Samsung has started pushing out the latest security update to its Galaxy S6 and S6 edge smartphones. Currently rolling out to unlocked units in Europe, the update weighs in at around 140MB, and brings along Android security patch for the month of September.
As is usually the case with OTA roll-outs, it may take sometime for the update to hit your device. Meanwhile, if you feel impatient, you can also manually check for it by heading to your handset's Settings menu.
Sales of OnePlus 3 in Europe restarted after pausing due to high demand. Starting this Thursday, UK fans will have another option to buy The One Phone - carrier O2.
There will be a pop-up event at the Westfield White City Store from 10am to 10pm, but you'll be able to order one online too.
The OnePlus 3 will be available on O2's Refresh program starting at �28 a month with 500MB of data (up to 20GB is available for data hogs). Refresh allows users to upgrade before their contract is up, you know, in time for the OnePlus 4.
LG has been working on its own mobile payment system since last year. A big part of LG Pay is integration with the White Card - a smart card that stores info for multiple credit and debit cards and connects to your phone over NFC, allowing you to manage it.
Originally, the mobile payment system was meant to debut alongside the new LG V20, but issues encountered during the development of White Card prevented that. LG has not yet filed for regulatory approval of the system.
The launch has been pushed to next year, without any specific target. It's not clear where that leaves the V20 in terms of support, but it seems that the physical White Card is what interfaces with terminals (NFC, chip and magnetic strip) while the phone interacts with the card over standard NFC.
Samsung began replacing affected Galaxy Note7 units on September 2 and it now reports that about 90% of buyers have opted to switch to new units where the battery issue has been resolved.
In Singapore, where the recall started only 10 days ago, more than 80% of buyers have sent back affected Note7s. However, in the major US and Korean markets, the recall goes slower - Samsung reports 60% of all recalled units there have been exchanged.
You can confirm a Galaxy Note7 unit is part of the new batch by looking for a square symbol on the back of its box and at the battery indicator on the phone itself - it's green on the new ones and white on units that need to be replaced.
Samsung urges the remaining buyers to send back affected units, a new one will be shipped back to them based on local availability. They can call the store where they purchased the Note7 or a local call center for more details.
Right on schedule, Xiaomi has launched the new Mi 5s and its larger sibling, the Mi 5s Plus.
Xiaomi Mi 5s
Starting with the Mi 5s, the new device has a unibody aluminum design, with a brushed metal finish and curved edges, and antenna lines along the top and bottom that look far too familiar. Along the back is also the new large 1/2.3-inch 12 megapixel sensor with F/2.0 aperture and PDAF that bests even the iPhone 7 and Galaxy S7 edge, if Xiaomi�s slides are to be believed. You also get a 4 megapixel camera on the front with 2�m large pixel and F/2.0 aperture.
On the front is a 5.15-inch 1920x1080 pixel IPS LCD with 600nits maximum brightness, 1500:1 contrast ratio, and a 94.4% NTSC color gamut. The higher end model also has support for pressure sensitivity.
Also on the front is a new ultrasonic fingerprint sensor that uses Qualcomm Snapdragon Sense ID. An ultrasonic fingerprint sensor captures a more accurate map of the finger that is harder to spoon, works through multiple materials, and is immune to surface contaminants such as sweat and condensation.
Inside the Mi 5s is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 chipset, 3GB or 4GB of RAM, and 64GB or 128GB of storage. It has support for 3xCA network connectivity, along with Bluetooth 4.2, dual-band MU-MIMO 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and NFC. It is powered by a 3200mAh battery, that charges via Qualcomm QuickCharge 3.0.
The Mi 5s is priced at RMB 1999 ($299) for the 3GB/64GB model and RMB 2299 ($344) for the 4GB/128GB model. It will be available in gray, silver, gold, and rose gold.
Xiaomi also announced the Mi 5s Plus. It has a larger 5.7-inch 1920x1080 pixel display and dual 13 megapixel cameras on the back that work similar to those on the Huawei P9. One camera captures color images and the other captures only black and white images. The black and white sensor lacks the Bayer filter, which means it gathers much more light producing more detailed images with less noise. You can either capture pure black and white images or color images. When capturing color images, the camera combines the output of both the sensors to enhance the final photo.
