Asus Zenfone 2 review: A balancing act

14 April, 2015
World domination was surely on the mind of at least one top exec over at Asus headquarters, when the crew gathered to outline the Zenfone 2 game plan. The smartphone will be sold globally...

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Again with a 16GB model. What is ASUS thhinking?

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    • Anonymous
    • 2I1
    • 16 Apr 2015

    G4 will cost 3 times more.

    I heard different things about the 4/64gb version, the read/write speed doubles and benchmark results are good looking, yet you are only paying $100 more.

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      • Anonymous
      • wYF
      • 16 Apr 2015

      wut, 15 Apr 2015I would go for a G2 any day, than this...messlg g4 will kill this

        sid33, 16 Apr 2015Hows ur battery life??The battery drain isn't really a standby problem. I just had it sitting on my night stand for six hours while sleeping and lost 7% battery... that's fine really. But I lost 2% battery in 5 mins when I started using it.

          Athull, 16 Apr 2015Is there any heating troubles? And how much onboard storage... moreNo heat issues at all.

            • s
            • sid33
            • Hkt
            • 16 Apr 2015

            AnonD-386800, 16 Apr 2015I own the ZE551ML with 32GB Storage(emmc), 4GB RAM, and Z35... moreHows ur battery life??

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              • Anonymous
              • X05
              • 16 Apr 2015

              Stop reading after; four and half hour of browsing

                Quantify, 16 Apr 2015Marginal is probably an overstatement. I get 12 to 14 hours... moreIs there any heating troubles? And how much onboard storage is user available?

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                  • laiga
                  • uGM
                  • 16 Apr 2015

                  MHL support? Really?

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                    • AnonD-386800
                    • 492
                    • 16 Apr 2015

                    Marcel, 15 Apr 2015By "marginal", do you mean you barely can get a d... moreAnd by plug it in do you mean 30 min on a charger and you have a huge bump in battery. Quick charger 2.0 for the car will make this amazing. Half your battery back while commuting.

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                      • AnonD-386800
                      • 492
                      • 16 Apr 2015

                      Quantify, 16 Apr 2015Marginal is probably an overstatement. I get 12 to 14 hours... moreMy main battery suck is Android OS or Google Account Manager (which includes Google Account Manager, Google Services Framework, Google Play services, Google Contact Sync, and Google Backup Transport) depending on which app you use. To me this sounds like a ROM issue which I do hope they fix.

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                        • AnonD-386800
                        • 492
                        • 16 Apr 2015

                        I own the ZE551ML with 32GB Storage(emmc), 4GB RAM, and Z3580.
                        My results are as follows (power saver turned off):
                        Geekbench 3
                        Single-core Score 911
                        Multi-Core Score 3002
                        http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/2334368
                        AnTuTu 5
                        47322
                        Basemark OS II
                        crashed or never ran web portion
                        GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)
                        23
                        GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)
                        24
                        GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)
                        12 Fps
                        GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)
                        12 Fps

                        Chrome 41.0.2272.96
                        Kraken 1.1
                        5292.5ms
                        BrowserMark 2.1
                        1899.53

                          Marginal is probably an overstatement. I get 12 to 14 hours on a charge, 2 to 3 hours sot. Not good, but good enough to use until there's a fix.

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                            • Anonymous
                            • Ldy
                            • 15 Apr 2015

                            screen is very good as well as the camera. better review on android authority. in fact they placed the zf2 as one of the three best choices under 350$. this phone is a bargain just as one plus one was a year ago.

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                              • Marcel
                              • NCw
                              • 15 Apr 2015

                              Quantify, 15 Apr 2015Battery is indeed marginal, but camera and screen are reall... moreBy "marginal", do you mean you barely can get a day's regular use (moderate browsing, 20-30 minutes of call if necessary, lots of texts) then have to plug it in? Or is it strictly in terms of benchmarks?

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                                • Anonymous
                                • Ldy
                                • 15 Apr 2015

                                Quantify, 15 Apr 2015Battery is indeed marginal, but camera and screen are reall... morethank you for your posts, the camera is indeed very good and the battery will get better... awesome phone for an awesome price.

                                  AnonD-183154, 15 Apr 2015Overall pretty crappy with the poor screen, camera, battery... moreBattery is indeed marginal, but camera and screen are really quite good. Camera is like Sony Xperias, the victim of stupendously bad image processing by default. Easy fix. The Ultra Resolution mode really works by the way, take a look at the samples I posted. Significantly better resolution than stock.

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                                    • Anonymous
                                    • q9b
                                    • 15 Apr 2015

                                    Anonymous, 15 Apr 2015Unbelievable... How the hell are these OEMs putting such... moreAndroid lollipop 5.0 has a lot of bugs with one making the battery life of the phone worse. When it gets 5.1 it's battery should last longer.

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                                      • AnonD-183154
                                      • qxW
                                      • 15 Apr 2015

                                      Overall pretty crappy with the poor screen, camera, battery and SoC. The 4GB version might make the SoC and even camera better but screen and camera are still bad. The good thing is it is cheap.

                                        Quantify, 15 Apr 2015Here is a shortened link to ZF2 images without image optimi... moreMuch better, much better.

                                        As I stated, if you go for the 720p version, your battery life endurance score should increase over the ZE551ML by about 10-15 hours. And it's cheaper. Seems like a good deal to me, eh?