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The new cell phones Zenfone, Asus' line, were finally launched in Spain. The goal is for them to be smartphones with solid performance, decent hardware and lightweight software. In addition, models must present good photos, under the motto “We love photo” present throughout the marketing campaign and even on the boxes of the devices.
In the Zenfone 4 line there are three options: standard (with high performance and two rear cameras), Max (with large battery and two rear cameras) and Selfie (with two front cameras). Now you will read the analysis of the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro, the best phone for those who love to use the front camera without giving up the power and elegance of the smartphone itself.
Design
At 74,8 mm high and 154 mm wide, the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro is available in three colors: black, gold and red. I tested the red version. the beauty of the cell phone is certainly a positive point to highlight, even more so in red. The red model attracts attention, but without looking extravagant and simple (like the colorful and late Lumia line).
Thanks to your screen AMOLEDthe Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro manages to be thin (6,85 mm) and light (147 g). The design of the device is just right. Although the screen does not follow the 18:9 fashion, the edges are very thin, with the display taking up 76,7% of the front.
device is from dark metal, without leaving fingerprints. At the edges, there are two bright diagonal lines, a detail that adds a touch of care to the design. The way the screen “overflows” through the 2.5D glass it enhances the bright details and also adds greater attention to the edge, when the mobile is viewed from the side. Even the antenna lines on the back of the device are part of the look, making it even more beautiful.
Still on the back, we can see the rear camera, inside a square. The square is not like Samsung's, which looks more like Nokia's flip flop phones. The square where the camera is has a lighter color inside, with several contour lines between the camera and the edges.
On the front there is the home button, with biometric reader, two backlit keys (“back” and “multitasking”). There's also an RGB LED for notifications, the dual front cameras and the flash. We can't forget the big 5,5 inch Full HD AMOLED screen.
On the right side are the volume buttons and the “power”, the latter with metallic details. On the left side there is only the SIM and SD card slot. At the bottom are the headphone jack (phew!), speaker and a micro USB input.
With all these points, it is evident how the visual build of the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro is beautiful and leaves no room for complaints. It's great to hold, use and see, whether you own it or the friend next door. Therefore, Asus is to be congratulated for making such a beautiful smartphone from all angles.
Fabric
O Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro is the only one among the new Asus releases (in Spain) with a AMOLED. Still, the screen doesn't come in a good configuration, presenting weak colors for an AMOLED. To improve this, go into the settings and change as you wish.
Despite the new trend of 18:9 mobile display, Asus decided to stick to the 16:9 standard. However, this does not detract from the screen's brightness. The 5,5 inches are big, although they look normal today. The size is more than enough to have a great experience playing, watching or using naturally. To top it off, it has a 2.5D design and protection. Gorilla Glass 5. the screen of Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro won't let you down.
Performance
O Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro is available in two versions: 32 GB of internal memory with 3 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal memory with 4 GB of RAM. I tested the version with more space. I didn't have any crashing problems. You apps open quickly, multitasking is responsive and even running two apps at the same time is a fluid experience.
Behind such performance is the Snapdragon 625, octa-core with 2.0 GHz, in addition to the Adreno 506 GPU. The AnTuTu Benchmark scored 65210 points, much higher than the Moto G5S (43000), but below the direct competitor Moto X4 (70000).
However, it's not all numbers. The important thing is to know that the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro offers steady and fast performance at all times. In case something is slower than usual, there is a button accessible in the notification center, the “System Optimization”, freeing up more RAM.
I tried games from Super Mario Run to Injustice 2. Without any choking, the power of the cell phone makes itself worth in games, with high quality even in releases such as Modern Combat Versus.
there is still the app Game Genie, a translucent button over the game. It allows the following actions: speed boost, photo and video sharing, game search on Google and YouTube, gameplay broadcast on Twitch and YouTube (with front camera and microphone recording), and finally, ringtone recorder, for that keeps repeating gestures (useful in farm games, for example). Mobile gamers will be pleased with the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro.
In the meantime, take beware of internal storage. With just six games and other applications that I consider essential to my daily life, I occupied 30,16 GB (12 GB for the system). So think carefully if the 32GB model will suit your needs. If you can afford the 64GB one, consider the importance of the extra space (in addition to the extra 1GB of RAM).
Cameras
We now come to the great highlight of the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro, your cameras. What to expect from a cell phone that has “Selfie” in the name and still under the slogan “We Love Photo”? Don't expect so much.
There are two front cameras, the secondary 120º view and 5MP, and the main sensor. Sony Exmor RS IMX362 and 12 MP. Asus likes to point out that this Sony sensor is what is present in the rear camera of phones like the Zenfone 3 Zoom. What does this result in in the end?
A main front camera, 12 MP, has a series of devices to impress in night photos. f/1.8 aperture, 1.4 ?m pixels, SuperPixel Engine to lighten photos in processing, plus flash. All this construction is so that night selfies come out with a very good quality for a front camera.
