Asus Zenfone 8 Flip review

Camera hardware

The camera hardware remains largely unchanged from last year. We still have Sony's IMX686 64MP, 1/1.7" sensor appointed as the main shooter, binning down to 16MP images natively. The sensor has Dual Pixel AF and is paired with an f/1.8 aperture but no OIS just like there wasn't any on the vanilla Zenfone 7 last year.

The ultrawide unit retains the Sony IMX363 12MP, 1/2.55" sensor with 1.4µm pixels. The lens is a 17mm equivalent with f/2.2 opening and providing a 112-degree field of view. The specs say it supports up to 4cm focusing distance for close-up macro shots but we couldn't find a dedicated mode for macro, so you just point and shoot.

The telephoto camera re-uses the 8MP OmniVision OV08A sensor paired with a f/2.4 aperture lens, equivalent to 80mm. It gets up to 3x optical zoom, has autofocus, but no OIS again.

Software features and camera app

The default camera app is business as usual. All modes are arranged in the carousel formation. The odd one out is the button right next to the shutter, which controls the camera module. Just tapping on it will pop open the Flip. Holding and sliding will adjust the angle of the module. You can do that manually as well; it's allowed.

Camera menus

Quick angle presets are at your disposal in pretty much every camera mode. There's an icon on the viewfinder. You can save a certain angle on the quick toggles and then reset these positions to their default state in the main Settings menu of the camera.

Shooting panoramas or tracking a moving object in a video can be done so automatically using the Flip module.

Of course, there's no dedicated Selfie mode; you just open the Flip and shoot using the default Photo mode or the Portrait mode for extra glamour. The Night mode is hidden in the More sub-menu, but you can always re-arrange the modes to your liking in the settings.

The Pro mode is particularly interesting as it gives you full control over the three cameras' settings, and you can even save a custom preset of the settings, so you don't have to re-adjust everything each time you open up the Pro mode. A Pro Video mode is also available, which aside from the ISO, white balance, exposure, manual focus and microphone control, also gives you smooth and steady control over zooming. Saving your stills in RAW format is possible too.

Video and Photo Pro modes

Since the handset has a 3-array microphone, it supports acoustic, and mic focus and all mics have wind filters. And for the real enthusiasts, Asus gives you full control over the microphones so you can decide how they work and how they receive the ambient sound.

A dedicated Document mode allows you to take clearer photos of documents and then the software would auto crop and save the file into PDF.