Gadgetory

what's going on guys lawn here from Android authority and back at CES a sous made quite the splash by announcing the world's first smartphone with four gigabytes of RAM but is there more to this phone than just raw specifications well that's what we're here to find out with the ax Suzanne phone - the zenfone 2 is technically a budget phone but it doesn't feel or act like one the design isn't different or unique and it might actually remind you of some existing devices but that isn't necessarily a bad thing it's made of plastic like previous Zen phones but doesn't feel cheap and it's very well put together the corners are rounded and the back curves and tapers down towards the edges giving a very comfortable feel in the hand the plastic back features a faux metallic coating which not only gives it a really nice look but also gives the phone grip and prevents the back from collecting fingerprints the back is also removable revealing the two SIM slots and a micro SD card slot but the battery however is completely sealed in so if you're a fan of swapping out batteries you don't have that option here Asus claims that the zenfone 2 is a 5.5 inch smartphone in a 5 inch smartphone body and while the phone does feel fairly manageable in one hand it certainly is anywhere near the size of a 5 inch smartphone nor is even the smallest 5.5 inch smartphone out there and a lot of it has to do with the relatively thick side bezels and the large bottom chin due to the capacitive keys and while I do wish the bezels were a little bit smaller for better one-hand usability they don't necessarily detract from what is an overall very sleek looking smartphone one thing you'll notice right away about the zenfone 2 is that both the left and right sides are completely clean of any buttons or ports instead of a side mounted power button as Zeus chose to place it up top next to the 3.5 millimeter headphone jack which is kind of unfortunate not only is it difficult to reach but the button itself is also extremely flush making it very hard to press luckily a soos has implemented a double tap gesture to wake and sleep the device to help avoid the use of the power button in most cases with the volume buttons a soos took the LG approach and shifted them towards the back unlike the power button the volume keys are very easy to press with a satisfying amount of travel and the slightly Ridge texture makes them very easy to find by feel lastly the microUSB port is in a pretty standard location on the bottom and on the front is a bright notification LED light next to the usual sensors earpiece and front-facing camera a soos didn't skimp on the display of zenfone 2 either it's a large 5.5 inch screen with 1080p resolution and a pretty respectable PPI of 403 quad HD is obviously becoming a new trend but 1080p is still nothing to scoff at the screen is quite good and offers pretty much everything you would want from a high-end panel it's sharp vivid bright easy to see in broad daylight and has great viewing angles at 5.5 inches it's also great for all sorts of media like web browsing gaming YouTube and even the occasional movie whatever you enjoy doing on your smart phone this display is perfect for it also the color calibration can be adjusted in these settings if you want to tweak it more to your liking balance is the default setting which I thought looked perfectly fine but you also have a reading mode that's easier on the eyes a vivid mode that pumps up the saturation and a custom mode for more granular controls over the display settings a soos has a close relationship with Intel so it's no surprise that they stuck with the Intel Atom processor for the zenfone 2 the new Atom chipsets bring 64-bit processing to the table but these specs will vary based on the version you get the base 5.5 inch model of the zenfone 2 comes with the Intel 3560 and 2 gigabytes of RAM while the higher-end version features the Intel 35 80 with a whopping 4 gigabytes of RAM it's the first of its kind and this has gotten a lot of people's attention is it complete overkill maybe for some but for those who demand a lot out of their phones it won't be our review unit is of course the 4 gigabyte model so I can't speak for the base model but this version of the zenfone 2 is fast and it feels every bit as snappy and responsive as a $700 flagship animations are smooth apps open quickly and it handles all sorts of games extremely well four gigabytes of RAM onboard multitasking is a breeze on the zenfone 2 just to really stress out the zenfone 2 I loaded up several games at once and multitask back and forth between them and it still didn't stutter or show any signs of slowdown this was done merely for the sake of testing purposes and obviously won't be a typical use case scenario for most people but it's still very comforting to note that the zenfone 2 has the raw power to handle it especially if you're a power user with the rest of the hardware the zenfone 2 comes with all the usual things you might expect like Wi-Fi Bluetooth GPS and NFC it also supports LTE connectivity here in the states and I had no problems using it on t-mobile storage options include 16 32 and 64 gigabytes with the option to expand via microSD of up to an additional 64 gigabytes the speaker is located on the rear denoted by a very large speaker grille which might lead you to believe that there's a powerful speaker underneath but it's actually just a small single driver on the left side of the grill these sound quality is fine but it doesn't get very loud in comparison to some of the other phones out there with a single speaker making it pretty tough to hear in noisy environments the camera at the back is a 13 megapixel shooter with a dual tone LED flash and a respectable aperture of f2 just like previous Zen phones the zenfone 2 also features a Seuss's pixel master technology that's supposed to provide for better low-light in photos and video the camera software is fairly straightforward and easy