[Anandtech] Zenfone 2 Review

[Mew]

Anandtech has finally published their full review of the Asus Zenfone 2. On paper, it has some very impressive specs-

 

However, with each of those incredible specs (for the price) comes a caveat.

First and foremost, the SOC- it thermal throttles within minutes.

However, it isn't new for a smartphone to thermal throttle. Phones such as the HTC One M9 are known to throttle quite heavily. However, it would be nice if all smartphones can be at the level of the iPhone 6 and not throttle at all while delivering excellent performance. 

 

Devices like the iPhone 6 don't last as long as other devices, but show essentially no GPU throttling and retain a high frame rate even by the last run of the test.

 

In the case of the ZenFone 2, we see that it lasts exactly as long as the HTC One (M9). Last run GPU performance is noticeably slower though. Overall I would say the ZenFone 2's performance in this test is fairly good. Its battery life is in range of devices like the LG G3 and the Nexus 6, but it has higher sustained performance than either of them. ASUS and Intel also handle thermal throttling very well, with the frame rate dropping down from around 30 to 22 over the course of the first 20 minutes, and remaining there for the remaining two hours of the test.

 

Overall, performance is roughly the same as a Snapdragon 801 phone, or a Snapdragon 805 that throttles, and the 5s.

 

Next is the 1080P IPS screen. 

 

Out of the box, you are unable to crank the brightness all the way up. Asus locks it to 319 nits. However, if you download apps available on the Play store, you can crank it to the max of 390 nits.

 

One last thing I'd like to note about the brightness is that the 100% setting on the built in brightness slider is not actually the max brightness that the display is capable of. The max you can achieve using the slider in the Settings app is 319 nits, which is around 82% of the 390 nit result you can get using applications like Brightness Adjuster from Google Play.

 

The display itself has very middling accuracy, which is fine for the $199 pricetag. However, it makes heavy use of dynamic contrast ratio and contect adaptive backlighting resulting in dramatic brightness shifts when the content on your screen changes.

 

 

The slightly low max brightness and above average black level results put the Zenfone 2 right in the middle of our LCD devices when it comes to contrast ratio.

Unfortunately, these numbers are somewhat misleading. This is because the Zenfone 2 makes extremely heavy use of dynamic contrast and contect adaptive backlighting (CABC). I have never used another device with such dramatic shifts in backlight power. The best example I've found is when switching from an all black to all white screen at max brightness. While this is obviously an extreme case, it illustrates the behavior that is occuring very well. At the moment you switch to white, the brightness of the display is around 170 nits. Over the next few seconds, that brightness rapidly increases to the 390 nits you see in the results above. This is an enormous jump in brightness, and it's very easy to see with your own eyes.

 

However, there is a reason for this- battery life.

 

The 3000mAh battery may seem great on paper (and also charges super fast), however once again, specs aren't everything. In order to deliver the already poor battery life from being even worse, Asus uses CABC to lower brightness during everyday tasks to try to improve battery life. This signals to me that there's almost nothing that Asus can do in software to improve battery life short of running a governor that prioritizes battery life over a more balanced governor that juggles performance and battery life. With a 3000mAh battery, Brandon expected it to perform roughly as well as the OnePlus One which has the same size screen, resolution, and similar battery size. That wasn't the case.

I think the LTE tests may be a little flawed because Anandtech has multiple editors all over North America, all using different carriers. In the beginning of the review, Brandon indicated that he was from Canada, using the Wind carrier.

 

Although it's not listed on their global website, the North American version of the ZenFone 2 has support for the AWS band on UMTS networks. ASUS was unaware of this when I contacted them about it. However, I have been able to use the phone on WIND mobile, which is a Canadian carrier that only operates their HSPA network on the AWS band. ASUS has also updated their Canadian and US websites to reflect the support for AWS since the time that I contacted them about it.

 

Because of varying signal strength and sometimes carriers having an effect on battery life (T-Mobile delivering better battery life than other carriers in the US), the LTE numbers may vary for different users. 

 

Here are the excellent charge time numbers:

I'm glad that the author took the time to address the negatives of fast charging-

 

Something that is becoming a common feature for modern smartphones is the ability to charge at a rate faster than the standard 5V 1A spec that devices and charging blocks used in the past. The most well known standards for achieving this are Qualcomm's Quick Charge and Quick Charge 2.0.specifications. Fast charging is essentially a trade off between battery longevity and charge times, and it really relies on the assumption that smartphones are replaced every two years which is less time than any user would notice possible adverse effects. This rapid replacement of devices is somewhat worrisome, but that's a topic for another time.

 

Camera- there's not much to say besides specs don't mean much when the actual performance sucks.

 

Conclusion: Is this a good phone? I would say it is only at the $199 price because at $299, it would be competing against the more rounded M8 that can be had at around $300 for a refurb, or the iPhone 5s which is slightly better due to the less compromising hardware. It's not a phone that you can blindly recommend to your friends and people on the internet. I have been really hard on this phone ever since CES because it is a phone that looks good on paper but will bite you in the behind if you don't take the time to read the reviews and understand its limitations. The experience will undoubtedly improve with software updates, but battery life will probably not improve much, if at all because Asus had to resort to dynamic contrast ratio and contect adaptive backlighting.

 

Le Source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/9251/the-asus-zenfone-2-review

[patrick3027]

1+1 is still a better choice, even though the €199 ZenPhone 2 is not bad for the price.

Shame Oneplus increased the price of the 1+1 in Europe.

[Opcode]

Might want to add le' source to le' post.

