Asus Zenfone 5 Review: Entry-Level, Five-Inch Handset

[Scorpus]

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Please leave your feedback here.

 

[veLa]

That phone is great for $170

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

I like it already without having seen it in the flesh. I even like the colour. It's a phone I'd seriously consider if I were in the market for a new one. The camera's performance doesn't concern me at all just as long as it can take the odd snap once or twice a year and the Intel SoC certainly isn't a deal breaker as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Guest]

It's kinda offensive to post screen pics of Adolf Hitler....

 

[Capaill]

Guest - you made me read the whole review looking for screen pics that aren't there. You posting on the wrong forum? And even if they were, who cares?

The phone looks good. Being an Asus I was worried they would cram it full of useless Asus apps like my laptop but they seem to have mostly avoided that.

 

[Guest]

The one and only competitor of Moto G.

 

[Guest]

2GB RAM and very affordable in my country. Awesome specs, well done Asus.

 

[VitalyT]

If 5" is now an entry level, then I feel sexually deprived...

 

[p51d007]

I see a lot of people on other tech boards, some android sites and the like, will thumb their noses at these "mid-range" devices. They will get all "iSheep" over something that isn't the best out there, never realizing that if you would at least TRY one, you'd find out, in a small way, that you are buying into marketing hype, so a small degree, waiting for the next best thing. It may not have the latest & greatest SOC, screen or OS, but, does it work?
I didn't give the Huawei Ascend Mate2 a 2nd thought when it was announced at the beginning of the year, but (get this), while waiting in June for OnePlus to release its "flagship killer" phone, someone posted one of those "while you wait" threads and someone mentioned the HAM2. For the price, a few went and bought one and were amazed how well it was put together, how fast it was, and of course the 3900mAH battery. Since it didn't matter to me, I bought one and it has changed my idea of waiting for the next big thing. It's fast, no lag, does video, camera, web, messaging, email without so much as a hitch. 2-3 days battery is awesome. The 300 dollar price tag is nice too, because it's not like paying 700 or more for an off contract phone. Contracts are NUTS! You pay 199 or more for a pretty good phone, then get raped on the monthly charge, and in my case, switching to an MVNO, buying a phone straight out, versus a similar plan & phone under contract, I save over 80 dollars PER MONTH! I bet if a lot of these mid range phones had Apple, Samsung, HTC or similar names plastered on them, with the same price as the Zenfone, ZTE, Xiamoi, Huawei, Oppo or similar, they would fly off the shelf.
Then you get the "I wouldn't buy a Chinese phone, they put spyware on the phone. LOL, yeah, like no carrier, government agency isn't doing that anyway.

 

[Gautam Goel]

Hi

Does Asus Zenfone 5 supports VIDEO CALLING by using 3G SIM and not through third party applications like Skype

Regards

Gautam

 

[noel24]

Sorry to say that, but at my place it's priced between Moto G LTE and Galaxy S3. At this price point, I don't see it as a great seller, even considering superior specs.

 

[Guest]

I recently got one of these and I'd have to say its an excellent phone for the price. It's definitely superior to the Moto G that I talked my father into getting. The real advantage is probably the 2Gb of ram.

Battery life definitely takes a whack when you are using the screen a lot. However the standby battery life is actually outstanding. Like 80% charged at 11 pm good.

So whether it is a good phone for you depends on how you use a smartphone. If you play games and spend your life gazing at your mobile screen, then the battery life weaknesses will probably give you fits. If you are like me and make a few calls, answer work emails, read an online newspaper for 15-30 mins a day, then this could be ideal. I am loving it so far and the price difference relative to a flagship is massive. You're basically getting a phone + 2 years free mobile for the same price.

 

[Guest]

Had mine for a week or so with the Z2580 & 2GB of ram
Kicks ***!
27,083 on Antutu

 

[itcolt]

> I'm almost 80 ,living in Hungary. Got my first smartphone recently. It is an Asus Zenfone 5 T00F (A500CG). It came through e-fox shop from China. Soon it turned out that it is originally a Chinese model on which they forced an old ww OS. It is not updatable in normal manner,I e ,it will not install OTA or from the Asus Support downloaded and then to root copied update.
> Asus will not allow the Hungarian service place to update-will not give the key-untill they start importing the phone to Hungary-maybe never.
>
> I heard that there are easy ways -for a routined person- to ADB install the update. Since I am a complete novice,and too old too to work with command lines . Therefore,I ask if there would be someone who could update my phone through Team Viewer Quick Support? It would be a great help for this old,beginner man.