Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML 4GB RAM 128GB 2.3GHz

With smartphones becoming bigger, it’s become increasingly difficult to reach the frequently-used power / wake-up keys or the volume buttons with a single hand. Korean manufacturer LG came up with an interesting idea to tackle this issue – instead of the sides, these controls were offered at the rear of its 2013 flagship, the G2. LG’s reasoning was that the area at the back is where our fingers stay while holding the phone, and thus it’s easier to perform these actions. The brand then carried this ideology to its current flagship as well as its budget offerings. ASUS also seems to be in agreement with the Korean company as the ZenFone 2 features volume buttons at the back.

Apart from increasing the size of the display, ASUS has also increased its resolution on the ZenFone 2 compared to its predecessor, the ZenFone 5. The full HD resolution offers a rich pixel density of 401ppi on the 5.5-inch display of the smartphone. This makes the text look sharper, while the IPS display panel manages to deliver excellent viewing angles. Brightness levels are also fine, if not the best, which means you might have to max the brightness for reading the display outdoors.

While consumers lamented the fact that ASUS offered the ZenFone series with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean at the time of the crunchy 4.4 KitKat (even though the brand promised an update, which is yet to arrive), the Taiwanese company isn’t repeating the same mistake. It has offered the ZenFone 2 with the latest build of Android, i.e., 5.0 Lollipop.

The upgrades are carried over in the photography department as well. Instead of an 8-megapixel shooter in the ZenFone 5, the ASUS ZenFone 2 features a 13MP camera with a Toshiba lens and f/2.0 aperture. Assisting the snapper in the low-light conditions is a dual-tone LED flash that provides illumination in form of warmer and colder colours. The front shooter has also been bumped to 5MP for offering lovely selfies that will dazzle your Facebook friends or Instagram followers.

While all the aspects of the latest ZenFone have received an upgrade, its internals are perhaps the most noteworthy example of this fact. Just a mention of 4GB RAM on a pocketable gadget can send anyone in a tizzy and that’s what happened when ASUS announced the ZenFone 2 at CES this year. The ASUS ZenFone 2 is the world’s first phone with 4 gigs of RAM and that’s complemented well with powerful hardware. As before, ASUS has chosen to get an Intel Inside logo on its offering, as its latest device also utilises Intel’s Atom Z3580 processor. The chipset, based on chipmaker’s latest Moorefield platform, promises better power efficiency thanks to its 22nm fabrication process. The processor comes with 64-bit architecture and offers four cores thrumming at 2.3GHz. Rounding up the core hardware is the PowerVR G6430 graphics chipset clocked at 533MHz.

In the smartphone colloquial, the popular dialogue from Spider Man would be on the lines of “With great power, comes the need of charging regularly”. While the ASUS ZenFone sips juice from a beefy 3,000mAh sealed unit, it’s unable to keep up with its raw power. With moderate usage of calls and internet usage via Wi-Fi, it might last about a day. However, use it for gaming, internet browsing with cellular data and GPS navigation and the battery drops like a ripe apple from the tree. It’s hardly able to last an entire working day with such usage.

Right from the ZenFone 2’s display to its design, cameras and most importantly, its guts, ASUS hasn’t just brought a upgraded successor to the ZenFone 5, but has also upped its game against the competition. It’s spec sheet proves that and so does our experience.