ASUS Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro vs Samsung Galaxy J7 Pro Comparison + Review

After Samsung launched the Samsung Galaxy J7 Pro in the middle of 2017 and ASUS followed suit with its Zenfone 4 lineup for 2017 a month later, the urge to compare them was difficult to resist.

Related:

• ASUS Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro Review
• Head-to-Head: Xiaomi Mi 5X vs Samsung Galaxy J7 Pro

From overall specs to their striking physical similarities, both phones are similar to each other in various ways. And the urge to compare and determine which of the two would fare better over the other is great. Which is better between the two, you ask? Let’s find out.

Display

For starters, both the Z4 Selfie Pro and the J7 Pro sport 5.5-inch Corning Gorilla displays with 1920×1080 resolutions and Full HD AMOLED displays.

Both phones are also thin and have curved edges, which makes holding them feel just right.

Although both colors stand out in both phones, I also noticed that the J7 Pro looks brighter between the two, which you can tell when you adjust their brightness level side-by-side, and the colors in Samsung’s phone stand out a bit more, while the Z4 Selfie Pro’s display hues look darker. It might not look much but it’s something that the J7 Pro has an advantage in, especially when used outdoors.

Although the Z4 Selfie Pro’s display looks beautiful, I’d give this round to the J7 Pro.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy J7 Pro

Design

At a glance, both phones resemble each other, with plastic-made bezels in front of both phones sporting metallic unibodies and curved edges. Their bezels are equally thin, which further adds to the resemblance.

The upper half of the J7 Pro has its 13MP camera and LED Flash on each side of the earpiece. At a first glance, Samsung’s phone looks a bit similar to the Z4 Selfie Pro except for the placement of the ASUS phone’s LED flash and its 24MP plus 5MP cameras.

The bottom half of the J7 Pro also has two non-capacitive buttons, with the Overview button at the left and the Back button on the right side of the Home button, which also serves as its fingerprint sensor. Meanwhile, the Z4 Selfie Pro’s bottom half has a similar layout, except all three buttons are non-capacitive and its Overview and Back buttons are reversed. Unlike the J7 Pro, the Selfie Pro’s non-capacitive buttons aren’t etched as part of the phone’s design and they’re only visible when the phone’s booted.

Both aren’t so far from each other in terms of height, width and dimensions. In terms of weight, the Z4 Selfie Pro weighs 145 grams, which makes it 36-grams lighter than the J7 Pro at 181 grams. Although both phones have curved edges, I feel that the Selfie Pro feels thinner, lighter and more comfortable to carry around.

Although Samsung’s phone also looks beautifully-crafted for a midrange phone, the Z4 Selfie Pro looks and feels more like a premium phone thanks to its sleeker design, so I’d give this round to ASUS’s phone.

Winner: ASUS Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro

Camera

This is where the comparison gets more intense.

As mentioned earlier, the J7 Pro’s camera has a 13MP rear camera with an astonishing 13MP front camera. Meanwhile, the Z4 Selfie Pro has a 16MP rear camera with a powerful 24MP dual-lens camera and an extra 5MP front camera, which serves as a great asset for selfies.

Both the J7 Pro and Z4 Selfie Pro’s cameras also seem to work well under low-lit conditions, although I noticed that the J7 Pro seems to be able to adjust to such conditions faster than the Z4 Selfie Pro and suffer less lags compared to the latter. Plus the details in the photos from the J7 are more noticeable compared to the Z4 Selfie Pro.

Both phones even have their own adjustable Beauty Filters for selfies. Although the Selfie Pro has more elaborate features for selfies, I noticed that it lags whenever you adjust your settings while you’re moving at the same time. The J7 Pro, however, suffers no such lags in a way that you can even move your head around while adjusting the thinness of your cheeks at the same time and it will still adjust to the changes on the spot.

