“Simple, peaceful, beautiful,” this apparently, is what Asus’s Zenfone 5 is designed to be. But can a phone really be peaceful? Can the constant notifications, buzzing and red light really allow for any sort of calm? Or is it just a marketing ploy set to fail?
The Zenfone 5 is an Android device, but Asus has plastered its own user interface (UI) on top, which includes a weather and time and date widget on the main screen. It is far less cluttered than the standard Android UI with quick access to phone, messaging, browsing and camera. The colour scheme is soft and all Zen-like with serene greens and cooling blues. The default wallpaper is of a snowy mountain range – light and breezy and I guess, peaceful.
But that’s where the Zen-ness stops.
It is a dual-Sim phone, but good luck trying to get even one inside. The phone feels like it is a unibody, only it isn’t. The back comes off, but only after a long struggle and a broken nail.
The back, home screen and multitasking buttons are on the lower bezel rather than the screen, as is the case with most Android phones. The only issue is that there is no backlight, so accessing them in the dark is frustrating. The lower bezel has a ridged ring pattern, which proved to be harsh enough to file my nails and exfoliate the skin off my thumb.
The matte plastic back feels nice to the touch but is prone to scratching, especially the white version. It provided a nice grip though.
The 5.0 inch smartphone has a 720p display which is OK, nothing spectuacluar. Full HD movies were a little grainy on the display. The Zenfone 5 has an 8MP rear camera with 1080p video recording capability and a 2MP front-facing camera with 720p video recording. Pictures and videos were pretty average.
It weighs 145g and runs the Android Jelly Bean, but upgradeable to KitKat.
So is it the simple, peaceful, beautiful phone that Asus claims it is? Not really. It is simple enough, beautiful in parts and like all other phones, it is peaceful only when it is switched off.
Q&A
Triska Hamid reveals more about the Asus Zenfone 5:
Asus makes phones?
Yes. The Taiwanese company has been making phones for a while now. It is better known for its laptops and tablets, but it has taken the Intel chips and processors it is so familiar with when making laptops and inserted them into a mobile phone. The result is decent, nothing incredible.
Is this the only phone Asus has?
No, there is the Zenfone 4 and Zenfone 6 which is the premium device, priced at Dh1,299. The Zenfone 5 is available in black, white, red, gold and purple and priced at Dh899.
Why is it so cheap compared to the other premium brands?
It is meant to be an affordable smartphone. It is still pricier than Obi phones or some of the Nokias, but it is in line with the pricing of Lenovo and Huawei’s handsets. The aim is to provide that high-end experience and feel for a mid-range price.
Anything else?
The screen can be used while wearing gloves. There are also two apps – what’s next and do it later, which aims to declutter the barrage of information. What’s next pushes the most important and relevant appointments, messages and calls to the user onto the home screen. Do it later allows the user to focus on the task at hand and pushes a reminder if a notification pops up, so if you’re in the middle of writing an email and receive a phone call, a single tap and the phone automatically creates a reminder to call that person back.
thamid@thenational.ae
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