Asus ZenFone 5Z-The OnePlus 6 Contender?

Priced at only RM1700 (US$420), Asus ZenFone 5Z features flagship specs at a cheaper price. In fact, it has been labelled as a direct contender to the famous OnePlus 6.

Asus ZenFone 5Z

Asus seems to be on a roll right now, releasing smartphones with high-quality specs at a fraction of the cost that other more premium brands usually charge. This business model is exactly the same like Xiaomi's very own runaway strategy. Max Pro 1 is Asus' answer to the highly successful Redmi Note 5 at a cheaper price. Can ZenFone 5Z become Asus' latest attempt to break the stronghold of another budget flagship-OnePlus 6, to strive in the ultra competitive market?

I am in love with this Meteor Silver

First and foremost, Asus ZenFone 5Z sports a huge gorgeous 6.2-inch Full HD+ edge-to-edge display with a 19:9 aspect ratio, rendering it tall and thin to hold. Its 90% screen-to-body ratio allows the large display to be fitted in a 5.5-inch body, which enables you to easily immerse yourself in its visual splendor. Designed to be enviable, ZenFone 5Z feels like a premium flagship in every way as only the finest materials are used. The stunning aerospace-grade aluminium body is wrapped by gorgeous 2.5D glass both in front and at the back. This combo of metal and glass can become icy cold. :)

Beautiful, ultra-immersive display

For photography, Asus ZenFone 5Z has a vertically stacked rear dual-camera system, positioned perfectly well on top of a single-LED. The flash unit also houses a colour temperature sensor for more accurate colours reproduction. The primary rear camera is a 12MP f/1.8 aperture with dual-pixel which allows ultra fast autofocus; The secondary rear camera sports an 8-MP camera with 120 degrees wide-angle lens for beautiful portrait pictures. Flip the phone to its front and you will be greeted by an 8MP selfie camera. AI is deeply integrated into the camera system as the cameras could easily detect up to 16 different scenes from dog and cat to snow.

Capture any priceless moments of yours easily.

Under the hood, a flagship level Octa-core Kyro 260 Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 is the beating heart of Asus ZenFone 5Z, complemented by Adreno 509 GPU. With a whopping 6GB of RAM powering the device, expect everything to be snappy and buttery smooth from multitasking to heavy gaming. As for storage, there will be plenty to spare with 128GB of internal storage which is expandable via MicroSD slot to up to 2TB!

Pure power!

Realizing that battery is the most important aspect for a smartphone, Asus has incorporated AI Charging into ZenFone 5Z. With BoostMaster, you can use the 18w charger to juice the 3,300mAh battery from 0 till 60% capacity in just 38 minutes. Here are some numbers to crunch: Asus claims that ZenFone 5S have 22 days of 4G standby; 25 hours of 3G talk time and 17 hours of marathon web browsing. Looks like this smartphone has the required stamina to last us for the whole  day.

Asus ZenFone 5Z runs on marathon battery.

You can also have fun with emoji with Asus very own ZeniMoji. Similar to iPhone's and Samsung's animoji, ZeniMoji allows you to animate your own avatars using of course your own facial expressions, voice and even head movements; all of which can be used in live-streaming, text messages and even video messages. Guess smartphone brand will have their very own animoji soon. So nobody is going to use plain, boring soundless text to communicate anymore.

Zenimoji will add more colours to your life!

Listen to sounds in their full glory.

Apart from the gorgeous huge screen for your visual indulgence, Asus also ensures that ZenFone 5Z can deliver that stunning eargasmic sounds for your listening pleasure. Besides boasting powerful dual speakers, the audio system is also enhanced with dual smart amp to deliver high resolution state-of-the art audio quality. So now you will have an more immersive experience watching movies, youtube and especially gaming. Boom!

Watch why you should get Asus ZenFone 5Z

In terms of connectivity options on the ZenFone 5Z, there are the usual energy-efficient Bluetooth 5.0, lightning fast dual-band WiFi 802.11ac, NFC, GPS, GLONASS, and BDS. Interestingly the ZenFone 5Z also supports FM Radio which is really a rarity. Available in 2 different dazzling colours of Meteor Silver and Midnight Blue, Asus ZenFone 5Z retails at RM1,700 (US$420 in US or Rs. 29,999 in India). Is ZenFone 5Z a contender to OnePlus 6? Definitely a YES for its price and you are actually getting a premium, flagship smartphone for less.

Midnight Blue is equally stunning!