Ultimately, although the Z4 Selfie Pro has better camera specs on paper, I’d have to give this to the J7 Pro for performing better in the camera department.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy J7 Pro

Performance

We also received these benchmark results after testing them using the following benchmarking tools:

Samsung Galaxy J7 Pro:
AnTuTu: 47941
Geekbench: Single-core – 732; Multi-core – 3706
PCMark Work 2.0: 3780

ASUS Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro:
AnTuTu: 66057
Geekbench: Single-core – 881; Multi-core – 4290
PCMark Work 2.0 – 5613

Based on initial tests conducted through benchmarking tools, the Z4 Selfie Pro has a better performance rate overall.

Both Samsung and ASUS devices run using Android-powered operating systems, namely Android 7.0 Nougat, although the Z4 Selfie Pro also comes with ASUS’s ZenUI 4.0, which feels sleeker and ASUS confirmed is upgradable to Android 8.0 Oreo once it’s out later this year.

The J7 Pro hasn’t been listed down as one of the devices guaranteed to get an upgrade to Android 8.0 Oreo as of this post, plus the Z4 Selfie Pro completely dominated the J7 Pro in terms of benchmarking results, which makes it a better multitasking device overall, so I’d have to give it to ASUS for giving the Z4 Selfie Pro this opportunity.

Winner: ASUS Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro

Battery

The Z4 Selfie Pro is equipped with a non-removable 3000mAh battery while the J7 Pro has a more powerful non-removable 3600mAh battery.

When it comes to battery life, we determined the following results through our Manila Shaker Battery Rating:

• ASUS Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro – 32 hours and 56 minutes
• Samsung Galaxy J7 Pro – 46 hours and 36 minutes

Through this, we can conclude that the Z4 Selfie Pro has a shorter battery lifespan, which is attributed to its smaller battery life, while J7 Pro’s overall lifespan isn’t pretty bad lifespan for a midrange phone.

The Z4 Selfie Pro took 2 hours and 50 minutes to charge from 0% to 100%, which is only a fourteen-minute difference from the J7 Pro’s charging time at 2 hours and 36 minutes.

Unlike the Selfie Pro, however, the J7 Pro doesn’t support fast charging. But its large battery life – and from what we’ve tested, its surprisingly quick charging rate – despite the lack of Fast Charging capabilities, make up for it, so I’d have to give this round to the J7 Pro.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy J7 Pro

Sounds

The J7 Pro’s speakers are found at the upper half of the phone. I found this neat because it really works well when you need to receive calls in the middle of a noisy crowd, and with a clear audio, I felt like the placement of the speakers was intentionally done for this purpose.

Meanwhile, the ZF4 Selfie Pro’s speakers may be found at the bottom part of the device, but I noticed that its audio is still surprisingly booming enough for you to hear, even during noisy settings. It’s also loud enough for you to hear if you want to listen to music or watch movies.

Although I like how Samsung’s speakers are conveniently placed on the upper half of the phone, ASUS’s phone is surprisingly pretty loud at maximum volume and it warrants a point for that.

Winner: ASUS Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro

Capacity

The Z4 Selfie Pro comes in 64GB worth of internal memory, with 4GB of RAM, which can be expanded up to 256GB through a microSD card. Likewise, the J7 Pro comes in either 32GB or 64GB, with 3GB of RAM, which can also be expanded up to 256GB through a microSD card.

While both share the same specs and offer nothing spectacular between them, I’d give it to the J7 Pro for offering more options by providing a 32GB version at the very least.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy J7 Pro

Verdict

It’s a close match between Samsung and ASUS’s latest phones, especially with their impressive specs and overall similarities. Both balance each other out and they’re both good at what they do for their price.

But with a 4-3 score, the Samsung Galaxy J7 Pro wins this battle between the midrange phones!

The Samsung Galaxy J7 Pro and ASUS Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro are both available in local and online stores. The J7 Pro can be bought at P15,990 while the Z4 Selfie Pro can be bought at P18,995.