Asus ZenFone Live Review: A Smartphone For Live Content Creators

Asus ZenFone Live has been launched in India, donning a price tag of Rs 9,999 and in days when selfie smartphones has been ruling the sales charts, Asus ZenFone Live take the game to another level with the addition of hardware-optimized, real-time beautification features which were the need of the hour, considering the growing trend of Facebook Live and similar services on other social media platforms.

A majority of social media platforms users, these days, are shifting towards live streaming or interactive content in order to share stories. And why not? It’s fun to have other people involved in an engaging story. Asus ZenFone Live has definitely found the right beat when it comes to being ‘Live’ and ‘BeautyLive’ app automatically beautifies the faces when being live on Facebook, Instagram as well as YouTube.

However, with the existence of Lenovo K6 Power, Xiaomi Redmi Note 4, Xiaomi Redmi 4 and Vivo Y53 in the same segment offering better specifications, will Asus ZenFone Live be able to make a mark here or it will turn out to be another failed attempt at something new? Let’s See.

Asus ZenFone Live Specifications

• 5.0-inch (720 x 1280) IPS LCD Capacitive Touchscreen with 2.5D curved glass and Corning Gorilla Glass protection.
• 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor clocked at 1.2Ghz coupled with Adreno 305 GPU
• 2GB LPDDR3 and 16GB of internal storage, expandable up to 128GB via microSD
• 13MP rear camera with f/2.0 aperture, PDAF, dual-LED flash, Asus’ PixelMaster technology and 5P Largan lens
• 5MP front camera with f/2/2 aperture, ‘soft-light’ LED flash and an 82 degree wide viewing angle for group selfies.
• Android 6.0 Marshmallow with ASUS ZenUI 3.0
• Hybrid dual-SIM setup and 3.5 mm audio jack
• 2650mAh battery, providing 158.8 hours of standby, 24 hours of 3G talk-time and 17.1 hours of Wi-Fi browsing.
• 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth v4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, FM radio, GPS/ A-GPS, USB 2.0, ambient light sensor, accelerometer, digital compass, and proximity sensor.

What we like about Asus ZenFone Live

• Tried and tested compact metal design with good curves, offering great grip
• 13MP rear camera with f/2.0 aperture, PDAF, dual-LED flash, Asus’ PixelMaster technology and 5P Largan lens offers good details as well as colors in outdoor conditions but face some challenges indoors.
• The 5MP front camera doesn’t challenge the benchmarks of this segment but considering the price, it offers at par experience.
• The 5-inch HD display offers enough vibrancy in colors and details considering the size. Viewing angles are good and the color temperature is also on the warmer side. Asus ZenFone Live further offers great sunlight visibility.
• Live beautification works exceptionally well and there is nothing wrong the hardware itself.
• It comes with a pair of MEMS (Micro Electrical Mechanical System) microphones which are tuned to reduce noise in a noisy environment and this coupled with “Five-Magnet” speaker, makes the audio experience even better.

What Don’t like about Asus ZenFone Live

• 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor clocked at 1.2Ghz coupled with Adreno 305 GPU, 2GB LPDDR3 is not a good hardware package and Asus ZenFone Live is not a smartphone for heavy users who like to do multitasking as well as play heavy games.
• No fingerprint scanner
• Although, the 2650mAh battery offer juice for a full day, the addition of quick charge support could have made Asus ZenFone Live a better proposition considering that the device will be used for live streamings in most cases.

Verdict

Asus ZenFone Live was expected to bring a revolution of some sorts but it doesn’t offer the overall package that consumers are used to these days. Moreover, when it comes to aggressive usage, Asus ZenFone Live tends to suffer from lags, making it a multimedia-oriented smartphone whose battery doesn’t justify its usage.

Should you buy one? Well, if the live streaming is what your next smartphone will be solely used for, then yes, otherwise, Asus ZenFone Live is not worth your consideration.