Most of the other specifications are identical to the Mi 5s, including a Snapdragon 821 processor, 3GB/64GB and 4GB/128GB memory and storage options, and 4 megapixel front camera. The battery gets a bump, and is now 3800mAh.
The Mi 5s Plus is priced at RMB 2299 ($344) for the 3GB/64GB model and RMB 2599 ($389) for the 4GB/128GB model. It�s available in the same four colors.
Samsung has really been working hard on expanding and updating its product lineup lately. The focus seems to be mostly on the company's newer families, with new additions like the Galaxy C9 on the horizon and now a brand new release within the "On" branch.
The On8 was just announced today in India. It comes at a quite dynamic time for the budget series, with the Galaxy On7 (2016) now official and the On5 (2016) coming shortly. Notice the lack of a (2016) in the product name? This is due to the fact that there is no On8 from last year to build upon, making this a truly fresh offer.
The Samsung Galaxy On8 comes with a 5.5-inch Super AMOLED display - a clear upgrade over the LCD variety on its siblings. This news falls in line perfectly with a recent Flipkart post and is great news for Samsung AMOLED fans, looking to pick up a punchy panel on the cheap. Putting two and two together, that also means that the display is FullHD.
Powering the phone is an undisclosed octa-core SoC. Judging from the quoted 1.6GHz clock rate, this might actually be Samsung's own Exynos 7870 Octa - the same 14nm chip that can be credited for the Galaxy J7 (2016)'s amazing battery life.
Other specs include 3GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable on-board storage. The camera setup consists of a 13MP, f/1.9 main snapper and a 5MP selfie one. Last, but not least, there is also 4G VoLTE support. This is all packed into a body measuring 151.7x76x7.8mm and weighing in at 169 grams. The power comes courtesy of a 3300 mAh battery.
Currently the Galaxy On8 appears to be an India exclusive, set to go on sale on Flipkart from October 2, just in time for the "Big Billion Day Sale".
To further prove its India roots, the Galaxy On8 also features two "Make for India" initiatives - UDS (ultra data saving) and S bike. As already mentioned, you can get the phone on Flipkart, starting October 2 in Gold, Black or White for INR 15990 ($240).
Conventional wisdom says that no TV can ever be "too big," but they can only be "too expensive." The new Xiaomi Mi TV 3S comes in 55" and 65" sizes and are some of the cheapest 4K sets money can (soon) buy.
And they support HDR, which most early 4K TVs do not and is often touted as the bigger upgrade to image quality than the resolution boost.
The 55" TV uses panels from LG while the 65" ones are sourced from Samsung. They cost CNY 3,500 ($525) and CNY 5,000 ($750) respectively, though getting them out of China will be tricky.
Affordable as they are, we think the CNY 6,000 ($900) offering is by far the best value - it combines the 65" Mi TV 3S with a capable soundbar (30Hz-22kHz), wireless subwoofer and wireless back surround speakers. Checking for a sound system with wireless surround speakers will give you an idea just how good this deal is for $150. Even a soundbar with a wireless subwoofer can easily fetch $200+. Still, if you opt out of the external sound system, the 65" model has four speakers built-in.
Xiaomi made these TVs gorgeous - 9.9mm thick at their thinnest, metal bodies with gold diamond-cut sides and a brushed aluminum back... such a shame that you'll only see it once before you put the TV's back against a wall.
An Amlogic T966 chipset provides the brains, including video streaming and decoding. Inside is a quad-core Cortex-A53 processor and Mali-T830 (2+2) GPU coupled with 2GB of RAM and 8GB storage. Steraming is done over fast Wi-Fi 802.11ac and H.265 video is decoded at up to 4K @ 60fps.
The Xiaomi Mi TV 3S software features an AI-based movie recommendation system, apps for various China-based streaming services and even a karaoke system (complete with a wireless microphone, CNY 600).
Earlier this year, Microsoft pushed out an update to the Band app - or the Health app, as it was known previously - that caused the app's Live Tile to stop working. Now, the company has rolled out a new update that fixes the issue.
