Last week, Taiwanese consumer electronics major Asus unveiled the new flagship phone Asus 6Z in India.
The new Asus 6Z is the successor to the cost-effective flagship phone Zenfone 5Z. The company has incorporated a boatload of improvements in terms of design and internal hardware, particularly the innovative camera in the new phone, and yet amazingly has kept the price almost the same as its predecessor.
Having said that, India is a highly competitive smartphone market and Asus has its work cut out for it. Asus 6Z is locking horns with the popular OnePlus 7 Pro, the Oppo Reno 10X Zoom and even the powerful Apple iPhone XR, which recently got a massive price cut.
Prior to the launch, I had the opportunity to test the Asus 6Z and here are my thoughts on the new marquee Android phone.
Design, build quality and display:
As I said in my first impression of the device, the company has done a marvelous job with the Asus 6Z's design language. It has incorporated a motorised camera at the back, which can work both as a primary rear camera and as a selfie shooter, by flipping up with just a tap of an on-screen button.
Though it comes off as gimmicky, the Asus 6Z makes full use of the flipping feature. It is the only phone that can take panoramic photos both vertical and horizontal. Furthermore, the motorised camera with motion tracking sensor can follow the subject and keep it at the centre of the frame all the time to record video. It's something that no other phone can boast about.
The proximity sensor is well tuned with the camera so that if it senses that the phone is dropping, it intuitively retracts the camera back to its original position. When I tried manually holding on to the camera module while switching to rear-view mode, it just gave up. The motor is not that powerful and it's quite understandable given the form factor. But I was happy to note that it worked fine despite me trying to override the flip camera's movement. [Note of caution: Please do not intentionally physically touch and fidget with the flip-camera].
Thanks to the new design, the Asus 6Z offers a true full-view display. It sports a 6.46-inch full HD+ NanoEdge IPS LCD screen and is protected by a Corning Gorilla Glass 6 shield. It comes with HDR 10 support, 600 nits brightness and 19.5:9 aspect ratio. I enjoyed watching high-resolution videos on multimedia streaming apps and playing graphics-intense games on it.
Performance:
The Asus 6Z houses Snapdragon 855 (with Adreno 640 GPU), Qualcomm's latest and most powerful chipset to date. It was smooth working on the phone, be it app loading, switching between multiple apps, operating the camera for taking snaps, 4K video recording and other power-intense stuff.
And while playing the graphics-intense Asphalt 9, the Asus 6Z didn't show the slightest hint of lag at any point. On Geekbench 4, it scored a healthy 3,479 and 11,083 points on single-core and multi-core tests.
Even the ZenUI-based Android Pie interface is clutter-free and I had no issue finding features in the settings. It is very close to the stock Android and there are some really good value-added features to boost the performance, stop battery draining and more. It is slated to get the Android Q later this year and is certain to get the Android R in 2020.
What impressed me most is the smart button on the right side at the top. It is customisable to offer multiple functionalities depending on the number of taps (maximum three). It makes it so much easier to operate the phone.
Camera:
As I have already written about the versatility of the flip camera in the design segment, I will jump straight to the picture quality of the Asus 6Z camera. It takes good, sharp images under normal outdoor conditions. It retains the natural colours of the flowers and even in the shadows, the details are captured and that impressed me a lot.
In a low-lit environment too, the Asus 6Z captures decent quality photos on par with rival brands in the same price segment.
As far as selfies are concerned, the Asus 6Z takes outstanding pictures and with customisable beauty features, you can adjust skin tone and do other stuff to make it more appealing to share on social media. It is also capable of accommodating more people in group selfies compared to other branded phones.
It comes with a 48MP with 1/2-inch Sony IMX586 sensor, dual LED Flash, F1.79 aperture, 0.8μm pixel size, Laser AF, Electronic Image Stabilisation, 13MP with 125-degree ultra-wide lens and F2.4 aperture.
Battery life:
The Asus 6Z houses a 5,000mAh battery, which no phone can match in the flagship phone segment. With a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset on board, the Asus 6Z consistently offered one and half days of battery life.
I played the Asphalt 9 game with a Wi-Fi connection for 20 minutes and it lost only one percent; this shows the power efficiency of the phone. The Asus 6Z has the best battery life among all rivals in the market.
Final thoughts:
The Asus Zenfone 5Z was one of the underrated flagships in 2018. It had the latest powerful hardware with affordable pricing and to me, the Zenfone 5Z was deservedly the true flagship killer compared to others last year. And now, its successor the Asus 6Z has gone several notches higher in terms of hardware and design and yet, costs almost the same as its predecessor.
There are a handful of phones in the market with a motorised pop-up camera but none can offer the unique experience that the Asus 6Z does. It makes the best use of the rotating camera to get the finest vertical panoramic images. And also, its motion tracking is just genius.
It also has the most powerful processor for the Android phone and is backed by a massive cell that can offer two days of battery life under mixed usage.
The Asus 6Z has everything that a flagship phone should have, if not more and it doesn't cost you a bomb.
The Asus 6Z comes in three variants -- 6GB RAM + 64GB storage, 6GB RAM +128GB storage and 8GB RAM + 256GB storage -- for Rs 31,999, Rs 34,999, and Rs 39,999 respectively on Flipkart.
Pros:
- Exceptionally versatile camera
- Powerful processor
- The best battery life among all rivals in the market
- Clutter-free interface
- Three dedicated slots, two for SIMs and one for microSD card
Cons:
During the motion tracking video recording session, the motor sound is a bit annoying. This is not a deal-breaker at all as this can be fixed with a software update.
Key specifications of the Asus 6Z:
Display: 6.46-inch full HD+ NanoEdge IPS LCD with HDR 10 support, 600 nits brightness, 19.5:9 aspect ratio with Corning Gorilla Glass 6 shield
OS: Android 9 Pie
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 (1 x 2.84GHz Kryo 485 + 3 x 2.42GHz Kryo 485 + 4x 1.80GHz Kryo 485) with Adreno 640 GPU
RAM (LPDDR4X) + Storage (UFS 2.1): 6GB RAM + 64GB storage / 6GB RAM + 128GB storage / 8GB RAM + 256GB storage
Primary camera: 48MP with 1 /2-inch Sony IMX586 sensor, dual LED Flash, F1.79 aperture, 0.8μm pixel size, Laser AF, Electronic Image Stabilisation, 13MP with 125-degree ultra-wide lens, F2.4 aperture
Battery: 5,000mAh with Qualcomm Quick Charge 4
Add-ons: Dual-SIM slots (SIM 1 + SIM 2), dedicated microSD card (+ 1TB storage), Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (dual-band: 2.4GHz & 5GHz), 3.5mm audio jack, USB Type C port, FM radio, two microphones, 5-magnet stereo speaker, dual NXP TFA9874 smartamp and GPS/GLONASS
Dimensions & weight:159.1 x 75.4 x 9.2 mm & 190g
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