If you ever dreamt of large display smartphone and always want to buy one for yourself then Asus has a perfect smartphone for you; Asus Zenfone 4 Ultra. It is a phablet with 6.8 inches Full HD display and 23 MP PixelMaster 3.0 rear camera. Asus brought this smartphone to India with a price tag or Rs. 50,000 which seems a little high for this smartphone. Let’s check out why?
Unboxing and specifications
Asus did a really nice packaging on Zenfone 3 Ultra because why not? You are going to spend a lot on this phablet. The magnetic flap unfolds the smartphone itself sitting on a plastic impression and the accessories are in a slide out tray. It packs a USB Type C data sync and charging cable with a power brick for charging. Quick setup guide and other relevant documents and a SIM tray ejection tool is on a cardboard.
The earphone (Zenear) is packed in a plastic box, wrapped colors an excellent rubber material, better and bigger than how Samsung and Apple pack theirs. The phone sports a 6.8 inches IPS LCD display with Full HD resolution and protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 4. The processor is Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 octa-core processor with 1.8 GHz clock frequency and Adreno 510 GPU; the RAM is 4GB LPDDR3.
Asus Zenfone 3 Ultra comes with a 23MP PixelMaster 3.0 camera with f/2.0 aperture size and 4-axis optical image stabilization, It can shoot 4K videos at 24 frames per second. The front facing camera is 8 MP with the same f/2.0 aperture and 84-degree field of view. Asus Zenfone 3 Ultra includes a 4600 mAh battery to support the large display.
Design
Asus Zenfone 3 Ultra is a large smartphone with 6.8 inches display and it’s a bar design with a home button below the screen with a fingerprint sensor. The power button is on the right side and volume rocker buttons are on the back as we’ve seen on LG smartphones. The right edge has two SIM trays; one for nano SIM and one is hybrid, you can put a micro SD card or a nano-SIM in it.
On the bottom edge are the dual loudspeakers and the USB Type-C port for data sync and charging. The 3.5 mm audio jack is on the top edge and the 23 MP camera is on the back with a laser sensor and dual LED flash. The whole build quality feels sturdy and well built with a complete metal design, the volume buttons on the back is however made of plastic and has some pattern on it.
It looks like Asus could have done much with the space below the display if Asus remove the black border from the screen and could have increased the screen to body ratio to 80 percent or so then it would be the best phablet ever. Also, what’s the point to shift the volume rocker on the back? What I like is the separate tray system for SIM cards, now we don’t have to remove the SIM card just to insert an SD card.
Display
The display is the main USP of the Asus Zenfone 3 Ultra; it comes with a Full HD 6.8 inches display with 324 Ppi pixel density. I mean come on Asus! You could have added a quad HD display in this; it is a Rs. 50,000 device. Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection is good, but Gorilla Glass 5 has been released, FYI!
Large display means more productivity and Asus did a splendid job here. There are lots of creative apps built in. Photo collage, MiniMovie, and Game Genie are some apps which are very good; you can record your gameplay or create a video using the camera and edit them on your phone only, you don’t need a laptop.
If you are a traveler and watch movies all the time while you are on the way, then this display will keep you interested in all the films. Or if you like to kill time playing some games then also it won’t disappoint you, you can record your game play too with face cam for your YouTube channel.
Camera
The best part of this smartphone (according to me) is the camera and there are lots of modes in the camera app which could be so much useful. You need a lot of time to explore all of them; they are manual, HDR Pro, beautification, super resolution, children, low light, QR code, time rewind, smart remove, all smiles, slow motion and time lapse.
The camera can shoot 4K videos at 24 fps which is great and also it comes with 4-axis optical image stabilization which works great. The pictures are sharp and bright in the daytime when the light conditions are right, but it let us down when shooting indoors. The pictures are grainy and the colors are not that good, the focus is very fast though.
The front facing camera is 8 MP and the aperture size is f.2.0, do not expect any impressive here. Just an ordinary camera with tons of modes and settings. You need a whole day to explore them all. The pictures from the front facing camera are also not worth the money; it only fulfills the purpose.
Performance
I am very much impressed by the performance in Asus Zenfone 3 Ultra; the user interface is smooth and very snappy. There is not even a single lag experienced in any part of the user interface, apps launch quickly and switching between apps is also snappy. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 processor and 4 GB RAM worked great in the smartphone.
All the sensors including the fingerprint sensor are also working as they should, the fingerprint sensor is accurate and haven’t missed any fingerprint and unlocked the smartphone quickly. If you are a gamer then also this smartphone will keep you busy with any game you play whether its campaign or multiplayer.
While benchmarking, we have seen some decent scores on AnTuTu benchmark and Geekbench 4. On AnTuTu Benchmark, it scored 79581 which is a pretty good score; the Geekbench scores is also acceptable. Asus Zenfone 3 Ultra scored 1431 in single core and 2893 in multicore performance. The battery will be with you for a whole two days if you keep the brightness of the device on auto.
Pros
- Large 6.8 inches display
- Camera is good with editing apps
- Decent performance
Cons
- Volume rocker on the back (for me)
- Overpriced
- Display is Full HD only
Why will you buy this smartphone?
There are only two reasons because of which you’ll buy this smartphone; if you want a biggest ever display smartphone or you want a navigation-cum-media center for your car. And you buy it if you have loads of money and nowhere to spend it! The phone is available for Rs. 49,999 on Amazon but you can also consider to buy some of the flagship smartphones in the market like Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, OnePlus 3T or Google Pixel XL which can provide you with the latest hardware in same price segment.