 

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9251/the-asus-zenfone-2-review

 

Still a decent phone for the price when you cover the issues with it. Throttling shouldn't be an issue when the GPU isn't under load (everything but gaming). The battery looks like it will hold an all day charge as well which is standard for this price point. If you're like most of us and pull the device out to text and check your Facebook every so often before jamming it back into your pocket the device looks like it will be sufficient.

[Magnificient Potato]

Personally I don't see thermal throttling as a bad thing. Of course I would like all powerful chip that never throttles. But I prefer chip that can be faster for limited amount of time, than weaker that is weak all the time. Not saying this Moorfield doesn't have problems.

[Inkz]

Meh, I got my LG G2 for $149 which is still is and I am happy for the price.

[Aniallation]

Linus was unhappy about the battery life too, but as he stated it seems a software issue is at least partly to blame so hopefully Asus will improve it with a future OTA

[Mew]

Personally I don't see thermal throttling as a bad thing. Of course I would like all powerful chip that never throttles. But I prefer chip that can be faster for limited amount of time, than weaker that is weak all the time. Not saying this Moorfield doesn't have problems.

 

But when you can have excellent performance all the time instead of a chip that can match that in short periods of time (pretty much core m vs ulv broadwell) and still consume the same power, it's pretty much a no brianer. Take the Shield Tablet's K1 vs the Air 2's A8x for example. K1 can perform as well as the A8x in short benchmark runs before it throttles, whereas A8x hardly throttles. 

 

 

As one can see, the iPad Air 2 is one of the best performers on this test, considering its frame rate and runtime. While NVIDIA's GK20A GPU in Tegra K1 can get close to the GX6650 for short periods of time, over a long workload it's pretty clear that the GX6650 on 20nm has better sustained performance and significantly superior efficiency as it doesn't throttle until the 200th iteration of the test. It's important to note that the iPad Air 2 is running at a higher native resolution here, so relative to SHIELD Tablet a scaling factor needs to be estimated in order to get an idea for performance at the same resolution. During this test I saw that the skin temperatures never exceeded 45C, so this isn't the result of Apple choosing to run the device hotter than most.

 

Source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/8666/the-apple-ipad-air-2-review/5

[pk-man]

poor battery life and camera performance is going to be deal breaker

[Mew]

poor battery life and camera performance is going to be deal breaker

 

For me, it's those two in addition to the awful mushy buttons, dynamic contrast ratio, and pretty much AMOLED like APL that would ruin it for me

[Yoinkerman]

Having used one for two days now, the only issues I have are the UI.  The pulldown menu from the top needs to be one swipe instead of two to get to the quick buttons, and the asus mail app can only display 5 emails on the list.  On a 1080p screen.  Sure the pictures are a little grainy, but I don't take serious pictures with my phone anyway.

 

I got through today at work with 75% battery left.  My GS3 ends the day with like 25% at best(It's a new factory battery btw, so little if any degradation).  I haven't had an issue with the screen being too dark yet, so . . . who cares if it doesn't go all the way bright?  You're not going to see your phone in direct sunlight.  Ever.

 

Phone reviews have really seemed negative lately, with too much emphasis on empirical data to differentiate results.  With way way too much emphasis on phones that don't perform as well as other phones making them bad.  According to that chart, I can browse any one of those phones for MY ENTIRE WORK DAY.  That's more than what I need, for sure.

 

For $200 it kicks ass.  Makes me think of that comedy bit where the guy remarks on how people complain about the plane not having wifi while flying through the air at hundreds of miles an hour to cross an entire continent.

 

ps.  the volume buttons feel fine and plenty tactile

[Misanthrope]

This phone is x86 right? It makes sense some apps and even Android itself is not as optimized for battery saving and such, just a thought.

[Mew]

This phone is x86 right? It makes sense some apps and even Android itself is not as optimized for battery saving and such, just a thought.

 

It's not just that, Intel just simply isn't as power efficient as ARM chips. Although the Dell Venue Pro gets about the same battery life as the Air 2, it requires a much bigger battery to do so 27Wh vs 38Wh.

[Snadzies]

Having had the $200 Zenphone since last Thursday I'd say it is solid for people who are moderate phone users (Listen to music, check email, light web browsing through out the day.)

 

I find the battery life alright, it isn't as good as my previous phone (LG L90) but the Zenphone has a larger resolution screen and is noticeably faster and more responsive.

L90 typically would end the work day at about high 60% to mid 70%.

The Zenphone seems to end the average work day at mid 50% to low 60%

Average work usage for me is 8 hours of podcasts and music (Bluetooth headphones), checking email a few times, facebook and forum browsing for about 20min on break and a few google searches (usually to check the name of a person in a movie or TV show).

[RS7110]

I've been using this phone for the past couple months, got the 3560/720P/2G version for about $190 and I'm quite impressed with it. Phones in this price range typically use the MT6752 or the crappier Snapdragon 615, both of which have worse GPU performance, which is what I care the most about. The 6752 is more efficient by a long shot, it seems like the 3560's silvermont cores can't shut down as they appear to be all active at least 500MHz whenever I have it one, though its battery life is still decent, I typically use up 45-55% a day with some mild gaming with PPSSPP, doesn't live up to what expect from a 3000mAH battery but hey look at the K3 Note and I won't complain for a $0 chip either. Compatibility wise I think the only app that I can't get to run is Drastic emulator, which is strange since people are saying it worked with the older Z2580, making me wonder if this is an issue with Android 5.0 x86.

[TroubleKlef]

In other news, cheap phones are cheap. It's why nice smart phones call for top dollar prices. 1 is because the company needs to make a profit and 2 is that it takes a lot of money to engineer a good phone.