Asus is trying its level best to get some space in high segment and has launched today Asus ZenFone 5Z wiht top notch features at aggressive price point. Many of the features of this phone are similar to highly successful OnePlus 6 which is selling in good numbers in India and in other global markets. Like OnePlus 6, the ZenFone 5Z also comes with the latest Snapdragon 845 processor combined with upto 8GB RAM and 256GB of internal storage.
The Asus ZenFone 5Z has been launched in three variants – 6GB RAM+ 64GB storage priced at Rs 29,999, 6GB RAM+ 128GB storage for Rs. 32,999 and 8GB RAM with 256GB storage for Rs 36,999. This phone will be available from July 9 on Flipkart in two colors of Midnight Blue and Meteor Silver. To sweeten the offer, customers will get flat discount of Rs 3000 on ICICI Bank debit and credit cards. Moreover, Jio users will also get Rs 2,200 cashback and 100GB?of additional data (10GB per month for 10 months).
The ZenFone 5Z sports a 6.2-inch Full HD+ (2246 x1080) Super IPS+ display with 90% screen-to-body ratio and Corning Gorilla Glass for screen protection. The display has notch design. This phone is powered by Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform with 10nm, 64-bit Octa-core Processor with AI Boost combined with Adreno 630. This phone comes with options of 4GB / 6GB / 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and storage options of 64GB / 128GB / 256GB which can be further extended upto 2TB via microSD card. This is Dual SIM device and is packed with 3300mAh with fast charging having features of AI & scheduled charging for battery protection. It runs on Android 8.0 Oreo with layer of ZenUI 5.0.
The ZenFone 5Z boasts of powerful Dual rear cameras with AI. It is armed with Sony flagship IMX363 12MP Dual pixel image sensors with F/1.8 aperture, 4-axis, 4 stops optical image stabilization, LED flash, 83° field of view and 8MP secondary camera with f/2.0 aperture with 120° wide-angle lens.
This camera is aided by AI Scene Detection which can detect 16 types such as food, sky, green field, plant, ocean, sunset, snow, flower, stage, dog, cat, people, text, tripod, QR code, night view to boost the quality of the photos. It also has feature of AI Photo Learning and learn the way you edit and process your photos and will suggest you accordingly. For selfies, this phone is mounted with 8MP front camera with f/2.0 aperture and 84° field of view.
This phone is packed with Dual speakers and runs on Android Oreo with new ZenUI 5. It has fingerprint sensor on the back.
Compared to this, OnePlus comes with 6.28-inch (2280 × 1080 pixels) Full HD+ full view AMOLED display with notch having 19:9 aspect ratio. This phone is powered by the 2.8GHz Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor with Adreno 630 GPU for very fast performance. This is Dual SIM phone and runs on Android 8.1 Oreo with OxygenOS 5.1. The internal storage of this phone is not extendable.
On the optics front, OnePlus 6 is mounted with 16MP rear camera with Dual LED Flash, f/1.7 aperture, Sony IMX519 sensor and Optical and Electronic Image Stabilisation. Its secondary 20MP camera has Sony IMX376K sensor with f/1.7 aperture. The rear camera is now capable of shooting 4K videos at 60 FPS and also has portrait mode with advanced HDR feature. It has 16MP front-facing camera with Sony IMX 371 sensor, f/2.0 aperture and EIS for stable selfies.
This phone is packed with 3300mAh battery with OnePlus’s very fast Dash Charge which charges battery from zero to full in just 30 minutes and this feature is one of the many highlights of OnePlus 6. It has very fast fingerprint sensor on the back.
Going by the specifications, I can say that OnePlus scores over ZenFone 5Z as OnePlus 6 has better camera hardware. I have been using OnePlus 6 and is quite impressed with its cameras be it rear or front. Despite the fact that ZenFone 5Z cameras are touted to support AI but in my opinion it is just a gimmick and you will not find much difference in the qualities of the end results. Oneplus 6 offers unparalleled Dash charging technology for battery which charges from zero to full in just thirty minutes and no smartphone has this type of capability. Oxygen OS used by OnePlus gives almost Stock Android experience and does not have any bloatware which is bane of ZenUI 5.0 . User Interface of OnePlus 6 is very neat and smooth compared to ZenUI which although has been improved a lot yet still gives patchy experience compared to Oxygen OS of OnePlus.
OnePlus 6 comes in two variants – 6GB LPDDR4X RAM with 64GB storage which is priced Rs. 34,999 and 8GB LPDDR4X RAM with 128GB storage which is priced Rs. 39,999.
Going by the price, the ZenFone 5Z has an edge but if you compare the features then OnePlus 6 has huge advantage. OnePlus 6 has better camera hardware – both rear and front, Dash charging technology for battery is incomparable, and almost Stock Android experience and surety of three years of security updates are icing on the cake.
If you are very price conscious then you may consider ZenFone 5Z but if few thousands are not the deciding factor and you want better expierence, very fast charging battery and good cameras then OnePlus 6 is for you.
