Over a week after they unleashed it at the recently concluded CES 2017, I am happy that the guys from Asus Philippines that they invited me for a check of the soon-to-be-released Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom
Before I describe on my assessment, please take note that this is an engineering sample (at around 80% ) so there might be some changes in terms of software but of course, the physical looks will be final
Handling the phablet itself gave me a wow factor mainly that it is a bit lighter than the 5.2 inch Asus Zenfone 3 Max that I am currently reviewing but it has 5.5 inch FHD AMOLED with 5,000 mAh built-in battery inside. I love the color as well as the display. The side bezels are much smaller. The rest of the specs are here in my previous article
The hybrid dual SIM tray is at the left while at the right, you can see the volume rockers and power/unlock button. Good job for them that even that it has optical zoom, there is only a little camera bump which can be avoided for sure with a clear case.
One of their officials even allowed me to put in some benchmarks. I already knew the possible scoring of it on Antutu as we all knew the capability of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 SoC so I jumped in the sensors and all of the 7 sensors are working. Recently at Asus Taiwan event, they bared that there will be a 32, 64 and 128 GB ROM options of Zenfone 3 Zoom so I instantly went into the storage section and the one that I played was the 64 GB ROM variant. Is this a sign for the possible Philippine release?
Definitely, the main highlight for this phablet is the camera UI. You can use both the up to 2.3x optical zoom and up to 12x digital zoom on both the manual and auto mode. The same ZenUI camera was there but with some refinements. In manual mode, the shutter speed is something to check with from 1/16000 up to 32 seconds options which you can see the differences as you shift the dial. ISO can be cranked up to 3200
To test the 2.3x optical zoom and 12x digital zoom, I brought some camera samples. Once again, the phone is still an engineering mode so we cannot fully judge it. You can right click the photos for a bigger view
Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom 1x and 12x zoom camera samples
Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom 1x , 2.3x optical zoom and 12x digital zoom samples
Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom will be available this second quarter. No official words yet on the possible Philippine launch date
