It’s been some time since Asus utterly stopped launching funds and premium smartphones in India. For a number of years now, the corporate has been focusing solely on its ROG smartphone lineup catering to the gaming crowd. The ROG Phone 5 affords good {hardware} but it surely’s geared toward a distinct segment viewers, and Asus hasn’t actually had anything for the remainder of the market in India. That’s all about to alter now. The Asus 8z may sound acquainted, and that is as a result of this telephone was introduced in 2021. Known internationally because the ZenFone 8, it was all set to launch in India because the 8z (as a result of a trademark dispute). Asus says it held again this telephone’s launch till now due to the pandemic and provide chain points, but it surely’s lastly out there.
The Asus 8z may seem to be it is somewhat late to the occasion, however aside from not having the most recent and biggest SoC, the remainder of the specs make it appear as if this telephone can nonetheless be thought-about premium even right this moment. Can the Asus 8z assist the corporate make up for misplaced time? I put it to the check to seek out out.
Asus 8z worth in India
The Asus 8z is priced at Rs. 42,999 in India and comes with 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 128GB of UFS 3.1 storage. It is obtainable in two colors, Obsidian Black and Horizon Silver.
Asus 8z design
The important draw of Asus’ earlier flagship in India, the Asus 6Z (Review), was its rotating digital camera module. For the Asus 8z, it’s the compact dimension. Compact Android flagships are a uncommon breed, and the 8z is an efficient break from all of the telephones with large shows which are at the moment on sale. Asus is concentrating on consumers who need a compact smartphone with out compromising on efficiency or construct high quality.
The Asus 8z runs the danger of coming throughout as somewhat bland. I had an Obsidian Black unit which has no gradient patterns or accent colors to interrupt the monotony, apart from a contrasting blue energy button. Asus appears to have taken some inspiration from the Google Pixel collection on this regard. You get a frosted end on the rear glass which does a very good job of conserving fingerprints away. The dual-camera module on the again protrudes solely barely.
The Asus 8z is snug for one-handed use
The Asus 8z has a 5.9-inch AMOLED show with skinny bezels surrounding it, however with a barely thicker chin on the backside. It has Corning Gorilla Glass Victus on the entrance and Gorilla Glass 3 on the again for scratch safety. The body is fabricated from metallic and feels premium to the contact. Asus has curved the perimeters of the rear glass the place it meets the body which makes it simpler to grip the telephone. The quantity buttons are on the precise whereas the left is totally clean. You do get a 3.5mm headphone jack on the highest, making the 8z one in all only a few flagships to nonetheless have one.
A neat addition on the backside of the body is a notification LED which lights up when the telephone is charging and blinks when you might have unread notifications. It’s proper between the bottom-firing speaker and the USB Type-C port. Asus does present a case within the field. The 8z is IP68 rated for mud and water resistance.
Asus 8z specs and software program
The Asus 8z’s show has a full-HD+ decision, 120Hz most refresh price, and a 240Hz contact sampling price. This AMOLED panel has a peak brightness of 1,100 nits and has an built-in fingerprint scanner. Asus additionally affords stereo audio system on the 8z.
Powering the Asus 8z is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888, which was final yr’s flagship 5G SoC. The Asus 8z has two nano-SIM slots with help for 5G and 4G in addition to VoLTE. Other connectivity choices embody Bluetooth 5.2, Wi-Fi 6, FM radio, NFC, and 5 satellite tv for pc navigation programs. This telephone has a 4,000mAh battery and helps Qualcomm QuickCharge 4. A 30W charger is bundled within the field.
The Asus 8z runs Android 12 out of the field
In phrases of software program, the Asus 8z runs ZenUI on prime of Android 12. The UI appears and feels so much like inventory Android however this may be customised to fit your style. You can change icon shapes, font types, and accent colors. It additionally has a darkish mode for system parts in addition to apps, and this may be robotically triggered put up sundown. Privacy indicators, an Android 12 function that notifies you when the digital camera or microphone is in use, can also be current. My 8z unit was working the December 2021 safety patch which is sort of dated.
