Snapdragon 636 is a beast and more than enough for the price
The ZF5 is equipped with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 636 octa-core processor, which is paired with an Adreno 509 GPU. That’s plenty fast for the phone’s mid-range audience, as the chipset is capable of running most Android games on high without any issues or problems. The Philippine variant of the ZF5 is equipped with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable storage as well.
PUBG sessions won’t be an issue as the phone manages to record stable frame rates even on high settings. That notch also isn’t a problem when you’re consuming content or playing games, as either side of the notch is covered up by black bars shrinking the aspect ratio down to 18:9.
There’s a face unlock option to the phone, though we found the fingerprint unlock option faster and more intuitive. The sound produced by the speakers are loud and well defined as well, which was a surprise.
ZenUI isn’t as cluttered as before, but still needs some work
Anybody who has read our reviews of ASUS’ previous ZenFones know how much we hated (past tense) ZenUI, their own take on the Android operating system. Previous iterations of the ZenUI were a hot mess, replicating many of the same features and apps that Google offered as standard with their own take.
ZenUI 5 built on top of Android 8.0 thankfully has fixed many of the issues but not all. There’s still a few additional features that we think the phone could do without though admittedly there are a few things that are pretty useful. The Power Master feature for example will be able to manage your use of the phone and can turn off non-essential apps that drain your battery. Power Boost manages the ZF5’s performance, adding an extra oomph when it’s needed.
Camera performance plus battery on the next page!