Flagship Wars: Asus Awakens

[vijay_968]

A. Flagship Wars Episode 2018 : The 845 Clone Wars

Since Feb 2018, I had been reading about many Android Flagship phones that might launch with Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Processor; the notable ones are “Samsung S9 Plus, Xiaomi Mix 2S, OnePlus 6, Xiaomi Mi8, Vivo NEX and OPPO Find X”. I was salivating.

OnePlus 6 (OP6), was launched in May 2018. I was NOT sure what the 2nd Primary Camera is for. I wanted a “128 GB storage model” and OnePlus fixed the price at Rs 40K. I change my phones within 2.5 years; spending Rs 40,000/- sounded bit too much.

To be frank, I was waiting for “Xiaomi Mix 2S or Mi 8”. But, I ended up buying the “6 GB / 128 GB” variant of Asus Zenfone 5Z [B [/B] sporting the same SD845 Chip.


B. Flagship Wars : Attack of Asus

One day, I read DXOMark website’s review of a mid-range Asus Zenfone 5 (not the 5Z); the Camera Sensors are very good and got an overall core of 90. THAT is a very good score and in the League of Flagship Smartphones. The 2nd Primary Camera is a Wide Angle one. For a guy who hates Zoom lenses, THIS was very much to my liking. Headed to gsmarena site made my own comparison and concluded that the Zenfone 5Z has the most of what I wanted”. This is how various Flagships compared, in MY analysis:



Of the 11 contestants, “Asus 5Z, OP6, Mix 2S and Mi 8” EASILY go to the Finals, based on their STRONG Value for Money Factor. Yet, there are THREE compromises, if I have to pick the 5Z.

• The 1st is very minor; on WIDTH. For 0.3mm less width, I have to shell out Rs.7K MORE on OP6 ; For 0.8mm less I have to wait for the launch of Xiaomi twins in India. All these phones are HEAVIER. Compromise is acceptable, I feel.
  
• The 2nd is a middle level compromise on “Splash Proof / Water Proof”. If I want Splash proofing, I have to shell out Rs. 7K MORE on OP6. For water proofing, I have to shell out Rs. 22K MORE on Pixel2 (with last year’s SD835 Chip). In FOURTEEN years of my phone usage, I never had a water resistant phone and NEVER had a problem due to water. Compromise is acceptable, I feel.
  
• The 3rd is serious; the Camera Image Quality. My MAIN CONCERN. The nearest OP6 is 6 points above and the Xiaomi twins are 7 & 8 points above. The Xiaomi’s have 2X camera and I rarely used the 2X camera in my Mi A1. On top of it, the “3.5mm jack and card slot” are missing on “OP6, Mix 2S and Mi 8”.

After due considerations, the “Super Wide Angle Camera, Audio Jack, Card Slot, PRICE and AVAILABILITY” tilted the balance towards Asus Zenfone 5Z. The TRUE Killer Flagship Smartphone.


C. Flagship Wars : Return of the Zenfone
When Asus launched their low mid-ranger Zenfone 5 (2014), people noticed Asus. THAT moniker with a suffix returns with a BANG in 2018. THIS Flagship Beauty has STUNNING LOOKS, looks and looks. It is made of “Glass & Metal”. Has Dual Cameras at the rear. A single Camera is housed in space created by the Display Notch. This is a Dual SIM 4G/LTE phone with Jio Network support. 5Z also has “NFC, and FM Radio”. For complete specs, check out the GSM arena site (Link). On top of that, it has a GREAT Score of 269316 in AnTuTu 7 Benchmarks. It can outrun Sammy S9 Plus. See Pic below:



Return of the Zenfone – hybrid Card Slot :
What I like the most in 5Z is, unlike many SD845 flagships, it comes with “hybrid micro SD Card slot in the dual SIM tray”. If you are a Single SIM user, you need to spend ONLY Rs 31,500 to get a phone with 6GB/128GB storage ; Rs 30K for the entry level 6GB/64GB version and Rs. 1.5K for a 64 GB microSD Card. Value returns.

Return of the Zenfone – Audio Experience :
What is a Flagship experience without great sound ? The bottom firing Loud speaker is pretty loud; in the league of either OnePlus-1 or Mi A1 ! The earpiece doubles up as a 2nd speaker. Keep the volume around 60-70% and you can’t miss the Left-Right stereo sounds. At higher volumes, the sound output from the main speaker dominates. But, hey, a sort of Stereo effect is better than NONE. Yes or No ?