Although an official change-log isn't yet available, the update - which bumps the app to version 2.3.20923 - is also said to bring along some other improvements as well as general bug fixes. Head to the Microsoft Band link below to download the updated app.
The Oppo R9S, which cleared TENAA last month, has now passed what's known as China Compulsory Certification (3C). While the latest certification doesn't reveal much, it does suggest that the device could be unveil sooner than later.
Specs-wise, from what has been revealed so far, the Oppo R9S is powered by Snapdragon 625 SoC and sports a 5.5-inch 1080p display. It features a 13MP/16MP camera combo, and packs in a 2,850mAh battery.
The handset is also said to feature the Super VOOC charging tech that Oppo showcased earlier this year, as well as an image stabilization tech powered by a new OPPO SmartSensor. We had a good look at how both technologies work at this year's MWC.
After being spotted on Geekbench and AnTuTu, the Samsung Galaxy C9 has now appeared on GFXBench, confirming the flagship-like specs that have already been revealed.
The GFXBench listing confirms that the phone will be powered by Snapdragon 652 chipset and sport a full HD display resolution. RAM will be 6GB, while storage will be 64GB. The handset will feature a 16MP/16MP camera combo, and run Android 6.0.1 out of the box.
In addition, the listing reveals that the Galaxy C9 will have a screen size of 6-inches, and will also support NFC. For those who missed, the device is rumored to be launched in the in Oct-Nov time frame.
Spotify's Premium for Family plan - which allows families to have six individual Spotify Premium accounts for only $14.99 - has now been launched in Canada. The company says the plan was one of the most requested features in the country.
"With the Spotify Premium for Family Plan, listeners will still be able to enjoy their favorite artists and hits, but now the entire family can get in on the fun with access to over 30 million songs for just one low price payable on a single bill," Spotify said in a post on its website.
To know more about Spotify's Premium for Family plan, you can head to the Family Plan link below.
The Xiaomi Mi 5S hasn't been unveiled yet, but the Chinese company has opened registrations for the device. And the response has been overwhelming - according to reports out of China, over 1.82 million people have already registered their interest in purchasing the handset.
Keep in mind that no money has exchanged hands, as these are just registrations, not actual pre-orders.
Coming to the Mi 5S, as you might already know, it's been the subject of several rumors and leaks lately, with the latest one revealing its design as well as the date on which it will be available for purchase.
Droid Life reports that Motorola has laid off less than 2% of the 55,000 employees that the company has worldwide, which equates to about 1,100 layoffs in total.
The action was taken by Motorola as �part of the ongoing strategic integration between Lenovo and Motorola�s smartphone business as the company further aligns its organization and streamlines it product portfolio to best compete in the global smartphone market.�
Before Motorola could comment on the situation, rumors said that Lenovo was going to move some of Motorola�s Chicago-staff over to Lenovo�s North Carolina US headquarters. In any case, Lenovo stated to Droid Life that this was not the case and that it planned to keep Motorola�s headquarters right where it is now. And that it is �absolutely committed to Chicago�.
The statement also confirmed the round number of layoffs mentioned above as the report came before Motorola�s statement.
Check out the Source link for the full statement by Motorola regarding to the recent layoffs.
The BlackBerry DTEK60 - which is internally codenamed as Argon - has been certified by the US FCC as well as WiFi alliance. While the FCC certification only reveals the device's model number (BBA100�1), the WiFi certification reveals the name 'DTEK60' as well.
Specs-wise, according to a recent leak, the device is powered by Snapdragon 820 SoC and sports a 5.5-inch Quad HD display. RAM is 4GB, while storage is 32GB. The phone features a 21MP/8MP camera combo, while a 3,000mAh battery is there to keep the lights on.
The handset also features a fingerprint sensor, and runs Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow out of the box.
A new render appears of the Google Pixel, showing a couple of new things that we haven�t seen before. This render has the updated UI of the pixel launcher which was said to feature round buttons on the home screens.
