Asus Zenfone 4 Pro Quick Review: A Beauty and a Beast

Asus Zenfone 4 Pro Quick Review: A Beauty and a Beast

The Most Powerful Zenfone Yet

With the global launch of the new iteration of the Zenfone 4 now over, we take a look at this year’s flagship model of the family — the Asus Zenfone 4 Pro. Positioned to take over what we’ve been calling the “Deluxe” variant from previous years, the Asus Zenfone 4 Pro has the spec sheet to rival any of 2017’s big players. Before we dive in for our quick review, let’s have a look at what the Pro has packing.

ZenFone 4 Pro Specs

  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor
  • Adreno 540 GPU
  • 6GB of RAM
  • 5.5-inch Full HD AMOLED display, 1920  x 1280 resolution
  • 64GB internal storage, expandable via microSD slot up to 2TB
  • 12-megapixel, f/1.7 primary rear camera with ASUS Superpixel engine, PDAF, EIS, OIS, and RAW image support
  • 16-megapixel, f/2.4 secondary rear camera with 2X zoom
  • 8-megapixel, f/1.9 front camera
  • Dual SIM
  • 3G. LTE
  • WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, Fingerprint Scanner
  • Android 7.1 Nougat with ZenUI
  • 3600mAh battery

Initial Impression: Strong Yet Elegant

While sharing the photos with the team back in the Philippines, the consensus about the Zenfone 4 family’s design was pretty much clear — Asus killed it in terms of the design aspect of their phones this year. The Asus Zenfone 4 Pro’s aluminum unibody build using advanced nano-molding tech makes the phone’s exterior tough, but it’s even thinner and lighter than the Zenfone 3. Sandwiching that metal body is 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass, a standard for most flagship phones as of late and it does make the phone look gorgeous. However, this means you will have to be wary about fingerprints and smudges; a wipe down every now and then is definitely necessary.

Let’s take the mandatory tour around the phone to see where all the buttons and ports are.

On the right of the Zenfone 4 Pro are its volume rocker and power button. You can find the SIM tray slot on the left side of the device, which you will need a SIM ejector tool to access.

On the bottom of the phone are the USB-Type C port along with the speaker grille and 3.5mm audio jack. It’s all pretty standard fanfare for now. Let’s move on to the rear where some of the biggest changes happened.

Tucked on the upper left-hand side of the Zenfone 4’s back are its dual rear cameras with its LED flash and sensors beside it. We really like that Asus has eliminated the camera protrusion with the Zenfone 4 and Zenfone 4 Pro, which they achieved by integrating the cameras into the chassis.

The front of the Zenfone 4 is, of course, dominated by the 5.5-inch Full HD AMOLED display. The display has a nice vibrancy and brightness to it; giving colors a nice pop and should bright enough for use outdoors. It may not follow the edge-to-edge trend that most flagships are going for these days, but the side bezels are extremely thin with an appropriately proportioned chin and forehead as well.

Speaking of the chin, this is where you’ll find the fingerprint scanner that doubles up as a home button as well, flanked by your standard Android navigation keys.

Asus has made a strong pivot to position their phones for mobile photography since last year and they’re really doubling up on their efforts. No, it’s just because the Zenfone 4 Pro and the Zenfone 4 family have dual cameras, but it’s the tech behind the snappers as well. The Zenfone 4 Pro is rocking a 12-megapixel primary and a 16-megapixel secondary rear camera with a Sony IMX362 image sensor and the company’s SuperPixel Engine. You’ve also got OIS, EIS, and Dual Pixel PDAF to help lock on to your subjects faster. For selfies, you have an 8-megapixel camera that is equipped with PDAF and a Sony IMX319 sensor as well.

The Zenfone 4 Pro is packing some serious internals with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 at its core. You also have a generous amount of RAM at 6GB and 64GB of expandable storage. We still have to test out the phone further, but we can pretty much tell that the phone will handle anything and everything we throw at it with ease.

You have the latest version of Android Nougat running the show and while the company still has ZenUI on top of it, we’re glad that they’ve been listening to the public and dialed down on the pre-installed apps; not to mention, all the improvements they’ve made to make it run even faster than before. Providing juice to the Asus Zenfone 4 Pro is a 3600mAh battery with ASUS’ Boostmaster tech that the company says will get you to 50% in 32 minutes.

That pretty much wraps up this quick review for the Asus Zenfone 4 Pro. We’re really eager to be able to test out this bad boy to see what it can really do. The global price for the Zenfone 4 Pro has been set at $599 or Php 30,773; expect it to come up a bit more when it hits our shores. Local pricing and availability should be announced on Saturday, so stay tuned.

If you’d like to read more about the other Zenfone 4 models released yesterday, click on the links below:

ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie, Selfie Pro Quick Review: Let The Selfie Wars Begin!

The Flagship Battle: ASUS ZenFone 4 Pro vs. OnePlus 5 vs. LG G6 vs. Samsung Galaxy S8

Head-to-Head: ASUS ZenFone 3 Deluxe vs. ASUS ZenFone 4 Pro

Selfie Battle: ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie VS ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro VS OPPO F3 Plus VS Vivo V5 Plus

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