition to a competent chipset that can handle most of what you throw at it, it boasts a huge 5,000mAh battery that puts two-day battery life well within reach.

For the most part, the Zenfone 3 Zoom lives up to its camera-centric name. While slightly reduced in its optical zoom ability from the Asus Zenfone Zoom’s 3x to 2.3x, it’s still more than you’ll get with most phones out there. Plus, the original phone’s enormous camera bump is now completely gone and the aperture values have improved to f/1.7 from f/2.4, so low-light photos look even better.

While it loses the slick spun metal look of Asus’ current Zen lineup of products, the brushed metal design suits this phone and makes it look like more of an iPhone competitor than the Asus Zenfone 3 Deluxe. And depending on who you ask, this is a good thing or a bad thing.

Neither changes the fact that this phone, while just above the budget mark, is one that folks of all income levels should pay close attention to if value and having oodles of camera modes at disposal are important to you.  

Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom price and release date

• Out now in the US for $329, may release globally with a different name
• Unlocked for AT&T, T-Mobile and other GSM networks

Asus looks to be following in the successful footsteps of Moto and other companies with an accessible price point and wide availability for its unlocked phone. Starting at $329 (about £255, AU$442), you can snag it now from a variety of online sources including Asus’ own store, Amazon, Newegg, Best Buy and other retailers.

It’s important to consider that while this phone is unlocked, it will only work with GSM networks, like AT&T, T-Mobile, Straight Talk, MetroPCS and Cricket, among others. Verizon, Sprint and US Cellular customers will have to look for a different phone.

If you live outside of the US, it’s still unclear if it will ever make it to your region. However, it may arrive (or has already arrived) under a different name, “Asus Zenfone Zoom S”. We’re seeing that this model is currently available in Indonesia, but we’ll keep an eye on its movement elsewhere.

Design

• Streamlined design is miles ahead of the original Zoom
• Suffers from copycat syndrome, but looks stunning for the price
• Gorilla Glass 5 brings added resilience to this mid-tier phone
• Gap between screen and chassis is really the only downside in design

The Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom really couldn’t be more different from its predecessor. Both inside and out, this model went under the microscope and came away all the better for it.

While the original focused on somewhat gaudy, standout details like a faux leather back and the spun metal detailing on its front, the phone rids itself of almost any identifiable feature. It’s stripped down, simple and clean. There will be people who are looking for a bit more of an identity here, but coming off of last year’s phone, this is definitely a step in the right direction.

The front of this phone features a stunning 5.5-inch AMOLED display covered in a slightly curved panel of Gorilla Glass 5. For the low price of this phone, the combination of a high-quality screen, slim bezels and high-end protection are unexpected, but nevertheless welcome additions on the design front.

Other than the three capacitive buttons used for navigation, everything else is standard fare with the LED notification and front-facing camera flanking its earpiece. The outside edges of the phone are smooth and rounded, giving the phone a premium feel, albeit a slightly slippery one in the hand. Thankfully, it comes with a case in the box, so protecting your investment couldn’t be any simpler.

A look around the phones perimeter reveals plastic power and volume rocker buttons with a slick, spun metal design. On the phone’s bottom, there’s a USB-C port, the always-appreciated headphone jack and a single speaker. It’s about all you need on a modern phone.

Flagship phone makers like to brag about their seamless transitions of materials, and while this one has its share of high caliber design touches, it’s impossible to ignore that its glass-covered screen juts out a bit more than other devices. However, it’s a small hiccup on the grand scale of Asus’ greater successes here.

Around its back, the Zenfone 3 Zoom balances plastic and metal to showcase its cameras and fingerprint sensor. Understandably, plastic is used on its corners, which will take a beating a bit better than metal if you drop the phone. Near its top is the compact dual lens camera setup with a flash and laser focus parallel to its bottom. Thankfully, the fingerprint sensor is intuitive to reach, unlike the one found on the Samsung Galaxy S8. It’s easy to find and better yet, it’s really fast at recognizing your print. 

Interface and reliability

• Comes with Marshmallow, but Nougat said to be coming very soon
• ZenUI has improved, but doesn’t punish those who want to tuck it all away
• Unlocked means no carrier bloatware = a very good thing

Asus has a fairly long history of making Android phones and in that time, it has charted an equally long evolution of its ZenUI, its flavored coating that’s splashed onto the stock Android experience that Nexus and Pixel users have access to.

Since I last had my hands on it with the original Asus Zenfone Zoom, it has improved a good amount. Asus’ take on Android has always been filled with handy features that are just a scroll or tap away, but it has gotten better at staying out of you way during casual use of the Zenfone 3 Zoom.