A new difference that we now see is the lack of a front button or sensor that we�ve seen in some hardware leaks. This inconsistency (assuming these were actual renders of the Google Pixel) could suggest that the front sensor was a temporary sensor used for development or prototypes until the company was able to design it onto the back of the handset?
This is the only way I can explain the reason that some prototypes leaked with a rear fingerprint scanner as well as a blur where a button or sensor could reside (this blur could have also been purposely put there to throw us off). In those leaks, the date on the homescreen in the larger phone shows January 6. Which could just be a way to throw off when the picture was actually taken.
In any case, we could be looking at the official render here, but as always, it should be taken with a grain of salt.
Whether or not we will see some kind of front mounted sensor or button below the screen isn�t entirely off the table. Besides this new speculation, nothing else about the expected specs has changed. Both the Pixel and Pixel XL are expected to have Snapdragon 821 CPUs, 4GB of RAM, USB-C ports, 12MP rear-facing camera and an 8MP front-facing camera, as well as Android�s sweetest release yet, Android Nougat 7.1.
The Pixel would feature a 5 inch 1080p display and 2,770mAh battery while the Pixel XL could feature a 5.5 inch QHD screen and a larger 3,450 mAh battery. Both phones are also rumored to carry an IP53 immersion protection certification.
The Pixel and Pixel XL are also said to start at $649 for the Pixel and will be announced at a Google event in San Fransisco along with a few other Google devices and gadgets like the Chromecast Ultra, Google Home assistant, as well as a Google Home Wi-Fi router.
Source | Via
Alcatel's Pixi series is getting a new and rather interesting addition today. The Pixi 4 Plus Power, as the name hints, comes with one of the beefiest battery packs around at 5,000 mAh. It supports fast charging and can be used as a power bank, if you like.
The phone itself is rather typical entry level device - there is a 5.5" 720p IPS display, 1GB of RAM, 8 gigs of expandable storage, a 13MP camera, and a 5MP selfie one. It's important to note Alcatel has accompanied both snappers with LED flashes.
Alcatel Pixi 4 Plus Power maxes at 3G connectivity as far as network coverage is concerned. It is a dual-SIM device, though.
Finally, Android 6.0 Marshmallow is in charge of the Pixi 4 Plus Power.
Currently, there is no the pricing and availability, but the phone should launch soon.
The mid-range Honor 5X will be getting a successor this October. Two weeks ago, the new Honor 6X leaked via TENAA with pictures and specs. The device is an all-metal phablet with a 5.5" 1080p display.
The Honor 6X is rumored to run on the Snapdragon 625 chipset with 2 or 3 GB of RAM, and pack 32GB expandable storage. Its highlight should be the dual-camera setup on the back, something probably similar to the Honor 8's. And there is Huawei's comfy fingerprint scanner below the cool camera duo.
The latest report puts the Honor 6X for official premiere on October 18, and China should be among the first markets to get it. More details, pricing, and availability should come on October 18, so stay tuned.
Asus has been making phones for a few years now but the company but hadn't quite managed to leave a mark on the market and the consumers' mind. That changed a bit with last year's ZenFone 2 series that offered unheard of specs at incredible prices, which made them quite popular among the budget conscious users.
This year the ZenFone 3 series is a bit different. Asus seems to have no interest to appeal to the budget market and is going straight for the flagship segment.
The first phone in the series to be launched is the simple named ZenFone 3. Okay, calling it 'simple named' downplays the fact that there are in fact two distinct model names - the ZE552KL and the ZE520KL - and that's without counting the extra Zenforne 3 phones in the family - Max, Deluxe, Laser, and Ultra. Confused enough? Well, don't be, these models will likely never be available on a single market simultaneously, so it's only websites that cater to several regions that need to make sense out of it.
Today we're previewing the Asus Zenfone 3 ZE552KL to be more precise. It's got a bigger screen, more memory and storage, and larger battery than its similarly named sibling and yet, with a price around $300-350, it costs less than the other Zenfone 3 phones.
Here's a brief version of the complete specs list before we continue.
We spent a few days with the new ZenFone 3 to get a feel of how Asus's smartphone lineup is looking this year so join us on the next page for our impressions. Spoiler alert: It's looking pretty good.
