Asus Zenfone 4 selfie Pro Review – More Than A Selfie Phone

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Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro is positioned on the uppermost rung of Asus’ selfie ladder. It’s loaded to the brim with every selfie feature in the book and then some, and if it’s one thing it’s supposed to do right – it has to be the selfies.

Our fortnightly tryst with the Zenfone selfie flagship, however, acquainted us with several interesting aspects of this premium mid-range phone. The Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro has a lot to offer besides the selfie promise, but is it a complete, uncompromised phone in its class? Let’s sum up our findings in our Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro review.

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Asus Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro Specifications

Model Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro
Display 5.5-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) Full HD, AMOLED display, 2.5D curved glass display
Processor 2.0GHz octa-core Snapdragon 625
RAM 4GB
Internal Storage 64GB, expandable up to 256GB (dedicated slot)
Software Android Nougat with Zen 4.0 UI on top
Primary Camera 16MP, dual-tone flash, PDAF
Secondary Camera 24MP+5MP front camera, LED flash, f/1.8 aperture
Battery 3000 mAh
Dimensions and weight 154.02 x 74.83 x 7mm; 145 grams
Others 4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS / GLONASS, Fingerprint sensor
Price Rs. 23,990

Pros

  • Great look and feel
  • Good battery backup
  • Selfie camera performance
  • Good quality AMOLED display

Cons 

  • Rear camera needs improvements

 

Asus Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro Design and build

Asus Zenfone 4 Selfie is a charming phone. It’s extremely slim and unexpectedly light full metal body makes it rather comfortable to handle. This isn’t a swanky bezel-less phone by contemporary standards, but Asus has done a great job shaving off extra bezels and fitting this 5.5-inch display device in a, say, 5.2-inch-display-phone body.

The plus point of not using a standard 16:9 phone with top and bottom bezels is that Asus has managed to retain fingerprint sensor on the bottom and dual selfie cameras up top, which are things that are now missing on the rival Vivo V7+ and the upcoming Oppo F5.

You will find a minimal rear camera bump, though and it’s hell of a slippery phone, which is why it’s a good thing that Asus bundles a good quality TPU case in the box.

 

Unless you are taken in by the trendy full-vision fascia (which has its own merits and drawbacks), there is no design or build-related reason to shy away from the Zenfone 4 selfie pro. It’s an attractive phone that’s also very comfortable to wield.

  • It’s a delightfully slim and premium looking phone.
  • It’s reasonably compact for a 5.5-inch display phone.
  • Asus bundles a good quality case in the box that evens out the camera bump.

Asus Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro Display

Asus is using a good quality AMOLED display on the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro which means consuming multimedia content on the phone is fun. The display is full HD sharp, sufficiently bright and quite vibrant. We didn’t face any issue using the phone under direct sunlight either.

Also, the software allows you to effectively tune color temperature and saturation according to your taste.

The phone also has an always-on display and you can choose between fascinating styles. Also, Asus has an excellent blue light filter which we personally preferred to keep on at all times. The display is protected by Gorilla Glass 5 which means its more shatter resistant than scratch resistant.

  • Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro has AMOLED advantage.
  • You can tweak color temperature and saturation; Outdoor visibility is great.
  • We like the Bluelight filter and the Always On display implementation.

Performance and Software

The handset is powered by Snapdragon 625 octa-core processor paired with 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage. We didn’t run into any performance related issue save for when we tried third-party launchers. High-end games, as well as day to day usage on the phone, is smooth.

The ZenUI 4.0 is a major overall compared to ZenUI 3.0 and the interface is finally bearable. It’s still a bit complicated, and a simple glance at quick setting tiles will be a testament to that.

Also Read: 10 Best 4GB RAM and 64GB Storage Phones Under 15000 INR In India

However, Asus has aggressively cut on the third party app clutter and you can uninstall most of the apps that come preloaded on the device.