That said, several of the device’s built-in widgets are set to alert you by default. Things like letting you know what color temperature the phone is set to, or how “healthy” it is with its current RAM and battery usage. While helpful for some, I was keen to turn this stuff off as soon as I could, and Asus makes this easy enough.

Regarding bloatware, you won’t find any on the Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom thanks to it going the unlocked route. When a phone comes tied to a carrier, there’s usually a group of pre-installed apps that you have to deal with as a result. But here, every one of Asus’ apps can be either disabled or uninstalled uninstalled if you have a preferred alternative in mind. 

Interestingly, I didn’t want to uninstall them. I appreciated most, if not all, of Asus’ app inclusions. Its FM Radio, Laser Ruler and Sound Recorder are all super helpful features that I’m not normally accustomed to having built into the Google Pixel.

Same rule applies for the ZenUI launcher. If you don’t like it, you can download the Google Now launcher or whichever you prefer, such is the beauty of Android. Lastly, you can expect to find the suite of Google’s usual suspects, like Drive, Hangouts, Photos, Maps, Duo and a few others.

Regarding the operating system, this model in particular comes loaded with Android Marshmallow, not the latest and greatest Android Nougat update that many high-profile phones have been treated to. However, Asus did tell me that it plans to launch the update within the first half of June. Whether Android O support will follow in the next year is something we’ll have to wait to see about. 

Music, movies and gaming

• Hi-Res audio support and DTS:X virtual surround sound make for a killer audio experience
• The gorgeous AMOLED screen is a huge perk for this $329 phone
• Can handle new games surprisingly well

All phones can play music, movies and games, but only some can do all three in spectacular fashion. Given its reasonable price, this phone places pretty high up on the list.

Starting with music, this phone is more equipped than options like the iPhone 7 and HTC U11, each of which ditched their headphone jack. You’ll find this ever-handy legacy port on the bottom of the phone, but you can also listen via Bluetooth if you’ve already snipped the cord. No matter how you’re listening, the AudioWizard tool amps up the sound to your liking with its DTS X sound capabilities. Each of the settings switch up the sound profile in an interesting way and I had a lot of fun tweaking them depending on the genre of music I was listening to.

Movies and TV shows look spectacular on the Zenfone 3 Zoom thanks to its AMOLED display. It brings true blacks and more richly saturated colors and contrast to the forefront, which only adds to the viewing experience. During my time with the phone, viewing angles and viewability outdoors exceeded my expectations.

While not the most powerful phone, I found gaming on this phone to be completely serviceable. My favorite mobile game of the past year, Alto’s Adventure, runs at a silky 60 frames per second. Knowing well that this isn’t the most demanding game, I tried out FIFA Mobile, a fully 3D title, and experienced similarly smooth results. 

Specs and performance

• Mimics the more expensive Moto Z Play in terms of specs
• This mid-tier phone feels nearly as fast as more expensive devices

If you’re looking for a phone that compares spec-for-spec to the Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom, look no further than the Moto Z Play. From the 5.5-inch AMOLED display and 3GB of RAM to the Snapdragon 625 and USB-C port, it’s almost a total match. So, color us surprised when this phone literally zoomed past the Z Play with a 4,114 multicore average score in Geekbench 4. 

Asus’ latest phone doesn’t come close to rivaling flagship Android phones like the Google Pixel, Samsung Galaxy S8 or LG G6, but in its price bracket, the Zenfone 3 Zoom is one of the more powerful and power-efficient phones available right now. 

Throughout our testing for review, this phone didn’t stutter between app switching or during general use. Executing tasks like scrolling through web pages is quick and booting into the camera app are as quick as you’d hope. 

• Comes with a whopping 5,000mAh battery that promise,s at the very least, one full day for all users
• Casual users will get days of battery life out of this phone
• Cameras aren’t perfect, but offer good utility, many, many modes and better-than-average performance for the price

The battery and camera are two aspects of a phone that we usually don’t hold our breath for when it comes to budget or even mid-range options. Funny enough, that’s exactly where the Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom puts its focus.

Starting with the battery, there’s a behemoth inside of this one: 5,000mAh, to be specific. It won’t win any awards for thinness, but it’s remarkable that Asus was able to fit a battery of this capacity inside of an 8mm smartphone. For some reference, the Samsung Galaxy S8 features a 3,000mAh battery and the LG G6 comes with 3,300mAh.

Now, numbers don’t mean a thing if they don’t translate to, in this case, longer than average battery life. Thankfully, this large battery showed it stuff during our time with it.