Asus does preinstall a number of third-party apps on the 8z resembling Netflix, Facebook, and Messenger; the previous might solely be disabled whereas the opposite two could possibly be uninstalled. Asus has gesture navigation enabled by default within the UI and it has additionally added a number of particular gestures to carry out sure actions. For occasion, a three-finger swipe down will take a screenshot, and I used this very often.
The Asus 8z has a notification mild on the backside
Asus has additionally added some performance to the facility button. A single press places the machine in standby mode as regular, however you may configure what the telephone does once you double-press and long-press this button. Depending on what you select, the 8z can launch a selected app, toggle the Wi-Fi state, or activate the flashlight. Similarly, you will get the 8z to launch Google Assistant by long-pressing the facility button as an alternative of exhibiting the facility menu.
There are 5 battery modes on the Asus 8z. You can select from ‘High Performance’ to ‘Ultra Durable’ primarily based in your utilization. The smartphone is ready to ‘Dynamic’ by default however the superior choices allow you to fine-tune the way it performs. Asus has additionally added a one-handed navigation function which shrinks UI parts for simpler entry. Interestingly, you may customise the extent to which the UI shrinks.
Asus 8z efficiency and battery life
The Asus 8z affords snappy efficiency and I by no means needed to wait lengthy for an app or a recreation to load. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC was in a position to run just about any app from the Google Play retailer. The show was crisp and had good viewing angles. With it set to 120Hz, scrolling was tremendous easy and the UI felt fluid. The stereo audio system on the Asus 8z do full justice to the show and complement the media expertise properly. The audio output is not tinny however I seen the bottom-firing speaker sounded louder than the earpiece.
I ran a few benchmarks on the Asus 8z to see the way it performs. The smartphone robotically switched from the ‘Dynamic’ battery mode to ‘High Performance’ upon detecting a power-hungry app. However, in an effort to stop this artificially inflating the benchmark scores, I modified it again to ‘Dynamic’ for these assessments. In AnTuTu, the Asus 8z managed to attain 757,893 factors. In Geekbench 5’s single core and multi-core assessments, the telephone managed 1,062 and three,570 factors respectively. It dealt with graphics benchmarks fairly effectively too, managing 57fps and 115fps in GFXBench’s Car Chase and T-Rex assessments, respectively. These scores are solely barely decrease than these of the Samsung Galaxy S22, one other comparatively compact flagship, however that is to be anticipated given the generational hole between the 2 telephones’ SoCs.
The Asus 8z has a twin digital camera setup on the again
Asus has introduced over the Game Genie function from its ROG smartphone lineup. This helps you to block incoming calls and notifications when gaming, change the refresh price of the show, and create macros. I performed Battleground Mobile India (BGMI) on the Asus 8z and it defaulted to ‘HD’ graphics and ‘High’ body price by default. I bumped the graphics setting all the best way as much as ‘Ultra HD’ and body price to ‘Ultra’ to see if the Asus 8z might deal with this recreation maxed out. To no shock, it was in a position to run the sport with none lag or stutter, however this impacted battery life. After enjoying the sport at these settings the 8z grew to become sizzling to the contact, particularly the highest of the body. I additionally noticed a ten % battery drop after about half an hour of enjoying BGMI.
The Asus 8z has a comparatively small 4,000mAh battery, however with my use, it lasted me past one full day. If you’re a heavy person, you may must cost it close to the tip of the day. In our HD video loop check, the 8z managed to run for 10 hours and 50 minutes which is on the decrease aspect in comparison with what a number of the different smartphones on this worth vary can handle. Charging time is cheap with the 30W charger. The telephone bought to 60 % in half-hour and 92 % in an hour.
The Asus 8z lacks wi-fi charging, which is likely one of the few flagship options that is lacking from this telephone.