The ZenFone 3 design is a complete departure from the ZenFone 2. Gone is the weird polygonal back and oddly placed controls of the previous model. In its place, we find a much safer and traditional looking design. It is quite an attractive looking phone and should appeal to far more people than the previous one ever did.
Front and back
The front of the phone has a large glass panel that stretches end to end and has a subtle but palpable curve around the edges. In the middle is the 5.5-inch display flanked by sizable but not substantial bezels.
Above the display are the earpiece, the sensors, and the front camera. Below the display are the three navigation keys. Unfortunately, these aren't backlit, which makes them hard to find in the dark. Asus continues to leave these keys without a backlight, even on expensive phones, which makes no sense and something the company should reconsider.
Side view � Top � Bottom
The phone employs an aluminum frame around the side that has a bead blasted finish and chamfer on either side. On the right side are the power and volume control buttons with Asus' tradition spun metal finish. The buttons are well placed and fall easily to hand and a far cry from the awkwardly placed power button on the top on the ZenFone 2 and the stiff volume buttons on the back.
On the right side is the hybrid SIM tray with support for one micro SIM + microSD or one micro SIM + nano SIM. On the bottom of the phone is the loudspeaker, Type-C connector, and a microphone.
On the top are the headphone jack and another microphone. The metal frame has very subtle and symmetric antenna bands on the top and bottom that are barely noticeable.
The back of the phone once again is covered in the same glass with curved edges. Underneath there is a spun metal pattern that isn't as clearly visible on our white model but looks quite fascinating on the darker colored models in the way it catches light.
Near the top is the raised camera with a sapphire crystal lens cover, so you don't have to worry about damaging it. Flanking it are the laser sensor on the left and dual LED flash on the right.
Below it is a fingerprint sensor. Near the bottom is an Asus logo. The phone is thankfully free of any other brandings.
The combination of glass and metal give the ZenFone 3 a very premium feel in the hand. Beyond the materials, the phone is very well designed, and the smooth curvature of the glass and metal give it a very pleasant feel in the hand. The 5.5-inch model we tested here is slightly on the larger size and those who want a smaller phone should perhaps consider the 5.2-inch Zenfone 3 model.
The ZenFone 3 comes with two display options; there is a smaller, less popular 5.2-inch model (ZE520KL) and the larger 5.5-inch model (ZE552KL) we have here for a preview. Both have an identical resolution at 1920 x 1080px and the other specifications are also identical on paper, including the maximum brightness of 600nits.
Display settings
Since we only have the bigger model with us, our observations are based on this model only. Regarding image quality, this is one of the better displays we have seen, and one of the best Asus has pushed out. Never mind the 600 nits of brightness, which is almost unbearable indoors and more than perfectly visible outdoors even under direct sunlight. But the display calibration seems to be on point, at least to the naked eye.
Out of the box, the display has quite natural colors and pretty well sorted white point that is free of any color casts. On top of that, Asus even offers a basic calibration tool that lets you adjust the color temperature, hue, and saturation of the display. There is also the trendy blue filter that cuts off the blue light and makes the display warmer for reduced eye strain. We found it best to leave it at the default settings as they looked perfectly fine to us.
The ZenFone 3 runs on the new Asus ZenUI 3.0 running on top of Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. The software has traditionally been a weak point of Asus phones in the past, and things haven't changed much now.
Asus continues to load the device with as many unnecessary applications and features as they can. While other companies often pile on bloatware from third-party developers, Asus phones come loaded with first-party bloatware, and then some third-party one also to add further insult to injury.
Asus ZenUI 3.0
The sheer number of applications and features thrown in your face when you start the phone for the first time is overwhelming even for us, and we can't even imagine what the average consumer goes through.
Some of it just seems to be added to the app drawer for no good reason. For example, Asus adds the already mentioned display calibration utility right there in the app drawer when the same can be found in the Settings menu. Same for the Software update option. There is also an icon for the flashlight when there is one already right there in the notifications.
