Gadgetory

earlier this year we gave us ooh some high marks for a nice offering in the flagship zenfone 2 but now AT&T has been able to procure a entry level version of the phone made for prepaid go phone customers with such a lower price point in matching specifications how does this budget-minded zenfone fare it's Josh with a car from Android authority what's going on everybody and this is the assuit then phone 2e despite a smaller size the zenfone 2e retains much of the design language started by its flagship brethren the power button is up top which might feel a little weird to season two Android users who are used to having it on the side but considering the smaller overall size of the 2e it isn't really that hard to reach the vine rocker is on the back not quite akin to the way LG does it but the index finger still lands easily on the buttons and though the rocker feels a little squishier than we would have liked there have been no issues with input throughout usage even the front buttons are all capacitive with a small brushed area underneath them providing a little extra texture to the phone's look a really nice feature of this phone is the inclusion of a replaceable back cover though this edition originally came in why it's simply popping off the backing and replacing it with the black cover was easy and underneath the cover is where the slots for SIM and microSD cards can be put though we never found the 5.5 inch zenfone 2 to be too cumbersome with its screen shedding half an inch obviously helps the 2e in the handling department the curve on the back of the phone also helps as it sits really well and helps angle the phone for side-to-side operations it's probably best to call these n phone 2e a pretty Spartan device because aside from the button layout you don't really get too many bells and whistles on this phone otherwise for a go phone however you still get some of the good looks that the design language of a Seuss's best phones can provide with the smaller display comes a smaller resolution but for the very casual user the zenfone 2e should suffice this 5-inch display comes in at 720p resolution lower than the full HD performer of the original but it makes sense considering the price of this go phone 294 pixels per inch lower the amount of sharpness for text reading but it isn't the worst performer that we've seen that said we definitely noticed a change in overall quality and this screen compared to full and quad HD screens but it's nothing to fault this budget device over viewing angles happen to be pretty good and the general color temperature tends to be on the warmer side but this can be changed with a built-in screen color mode selector where modes can be selected or the user can customize the temperature text noticeably loses a bit of sharpness with the drop in resolution making this a simply decent performer in the scope of the total market colors remains pretty good and brightness benefits from the IPS construction making media consumption still enjoyable for the user that isn't really looking for the most clarity or the highest resolution so as a budget go phone having 720p resolution in its screen is pretty standard making the zenfone 2e the kind of performer that the frugal user expects and the same can be said for performance made possible by the Intel Atom Z 2560 a big step down from the Intel processor that was found in the original zenfone 2 this dual core processor pumping 1.6 gigahertz is backed by power VR graphics and 1 gigabytes of RAM though the processor package will bear some of the blame for the performance it's clear that even casual users will find some frustration with mainly the 1 gigabyte of RAM of which can be used are pretty easily causing slowdown even in the home screens there is a measure of stutter observed and then there are delays loading most applications it shouldn't be expected that intensive apps like high-end games would work all that well on here but even for a middle-of-the-road game like combo croute to crash consistently is a bit disheartening and for that reason we don't really see the zenfone 2e working on a very consistent basis for the casual gamer for games that are any higher than let's say candy crush simple point-and-click games for the most parts honestly you can try the games that you want on this phone but your mileage may simply vary so it's not surprising that app cleaners are prominently shown in the recent apps screen and in the notification drop-down they are there to show you that there are some limits to what this phone's processing power can handle and the same can be said for the internal storage of which there is a sub standard 8 gigabytes after installing a couple of games and then streaming some music on Spotify and filling up the cache with them the space was already used up luckily a micro SD card slot is available with expansion of up to 64 gigabytes possible so media and especially pictures can be put on there for better keeping connections and phone call quality are obviously dependent on the AT&T network phone calls came in quite clear and we experienced no drops in the 4G LTE network managed to be pretty reliable no matter where I went in my part of Southern California and nearly all connections are found here with the exception of NFC the rear-facing speaker is a pretty standard fare with somewhat tinny noise that doesn't get too loud and lacks in mostly the lower middle to lower ends and finally in the battery 2500 milliamp hours in the unit performs just about as well as it should on a typical day it isn't a particularly large battery but with the lower resolution in the screen and the lower specifications especially when compared to even other phones in its price brackets you could pretty much get more than a day's worth from the zenfone 2e especially if you use the