to use with all the usual settings that you would expect like white balance exposure ISO and 1080p video capture among the typical modes like manual HDR and panorama the camera packs a laundry list of shooting modes to give you a variety of different ways to take photos like most cameras the zenfone 2 camera performs best in good lighting conditions and the F 2.0 aperture will allow for some nice depth of field but the cameras biggest issue is its dynamic range or lack of it it is capable of taking a decent looking shot but more often than not highlights were either completely blown out and overexposed or it was on the opposite extreme and images were way too dark and underexposed the best thing to do is to use HDR and the HDR mode works quite well on this camera it evens out the images and add some extra saturation in color which I personally don't mind at all the only downside is the HDR image processing takes a very long time between shots so if you don't have a steady hand or the subject is moving you'll wind up with a not so sharp looking photo in medium to low light is where photos will start to exhibit noise and image quality deteriorates at anything shot at ISO 300 or higher ISO is capped at 800 which limits the amount of noise that could potentially be introduced from higher ISO s but even so the camera's image processing doesn't handle the existing noise all that well the built-in low light mode takes advantage of the pixel master software to allow for up to 400 percent brighter photos and while it does work the images are lower in resolution and the increase in light makes the digital noise even more visible if you're into selfies the front facing five megapixel wide-angle lens will certainly get the job done the camera includes real-time beautification and there's also a selfie panorama mode to help you easily fit your friends and family into the frame to keep the zenfone 2 power throughout the Suz packed a nicely sized 3000 milliamp hour battery inside and when you combine that with the more battery friendly 1080p display and the battery efficiency of the Intel Atom chip this sounds like a winning combination for great battery life but that hasn't necessarily been the case while I have been able to make it through a full day with around 4 hours of screen on time there's been some significant battery drain issues from the Android OS that's drastically shortening the battery life preventing the zenfone 2 from getting a whole lot more than what it's currently capable this could be due to the fact that it's running the very initial release version of lollipop which we know had a handful of bugs or it's an issue within a Seuss's Zen UI itself it's rather difficult to pinpoint because Android OS is a very convoluted pool of background processes but hopefully this is something as soos can address fairly soon with a software update on the bright side the zenfone 2 does support fast charging technology so when you are in need of extra battery life you'll at least be able to gain it back in a short amount of time in software the zenfone 2 ships with Android lollipop but it's just 5.0 and not the latest 5.1 nor is it even 5.0 point 2 so hopefully it'll get that update soon on top of Android 5.0 is a Seuss's Zen UI and it's taken on some of the material design aspects of lollipop like the notification shade and card style overview but for previous design phone users it should still feel very familiar the biggest drawback with the Zen UI is that it brings a ton of bloatware applications but there are a good handful of features that add to the experience like an easy mode for a more simplified interface and a one-handed mode that can be triggered by a double tap of the home button for easier one-handed use there's also a bunch of screen off gestures that as soos calls Zen motion that brings a double tap to wake the display and a series of characters that can be drawn on the screen to quickly launch into any application of your choice back at CES asou said the zenfone 2 eliminates the need for carrying two phones because of the built-in snap view feature that allows you to create a completely separate and secure profile to store business and personal data that only you can access this is great if you store a lot of sensitive information on your phone and truly allows you to use your phone for both work and play one of the main attractions with these Nui is the ability to customize the interface there's a built-in theme engine that can alter the look and feel of the entire experience with different fonts icons and system UI changes like the lockscreen and notification shade the launcher preferences can also be customized simply by swiping up from the bottom or long pressing on the home screen you've got the usual options like widgets wallpapers and various different home screen scroll effects but the best part about this launcher is the ability to use third-party icon packs from the Play Store something you can only normally do with a third-party launcher the ascend phone 2 is available now in select regions like China Taiwan and Europe and will soon be releasing in India in the coming weeks but us availability is still to be announced available colors include black gold grey red and white with pricing starting at $1.99 for the base model official pricing for the higher-end models will be announced by ASUS later this month but you can expect it arranged anywhere between 50 to $100 extra based on RAM and storage once the battery life issues get resolved the Isuzu zenfone 2 is going to be a beast of a smartphone to contend with and with a beautiful design powerful specs and an overall solid user experience that caters to a variety of users a soos is proving once again that you don't have to pay a lot to get a lot if all goes well the zenfone 2 is going to be very disruptive in the smartphone market setting a completely new standard for affordable smartphones as 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