Asus ZenUI 3.0
What's worse, some of the installed apps also have a tendency to repeatedly push notifications at you until you disable the app itself, something an average user will never know how to do. One particular item just insisted on staying in the notification area and annoyed us to the point where we just went to locate the app to blame for it and disabled entirely.
Settings
Lastly, when you plug in the headphones, there is a persistent notification that tells you that yes, indeed there is a pair of headphones connected to the phone as if that's something you need to be informed of. And because there is no way to dismiss this notification, it even appears on the lockscreen so any music app you might be using cannot show full-screen artwork.
More settings
Now, yes, most of the annoyances here can be fixed by some prodding under the hood. After spending a good hour we finally managed to hide all the unnecessary apps from the app drawer, dug into individual app settings and disabled everything we could, and for things we couldn't disable, we disabled the entire app itself.
After this housekeeping, the phone genuinely became a pleasure to use. The problem is that this had to be done in the first place, and that precisely is the problem with the software on Asus phones. It reminds us of Samsung phones of yore that came with everything but the kitchen sink. Thankfully, Samsung finally saw the light and hopefully someday, so will Asus.
One advantage of going with the bigger Zenfone 3 ZE552KL is that you get a much larger 3000mAh battery. With an efficient processor and a relatively large battery, we expected the ZenFone 3 to have a good battery life, and it delivered. The phone consistently provided around 6 hours of screen-on time with two SIM cards and medium use. The phone easily gets through a full day of use and those using it sparingly could even get through two days on a single charge.
Standby time � Screen-on time � Battery settings
Unfortunately, Asus skimped out when it came to providing fast charging support. The phone ships with a standard 5V 2A charger and no support for a faster charging solution. The fastest we managed to get it to go from 1% to 100% was just under two and a half hours. That's not a lot, but the rate of charging is more suited to overnight charging than a quick top-up when you are in a hurry.
The ZenFone 3 is one of the first few devices to be running on Qualcomm's brand new Snapdragon 625. Unfortunately, it's not a particularly powerful processor on paper, so we had our expectations in check.
System info by AIDA64
To our surprise, the UI performance on the ZenFone 3 was excellent. The phone feels amazingly fluid most of the time while moving through the phone UI and also in apps. Multitasking is also quick and with 4GB of RAM, there is plenty of space to keep apps running without things shutting down in a hurry.
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
Gaming performance was also quite impressive. The phone managed to run every game we tried quite well. There were some skipped frames here and there and things weren't quite as smooth as with Adreno 530 but for its part, the Adreno 506 on the ZenFone 3 does quite well with the 1080p resolution.
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
Higher is better
The phone does get nominally warm at the back near the camera during gaming but it never gets too hot, and gaming is pretty much the only time it gets warm, that too with a handful of titles.
Performance in other areas is good too. The loudspeaker, for example, sounds good and also gets fairly loud. The audio quality through headphones is good too. Around the back, the fingerprint sensor is also one of the best we have come across, with fast, reliable scans almost every time.
The ZenFone 3 has a 16 megapixel Sony IMX298 with deep trench isolation, a six element Largan lens with f/2.0 aperture, laser and phase detection autofocus, and 4-axis optical image stabilization. Finally, it's even able to capture 4K video.
Camera app
The camera software is well designed. On the left side are shortcuts to the flash, front camera, HDR mode, and settings. On the right are the shutter and record button and a quick switch to the manual mode. There is also a mode selection button that shows all the camera modes.
There are quite a few modes here - twenty to be exact. Some of these include a Super Resolution mode that takes multiple images and stitches them into an upscaled 65-megapixel image, a depth of field mode, panorama, miniature (tilt-shift), time lapse, slow motion, and beautification.
There is also a selfie mode that automatically takes a picture from the back camera when it detects faces and a Smart Remove mode that removes moving objects by taking multiple shots. There also seem to be two of some things; for example, there are two HDR modes and two different night modes.
Some of these modes are useful, but you are most likely to limit yourself to the auto and manual mode. The manual mode lets you adjust the white balance, exposure compensation, ISO (50-3200), shutter speed (1/50000 to 32s), and manual focus. Unfortunately, you don't get focus peaking, but there are a horizon leveling aid and even a histogram, making this one of the more sophisticated manual modes on a smartphone. There is no RAW support, however.
