Gadgetory

in the US the term $200 smartphone isn't likely to bowl anyone over after all carrier subsidies routinely bring the retail price at least that low for some of the fanciest devices you can find but when you break or lose that phone and need to replace it on the cheap or when you tally up the total of all those monthly installments it's true cost becomes clear is it possible then to buy a smartphone that costs only 2 or $300 off contract while also bringing the experience of a much more expensive flagship a soos gave it a go let's see if it succeeded I'm Michael Fisher with PocketNow and this is our video review of the azuz zenfone 2 for all its potential to redefine the affordable smartphone segment the zenfone 2 makes a pretty low-key first impression with a 5.5 inch full HD display it's a big phone and with 170 gram mass and nearly 11 millimeter thickness it's pretty hefty to the features that could make it stand out or minimized or watered-down the cool rear mounted volume key for instance is also shrunken and subdued compared to competitors the capacitive buttons below the screen don't light up which is weird and the power button is positioned way up top where it's tough to get at fortunately you can double tap the Gorilla Glass 3 over the IPS display to wake it up but don't expect to be blown away by the brightness while it's plenty colorful it's also quite a dim panel and even moderate daylight and viewing angles are nothing to scream about either it's only when you look beneath the surface that things start getting exciting the budget model zenfone 2 takes its power from a 1.8 gigahertz Intel Atom processor backed up by 2 gigs of RAM while the higher-end trim packs in a 2.3 gigahertz processor augmented by a whopping 4 gigs of ram tossin dual SIM card support microSD expansion and an embedded 3000 milliamp hour battery and you've got a smart phone that means serious business and if you want everyone to know that it's much more badass than its drab grey cover implies a sues also sells an array of colorful back covers to customize the look and feel the customizability doesn't stop there if 2015 is the year of user tailored software the zenfone 2 fits right in while the Zen UI launcher writes atop an aging Android 5.0 foundation it redeems itself with some of the deepest interface management available out of the box using a mixture of icon packs wallpapers and themes you can upgrade the Zen phones cartoony stock interface very easily my favorite combination over a week of testing has been the silhouette icon pack over the travel theme with card flip animations but there are literally thousands of other combinations you could choose a soos has also included lots of little conveniences swiping down from anywhere on the home screen triggers the notification shade for example and double tapping the status bar or a blank portion of the wallpaper turns the screen off and when the phone is locked you can jump right into specific apps by tracing a letter on the screen if you've got younglings there's a dedicated kids mode complete with app siloing and a timer that shuts down access after a predefined period we've seen all this stuff before on other phones but it's nice to have it all gathered together under one roof the zenfone 2 also packs an awful lot of bloat for an unlocked device probably the most visible our system utilities clean master and doctor safety now each title does enjoy a very high rating on the Google Play Store and clean master is actually quite therapeutic I loved hitting the boost button and watching it clear up vast swathes of RAM and seconds by closing background processes but for years it's been debated whether apps like this are anything more than a placebo for smartphone micromanagers and while I do enjoy the sense that clean master is boosting my system performance it's not at all clear that it actually does as for all the other cruft a soos Pak sin it runs the gamut from uninvited preloads like omelette chat and Zinio to various PC remote control and cloud storage apps fortunately you can manually uninstall the worst of it if a budget phone makes a compromise more often than not you find it in the camera but the zenfone 2 mostly avoids that trap I say mostly because there are definite compromises here there's no optical stay insite the double-click volume key shortcut doesn't always work and the viewfinder software is like something out of 2012 with its 17 separate shooting modes but start snapping pictures and the results might surprise you with space to spare on our 64 gig review unit I cranked up the resolution to the full 13 megapixels and what I found was a camera that did really well in broad daylight with sharp detail crazy colors and fast enough shutter speed to take the blur all the way out of a passing commuter rail train whether the supersaturation will impress you or put you off will depend on how much you value authenticity in your photography these are definitely more colorful reproductions than the real world subjects they represent and the cartoony effect gets much more pronounced in HDR mode but given the choice between too much color and not enough well call me basic or whatever but I'll take the former any day a soos tosses in a neat trick here with its so-called super resolution mode which combines four photos to produce one giant 50 megapixel image this takes a longer exposure time but it also works pretty well comparing a super resolution shot to a standard 13 megapixel photo of the same scene the super photo features more detail and less noise and the night mode does indeed bring more light into the frame using digital stabilization though you'll want to be sure you're truly in the dark before you use it and you need to be okay with a much lower resolution photo as well does the zenfone 2 have the best smartphone camera ever not at all there's an awful lot of artificial sharpening in almost every image low-light photos have a lot of digital noise and HD video suffers from shaky cam and exposure problems even in ideal conditions but this camera like every other aspect of the zenfone 2 needs to be considered through the lens of its price it is quite possibly the best camera on an affordably priced smartphone an Intel chipset on an Android phone is a relative rarity these days so I wasn't sure what to expect from the zenfone 2 4 mints turns out I had nothing to worry about this n phone 2 runs like a dream stutter and lag is so rare as to be almost non-existent graphically loaded games run without a hitch and here's the kicker swapping back and forth between them is just as effortless again this is the higher end spec loaded model but if the entry level version performs even half as well as this it'll be worth the cost the zenfone 2 lives up to the phone portion of its name calls are reasonably clear and loud through the earpiece unfortunately conference calls and media playback are no picnic at all despite that big back mounted grill the loudspeaker itself is tiny and tinny even plugging in a set of earbuds didn't help with the latter no matter what software profile I used when playing music or podcasts sound was just too quiet and too thin and audio files dreams this phone is not finally in endurance the zenfone 2 is about average there's certainly potential for it to be a road warrior with a big 3000 milliamp hour battery quick charging capability ultra power saving mode and other optimizations but the combined drain of whatever leaks there are in lollipop and my usual bevy of social media apps means I can't get much past four hours of screen on time per charge I can usually get through a full 12 hour day of moderate use which is fine the zenfone 2 isn't the only affordable smartphone with compelling specs leading a soos to the punch this year and last were oneplus Motorola Nokia and Alcatel OneTouch among others but of all those the zenfone 2 is easily the most audacious this $2.99 model packs responsiveness customizability and tons of features into an absurdly potent Hardware package and it throws in a pretty good camera to boot it's not a true grand slam but for a power-hungry pragmatist on a budget the zenfone 2 is pretty much impossible to beat for more on the Asuza zine phone to check out the full written review available may 27th at pocketnow.com and linked in the description below please subscribe to pocket now here on youtube give us a thumbs up and spread the word on social media if you did enjoy this video until next time this has been michael fisher captain two phones on twitter reminding you that zen is in the eye of the phone holder yeah I said it thanks for watching we'll see you next time