Asus Zenfone 6 vs. Samsung Galaxy A80

Flip camera x2, x2

The Zenfone 6 and the Galaxy A80 are the two phones currently on the market which offer rotating camera assemblies - their 'main' cameras which normally face back flip 180 degrees to take selfies too. It's not a new concept - Oppo did it way back in 2013 with the manually rotating N1, only to motorize it for the N3 next year. It's 2019 now, however, and while motorized Oppos exist, they don't flip. Well, the Zenfone 6 and the Galaxy A80 do.

Asus has, in fact, adopted FlipCamera as a brand for the contraption fitted on the Zenfon 6 and displays it proudly on both sides of it, plus the phone's packaging. It's quite the mechanism indeed - the two imaging modules are mounted on a rotating platform, driven by a stepper motor with its own gearbox, the two occupying a large portion of the right horn on the back of the phone.

One of the greatest advantages of the Zenfone's way of doing the flippy thing is that the camera can be stopped in any position along its 180-degree range, not just 0 and 180, like the Galaxy.

The Galaxy A80 has different mechanics - the camera bits are installed on a spring loaded platform, which is part of a larger assembly that rises up from the phone's top. Once the platform clears the edge of the front, the spring rotates the platform to face the user. Neat, but not as versatile the Zenfone's solution.

That's the moving bits accounted for, but what is it that they shift around? That would be two camera modules on each phone - one wide angle (or 'regular' in smartphone terms) primary unit and an ultra wide angle one next to it.

The primary cams on both phones use the same Sony IMX586 sensor - a hugely popular Quad Bayer imager designed to output 12MP photos. On the Galaxy it's paired with an f/2.0 aperture 26mm equivalent lens, while the Zenfone gets a slightly brighter f/1.8 aperture lens, with a fraction wider field of view (25mm equivalent). Neither setup has OIS.

The ultra wides use different sensors, at least that much is clear. The Zenfone has 13MP to cover the 125-degree field of view (that would be an 11mm equivalent or thereabout), while the Galaxy's 8MP are said to be spread over a 123-degree coverage - so more pixels on the Asus, pretty much identical coverage. The Zenfone's aperture is f/2.4, while the Galaxy's lens is specced at f/2.2. Both ultra wides are fixed focus, as are, in fact, most smartphone ultra wides.

Camera interface

The camera UI is similar on both phones - which is to say it's similar to pretty much every modern phone (thanks, Apple). Side swipes change modes, there are separate viewfinders for stills and video, and a handful of shortcuts up top give you access to the settings, flash modes, aspect ratio and filters.

Toggling between the main and the ultra wide modules happens with a tree selector on the Galaxy and a same-yet-different mountain-inspired switch on the Zenfone. The 6 also has a 1x/2x toggle which could lead you to believe there's a telephoto camera on the Zenfone - there isn't and the Galaxy is more honest in this respect.

Galaxy A80 camera app

The Galaxy does support the swipe up/down gesture to flip the camera into selfie mode, which the Zenfone doesn't do. There's a tap-on toggle on the Asus, however, which switches directly between rear and front-facing mode, but if you press it and slide you get to control the position of the FlipCamera manually, something you can also do with the volume rocker - the A80 has no answer to that move.

The Zenfone has another trick too - press and slide the shutter button up, and you get a 1-10s self timer depending on how far up you swipe. Makes one wonder why only Asus has thought of this.

Zenfone 6 camera app