5Z is supplied with a wired “ZenEar Pro” in-ear headphone set. It is NOT in the leagues of Sennheiser, AudioTechnica etc, but it sounds pretty good. You can configure the headphone and your listening profile for better audio experience, in the “Audio Wizard”. Just follow these steps: “Connect headphone” and then “Settings ---> Sound ---> Audio Wizard”.

The overall experience is sooooo good, I am now searching for a good Headset in the range of Rs 3 K. Mind you, I hate headphones.

More than above, 5Z supports Hi-Fi Audio Playback thro the bundled “DTS Headphone X : Surround Sound Effects” will make Audiophiles very happy.
If you like to listen to FM Radio Stations, just eidt the Toggles and add “FM Tile” and be done with it .

Return of the Zenfone – Display :
A 6.2 inch display means that the entire front is dominated by the Screen. The viewing angles are good and Color reproduction is good. Asus has given some “tinkering options” to set the “Blue Light Filter, Color Temperature and Color Mode”. I kept the slider of “Blue light Filter” at the Middle, pulled the “Color Temp slider bit towards the Blue” (cool colors) and kept the Color Mode at “Standard”. Display is PLEASING. I don’t like the “Wide Color Gamut” Color Mode.

Super IPS LCD display is bright in Sunlight. In fact, it is painfully bright at night. I am using “Night Mode; Version 1.0.1 Android App”, to reduce brightness at night.
It has Gorilla Glass protection, but version is not known.


Return of the Zenfone – Battery Adventure :
5Z comes with a “3300 mAh Li-Ion Battery”. It has “Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 (QC 3.0)” and comes with a Charger that supports QC 3.0. One day, I ran my battery down to 1%; connected it to the car charger (QC 3.0 enabled from M/s Boat - Link). By the time I reached home 3km & 12 minutes later it was at 18%. Pretty Cool. Pics below:



Typically, the Battery lasts from “a Day to day and half” on Full Charge, with a Screen On Time (SOT) of 5 Hrs to 8 Hrs. Yesterday it had 8% left, since “35 Hrs of last full charge” with a SOT of 6 Hrs 12Min. Once, I got 8 Hrs SOT, with 7% Battery left, since “23 Hrs 14 Min of last charge”. See the Pics.



I am using Customised Battery Mode, with Brightness at “Smart” and Networks “Disabled when asleep”. This means that, even when the “Data is ON”, the phone “Turns it OFF”, whenever “Screen is OFF”. In more than 3 weeks of my usage, NOT even a single time I noticed the phone to heat up


D. Zenfone 5Z : The Camera Wars Story
The Main Camera has Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS), which in my opinion is a must have feature for good photos. In the next photo, the tiny flower was swaying in Air, as I shot it. Without OIS, I would NOT have got this sharp picture.



Even in indoor light, the Main Camera retains very good sharpness. The Pic of a a 3D printed mobile phone stand inside my office, shows the "sharpness, Color rendering and Bokeh" efforts.



Compare it with the photo in my Mi A1 thread (link) to know the difference between a Flagship and mid ranger, specially in the Bokeh department. Just go thro the review at DXOMark site (Link).

I LOVE the Wide Angle Camera, as it brings the Scene to the viewer. In the Sample Pictures below, I have given photos captured by 5Z's Main and Super Wide Cameras. You can see how much MORE the Super Wide Angle Camera can capture :











E. Conclusion: With its LOOKS, PERFORMANCE and Killer PRICE, Asus Zenfone 5Z is a great buy as compared to OnePlus 6. The launch of Mi Mix 2S / Mi 8 / Mi Mix3 might change it, depending on their price. But, as of now, I am convinced that Asus has got a KILLER FLAGSHIP. Great Job, Team Asus

 

[SilverEyez]

Re: Flagship Wars : Asus Awakens

wow,
this is some serious researching before buying a mobile.
My research is limited to GSM Arena reviews, but only after i have made up my mind on a certain model that i compare it with other options to know where my choice of mobile stands in competition with the market.

