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Interface and reliability
- Comes with Marshmallow, but Nougat said to be coming very soon
- ZenUI has improved, but doesn’t punish those who want to tuck it all away
- Unlocked means no carrier bloatware = a very good thing
Asus has a fairly long history of making Android phones and in that time, it has charted an equally long evolution of its ZenUI, its flavored coating that’s splashed onto the stock Android experience that Nexus and Pixel users have access to.
Since I last had my hands on it with the original Asus Zenfone Zoom, it has improved a good amount. Asus’ take on Android has always been filled with handy features that are just a scroll or tap away, but it has gotten better at staying out of you way during casual use of the Zenfone 3 Zoom.
That said, several of the device’s built-in widgets are set to alert you by default. Things like letting you know what color temperature the phone is set to, or how “healthy” it is with its current RAM and battery usage. While helpful for some, I was keen to turn this stuff off as soon as I could, and Asus makes this easy enough.
Regarding bloatware, you won’t find any on the Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom thanks to it going the unlocked route. When a phone comes tied to a carrier, there’s usually a group of pre-installed apps that you have to deal with as a result. But here, every one of Asus’ apps can be either disabled or uninstalled uninstalled if you have a preferred alternative in mind.
Interestingly, I didn’t want to uninstall them. I appreciated most, if not all, of Asus’ app inclusions. Its FM Radio, Laser Ruler and Sound Recorder are all super helpful features that I’m not normally accustomed to having built into the Google Pixel.
Same rule applies for the ZenUI launcher. If you don’t like it, you can download the Google Now launcher or whichever you prefer, such is the beauty of Android. Lastly, you can expect to find the suite of Google’s usual suspects, like Drive, Hangouts, Photos, Maps, Duo and a few others.
Regarding the operating system, this model in particular comes loaded with Android Marshmallow, not the latest and greatest Android Nougat update that many high-profile phones have been treated to. However, Asus did tell me that it plans to launch the update within the first half of June. Whether Android O support will follow in the next year is something we’ll have to wait to see about.
Music, movies and gaming
- Hi-Res audio support and DTS:X virtual surround sound make for a killer audio experience
- The gorgeous AMOLED screen is a huge perk for this $329 phone
- Can handle new games surprisingly well
All phones can play music, movies and games, but only some can do all three in spectacular fashion. Given its reasonable price, this phone places pretty high up on the list.
Starting with music, this phone is more equipped than options like the iPhone 7 and HTC U11, each of which ditched their headphone jack. You’ll find this ever-handy legacy port on the bottom of the phone, but you can also listen via Bluetooth if you’ve already snipped the cord. No matter how you’re listening, the AudioWizard tool amps up the sound to your liking with its DTS X sound capabilities. Each of the settings switch up the sound profile in an interesting way and I had a lot of fun tweaking them depending on the genre of music I was listening to.
Movies and TV shows look spectacular on the Zenfone 3 Zoom thanks to its AMOLED display. It brings true blacks and more richly saturated colors and contrast to the forefront, which only adds to the viewing experience. During my time with the phone, viewing angles and viewability outdoors exceeded my expectations.
While not the most powerful phone, I found gaming on this phone to be completely serviceable. My favorite mobile game of the past year, Alto’s Adventure, runs at a silky 60 frames per second. Knowing well that this isn’t the most demanding game, I tried out FIFA Mobile, a fully 3D title, and experienced similarly smooth results.
Specs and performance
- Mimics the more expensive Moto Z Play in terms of specs
- This mid-tier phone feels nearly as fast as more expensive devices
If you’re looking for a phone that compares spec-for-spec to the Asus Zenfone 3 Zoom, look no further than the Moto Z Play. From the 5.5-inch AMOLED display and 3GB of RAM to the Snapdragon 625 and USB-C port, it’s almost a total match. So, color us surprised when this phone literally zoomed past the Z Play with a 4,114 multicore average score in Geekbench 4.
Asus’ latest phone doesn’t come close to rivaling flagship Android phones like the Google Pixel, Samsung Galaxy S8 or LG G6, but in its price bracket, the Zenfone 3 Zoom is one of the more powerful and power-efficient phones available right now.
Throughout our testing for review, this phone didn’t stutter between app switching or during general use. Executing tasks like scrolling through web pages is quick and booting into the camera app are as quick as you’d hope.
