Gadgetory

how do you stand out in a competitive cellphone market some companies are looking at undercutting pricing some companies are trying to refine their style there's always room to experiment though focusing on a specific feature and building a phone around that feature hey soos is looking to impress with a proper hardware zoom on this camera I'm Juan Carlos Pagnell for PocketNow and here are my first impressions of the Asus zenfone zoom I've always happy to see simple stylish packaging and the phone greets you upon opening the lid this review unit sent from Asus PR had no plastic to pull off the screen but was pretty well stocked we've got a lanyard strap pair of headphones a micro USB cable the charger and all your warranty and quick set-up papers that none of us ever read but probably should immediately this phone is bigger than I thought it would be looking at the press photos we're into v10 territory here and the rounded back makes the phone feel a bit chunkier than it really is it's a great practical build though reminding me of phones like the Moto X metal edges with a textured leather backplate the combination materials it feels good in the hand and should be easy to hold onto this Ridge right here for example is a nice touch for bracing a finger all of our controls are on the right hand side volume rocker power button video recording button and a two-stage camera shutter for so many people that rely on their phones is their main cameras I'm always happy to see phones that still have dedicated camera buttons I wish more phones had these the 1080p screen looks like it'll be bright enough to use as a viewfinder for shooting outside and a soos is really touting the audio capabilities on his hardware so I'll be curious to give the speaker and headphone to listen for the full review the back is removable which provides access to the SIM card and microSD card slot but the battery is built into the phone hardware and is not user replaceable we'll have to see how the 3000 milliamp hour cell holds up when we tear into the camera what we're really interested in is this disc on the back which houses a 13 megapixel image sensor with optical image stabilization and proper Hardware zoom now most phones zoom by cropping the image this hardware by a soos provides a 3x optical zoom which maintains the full resolution of the sensor overall the phone really does look like a point-and-shoot camera and this is my first review of a phone using an Intel processor the atom three five eight zero to be specific firing it up for the first time we got through the first boot quickly enough though asus has quite a bit of setup software to guide you through signing into all of your accounts and the phone ships with quite a bit of cough cough value-added software you know this is also my first experience with the Zen UI launcher it's a bright colorful skin which brings a ton of customizations to Android but the jury is still out if I'll be able to handle this app drawer it's a fascinating experiment we've seen a few manufacturers attempt a proper camera phone in the past as a camera snob I'm always excited to see another manufacturer walk into this space and in poking around the camera app it looks like there's a lot of potential here now people know about a sous branded phones it's likely because of lower cost offerings does the zoom have the right stuff to get customers to part with five hundred and thirty dollars here in the States for an unlocked phone you know we'll be putting this camera through its paces and taking a look at how it stacks up against other top-tier smartphone shooters oh and we'll probably get around to reviewing the smartphone side of the equation too so what's the first photo I should share from this camera how should I go about testing the video drop us a comment below with your ideas we'll see if we can produce some fun content from this phone to share with you fine folks make sure you subscribe to this channel to catch our future coverage of the Asus zenfone zoom and hit that thumbs up button to help us out with a little positive reinforcement for pocket now I'm one Carlos back now you can chat me up on Twitter and Instagram has some gadget guy and I will catch you all on the next video