ASUS Zenfone 3 Ultra Hands-on: A Tablet In Disguise

We go hands-on with the Zenfone 3 Ultra!

Along with the Zenfone 3, ASUS also announced the absolutely gigantic Zenfone 3 Ultra. The ZF3 Ultra is the biggest member of the Zenfone 3 family, possesing a 6.8-inch full HD display. It’s closer to a tablet rather than a phone, but ASUS thinks there’s a market for huge phablets aimed at entertainment junkies.

ASUS Zenfone 3 Ultra

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 octa-core processor
• 3GB/4GB of RAM
• 6.8-inch full HD display, Gorilla GLass 4, 1920 x 1080 resolution
• 32GB/64GB/128GB of storage, expandable via microSD
• 23-megapixel rear camera with f/2.0 aperture lens, laser AF, PDAF, OIS, dual LED flash
• 8-megapixel front camera with f/2.0 lens
• Dual SIM
• 3G, LTE
• WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, Fingerprint Scanner, USB Type-C
• 4600mAh battery

Initial Impressions: Supersized Zen

There’s really no denying the size of the Zenfone 3 Ultra. With a display that’s 6.8-inches, people with smaller hands may find using the phone difficult, if not impossible. Even our gorilla-sized digits had trouble wrapping around its unibody metal construction, and we’re used to phones that have biger than average displays. As far as styling goes it’s the least interesting Zenfone with its flat metal back with simple chamfered edges – ASUS’ distinctive Zen-inspired spun finish is missing from the phone.

Th Ultra retains the rear key setup of the previous generation, which might be an admission that the phone is a little too big for its own good to use the side mounted buttons that’s present on its brothers. The fingerprint scanner that’s on the front of the Zenfone 3 and Zenfone 3 Deluxe has also been moved to the front from the back for easier use.

The ZF3 Ultra is a little challenging to use because of its sheer size, and people with dainty hands need not apply. There’s a one handed mode baked into ZenUI that’s present on their other phones, but that doesn’t solve the basic problem of the phone being just too big.

There’s two speaker grilles on the bottom, which pump out higher than average sound. The bigger size of the Ultra also means that the phone has a bigger battery than your average Android device, coming in at a whopping 4600mAh.

Inside the Ultra beats the heart of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 652 octa-core processor, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. We’ve seen Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 652 processor in action before, and we’re confident that the ZF3 Ultra will perform similarly if ASUS doesn’t mess everything up by installing the bloatware that was present on the ZF2 family of phones.

ASUS has pegged the price of the ZF3 Ultra at $479, which is roughly equivalent to Php 22.4K in our currency.

Here’s a quick hands-on for the ASUS ZenFone 3 Ultra: