Asus Zenfone 3 ZE552KL preview: First look

Performance

The ZenFone 3 is one of the first few devices to be running on Qualcomm's brand new Snapdragon 625. Unfortunately, it's not a particularly powerful processor on paper, so we had our expectations in check.

System info by AIDA64

To our surprise, the UI performance on the ZenFone 3 was excellent. The phone feels amazingly fluid most of the time while moving through the phone UI and also in apps. Multitasking is also quick and with 4GB of RAM, there is plenty of space to keep apps running without things shutting down in a hurry.

GeekBench 4 (single-core)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3
  1719
• ZTE Axon 7
  1702
• ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
  843
• Huawei nova plus
  843

GeekBench 4 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
  4080
• OnePlus 3
  4045
• ZTE Axon 7
  3990
• Huawei nova plus
  3100

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3
  141764
• Xiaomi Mi 5
  131758
• ZTE Axon 7
  129926
• LeEco Le Max 2
  129461
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  76186
• Huawei nova plus
  64680
• Samsung Galaxy C7
  62818
• Asus ZenFone 2 ZE551ML (4GB RAM)
  62698
• ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
  62632
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  49094
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  45474
• Oppo F1s
  30657

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3
  2365
• Xiaomi Mi 5
  2180
• LeEco Le Max 2
  2063
• ZTE Axon 7
  1915
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  1426
• Samsung Galaxy C7
  1222
• Huawei nova plus
  1215
• ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
  1205
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  1018
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  1007
• Oppo F1s
  269

Gaming performance was also quite impressive. The phone managed to run every game we tried quite well. There were some skipped frames here and there and things weren't quite as smooth as with Adreno 530 but for its part, the Adreno 506 on the ZenFone 3 does quite well with the 1080p resolution.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3
  46
• Xiaomi Mi 5
  45
• LeEco Le Max 2
  44
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  14
• Asus ZenFone 2 ZE551ML (4GB RAM)
  13
• ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
  9.9
• Huawei nova plus
  9.9
• Samsung Galaxy C7
  9.8
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  8.5
• Oppo F1s
  5.1
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  4.9

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3
  45
• Xiaomi Mi 5
  43
• LeEco Le Max 2
  28
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  14
• Asus ZenFone 2 ZE551ML (4GB RAM)
  12
• Huawei nova plus
  10
• Oppo F1s
  10
• ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
  9.7
• Samsung Galaxy C7
  9.6
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  9.5
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  7.9

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3
  31
• Xiaomi Mi 5
  30
• LeEco Le Max 2
  28
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  9
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  7.2
• Asus ZenFone 2 ZE551ML (4GB RAM)
  6.7
• Samsung Galaxy C7
  6.2
• ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
  6.2
• Huawei nova plus
  6.2
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  4
• Oppo F1s
  2.4

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3
  30
• Xiaomi Mi 5
  29
• LeEco Le Max 2
  15
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  9
• Huawei nova plus
  6.6
• Asus ZenFone 2 ZE551ML (4GB RAM)
  6.5
• ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
  6.2
• Samsung Galaxy C7
  6.1
• Oppo F1s
  6
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  3.9
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  3.2

GFX 3.1 Car scene (offscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3
  18
• Xiaomi Mi 5
  17
• LeEco Le Max 2
  16
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  5.3
• ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
  3.4
• Huawei nova plus
  3.4
• Samsung Galaxy C7
  3.4

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3
  18
• Xiaomi Mi 5
  17
• LeEco Le Max 2
  8.8
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  5.5
• Huawei nova plus
  3.7
• ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
  3.4
• Samsung Galaxy C7
  3.4

Basemark X

Higher is better

• LeEco Le Max 2
  33874
• Xiaomi Mi 5
  33110
• OnePlus 3
  32715
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  14717
• Asus ZenFone 2 ZE551ML (4GB RAM)
  13414
• Huawei nova plus
  10524
• ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
  10494
• Samsung Galaxy C7
  10445
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (Helio X10)
  8540
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)
  5383
• Oppo F1s
  419

Basemark ES 3.1 / Metal

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3
  625
• Xiaomi Mi 5
  580
• LeEco Le Max 2
  517
• ASUS ZenFone 3 ZE552KL
  138
• Huawei nova plus
  138
• Samsung Galaxy C7
  137

The phone does get nominally warm at the back near the camera during gaming but it never gets too hot, and gaming is pretty much the only time it gets warm, that too with a handful of titles.

Performance in other areas is good too. The loudspeaker, for example, sounds good and also gets fairly loud. The audio quality through headphones is good too. Around the back, the fingerprint sensor is also one of the best we have come across, with fast, reliable scans almost every time.