Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom ZE553KL 64GB smartphone review

Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom ZE553KL was launched as the main competitor to DSLR cameras. In our review we will find out

does this smartphone really deserve such status.

Design

The new ZenFone 3 Zoom smartphone is no longeruses a leather back panel like the previous generation. Instead, it gets an aluminum design. Measuring 154.3x77x8mm and weighing 170g, the Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom ZE553KL is smaller and lighter than the iPhone despite its large 5.5-inch AMOLED screen.

In fact, the body is not completely made ofmetal, since plastic is present in the upper and lower parts of the phone. We really like that the corners are not metallic. This should help the smartphone to remain intact when dropped on a hard surface.

Volume and power buttons are locatedon the right side. At the bottom of the smartphone, we see a USB Type-C port, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a speaker. The left side is a tray for two SIM cards and microSD memory cards. However, if you want to use two SIM cards at once, you will have to donate a memory card.

The bezels around the display are large, especially at the bottom where the capacitive touch buttons are located. The Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom ZE553KL has a rather poor screen/body size ratio of just 70.2%.

In general, the smartphone has a very cute and minimalistic design. We found no really annoying details.

Hardware

Inside the Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom ZE553KL is locatedSnapdragon 625 processor and graphics accelerator Adreno 506 GPU. They provide high speed and efficient power consumption. The fact that the Snapdragon 625 consumes 35% less energy than its predecessors really deserves special respect.

After a few hours of active play, we don’tnoticed a strong heating of the body, although it is made of metal. It seems that the company Asus really paid special attention to heat generation and battery life when developing a ZenFone 3 Zoom smartphone.

The fingerprint scanner is on the backpanels, approximately one inch from the top face. The index finger gropes it easily. We also did not notice any problems with recognition accuracy.

Display

five.The 5-inch AMOLED screen has a resolution of 1080 × 1920 pixels. The brightness is high, but the colors are unsaturated, which often happens with AMOLED displays. Oleophobic coating of the display does not leave fingerprints on the surface.

Brightness can be adjusted depending onuse day or night. However, the automatic brightness was a bit disappointing, especially on rainy days. The screen became darker, which is quite unusual for the eyes.

Since the Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom ZE553KL has a maximum brightness of 500 nits, the display has no problems with direct sunlight.

The color temperature of the display defaults to yellow, but this can be changed in the settings of the screen, making it colder or blue.

Sound

Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom ZE553KL is really loud. The smartphone is equipped with a 5-magnetic speaker with an expanded sound chamber and a metal voice coil. What does it mean? Less distortion and clearer, more powerful sound.

Software

Zen UI 3 user interface.0 runs smoothly and offers many useful features. A long press on the empty area of ​​the home table gives access to various functions, from system management and theme settings to other parameters.

You can call me old fashioned, but to meI like the fact that Asus still uses a separate menu for applications, leaving the home screen clean and neat. If you want all applications to be located on the main screen, then go to Settings - Home screen.

Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom ZE553KL has large andcartoon icons. Of course, you can change the size of the icons, customize folders, change the font and font size, customize the look and more. If you do not like the default theme, you can choose any other in the Asus store.

In general, if you understand in detail, you can find a lot of useful features and settings.

Camera

As you might guess from the name, the mainA special feature of the Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom ZE553KL is 2.3x optical zoom. Moreover, the smartphone comes with dual cameras just like the iPhone 7 Plus. One of them uses a 25mm wide-angle lens with an f/1.7 aperture, and the second — 59mm lens with 2.3x optical zoom. Similar to Apple's latest smartphone, you can instantly switch between lenses to keep your shots sharp.

Both cameras have a resolution of 12 megapixels, anduse the autofocus system "TriTech +". The system includes a dual-focus phase-detection autofocus (PDAF), object autofocus and a new laser focusing system.

ZenFone 3 Zoom ZE553KL is the first device from ASUS with the new SuperPixel technology, which includes "intelligent adjustment of ISO levels" and noise reduction.

Below you can see sample photos from the Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom ZE553KL camera.

Battery

Smartphone Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom ZE553KL has excellent battery life, which is not surprising, since it is equipped with a 5000 mAh rechargeable battery.

The battery is truly amazing.We even had to work hard to discharge it completely. To give you an idea of ​​what we're talking about, here's how we tested the battery: 6 hours of active use, including 5 hours of gaming, 1.5 hours of online music, and Wi-Fi hotspot turned on for 2 hours.

When we did not try to quickly discharge the battery,During the day, we regularly watched Facebook, Instagram, corresponded in WhatsApp, and also listened to streaming music. As a result, we received a 50% charge at the end of the day.

Smartphone Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom ZE553KL offers 36-40 hours of battery life with the screen on, 48 hours of talk time, 25 hours of Wi-Fi on and just over 6 hours of video viewing.

You can also use Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom ZE553KL as a PowerBank for other devices.

Unfortunately, the mobile device does not have fast charging. A full charge from 0 to 100% takes two hours and 20 minutes, while from 0 to 50% — about an hour.

Price

Currently you can buy Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom ZE553KL for 30,000 rubles. The price tag is a bit high, but, given the good camera and battery life, the cost is quite consistent with the smartphone.

Conclusion

Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom ZE553KL — this is one ofthose smartphones that we would recommend for purchase. The user interface is highly customizable, the performance is fast, the screen is high quality, the sound is excellent, the camera is great.

If you are looking for a phone with a great camera and long battery life, then you should take a closer look at the Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom ZE553KL.