There is still an RGB-IR sensor, it promises to prevent skin tones from distorting in images. Nonetheless, don't get carried away by the numbers and names. Let's get to the tests!
Let's compare it to a selfie I took on the back camera of my old one. Lumia 930, with f/2.4 aperture (photos should be darker):
Firstly, we can notice that despite all the devices to guarantee good night photos, Pictures don't come out as sharp as promised.. It's evident how blurry they can get, even with flash.
There was no name and number that really guaranteed a good night image. We can point several failures. O Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro does not have any stabilization system, either optical or digital.
There is only a single flash, not very effective, and the first Zenfone Selfie had a dual two-tone flash. What happened to the worry of not making the photos too cold? The processing didn't seem to help either, and that RGB-IR sensor wasn't able to do much of its work.
Comparing a front-facing camera with a rear-facing camera might seem unfair, but this is necessary to take away the illusion that Asus makes us have. Sharing the same image sensor doesn't mean the same photos.
One is led to imagine that the image quality of the selfies will be epic. However, at the end of it all the front camera of the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro is nothing more than… a front camera, that is, don't expect too much. These are very good photos, period.
In bright environments, the main front camera of the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro it comes out better. Colors are captured faithfully, there is a good level of contrast. Under good light conditions, the selfies are impressive with superior quality to any competing cell phone.
There is also the “portrait mode”, which applies a blur effect around the person. Depending on the background, the result can even be an artistic look. It is even possible to make gifs (not good ones) with the front camera.
However, the main front camera of the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro It doesn't have all the power of a regular rear camera. It is necessary to recognize its limitations. That's not what Asus did. In the quest to enhance its front camera, there are features of dubious presence.
For example, the main front camera is 12 MP, but in many advertisements it is 24 MP. This is because by going to the settings there is an option to activate the “duopixel”, doubling the size of the photo. This does not mean greater level of detail.
ASUS says the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro is the world's first phone to record in 4K on the front camera. It's a great brand to put in an advertisement, but its everyday use is basically useless. We think, those who like selfies put their photos and videos on social networks, that is, everything suffers a heavy compression. 4K recording is only for some YouTubers.
Unfortunately, this means that it was not necessary to invest so much as to put a 12 MP camera with a powerful sensor if in reality it is limited and without so much justification in use. I say this because the photography hardware was unbalanced, harming the construction of the other cameras on the cell phone.
Meanwhile, the 120 MP wide-angle (5º) secondary camera is anything but fancy. Its function is to make more people fit in the photo. The user's role is to make sure the camera doesn't spoil the moment. That's because the daytime photos are good, but the nighttime ones… See for yourself.
Thus, the secondary front camera of the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro can be used for group photos as long as they are daytime and in good condition. It is sad to point out here that you should not depend on her for other times.
With this dedication to the front cameras, which didn't do as good a job as expected, the rear camera took a hit. While the main front camera doesn't have all the sharpness expected, the rear camera does, but it lacks in many aspects.
The rear camera has 16 MP and electronic image stabilization, in addition to a Sony sensor. In daytime photos, quality may vary. It can look good in extremely good light conditions, like in this photo below, midday in Maceió. The quality was not exceptional, but satisfactory.
Now, in a cloudy moment:
For you, reader, it may not look like it, but for me, who took the photo, it turned out much darker than natural. This kind of difficulty in capturing light can be improved in manual mode, but for a cell phone that says “We Love Photo“, it is expected that the software knew how to regulate the automatic mode well.
The manual mode, in turn, has the classic changes of focus, shutter speed, ISO, EV and white balance. In addition, it displays the mobile's vertical and horizontal inclinations in real time, almost like a pilot's guide.
“The night is dark and full of terrors,” says Melisandre in Game of Thrones. THE Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro well know it. Several problems are exposed during this period. Photos tend to come out much darker, even with flash. The flash, in turn, seems to hinder rather than help.
I usually use flash even when there is ambient light, to make the photo sharper, but the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro is weak in light and post-processing makes it even worse, even with distorted colors. It is disappointing and not pleasant to use the phone's rear camera in low light situations.
Rear camera focus turned out to be another issue. I fought a lot with the cell phone, with taps and more taps on the screen, moving the device away and closer. The solution is to use Pro mode to get to manual focus. A sigh.
It should be remembered that the first Zenfone Selfie had laser focus for the rear camera, much faster and more efficient than the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro.
In bright environments, the rear camera also has other exposed issues. Colors are “washed out” and again there is the common risk of everything turning out darker than it should.
In this internal fight about white balance, exposure and contrast, we can come across images like this:
We can see, even in the morning with cloudy weather, the white of the petals came out a little stronger than it should. At night, the automatic mode was not effective, with a dark image. Using the flash, the result became even worse, with the white burst.