 

[vijay_968]

First Problem observed :
Since yesterday, when I press the "Recent App" button, it simply showed "No recent items". Bloody irritating when using two or more Apps to do a job.

Solution SUMMARY:
I started the phone in Safe Mode. Problem continued.
Switched default Launcher to ZenUI Launcher. And waited for about 10-15 minutes. Voila, Problem SOLVED. Changed to Nova, and there is no problem NOW.


Starting in Safe Mode / Recovery Mode :

1. Switched OFF the phone.
2. Switch it ON after 10 seconds.
3. Asus Logo appears, press the Volume Up (or Down) button; Zenfone Logo appears. Keep pressing the Volume button, till you feel Vibration.
4. The lock screen to enter PIN appears. "Safe mode" can be seen at the bottom left corner. Enter the PIN. The phone will keep showing Zenfone Logo with animations.
5. (In my case) Then a screen appeared saying "Can't load Android System" with two options : retry and Factory Data reset. I chose "retry".
6. It showed Zenfone Logo again and after some 3 minutes, "Step 4" followed by "Step 5" happened. But, this time, phone booted to my regular home screen.

"No recent items" wass shown, YET AGAIN when I pressed the "Recent App" button Frustration

Changing App Permission to default :
Instead of doing the "Factory reset", I did "Settings ---> Apps & Notifications ---> App Info ---> (137 Apps installed ) ---> 3 dots at top right corner ---> "Reset App preferences" ---> Exit Settings ---> Problem was NOT solved Frustration

Changing Launcher:
Then I did "Settings --->serach for home and selected "home app" ---> again "home app" ---> and selected "ZenUI Launcher" as the default Launcher. Problem was NOT solved

RESULT :
Waited for about 10-15 minutes. When I accidentally tried the recent App button (out of habit), I found ALL recent Apps shown. Problem IS SOLVED.

Changed launcher back to Nova, and Recent Apps SINCE MORNING are nicely appearing

Conclusion :
Some problem in any one of those 137 App's permission + Software instability in either Nova or Zen's skin could have caused the problem.

 

[vijay_968]

Today checked if any Software update was available and got a 395 MB update for Zen UI. Mind you, this was NOT an OTA push and OS still is at 8.0.0.

View attachment pixlr_20180826195448914.jpg

The most important feature addition for me is the RAW file support for photos. It is available ONLY in PRO mode (as RAW + JPG) and will come very handy to extract more out of an image in post processing.



I also noticed a new "Auto" feature under anti flicker (w.r.to avoiding 50 or 60 Hz flicker). Gestures on 'navigation bar" are introduced. This makes screen area look cool. Google said this will be available in 'Android P'. That's all for now, folks.

 

[vijay_968]

(A) I think, in my 1st post in this thread, I did not mention Asus Data Transfer App (Link). Using Wi-Fi hotspot, this App transferred the following from Mi A1 to Zenfone 5Z :

• Apps
• Contacts
• Call Logs
• SMS Logs
• Photos
• Video files
• Music files
• document files
• compressed files etc

It guided me to install the App on Mi A1, "pair both phones", followed by "what to transfer" etc. All my "100 plus Apps, 1200 songs, 1000 photos, 4 movies, Word Docs and what not junk" were transferred from Mi A1 to 5Z; time taken was little over an hour. Pretty Cool.
CAUTION - Before you start this App, Backup your whatsapp and like. I lost 10-15 days of Chat history, as I failed to backup WA.


(B) The Wide Angle Camera is very convenient for Landscape shots. Below is a photo of Ekambareswarar Temple in Kanchipuram, TN.




(C) Those of you in College might find this Scientific Calculator App (Link) very useful. It is a free and so far has not asked my to make any payments. I normally use all that "Sin, Cos, Tan, Log, Ln" and their inverse functions. This App imitates a Casio Calc and I find that very Comfy

(D) Complaints : Thankfully NIL.

 

[vijay_968]

Xiaomi's Poco F1 and Honor Play :

Last week a friend asked me to suggest a Flagship phone on budget, and I suggested him the Poco F1 and Honor Play. Both are around Rs. 20,000/- and both have fantastic "Endurance rating of 94 Hrs" in gsmarena tests. WOW.

The link comparing these two phones with 5Z is here.

