Gadgetory

hey what is going on guys lon here for Android Authority and earlier this year a Seuss announced a new line of low-cost Android phones called Zen phones but are any of them actually any good let's take a look specifically at the azuz zyne phone 5 all right so here it is the zenfone 5 and starting with the design it's actually a pretty good looking phone it kind of reminds me of the HTC One m7 from last year with its slightly rounded corners flat sides and curved back except entirely made of plastic with the exception of the metal accent on the chin of the phone it's a little thick coming in at ten point three millimeters but the curved back makes it feel thinner than it actually is and it feels very solid in the hand the power and volume keys are also very nice and clicky and the matte finish on the back casing makes it easy to hold while doing a great job of detracting fingerprints the back is removable revealing the two SIM card slots and a microSD slot with support up to 64 gigs the only part of the design of this phone that I'm not really a fan of is the thick bezels around all sides of the display making this phone larger than other phones with similar display sizes like the Nexus 5 and the samsung galaxy s5 it isn't unwieldy to hold in the hand by any means as I certainly don't have the largest hands in the world but the size difference definitely is noticeable on the back towards the bottom of the phone you're going to find a single speaker denoted by a series of milled holes in the back casing but it's not really as big as it looks and you can see this one taking the back off that the speaker sits only on the left side so if I were to play a song and it sounds alright it's a pretty average speaker it gets decently loud without sounding tinny but honestly I wouldn't expect too much from it on the front of the zenfone 5 you're looking at a 5 inch IPS display with 720p resolution and while it doesn't hold a candle to other more high resolution displays on the market it's certainly far from a bad display despite the resolution graphics and text still look pretty sharp viewing angles are good and color reproduction seems pretty accurate too but for being in an IPS display it's a lot dimmer than I'm used to even at maximum brightness making a little difficult to see outdoors but other than the brightness issue it's an overall enjoyable display the specs on the zenfone 5 are a little different from what you normally see on an Android phone as it's being powered by a dual-core Intel Atom processor with 2 gigs of RAM with 8 or 16 gigs of internal storage and it performs pretty well for the most part regular everyday tasks like swiping through home screens web browsing and opening of apps are all fairly smooth but I have noticed some stability issues with certain apps forced closing or just refusing to open altogether it's probably nothing that can't be fixed with a software update but it's still annoying nonetheless gaming on the other hand is where this phone really struggles as games are very slow to load and while more simplistic games run just fine graphically intensive games are very choppy and laggy making them virtually unplayable around back is an 8 megapixel shooter with autofocus and LED flash with a Seuss's pixel master technology and the camera interface isn't the cleanest or most simplistic but it does give you a lot of control of your photos for more serious smartphone photography the shutter speed is a little slow but there is a burst mode and even a turbo burst mode which is basically burst mode but even faster to help make up for the slow shutter a soos also packs in a lot of shooting modes into their camera from basic ones like panorama HDR and night mode to more unique features like depth field and selfie mode making this camera a lot of fun to use the depth of field feature is hit or miss you'll have to have some steady hands when taking these shots and sometimes you can get some very convincing depth of field but more often than not it looks rather artificial even if you have a clear subject of focus I did like the HDR mode though I thought it did a great job of balancing out shots without being overly aggressive most of the time you'll probably be shooting an automatic and overall picture quality is decent at best you can get some great looking shots provided the lighting conditions are right and color reproduction looks pretty accurate but this camera lacks dynamic range resulting in a loss of detail from overexposed lights and underexposed darks the camera does have an aperture of f28 oh so it's great for low-light shots and if you need even better low-light performance there's a low light mode that actually works surprisingly well at pulling out detail even in almost complete darkness on the inside the zenfone 5 is packing a 2110 milliamp hour battery and battery life leaves a lot to be desired I can make through a full day just fine if I closely monitor my usage but it was really difficult to make it through the day if I use the camera a lot where I played games for even just fifteen or thirty minutes the best screen on time that I've managed to get so far is about 4 hours but it typically ranges between three to three and a half hours a seuss does include some power saving options to help you get the most out of your battery which I found myself using quite a bit especially on days where I was out and about and didn't have a charger closeby as far as the software is concerned the zenfone 5 is running Android 4.3 jelly bean with a promise of being updated KitKat by Zeus not sure when exactly that is going to happen but on top of Android 4.3 is a Seuss's Zen UI and it's got a lot of great things going for it the first thing you'll notice is the somewhat unique lockscreen with its spotlight effect that follows your finger with shortcuts to your camera dialer text messaging and important calendar and weather information which are all very useful features diving in further the Zen UI is actually pretty clean looking and adds a lot of extra functionality that aren't gimmick without taking away from the core Android experience swiping down on the left side of the notification shade will take you directly to your notifications while swiping down on the right side will take you to your quick settings there's also a brightness slider built directly into the notification shade and along with some of the more basic toggles like Wi-Fi GPS and airplane mode there's a lot of really useful ones like the flashlights calculator and quick memo but if it looks a little too cluttered or there's some toggles that you don't care to use as soos does give you the option to edit and remove them if you want a soos has also added in an easy mode with larger icons and text creating for a more simplistic user experience and a glove mode if you need that increased touch screen sensitivity the zenfone 5 is available now for a supposed price of $150 off contract but if you're in the United States still be hard-pressed to find this phone for less than $200 as the soos has not officially made this phone available in the US which is kind of a bummer connectivity wise there is no LTE but it does support both AT&T and t-mobile 3G bans if you're inside the United States looking to get one for yourself but there you have it for the zenfone 5 for a budget smartphone it's got a lot of good things going for it like the solid build quality a decent looking display and a lot of very useful software features it does fall short in some areas like the performance and battery life which could potentially be improved with future software updates but you can expect to win them all especially at this particular price point but that is pretty much it for this video hopefully you guys enjoyed it and if you did give it a thumbs up down below and also subscribe to the channel if you haven't already which is also down below and once you're done doing all that make sure to check out the web site at Android Authority comm for more in-depth coverage and as always thank you so much for watching and keep it locked on Android authority as we are your source for all things Android