This year, The ASUS Zenfone 5 Series has come back to its Zenfone roots. Instead of offering smartphones with gimmicky features, they opted for what the consumers want. A non-expensive smartphone with a powerful hardware inside and also a beautiful design. And today, we will review the latest smartphone and the most affordable from the ASUS Zenfone 5 Series, the ASUS Zenfone 5Q.

Design and Hardware

The ASUS Zenfone 5Q’s design reminds me of the ASUS Zenfone 4. It’s all glass on the front and the back and then there are the rounded sides of the smartphone. The smartphone isn’t really handy as this one has a flat black. I strongly suggest that you guys use a phone case for this one as it might slip in your hand.

Surely, the smartphone feels really premium to the hand because of the glass. The volume rocker and the power button are placed at the right hand of the smartphone while the fingerprint scanner is placed at the back which is accessible despite its tall build. Unfortunately, the smartphone still uses a micro USB port instead of USB Type-C. Also, there’s no fast-charging on the smartphone too.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t that satisfied with the speaker of the smartphone as it wasn’t that loud. Thankfully, there’s a headphone jack on the ASUS Zenfone 5Q. The fingerprint scanner of the smartphone works well and it was really fast however the face unlock of the smartphone is still disappointing in my use.

Display

The ASUS Zenfone 5Q has a 6.0-inch Full HD+ IPS display with rounded corners. And damn, I love the display of the smartphone. The color reproduction were really good on this one and the screen of the smartphone was just bright.

Since we have an 18:9 display on the smartphone, this one is perfect for browsing feeds on portrait mode and also on gaming on landscape mode as it offers wider view on the display. Overall, the display of the ASUS Zenfone 5Q is really good.

Software

The ASUS Zenfone 5Q that we’ve reviewed runs on Android 7.1.1 with ZenUI 4.5. The smartphone is expected to be updated soon to Android Oreo with Zen UI 5.0. Well, the smartphone does have a good UI. Yes, it isn’t vanilla but opening apps and also browsing thru your phone is snappy and smooth.

As expected, the smartphone does have some bloatware but most of the apps are just useful and don’t worry too much about it because the ASUS Zenfone 5Q does have a large 64GB storage inside.

Performance

The ASUS Zenfone 5Q’s Snapdragon 630 chipset is probably the most interesting hardware inside the smartphone. The smartphone’s chipset is powerful enough to run all games on the Play store. It also packs 4GB of RAM for multi-tasking and opening memory hog apps.

Speaking of performance, the ASUS Zenfone 5Q didn’t fail to impress me. The chipset was pretty good and it doesn’t overheat when playing 3D heavy games. I’ve played NBA 2k18 at medium settings and I was able to play the game smoothly and without problems. I’ve also tried PUBG Mobile at medium settings and I was really happy with its performance as the phone didn’t heat up that much and there were NO drastic drop in frames after a long playtime.

Thanks to its 18:9 FHD+ display and the Snapdragon 630 inside the smartphone, the ASUS Zenfone 5Q makes it one of the pretty good mid-range gaming smartphone.

Battery

The ASUS Zenfone 5Q got a 3300mAh battery inside and in my use, I was pretty happy with it as I was able to get a day of normal usage of the smartphone including some light gaming. I was able to use this smartphone for 14 hours on average use. That’s pretty good you know. It will run on a single work day for most of us.

Camera

The ASUS Zenfone 5Q got a Quad-camera setup. Two cameras on the front and two cameras at the back. The smartphone packs a wide angle lens on both sides which can be used for Wefies or group photos or taking wider shots.

Using the portrait mode of the ASUS Zenfone 5Q was good, it has really improved from last year but I noticed that all of the cameras are a hit and miss. Let’s talk about the rear cameras of the smartphone first.

Here are the shots that I took using the selfie camera of the smartphone:

Overall, the camera of the ASUS Zenfone 5Q is a little bit of a hit and miss. Sometimes you get a good shot, sometimes not.

Verdict

The ASUS Zenfone 5Q is the device that we’re expecting from ASUS. The smartphone got a quad-camera setup that is not just a gimmick because having a wide-angle lens camera at the back is really useful. The ASUS Zenfone 5Q also got a premium body with its glass construction on the front and back, an 18:9 FullView Display, and also powerful chipset inside. The battery wasn’t disappointing on the smartphone too.

Despite that, you should also take note of its camera is a hit and miss and also the face unlocks which is still disappointing. I do hope that ASUS can really fix those issues in the future.

Overall, the ASUS Zenfone 5Q is still a good smartphone from the Taiwanese company. If you are into mid-rangers and you want a smartphone with a good battery life, powerful performance and a sleek design then you might want to check the ASUS Zenfone 5Q.

The ASUS Zenfone 5Q doesn’t have a price yet but expect the launch and pricing of this smartphone this April 2018.

WE’RE HAVING A RAFFLE!

Yes folks, we’ll be raffling off a (1) one ZenPower Slim 6000 and also 1 VIP Seat to the #BackTo5 Launch. How? It’s easy! Just follow these steps:

1. Share the review article on Facebook in Public
2. The caption must answer “What makes them excited for the ASUS Zenfone 5Q?”
3. The caption must tag ASUS Philippines and Jam Online Facebook Page with the hashtags #Zenfone5Q, #WeLovePhoto, and #Backto5PH
4. 1 winner will be chosen at random by April 3, 2018