Thinnest smartphone with optical zoom is here

Tells you why this phone is a photographer’s delight

Smartphone photography has been picking up a lot in India because of the constantly improving technology and affordable prices. To capture this market, Asus has finally launched the Zenfone Zoom, after over a year of its announcement, The phone is the worlds thinnest smartphone with 3x optical zoom and comes with a 10-element HOYA lens for the 13 megapixel PixelMaster camera. After a weekend’s worth of usage, here is what you need to know. Build quality and Aesthetics The Zenfone Zoom is built out of a single block of aluminum and after 15 processes has given you the final metal frame that you see in the Zenfone Zoom. The metalic sides on both sides measure only 5mm. In terms of buttons, you do not have any on the left and on the right you get the volume buttons, the power button, the camera button and record button. The back is made out of leather and looks stunning. Display The ZenFone Zoom comes with a 5.5-inch 1920x1080 Full HD IPS with wide 178-degree viewing angles, and a 403ppi pixel density, which actually manages to look pretty good. The display includes ASUS TruVivid technology, which transforms the conventional four-layer design into an innovative two-layer construction with full lamination resulting in a display that is actually vibrant. Asus has also fused the cover glass and the touch panel which makes the touch feel a little closer. The phone is also protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 4 which is twice as strong as it’s predecessor. Camera ZenFone Zoom is the world’s thinnest smartphone optical-zoom smartphone, with a 13MP PixelMaster rear camera and 3X lens in a body that measures just 5mm at the edges. Developed in collaboration with the experts at Hoya, the 10-element lens is a thing of beauty. Glass, synthetic and prismatic lenses are meticulously configured in a dual-prism periscope arrangement to maximize incoming light and capture the best possible photo quality. You also get built-in optical image stabilization for steadier shots every time, even at maximum 3X optical magnification. There is no reduction in quality while zooming in and the optical image stabilization technology works even while zoomed in. The optical zoom manages to serve it’s purpose by being able to take you closer to the object without having to move while giving you the same quality. Performance The ZenFone Zoom comes with a 64-bit Z3590 Intel Super Quad-core Atom processorthat is empowered by Intel’s 22nm Silvermont architecture. Intel’s new Tri-Gate transistors have three times (3X) more surface area than planar transistors, enabling the flow of more electrons to increase computing performance and reduce power leakage. The phone comes with 4GB of dual-channel LPDDR3 RAM, and 128GB of storage as well as an option to add upto 128 GB via microSD. The phone also features LTE Category 4 networking technology for download speeds up to 250Mbps and a 60ms touch-response time. Battery The ZenFone Zoom comes with a decent 3000mAh battery coupled with ASUS BoostMaster technology for turbo-speed charging that takes the battery from zero to 60% in just 39 minutes. Software The Zenfone Zoom comes loaded with Android 5.0 and the Asus ZenUI. The user interface has not changed much since the Zenfone 2 and it’s the place where I feel like there is room for some improvement. ZenUI comes with a lot of unwanted apps and gives quite the cluttered out-of-box experience. The ZenUI Camera app manages to work pretty well. It also comes with the ASUS-exclusive Super Resolution mode that applies multi-frame-fusion technology to create a higher level of detail. Four high-resolution 13MP shots are fused to create a single image with four times greater quality. The Super Resolution shots hence produces images of up to 52MP. Pricing The ASUS ZenFone Zoom is now available in India on Flipkart and starting in February 2016, it will be avialable at ASUS Exclusive Stores for a price of Rs. 37,999. Asus also announced a bundle offer at the launch event which includes a tripod and ZenFlash coupled with the Zenfone Zoom for Rs 39,999. Conclusion The ZenFone Zoom delivers a good photography experience and the best build quality and aesthetics that we have seen from the company in the smartphone arena. The only issues for me come from the software that could be improved.If you’re willing to look beyond those minor annoyances, the phone although expensive is worth the price.