Asus Zenfone 4 family hands-on

Asus Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro hands-on

• Body: Aluminum and Gorilla Glass
• Display: 5.5" AMOLED, 1080p (401ppi)
• Platform: Snapdragon 625 chipset (Octa-core 2.0 GHz Cortex-A53; Adreno 506)
• Memory: 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage; hybrid microSD slot
• OS: Android 7.0 Nougat, ZenUI 4.0
• Rear camera: 16MP, Sony sensor,PDAF
• Front camera: Main 12MP, Sony IMX362 sensor, 1/2.55" sensor size, 1.4µm pixel size, dual pixel autofocus, f/1.8 25mm-equiv. lens, OIS; Secondary 8MP
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.2, dual-SIM, LTE, Wi-Fi b/g/n, NFC; microUSB 2.0
• Battery: 3,000mAh (sealed); fast charging
• Misc: Front-mounted fingerprint reader, 3.5mm jack

If you want to use a phone's main camera for selfies, you typically use a mirror. Not with the Zenfone Selfie 4 Pro, where the main camera is, in fact, on the front. Actually, two of them - the same pair of 12MP+8MP shooters you can find on the Zenfone 4 (non-Pro), one dual pixel, the other - ultra wide-angle. There's a front-facing flash, too. It's the Selfie Pro, duh.

Asus Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro front camera coverage: Nornal • Ultra wide-angle

With the Pro moniker, the AMOLED display comes - a 5.5-inch FullHD panel like on the Zenfone 4 Pro (non-Selfie). Here it's covered in Gorilla Glass 3, and not 5. There's no Gorilla Glass on the back, though, but it would be odd to put glass on top of the aluminum rear panel, really.

Asus Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro has an AMOLED display

The back has a satin finish with the defacto secondary camera in the middle. There are antenna bands top and bottom, too - overall an unremarkable design, yet one you can't go wrong with. On the front, it's pretty much like the rest of the Zenfone 4s - bezels aplenty and a large fingerprint sensor. Unfortunately there are no stereo speakers, just the bottom-firing one.

Asus Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro's satin-finished back

Oh, and looking at the bottom, we could complain about the microUSB 2.0 port, let's get rid of those already.

Asus Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro

The Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 625 and can be had with up to 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. Battery capacity is 3,000mAh which should be fine for the combination of an AMOLED display and an efficient 14nm chipset.

Asus Zenfone 4 Selfie hands-on

• Body: Plastic back, Gorilla Glass front
• Display: 5.5" IPS, 720p (267ppi)
• Platform: Snapdragon 430 (Octa-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A53; Adreno 505)
• Memory: 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage; dedicated microSD slot
• OS: Android 7.0 Nougat, ZenUI 4.0
• Rear camera: 16MP, PDAF
• Front camera: Main 20MP, LED flash; Secondary 8MP ultra wide-angle, 120-degree field of view
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.1, dual-SIM, LTE, Wi-Fi b/g/n, NFC; microUSB 2.0
• Battery: 3,000mAh (sealed)
• Misc: Front-mounted fingerprint reader, 3.5mm jack

Drop the Pro title and the AMOLED is gone, replaced by an IPS display. Resolution is also lower - 720p versus the Pro's 1080p. No more dual pixel on the front either, but there's still a dual camera - the primary one is in fact 20MP. The ultra wide-angle 8MP shooter is here too, and so is the front-facing flash.

In terms of design, the Zenfone 4 Selfie is clearly a member of the same family, but this one is plastic on the back. The illusion of metal is maintained by the satin finish, though, and it doesn't look or feel cheap.

Asus Zenfone 4 Selfie

One of the best bits about the Selfie is the triple slot - there's a dedicated microSD slot in addition to the two SIM slots.

Asus Zenfone 4 Max (ZC554KL) hands-on

• Body: Aluminum back
• Display: 5.5" IPS, 720p (267ppi)
• Platform: Snapdragon 430 (Octa-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A53; Adreno 505) or Snapdragon 425 (Quad-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A53; Adreno 308)
• Memory: 2GB/3GB/4GB of RAM and 16GB/32GB/64GB of storage; dedicated microSD slot
• OS: Android 7.0 Nougat, ZenUI 4.0
• Rear camera: Main 13MP, OV13855 sensor, 1/3.06" sensor size, 1.12µm pixel size, PDAF, f/2.0 lens; Secondary ultra wide-angle, 120-degree field of view
• Front camera: 8MP, OV8856 sensor, 1/4" sensor size, 1.12µm pixel size, f/2.2 24mm-equiv. lens
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.1, dual-SIM, LTE, Wi-Fi b/g/n, NFC; USB-C
• Battery: 5,000mAh (sealed); fast charging; can charge other devices
• Misc: Front-mounted fingerprint reader, 3.5mm jack

As with most things Asus, the Zenfone 4 Max comes in a number of different versions. We handled a couple of those, including the ZC554KL model. It's got a 5.5-inch 720p display, an IPS one. It lacks Gorilla Glass protection - that didn't make the budget.

What did make the budget, even though the Max is no Selfie, is the front facing flash. Here, it accompanies a single selfie cam, an 8MP one. There are a couple of cameras on the back, however - a 13MP primary one and the familiar 120-degree ultra wide-angle one - apparently, a phone must have three or more cameras these days.

Asus Zenfone 4 Max ZC554KL

It's not about the cameras with the Zenfone 4 Max, though - it's battery life. The ZC554KL model comes with a 5,000mAh power pack, which it can share with other devices - you can use it to charge your smartwatch, wireless headphones, second phone, car battery... Okay, not that last one.

Asus Zenfone 4 Max (ZC520KL) hands-on

• Body: Aluminum
• Display: 5.2" IPS, 720p (282ppi)
• Platform: Snapdragon 425 (Quad-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A53; Adreno 308)
• Memory: 2GB/3GB of RAM and 16GB/32GB of storage; dedicated microSD slot
• OS: Android 7.0 Nougat, ZenUI 4.0
• Rear camera: Main 13MP, PDAF, f/2.0 25mm-equiv. lens; Secondary ultra wide-angle, 120-degree field of view
• Front camera: 8MP, OV8856 sensor, 1/4" sensor size, 1.12µm pixel size, f/2.2 24mm-equiv. lens
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.1, dual-SIM, LTE, Wi-Fi b/g/n, NFC; USB-C
• Battery: 4,100mAh (sealed); fast charging; can charge other devices
• Misc: Front-mounted fingerprint reader, 3.5mm jack

There's a smaller Max too, even if the name implies a superlative quality. The ZC520KL, as you may have already learned to interpret from the model number, packs a 5.2-inch display, 720p again. It keeps most of its big bro's hardware, cameras included, but has a smaller battery - 4,100mAh. The ability to charge other electronics remains.

Asus Zenfone 4 Max ZC520KL

A feature shared by both Maxes is the dedicated microSD slot - like the Selfie Pro you can have two SIMs and microSD card inside the phone, all three together. There are fingerprint readers on both, you can't not have a fingerprint reader anymore. Unless you're an iPhone X, of course.

Final words

We didn't have all that much time and there were a lot of Zenfones to play around with, but we can still appreciate Asus' efforts to cater to as wide an audience as possible. There's the high-end Zenfone 4 Pro that's equipped to challenge the big guns, the vanilla Zenfone 4 a notch down the ranks with an ultra wide-angle cam and upper mid-tier internals, the Selfies with a focus on front-facing cameras, and the Max lineup for those who value battery life most. There's hardly a use case that isn't covered. We'll give the Zenfone 4 in particular a more in-depth look in the weeks to come, so stay tuned.