The ASUS Zenfone 4 Pro is available for a while now. It’s the best smartphone that the Taiwanese brand can offer right now. It goes against flagship smartphones in the market as this smartphone packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor and 6GB of RAM. It’s not the best hardware that you can find on a smartphone but the chipset and its RAM puts the smartphone among one of the most powerful smartphones available for the consumers. So what do I think about it? Check out in our review of the smartphone below.

Hardware and Design

This is the best ASUS Zenfone smartphone to date. It features a glass black which makes the smartphone premium to hold but also more prone to breakage but don’t worry because the smartphone will come with a jelly case. Also, the smartphone has a flat glass back which may look really attractive to some but it also made the smartphone a little bit less ergonomic and straining to the hand and also slippery. So yeah, I would really suggest that you use the included Jelly case on the Zenfone 4 Pro.

The smartphone also features a metal bumper. Yes, it adds to the premium feel of the smartphone and oh, I really love the mirror reflection at the glass back of the smartphone. But yeah, it’s a fingerprint magnet if you don’t use the included jelly case on the smartphone.

Thankfully, ASUS didn’t ditch the 3.5mm audio jack on this smartphone. Yes, there’s USB Type-C but the smartphone didn’t choose the route of where most flagships are going right now in where you need a dongle to plug in a 3.5mm on the smartphone.

The volume rocker and the power button of the smartphone are rightly placed on the right side of the smartphone while the smartphone still chooses to have 2 capacitive buttons for the recent apps and the back button along with the home button that also serves as the fingerprint scanner that can’t be pressed down. Unfortunately, the quickest way to unlock the smartphone is to use the fingerprint scanner as the Zenfone 4 Pro doesn’t have face unlock.

The speaker of the ASUS Zenfone 4 Pro isn’t the best in the market and I would actually ask for more for a flagship smartphone. But again, I’m still thankful that ASUS still didn’t ditch the 3.5mm audio jack for speakers and earphones while charging the smartphone using USB Type-C.

Unfortunately, the smartphone isn’t water and dust resistant. So yeah, you can’t really bring your smartphone to the showers to watch….you know…some videos…..my videos….. AT MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL! (Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel over here)

Display

2017 is the year where smartphones with 18:9 display are introduced and unfortunately for the ASUS Zenfone 4 Pro, it’s still using a 16:9 display aspect ratio. You know, it’s not actually that bad as this display aspect ratio means that you can watch videos on YouTube without black bars on the side and the smartphone is also wider.

The ASUS Zenfone 4 Pro is now using an AMOLED display. It’s a big upgrade from its Zenfone brothers and the colors just really pop out on the display. I’m a big fan of AMOLED and it really shows the vivid colors of the display and also, the blacks are really black. There’s an always-on display on the smartphone too so I can always check the time and also the notifications of the smartphone.

Despite being a flagship smartphone, the ASUS Zenfone 4 Pro is still using a Full HD resolution in where most flagship smartphone these days are now running on 1440p displays. Well, you won’t really notice that one unless you use your smartphone for VR.

Again, the display of the smartphone is really nice however, it is still not the best one in the market. But for a flagship smartphone, the display of the smartphone is good.

Performance

When it comes to performance, the ASUS Zenfone 4 Pro comes at one of the top smartphones with an amazing performance. The smartphone runs on the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor along with 6GB of RAM. I know, it’s still not the best as there are flagship smartphones that have an 8GB of RAM but the ASUS Zenfone 4 Pro is blazing fast.

When it comes to Antutu, I got a score of 170083 which is freakin amazing. Oh, and you don’t have to worry about playing games on the smartphone because whether you play PUBG Mobile, Rules of Survival, NBA 2K18, or even Asphalt 8. I didn’t have any problems running those games on the smartphone at the highest settings.

Software

The ASUS Zenfone 4 Pro is running on Android 7.1.1 Nougat with Zen UI 4.0. The UI of the smartphone is user-friendly and I really find it fast as I didn’t experience lags, slowdowns, or crashes on the smartphone.

ASUS has finally optimized Zen UI in where apps are reduced and some are only optional and doesn’t come pre-installed on the smartphone, however, there are still some apps that you won’t probably use on the smartphone.

The smartphone also features Selfie Master in where you can add beautification levels on live stream applications such as Bigo, Facebook, Instagram, and many more. And of course, there’s the mobile manager on the smartphone that lets you manage and optimize the performance of the ASUS Zenfone 4 Pro.

Camera

The biggest highlight of the ASUS Zenfone 4 series is that all smartphones now packs a dual lens camera setup and on the ASUS Zenfone 4 Pro, we got a similar camera setup from the iPhone 7 Plus as the ASUS Zenfone 4 Pro packs a standard lens and also a zoom lens that lets you do up to 10x zooming.

The ASUS Zenfone 4 Pro actually has the best rear camera on a Zenfone to date. Not only that the smartphone is capable of shooting at low light but it can also shoot clear images even when you’re using the digital zoom of the smartphone.

Here are the sample shots using the ASUS Zenfone 4 Pro.

As you can see from the sample shots above, the ASUS Zenfone 4 Pro achieves the camera performance of most flagship smartphones these days. The shots are good and as you can see, the shots are sharp and really detailed.

However, in some shots using the portrait mode of the camera app, I noticed that the edges sometimes misses but I’m surprised that it can shoot fast on portrait mode and the images are better than I expected. You can also adjust the blurring of the camera on portrait mode so you’ll know the amount of blurring that you’ll take. But of course, the portrait mode of the ASUS Zenfone 4 Pro only works well if you are in a decent lighting condition.

The selfie camera of the smartphone is actually good and very clear. The shots that I took using the front camera showed me the right skin tone and the details were really good.

Using the rear camera of the smartphone, well, it’s actually better than I expected. The smartphone is capable of shooting at lowlight conditions and sometimes it’s even brighter and has less noise than I expected. The colors are great and even when you use the zooming function of the camera, the shots turned out to be great.

Battery Life

Here’s a surprising feature that I love on the ASUS Zenfone 4 Pro. On paper, the ASUS Zenfone 4 Pro packs a 3600mAh battery inside and it really delivers the promise of having a long battery life on the smartphone. Actually, ever since I use the ASUS Zenfone 4 Pro, it can actually last a single day on my use despite using the smartphone for gaming. And no, I didn’t asked for a powerbank for a day. It really has a good battery life.

Verdict

The ASUS Zenfone 4 Pro is a great smartphone. It’s not a perfect smartphone as this one doesn’t have water and dust resistance and it doesn’t have an 18:9 display aspect ratio and also a full-screen display which is a trend on flagship smartphones these days. But when it comes to performance and camera, the ASUS Zenfone 4 Pro is really good. The battery of the smartphone can also last up to a single day which is a surprise for me as I’m a heavy user sometimes.

However, there’s a big problem with the ASUS Zenfone 4 Pro. Yes, it does have some flaws but overall, the smartphone is solid. But the ASUS Zenfone 4 Pro is expensive for its specifications. The ASUS Zenfone 4 Pro is available for Php39,995 which is way more than the price of the OnePlus 5T and LG G6. If only ASUS priced the Zenfone 4 Pro right, this would be a solid choice for the consumers.