Asus 8z cameras
While we’re used to seeing flagship smartphones with a number of cameras on the again, the Asus 8z has simply two sensors. The major digital camera is predicated on a 64-megapixel Sony IMX686 sensor with OIS and an f/1.8 aperture, whereas the 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle digital camera has a Sony IMX363 sensor and a 113-degree subject of view. This ultra-wide digital camera may also be used to take macros from solely 4cm away, which makes this setup extra versatile. For selfies, the 8z has a 12-megapixel Sony IMX663 sensor. There’s no telephoto digital camera right here, which suggests any sort of magnification from the rear cameras is digital.
Asus’ digital camera app appears easy however is feature-packed and has a number of capturing modes. There is AI scene detection which works effectively in detecting objects or the kind of scene within the body. The app has a Pro mode for pictures in addition to video which helps you to take full handbook management of the cameras.
Asus 8z daylight digital camera samples. Top to backside: Primary digital camera, ultra-wide anlge digital camera (faucet to see full dimension)
I discovered daylight pictures taken with the Asus 8z to have good dynamic vary and particulars. The telephone additionally managed colors effectively and textual content at a distance in panorama pictures was legible even after I zoomed in to one hundred pc. With the ultra-wide-angle digital camera, the standard wasn’t a large downgrade in comparison with the first digital camera. There was a really slight shift in color tone and gentle barrel distortion within the corners, however not a lot else. You may take macro pictures with this digital camera however I could not get as near my topic as I’d have appreciated.
Asus 8z digital camera samples. Top to backside: Close-up pattern, portrait pattern (faucet to see full dimension)
For close-ups, the Asus 8z took little or no time to lock deal with the topic. Photos turned out very effectively with good particulars and a comfortable blur for the background. Portrait mode might detect faces and it additionally let me set the extent of blur earlier than I took a shot. The output had well-defined edges and good separation between the topic and the background.
Asus 8z low-light digital camera samples. Top to backside: auto mode, Night mode (faucet to see full dimension)
While capturing in low-light situations, the AI robotically permits “Night shooting” mode which takes four-second-long publicity pictures. It managed to seize adequately shiny pictures, however mild sources had unnatural halos round them. With Night mode, there was a slight enchancment intimately within the darker areas of frames, however the distinction wasn’t instantly noticeable.
Asus 8Z Selfie portrait samples (faucet to see full-size picture)
Selfies taken with the Asus 8z had good element however pores and skin textures gave the impression to be barely smoothened. You can take portrait selfies and the telephone does a very good job of separating you from the background. Low-light selfies with a light-weight supply close by turned out significantly better than these taken in dimmer environments. The 8Z might handle respectable portrait pictures even in low mild.
Video recording tops out at 8K on the Asus 8z and it makes use of digital stabilisation at this decision. While capturing at 4K in addition to 1080p, the 8z makes use of optical stabilisation. Footage shot with the 8z was usually steady with occasional stutters if I walked round whereas capturing.
Overall, the digital camera efficiency of the Asus 8z is sort of good but it surely did get heat after taking pictures or recording video for lengthy stretches.
Verdict
Flagship smartphones have gotten fairly highly effective over time and within the pursuit of higher {hardware}, most gadgets have grown in dimension. Most smartphone screens at the moment are better than 6 inches, and that makes one-handed use troublesome. The Samsung Galaxy S22 is one in all only a few Android smartphones to launch this yr that provides flagship-level efficiency in a small bundle, but it surely additionally instructions a steep premium. This is the place the Asus 8z affords higher worth. It has a singular mixture of premium construct high quality, highly effective {hardware}, and compact dimension at its worth degree. However, in case you do not need to restrict your self to Android, the Apple iPhone 12 mini (Review) and iPhone 13 mini (Review) additionally provide nice efficiency. While the iPhone 13 mini is dearer, the iPhone 12 mini is inside attain, and we have seen its worth drop under Rs. 40,000 throughout gross sales.
The Asus 8z is not flawless. The compact physique limits battery capability, and whereas Asus has tried its finest to optimise battery life, this telephone is simply no match for these with bodily bigger batteries. Priced at Rs. 42,999 in India, the 8z does provide good worth so long as you do not thoughts charging it regularly.