optimized power modes the following Geekbench battery test was used in the optimized power saving mode which is the default and seemed to do a pretty good job of keeping the on screen time from tumbling down but with heavier usage for things like GPS tracking and also music streaming I had to reach for an external battery before the end of the day so it's not a terrible performer but the user will have to cater usage to make the phone last longer for them and in camera and eight megapixel shooter provides some extra modes you might not expect from an entry-level smartphone HDR a miniature mode and even a smart removal mode are all available video modes include time-lapse at 1080p resolution and for selfies 2 megapixel pictures are possible in the front-facing camera though the dedicated selfie mode was pretty great to use using user defined face detection the rear facing camera will snap three photos based on how many faces it finds this was a pretty good mode to use and it would be good for anyone that wants a better selfie from this phone unfortunately picture quality all around is expectedly very low as proportional to the very low price point as they can get sharpness was really low only made much worse when zooming in and colors are quite muted with brighter parts of pictures typically getting blown out HDR does tend to be a better choice in most situations as it lowers exposure a bit on those blown out areas but more importantly adds a healthy amount of saturation Zahl colors what probably hurts the experience most is the slower speed of capture as a solid delay from shutter button the file is always observed not to mention the slower shutter speed that often adds blur to the already lower sharpness photos and video showed these same problems especially blowing out highlights and in showcasing that shutter speed that results in higher stutter throughout for capturing the moment the zenfone 2e camera tries to be a good companion but quality remains proportional to the low price that this phone comes at and finally in software the Zen UI brings a generally oversaturated interface to this budget-minded device providing a lot of features that the casual user might not really take advantage of there are the different customization apps like the screen color Tweaker and a bunch of tools including even a do it later tasking camp customizations continue with plenty of options for the home screens including even icon packs different animations for scrolling and smart grouping of applications and the app screens all of this is on top of Android 5.0.1 lollipop build so material design elements are given a much more colorful and somewhat cartoony feel this can also be somewhat due to the 720p display which can make items look a little more bloated than usually found on high resolution screens but what strikes us most about the Zen UI is that it tries to provide a lot of options no matter where you are on the interface but with lower specifications and only one gigabyte of RAM it might not make as much sense because it can only really run so much before slowing down as we keep saying the highly casual user will probably find the zenfone 2e as a decent overall performer but going the extra mile is really not what this budget GoPhone was made for at a grade two one 1999 the price is definitely the rub for the zenfone 2e making this one of the easiest entry points into the world of Android not too many smart phones come at such a low price points as commonly considered budget phones include things like the Moto G in the Moto e the Moto G of which is usually about $50 more out of pocket which is why it's pretty easy to just consider the zenfone 2e as let's say a starter smartphone for the casual user looking to get into smartphones for very little money it's pretty easy to criticize a soos for not really going the extra mile in the zenfone 2e even when you compare it to its other original zenfone 2 and if you look at it in comparison to the entire smartphone market but really that's not the point of the zenfone 2e rather these zenfone 2 is for the user that needs the cheapest way to experience a smartphone without breaking the bank they just have to temper their expectations for usage on the daily it might be for the super casual gamer the occasional media streamer and the user that needs are straight-up cellphone with some smartphone capabilities so this is one of the cheapest ways to get to all of those places but really you get what you pay for as always thank you guys very much for watching and I hope you enjoyed this review of the Ascend phone - it is a go phone under the AT&T carrier here in the US and as such it is coming in at a $120 price point which makes it one of the easiest entry points into the Android smartphone world is it a great phone when you especially when you compare it to the rest of the market probably not I don't really give it very high marks in any one particular category but then again when considering this super casual user who is actually going to just use this phone for calls texting and maybe the occasional media consumption then this phone could be a decent performer on the daily but there are some other devices that might be even better than this one that you can get for an unlocked price that's not too far off from the go phone price of this so keep it tuned to Android authority for even more about the rest of the devices especially budget ones we have plenty of reviews here at the Android authority channel for you to take a look at if you're looking to save a little bit of money then take a look at all of the rest of the content from my brothers and sister in Android and from there head on over to Android authority com listen to the Android or T podcasts and discuss Android in our forums because we are your source for all things Android