If you’re someone who uses your phone on more of a touch-and-go basis, as in not sitting down to play games or surf the web for long while, the Zenfone 3 Zoom will last a remarkably long time. During a three-day weekend in which we used the camera for more than an hour and browsed for just as long, the battery only discharged roughly 15%. Asus tells us that this phone can last 40 days in standby mode and based on our findings, we believe it. 

Thanks to the Snapdragon 625, which showed off its efficiency capabilities in the Moto Z Play, we’re seeing that put to use even better here with a much larger battery. Under the stress of playing a 90-minute HD video stored locally, this phone only discharged 10% of its battery, leaving 90% left in the bucket.

While it’s particularly skilled at staying alive, the Zenfone 3 Zoom eventually will die. But fortunately, bringing it back up to speed doesn’t take all that long. Considering its large capacity, we’re impressed that it can charge to 11% in 15 minutes. At the hour mark, it was filled halfway. For most people, that’s about a full day of use. Give it roughly another hour and a half and it was back at 100%. Sure, it’s not the fastest charging device out there, but given that even a miniscule charge can give back hours of use is good in our books. 

Camera

• Software isn't the most intuitive out there, but is feature-packed
• Pro mode lets you tweak to your heart's desire
• Android Nougat bringing iPhone 7 Plus-like Portrait Mode soon

We’ve finally arrived at the main event, the cameras. On the back of the phone is a dual-lens camera setup that has the specs to push it above your everyday smartphone camera, especially those that we usually see in this price bracket.

The main 12MP Sony IMX362 sensor comes with an impressive f/1.7 aperture that should produce some great low-light shots, but the results here are just passable. Shooting at night or indoors is something that few smartphones have come close to figuring out, so it’s not surprising to see the Zenfone 3 Zoom fumble this. 

Additionally, Asus has included 4-axis optical image stabilization and 3-axis electronic image stabilization, the same sort of tech that we’ve seen in action on several flagship models to keep blur and shaky videos to a minimum. You can see this in action below.

Right next to the primary sensor is another 12MP sensor that offers 2.3x optical zoom and 12x digital zoom. The Zenfone 3 Zoom’s predecessor can do 3x optical, but even with the slight dip in this model, it still offers more zoom without distortion than its competitors. The iPhone 7 Plus offers 2x optical zoom, just for reference.

If you’re into shooting video, you can do so at up to 4K resolution (24 frames per second) on this phone. If you prefer greater fidelity, the Zenfone 3 Zoom can do 1080p at 60 frames per second.

Flipped over to the front, Asus’ photo-centric phone features a 13MP Sony IMX214 sensor backed by an f/2.0 aperture and screen flash. You can also shoot 1080p footage with this camera.

Asus has packed this phone with a load of effects that let you express yourself in some interesting ways no matter which of the cameras you use. Of course, it has a manual mode that lets you tweak the ISO, exposure value and color balance of each photo that you take. It even lets you switch between the rear lenses depending on how you want to capture your subject.

Other settings are predictable, but nevertheless welcome inclusions, like slow motion, time lapse, beautification, low light and more. Its GIF capture mode stands out as an easy and fun way to shoot a quick animation to send off to friends.

But enough about specs and features. What can this phone actually do? Well, take a look below.

For the price, the Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom produces pretty good results. While many of the photos don’t feature the lush contrast and delicate color balance that, say, the Google Pixel can pump out, I’d have no reservations about making this my primary camera in a pinch, unless I was shooting in low-light.

Compared to other phones in its price range, the Zenfone 3 Zoom puts out quality images and offers dollops of customization for people who like to have their hand in every last detail.  

I’m surprised by the Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom. While I was fairly impressed with its specs and the much-improved design over the original Asus Zenfone Zoom, its direct predecessor, I wasn’t completely sold. That’s mostly because I didn’t know how much it would cost. 

At $329, not only is it cheaper and far better than the Zenfone Zoom, it’s one of the best mid-tier options available. Asus’ ZenUI has improved to the point where it’s no longer a red flag for most users and the value here in terms of spec and design is tough to beat. 

Who's it for?

This phone is for people who don’t want to shell out $600+ on a smartphone, but want premium features, like a dual-lens camera, USB-C charging, AMOLED display and a competent set of specs.

For its $329, Asus makes it difficult to find things to complain about here. Some may not like the taste of ZenUI and some of its camera modes don’t yield the quality that it advertises, but the Zenfone 3 Zoom gets much more right than it does wrong. 

Should you buy it?

It’s hard enough for a phone to satisfy the needs of one group of people, let alone both the low-end and high-end crowds. Somehow, Asus has managed to do just that with the Zenfone 3 Zoom.

While not perfect in its execution, it’s full of crowd-pleasing features and rocks a pleasing design that defies its price point, coming together as a smart buy for just about anyone.