Just yesterday, ASUS Philippines has officially launched five of the Zenfone 4 family. What we have here is the ASUS Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro. Priced at PhP 18,995 ($380), is it worthy of its tag?
At the package it came in, it seems that ASUS opted for a minimalist approach to reduce packaging costs while still having enough space to cram everything inside.
On the top, we see the “We Love Photo” logo with the paperwork, IMEI stickers, and a TPU case.
Directly below is the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro that is protected by a three-face plastic with a tab on the bottom for easy access.
Going down under, we have the microUSB cable, in-ear headset and the (adapter wattage) adapter.
By far, this is one of the most alluring ZenFones ever released, next to the ZenFone AR. At 7mm thin, its hand-friendly without being hefty. The thing that surprised me is how this is .9mm thinner than the ZenFone 4 Selfie despite having better specs.
Even so, both are still dissimilar right out the bat. The ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro’s front cameras sit right next to each other to the right of the earpiece. The front flash, which is white-filtered, and sensor is on the other side.
The aptly-sized home/fingerprint scanner is capacitive, same with the Back and Recents.
Moving to the back, the design felt a bit.. familiar. The antenna lines on top and bottom parts sandwich the rest of the matte back cover. The near-flush 16MP Sony IMX 351 is flanked by the dual-tone LED flash.
As for the sides, I dislike how they chose to elevate the display panel a bit, departing from the traditional unibody construction. Even so, the ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro still is solid to hold but the white outline that sticks out when looked from the side is a bit of an eyesore.
Left: SIM/microSD tray
Right: (L-R) Power button, Volume rocker
Bottom: (L-R) 3.5mm jack, mic, microUSB port, speakers
Top: Noise-cancelling mic
This is the major difference between the ZenFone 4 Selfie and the ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro. The ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro touts a 5.5-inch 1080p AMOLED display.
The colors and saturation strike a balance that isn’t overbearing nor lacking. And thanks to AMOLED tech, the display can be calibrated.
With ZenUI 4.0’s introduction with the release of the ZenFone 4 family, any long-time ZenFone user would feel the difference. Less bloatware, a more modern feel, a different font, and so on.
Minimalist elements are present to complement the exterior. Color-wise, they haven’t departed from the universal blue on white.
Since this is built on top of Nougat, support and updates will come aplenty. Do note that this will be upgradable to Android O(reo) once deemed stable and official.
First of all, response. The ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro lags a bit behind even in just casual browsing. My Classic Drum test was subpar. It still remains relatively smooth though.
Though dated, the Snapdragon 625 and Adreno 506 combo still does well in both benchmark and real-world (gaming) use.
AnTuTu – 66,057
GeekBench
Single core: 881
Multicore: 4290
PCMark Work 2.0 – 5,613
As for games, Real Racing 3 and Modern Combat 5 made the ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro kneel with inconsistent but above 30FPS.
The fingerprint scanner is on the slower side of the spectrum but with a 10/10 rating.
ZenUI 4.0’s camera software is a MAJOR step-up from ZenUI 3.0’s. Adapting a three-window configuration. Access to different modes and filters are made much easier. Pro mode can be easily accessed on the 5-button row on the bottom/right, along many others.
(L-R) Camera Settings, HDR, Aspect Ratio, Portrait Mode, Timer, Flash
(L-R) Pro Mode, Video Capture, Capture, Switch, Gallery
As expected, the rear camera does pretty well despite being inferior to the 24MP DuoPixel selfie cameras. Colors are a bit off, but it’s nothing that post-processing could not fix.
(L-R) Beautify, Video Capture, Wide/Narrow-Capture, Switch, Gallery
Details are top notch on both front cameras whilst having spot-on colors. Low-light is not its best environment, but there is the front flash that does the job.
Image stabilization on video recording is present on both rear and front cameras. It might just be EIS, but it is enough to lessen natural shakes and still make the videos watchable.
The single speaker setup on the bottom was just not the star of the show. Room volume is still unimpressive. With Outdoor Mode turned on, the mids are then boosted which does noticeably worse on bass-heavy audio.
The 3000mAh Li-ion did what was expected with its internals. Still, I wish ASUS has adapted QuickCharging for the ZenFone 4 family, which is obviously not the case.
ManilaShaker Battery Rating – 32h 56m
Charging Time (0-100%, phone off) – 2h 50m
Charging Time (0-50%, phone off) – 1h 24m
With how the ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro’s front cameras perform, I can’t help but feel that this is not the best at its price. However, the overhauls and upgrades make it worth looking for those who are willing to shell out more than the usual. With a commanding PhP 18,995, the ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro’s performance and features fall a bit short but is still reliable for a day-to-day use.
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Janel says:
Charging time is wrong its not 2 hours and 50 minutes. And besides its different from the video u posted in youtube
Caesar Dominic Lindog says:
Yeah, sorry. Since YouTube has removed annotations, I cannot change the info in the video. I accidentally input OPPO F3 Plus’s stats in the video sans the Battery Rating.
And yes, believe it or not, it’s 2hrs and 50mins. ZF4 Selfie Pro charges that slow despite having a 10W adapter.