The fingerprint sensor is fast and accurate (even when it isn’t the fastest one that we have used). Call quality is average. The phone has a hybrid SIM slot, so you can either use two SIM cards or one SIM and one MicroSD card. 4G VoLTE works fine on both slots. Asus is still using a regular Type-A micro USB port on the phone, but that’s certainly not a deal breaker.

  • Day-to-day and gaming performance is smooth.
  • ZenUI 4.0 is a massive overall, the software is now a lot more refined, but is still a little complicated.
  • Asus also promises Android Oreo update somewhere down the line.
  • We did encounter some bugs, but the latest update has fixed them.

Camera performance

On the front, there are two sensors with 12MP and 8MP resolution. The former has dual focus pixels and the later has a 120-degree wide angle lens. Using the second camera you can shoot wide-angle groupies, using the first camera you can shoot regular selfies, using both of these together you can shoot portrait selfies (with blurred backdrops). That’s not all, you can also switch to a duo-pixel mode in the app to capture high-resolution 24MP selfies.

Besides, the selfie camera also gets a tone of other features including pro mode, front LED flash, 4K video capture, HDR, filters, and live beautification.

As you might have judged, all the selfie clutter can get a bit overwhelming. I didn’t find myself using these selfie features very often but your use case might very well be different.

As for image quality, the best shots you will get are from the single 16MP shooter. In good lighting, the selfie performance is at par with or perhaps better than existing mid-range selfie phone options. The LED flash helps in inadequate indoor lighting. Shots clicked indoors and in low-lighting are unusable more often than not.

The 24MP selfies show good details but unnatural colors, quality deteriorates with wide-angle selfies and more so in the low light condition.

The 16MP rear camera has its own fair share of flaws. It can lock focus, shoot rich amount of details, and deliver accurate metering in good lighting. But we found that it struggled with color accuracy and metering in bright outdoors. In such situations, you can switch to Pro mode to salvage shots. The HDR mode comes in handy in tricky lighting. In low light, however, images are noisy and grainy.

To sum it up, Asus Zenfone 4 Pro camera shines in bits and pieces and we are thinking that common consumers will find the overall selfie camera performance to be quite adequate (our in-house selfie expert certainly opines so), but we had a better experience with the Zenfone 3 camera last year. Perhaps, the camera performance ought to better for the price.

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  • Selfie camera performance is decent, but somehow the add-ons feels superfluous. The primary front camera performance is good in broad daylight and deteriorates in low light.
  • The rear camera performance is good in mixed lighting indoors and outdoors
  • In broad daylight the rear camera often shows inaccurate colors and struggles with metering in auto mode. Shadows are a little too subdued. In pro mode you can click better and detailed images.
  • The camera software is well designed and engaging.

Asus Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro Camera Samples

Asus Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro Battery Backup and Audio

The 3000mAh battery on the phone can last surprisingly long. We could easily get more than one day of moderate to heavy usage on the phone. Fast charging isn’t supported but the inbox 10W charger can top up the battery pretty quick (around 2 hours charging time).

We didn’t face any connectivity related issue on the device. The audio output from the speakers is very loud and clear. Audio output via headphones is above average. Asus bundles a decent pair of earbuds in the box as well.

  • Battery backup is excellent, Fast charging isn’t supported though.
  • The loudspeaker is quite loud and clear; audio via headphones is average.

Asus Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro Review

To sum it up, the handset looks and feels premium, is a good performer, offers great battery backup, and has an above average camera.

The Asus Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro checks most of the right boxes and after a couple of weeks of usage we are quite satisfied with the overall experience and can confidently recommend it as a good option. But at the same time, it feels a tad overpriced at 24K. OnePlus 3T available for a little extra feels like a better option overall. Perhaps, a more aggressive price of around 20,000 INR would have been more convincing.

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Deepak SinghDeepak Singh
Deepak has more than 8 years of experience in covering technology for several eminent publications in India. He currently leads an enthusiastic team of young writers at Smartprix and tries to uphold the highest quality standards.

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