Zenfone 2 Review: Why Shouldn't You

Zenfone 2 Review: Why Shouldn't You Buy This Fantastic Budget Phone?

Chris Mills
7/16/15 3:15pmFiled to: ZENFONE 2 REVIEW
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For the past year, if you wanted a cheap-but-good smartphone, the internet would point you firmly in the direction of OnePlus and its too-good-to-be-true One smartphone. Now, it has some competition: the ZenFone 2 from Asus.

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What Is It?

An unlocked 5.5-inch Android handset, which you can easily buy off-contract and use on any GSM network. (Think T-Mobile and AT&T, not Verizon or Sprint.) There are two versions: $200 gets you a 1.8GHz Intel processor and 2GB of RAM, while $300 sees that upgraded to 2.3GHz and 4GB of RAM. Either way, you’re looking at jaw-droopingly good specs for something that costs half of the average flagship phone.

In other words, it’s a lot like the OnePlus One.



Who’s It For?

People who don’t want to be tied to a two-year contract. Klutzes who break phones halfway through contracts and need a replacement (hi, friends!). Anyone who looks at the attention-grabbing features of the flagship Android handsets and just goes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

The Zenfone has one other party trick: thanks to the dual SIM card slots (and the fact that it’s an unlocked phone you can use on any GSM carrier), it also makes a good travel companion: you can pick up a local SIM at your destination to use for data, but keep your American card in the second slot, and still pick up cell calls on your regular number.

Design

If the Zenfone’s internals are standard-issue Android, then so is the design: Gorilla Glass front, three (non-illuminated) buttons down below, and a curved plastic back hiding the dual SIM and microSD slots. Check, check and check.

But the Zenfone looks way classier than other phones its size—OnePlus One included. Apple and HTC would have you believe that a phone has to be handcrafted from aluminum by a British knight to be any good; the Zenfone’s understated, solid design makes a mockery of that. It’s a pleasant thing to hold that doesn’t feel like it will break when you inevitably drop it, and the plastic does a decent job of looking like brushed aluminum from a distance.


It’s not all roses and sunshine, though: the 5.5-inch phone is a little unwieldy. You know what makes that worse? Sticking the power button squarely in the middle, along the top. Sure, it probably pleases some designer’s aesthetic sensibilities (Clean lines! Symmetry!), but it sucks to use. Putting the button there means you’ll have to shift your grip every time you turn the phone on, or just suck it up and always use two hands. Frequently reply to texts while holding a coffee? Better get good at typing with your nose!

One cool optional addition is the $40 Asus ZenFone flip cover. It replaces the standard back cover with one that wraps all the way around the phone like a mini notebook, with a little window built into the front. When the case is closed, the screen behind that window has a couple of simple pages you can flip through, like time, notifications, weather, or a tragically awful camera viewfinder. It’s pretty cool.


Using It

The higher-end $300 version of the Zenfone has a 64-bit Intel Atom processor running at 2.3GHz, and 4GB of RAM. Does that mean it has a powerful PC-grade processor inside? Nah. In practice, it’s no better than the Qualcomm Snapdragons you’ll find inside most other Android phones.

But, importantly, it’s also not worse. The Atom processor in here powers through graphically intense games and 4K video streaming like a champ. It might not score quite as high as Qualcomm’s latest on the benchmarks, but where it actually matters, you’re not going to notice. Side-by-side with the OnePlus One and its Snapdragon 801, I challenge you to tell the difference: they both scream along just fine.

Ready for the catch? Asus has stuffed it t