After all, the highlight on the front camera came out a mess. While the front camera has powerful equipment, not used as it could, the rear camera tries to “make do” with its simplest configuration, to no avail. As for the secondary front camera, don't depend on it out of sunlight.
Operational system
This is one of the new features of Zenfone 4. Android 7.1.1 Nougat wheel under the ZenUI 4.0 from Asus. The interface has not changed much compared to the previous version, the focus of the update was to reduce the number of pre-installed apps and provide greater agility.
Apart from Google apps, the only ones that cannot be uninstalled are 11 from Asus. It's a list of utilities: calculator, clock, file manager, sound recorder, weather, gallery, WebStorage and cell phone manager, in addition to BR Apps, Selfie Master and Themes.
We can highlight some programs, such as the mobile manager and the gallery. The gallery displays photos very well, automatically increasing screen brightness, option for dark theme and integration with other clouds and social networks.
It also has features of gathering images by albums, faces, locations and tags. All this without having to upload. There is still the necessary native option to lock the gallery with a password, against snoopers.
ZenUI 4.0 is packed with tools for productivity and performance. With Twin Apps it is possible to use two in the same app. It duplicates the app, so it uses one account in each version. Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Twitter and WhatsApp are supported by Twin Apps.
There are still “plug-ins” like Page Maker for browsers, Game Genie to boost and stream games, plus Selfie Master to improve face in photos.
Asus thought of the user even in semergency situation. With the update, a distress mode was introduced, it sends the real-time location to selected contacts and calls 3. Press the power button XNUMXx to activate.
Accompanied with decent hardware, Android with ZenUI 4.0 is fluid and with fast movements, without giving up transition effects. So, if you're not fixated on pure Android, you're sure to enjoy the Android's operating system. Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro.
Battery
The battery of the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro has 3.000 mAh. However, not everything is mAh, there are still factors like screen, processor efficiency, network connections… So the battery life will never be accurate.
So, instead of filling you with test hours, I decided to just actively use my cell phone. I spent 4 days traveling through Maceió, with constant use of the camera, 4G, GPS and various applications, from Facebook to Uber. THE battery didn't let me down none of those tourist days, staying out all night and part of the morning. Ufa!
Even when the cell phone was at 15% I didn't have to worry, because the energy consumption of the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro it is efficient. It has battery modes and even a “Super Economy” profile, disabling the network just to exchange SMS, calls and wake up alarms.
And in the short time I was at home, recharging my cell phone was the simplest and fastest thing of the day. despite the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro does not support Qualcomm's Fast Charging, it goes from 3% to 33% in half an hour. Therefore, battery is a concern that you should not easily have with the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro.
Audio
With only one sound output, at the bottom right of the cell phone, the speaker of the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro It's incredibly loud and accurate. It is possible to reach maximum volume without distorting the music. I was happy to use the smartphone at times when I didn't have a speaker nearby.
With five magnets, the speaker has Hi-Res Audio certified, and can reproduce 24-bit/192kHz quality – 4x better than CD quality. There is even an “outdoor mode” to the volume control, it changes the EQ so that the sound is more noticeable outdoors.
AudioWizard equalizer works for speaker and headphone. There is still DTS Headphone:X driver. However, there are few modes for rhythms, limited to 5 and very strange. For example, the rock mode lowers the guitar, raises the drum drum and makes the voice muffled.
Just when I thought I was all lost, I found the “personal audio profile” menu. Anyone who has no experience in sound equalization can use it.
The program displays sound frequencies by asking the user to change the frequency until he cannot hear them (one by one). The result is an enhanced sound experience not imagined before. The sound, in general, through speakers or headphones, is very satisfactory.
Conclusion
O Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro It's a rather confusing smartphone. It manages to present serious camera flaws even under the We Love Photo slogan. The main front camera makes selfies out of the ordinary, with unbeatable quality among competitors, but it proves to be a waste with so many devices that in the end are not well used.
They sacrificed the dual two-tone flash to insert a weak secondary front camera, extremely flawed in environments where the light is not strong.
The rear camera was harmed. She can't balance the white even from the flash itself, with “blown” photos. Even so, when more light is needed, photos can come out dark (which is not uncommon). Focus can be fast, but not effective, the result of sacrificing laser focus.
It is sad to see so many flaws in the photograph of the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro.
In the rest of the smartphone Asus only accumulates hits. The screen is large, AMOLED and Full HD. The cell phone design is beautiful, with precision in every detail. Performance is guaranteed with the Snapdragon 625 and up to 4GB of RAM. Meanwhile, Android 7.1.1 runs great with the lightweight ZenUI 4.0. Finally, there is still a speaker that can reach high volume without audio distortion.
So, if you want an efficient, fast, beautiful and current phone, in addition to having good differentiated selfies, the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro it's your cell phone. But watch out for the price. The smartphone is only being sold by Asus for up to R$1.899,00, a very high price for an intermediary.
