Our love for selfies is evident! And it seems, with it’s all new Zenfone Selfie, ASUS has planned to target the love for selfie segment of the market, which is growing with every coming day.
Like other Zenfones, you get to choose between two variant; 2GB RAM coupled with 16gigs of internal storage or 3GB RAM with 32gigs of internal storage with slightly of price difference in both the variants.
It is available in three color options: Pure White, Chick Pink, and Aqua Blue. The review unit which I have got is in pink color and is a 32GB variant. Selfie tag combined with Pink color, well the combo seems fascinating for girls.
Other than that box contains user manual, wall adapter with an output of 2amp and a Micro USB cable. So earphones are missing in this box, you’ve got to use your own pair of your favourite buds.
Design & Build
The design is entirely inspired by ZenFone 2; there is not much new to add. You get similar hardware controls, curvy back at middle thinning towards edges, and rounded corners.
Power key at the top, which is somewhat difficult to reach every time. So to avoid you can just double tap on the screen to wake up. A 3.5mm audio jack and a secondary mic are located up along with power key.
The MicroUSB port accompanied by primary mic is located at the bottom. The front features the smartphone’s USP, 13MP selfie camera along with dual LED flash and earpiece.
The Back features similar design like previous iterations from ASUS, volume rockers underneath the 13MP camera module alongside laser autofocus and dual tone LED flash and speaker grill towards the bottom.
The back is removable, furnished with a matte finish that leaves no room for fingerprints and smudges. Under the hood, you’ll get a user removable 3000mAh battery, space for 2 micro SIM slots, both supports 4G, and a microSD card slot.
Weighing at 170g the phone is absolutely not an idol for single-handed usage, so to give you ease it does come with one hand mode, well that help to mitigate the problem to a bit.
Display: 5.5-inch FHD 1080p
The phone packs a 5.5’’ FHD display with 1080p resolution resulting in 403 PPI pixel density.
The phone has excellent viewing angles so you can share screen comfortably with buddies while watching a movie or something.
It features Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection and that makes it a fingerprint and smudges free display. The display is quite vivid and true to colors reproduction but at the same time, it is reflective too.
The brightness of the phone works fine indoors while operating under the sun it starts struggling a bit. Overall this is one of the best display that you get in this price segment.
Hardware & Performance: Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 Soc, 3GB of RAM, Adreno 405 GPU
The ZenFone Selfie is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor backed up by 3GB of RAM and Adreno 405 GPU. So, you get ample amount of RAM to play on with your device.
It packs in 32 GB of internal storage. Despite having good numbers you get an option of storage expansion up to 128GB and, in addition, you also get 5GB free lifetime ASUS web storage.
Multitasking, gaming was flawless on this device. In gaming, it performs pretty well, and I am happy to report that even after prolonged gaming it didn’t heat up.
However, despite running great spec combination you may feel performance a bit sluggish sometimes which was not that noticeable but still it was there.
Software: Android 5.0 Lollipop with ZenUI
This guy runs ZenUI on top of Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box. ZenUI has always been crowded, so is the case with Zenfone Selfie too.
You get pre installed third-party apps along with 90% useless in-house bloatware.
However, it is one of the best UI I have seen in this price category. Being smooth and responsive, UI didn’t leave any room for complaints here.
Swiping upwards brings manage home option where you can access widgets, edit pages, choose wallpapers, choose scroll effects, themes and many more.
It also has touch gesture mode, one hand mode, glove mode and few other customizations like every ZenFone has.
To know about UI in more details check out our review of ZenFone 2 Laser and ZenFone 2 Deluxe.
Camera: 13 MP, both Rear & Selfie
Front camera does feature a dual tone LED flash too.
In terms of camera, it is all geared up for photography lovers. It features 13 MP rear shooter with dual LED flash and laser autofocus and a 13 MP camera will provide the selfie love on the front as well.
Front camera does feature a dual tone LED flash too. The rear camera features f/2.0 aperture while the front shooter has f/2.2 aperture along with an 88-degree wide viewing angle.
Rear shooter can take out good pictures in appropriate lighting conditions and cooped up in challenging conditions as well using HDR mode.
The camera produced images has lot of details, vibrant colors, and sharpness. Focus is fast enough, and I was able to get good shots with an accurate focus almost every time. It also has the manual mode, so you get power to customize shot according to your preference.
You also get to use n number of camera features such as HDR, Super Resolution, Low light, depth of field, effects, GIF, Time rewind, slow motion and time lapse.
The front camera is the salient feature of Zenfone Selfie which makes it stand out of the other counterparts selling now. Front cam takes in a lot of details.
Activating beautification soothes skin tone as it removes blemishes from your face and you can also customize your face appearance through cheeks thinning, eye enhancer and blush.
No doubt it is an amazing camera for selfie freaks. This can be the best gift ever for selfie lovers.
Audio
Audio output is remarkably loud and crisp. However, speaker’s positioning limits the performance if played on a flat surface. Inbuilt Audiowizard app boasts various default music modes.
Battery: 3,000 mAh
It is equipped with a user removable 3000mAh battery. It took around 2 hours to charge the device fully from its own charger with the help of fast charging. Battery life is well optimized, and it lasted for around 9-10 hours on heavy usage.
You may get around 13-14 hours out of average usage, and when running out of juice, you can always turn on Power Saver mode to stay juiced longer.
Also, there is an option to pre-set a percentage cap whereby phone activated power saving mode automatically when battery drain reaches to defined %.
There is nothing extraordinary about the device concerning connectivity options. You get 4G LTE / 3G HSPA+ support, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, Dual Sim support and GPS.
The Verdict
Priced at 14,999 INR for 16GB variant and 16,999 INR for 32GB variant, ZenFone Selfie is a well-optimized device if you look at performance and other aspects also.
Now again my recommendation is for 16GB variant seeing standard storage usage. Despite being Selfie cam is its prominent feature, Zenfone Selfie is a fairly loaded device when it comes to specs, and you cannot just tag the device good for selfies only, but it’s an overall performer.