Performance: Poco F1 is powered by SD 845 and the Honor Play is powered by Kirin 970 Chip. For activities NOT involving launching of Satellites, processing power of Kirin 970 and SD845 are pretty close.

Camera: 5Z > P-F1 > Honor Play ... Both 5Z and Poco F use the same Sony sensor IMX363 - 1/2.55"; 1.4µm large pixel size / 12MP. But 5Z will allow bit more light to the sensor, thro its f/1.8 lens as compared to P-F1 (which has a f/1.9 lens). The killer difference is 5Z has "4-axis OIS" while P-F1 doesn't have OIS. Pictures taken at indoors and in low-light will be much much better from 5Z. The Camera round goes to 5Z, while H.Play will be behind P-F1.

Looks: Winner is 5Z, followed by H.Play with P-F1 finishing a distant 3rd. One of my colleagues got P-F1 in flash sale and I thought I was looking at a "Xiomi Note 5 Pro". The exterior of P-F1 does NOT announce that the owner is holding a Flagship. Forget about being Premium, P-F1 doesn't even feel like an Executive Phone. Heck, you can't place the Poco F1 down on a table next to the low cost Oppo RealMe phones . P-F1 feels like, well, a typical Chinese Product, if you know what I mean.

Conclusion:
(A) Poco-F1: If your budget for a smart phone is around 16K, I would recommend you to spend Rs 5,000/- MORE and get the 6GB/ 64GB variant of the Poco F1. You get a flagship processor, huge battery, hybrid slot for memory expansion, very good display, FM radio, loud and clear Stereo Speakers (earpiece acts as a second speaker, like in my 5Z), 3.5mm Audio jack, USB-C, etc etc. Poco F1 is a NO brainer, subject to availability . PURE value for money and for next two years you won't feel the urge to upgrade. Note:- Poco F1 has potential to force OnePlus to price OP-6T sensibly . BUT, it will also affect Xiaomi's Flagships Mix-3, Mi8 etc. I think, Xiaomi can not sustain larger sale of Poco F1; they are just "preparing buyers to accept them as Flagship manufacturer". Their future Poco phones will be priced upwards.

(B) Honor Play: If you are fed up of the concept of Flash Sales, AND if you don't want to be defeated by the LOOKS of RealMe phones at Lunch Tables, AND if you can compromise on the Camera output, Honor Play is for you.

(C) Zenfone 5Z: The 128 and 256 GB variants of Poco F1 cost Rs. 24 K and Rs. 29K, which are 9K and 8K cheaper than similar Zenfone 5Z variants. The moment Rs. 25,000 mark is breached, the LOOKS Department comes into play and Zenfone 5Z steals the show. The 5Z also has a pretty useful "Wide Angle Cam", "DTS Headphone X" effect and 5Z weighs just 155g while F1 weighs 180g. More importantly, the profits from the sale of 5Z does NOT go to China. Get the 5Z.


Comparison Links: 1, 2, 3

 

[vijay_968]

Today Asus started rolling out Android 9.0 (Pie) update for Zenfone 5Z in Taiwan. The update has the version number 90.10.138.157_20181222, is 1048MB in size, but it still has Android security patch for November, 2018. You can download the OTA Zip here and flash it manually, if you are running version 80.30.96.221 on ZS620KL model. Global roll out should begin in the coming weeks - Source here.

PS: Let's see when Indian OTA starts. I'm going to wait till then.

 

[vijay_968]

... Asus started rolling out Android 9.0 (Pie) update for Zenfone 5Z ... version number 90.10.138.157_20181222, is 1048MB in size, but it still has Android security patch for November, 2018 ... Let's see when Indian OTA starts...

On Tuesday, 29-Jan-2019, i received Android Pie FOTA (Firmware Over-The-Air) update; little over a GB in size. The version number is 90.10.138.175_20190117

When i clicked the above link, it took me to THIS screen below:

Do note that their Server is selectively pushing FOTA to phones according to Serial numbers.

Sooooo, my phone is on Android Pie with 05-Dec-2018 Security patch . As i still use Nova launcher, i haven't checked if the UI is different between 8.0 and 9.0, but the battery management seems to be better. For less than 20% charge, Android Pie does something and the battery discharge is much slower than earlier. Asus said they will commence Global Roll-out in Jan-Feb 2019, and they did it. Way to go Asus