Asus Zenfone 3 Deluxe

The ZenFone 3 Deluxe oozes ‘premium’ the moment you take it out of its classy retail packaging. The body of the phone is made from aerospace-grade aluminium alloy and ASUS has somehow managed to cleverly hide the plastic antenna lines - used to receive the radio waves - present on other metal body flagships like the Apple iPhone 7 Plus (review) and the HTC 10 (review). This is definitely a great feat as far as engineering and designing a smartphone is concerned because antenna lines are nothing but an eyesore. 

The 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display on the ZenFone 3 Deluxe offers a display resolution of 1080x1920 pixels, which is comparatively low considering most Android flagships offer QHD displays. However, this is a good idea because it helps in saving some precious battery life - more details later. ASUS adds a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 4 for protection against accidental scratches. Despite using an AMOLED panel, the colour saturation is in check and the overall tone is pretty neutral too. Two thumbs up to ASUS for tuning the display right. The viewing angles are pretty good and so is the overall brightness. ASUS also bundles an app called Splendid that gives you the freedom to customise the colour temperature, hue, and the saturation. You also get a bluelight filter toggle that makes it easier to read with control over the levels. We like this implementation better than the night shift mode on the Apple iPhone 7 / 7 Plus.

Let’s just say this upfront: the ASUS ZenUI skin on top of Android 6.0 Marshmallow is an assault on your senses and not in a good way. The moment you start the phone you are inundated with customisation options and pre-loaded apps that you need to more than just a minute to take it all in. Let’s start with the pre-loaded apps. You get your regular suite of Google apps but along with it you also get ASUS’ homegrown apps like MyASUS Service center, PhotoCollage, MiniMovie, just to name a few. Apart from this, you also get built-in games and other third-party apps like Need for speed and Go2Pay, and many more. Unfortunately, most of these apps cannot even be uninstalled and can only be disabled.

The ASUS ZenFone 3 Deluxe uses a 23-megapixel Sony IMX318 sensor for its primary camera which is mated to a lens that has an f/2.0 aperture. ASUS also adds a TriTech auto-focus technology, which is nothing but a combination of laser, phase detection and continuous auto-focus methods. ASUS claims that this helps the camera lock focus in under 0.03 seconds. While we couldn’t verify the exact accuracy of the statement, one thing is for sure - the camera focusses on subjects really fast even in testing lighting conditions. A 4-axis OIS and EIS (especially for video) has also been added for good measure.

The ASUS ZenFone 3 Deluxe we reviewed uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 SoC paired with 6GB of RAM. It also comes with 256GB of storage and offers a microSD card slot for additional storage as well. You will not be left wanting for more storage space.