Sample images
The image quality from the rear camera is quite good. Images taken in daylight have good amount of detail with a negligible amount of noise. The colors and contrast are ever so slightly bumped up but remain pleasant and close to accurate.
The dynamic range isn't phenomenal, but the HDR mode does help a bit. Unfortunately, there are two HDR modes, and only the one found in the mode selector is the good one, whereas the one that is next to the viewfinder produces blurry, upscaled images with only slightly improved dynamic range.
SDR � HDR � HDR Pro
In low light, the camera does well once again. If things start getting too dim, there are once again two low light mode to deal with. There's one called Night mode that combines multiple images in an attempt to reduce noise and produces decent results.
Then there is one called just Low Light mode (and the one the camera will suggest when in low light situations), which produces much brighter images even in near pitch darkness but at the cost of resolution (4 megapixels) and for some reason, crops the aspect ratio to 16:9.
Auto � Night Mode � Low light mode
The camera utilizes its 4-axis OIS for stabilizing the lens, allowing the camera to use, according to Asus, up to four times slower shutter speed (a 4-stop advantage for you photogs out there) for brighter low light images. The low light images we took were practically blur-free, which is a testament to the usefulness of the system.
The triple autofocus system, on the other hand, is a bit of a scattershot. At a distance, the system works perfectly, and the camera focuses quickly even at macro if there is plenty of light. However, things quickly get blurry in low light, which shouldn't be the case as the laser autofocus system does not rely on ambient light to work and should do a good job even in pitch darkness.
Flash photos, in particular, are completely out of focus nearly 100% of the time, as the camera simply refuses to focus in the darkness and doesn't even attempt to use a pre-flash burst to aid in focusing before taking the shot.
Images were taken with the flash also come out looking overexposed at times, as along with focusing the camera also doesn't seem to be doing metering before taking the shot. The execution is here is so poor and at the same time so incredibly easy to fix that we'll attribute this behavior to the bug section, which Asus will, hopefully, fix down the road via a software update.
Video recording
The phone can also record up to 4K UHD at 30fps, and the quality is once again quite impressive. The limited dynamic range is evident with videos just like with photos, and there is no HDR mode for video.
Additionally, you can also record in 1080p at up to 60fps, which you can use as it is or slow it down in a video editor to get reasonably high quality 2x slow motion video. There is also a built-in slow motion mode that records in 720p at 120fps.
Here's a 1080p@30fps video sample, which we've uploaded to YouTube. Unfortunately, we don't have a 4K video sample to show you as our review unit was collected by Asus earlier than expected.
Unlike still images, the video recording strangely does not benefit from the OIS. Instead, you get the optional EIS, which only works up to 1080p 30fps. It also crops the video although weirdly enough, the viewfinder does not show this while you are shooting and only after you record the video do you see the cropped footage. It makes framing the shot difficult as you have no idea exactly how much is going to get cropped out of the final video.
Overall, the Asus Zenfone 3 has a nicely capable camera, which we enjoyed using despite the fact that it comes with some quirky software decisions and inexplicable performance hiccups in low-light scenarios.
The ZenFone 3 is a strong showing from Asus and a good showcase of what the company is capable of when it puts all its effort behind a product. The funny thing is it isn't even the company's flagship device, and we are very much interested in what the ZenFone 3 Deluxe is capable of if the ZenFone 3 is so good.
There is a lot to like about the ZenFone 3. We loved the look and feel of the glass and metal body, and the display is one of the best in this price range. The performance from the Snapdragon 625 is surprisingly good regardless of what you might think based on the spec sheet. And finally, the camera works mostly quite well, and the phone's battery life is superb.
Unfortunately, Asus still has some ways to go, and while the ZenFone 3 is quite good, it's not as close to perfect as we'd like. One area where Asus needs to make strides is in software, particularly in holding itself back with the options. The number of pre-installed apps is bewildering, and there are just too many options and things to distract the user, which is counter-productive to user-friendliness. There needs to be a conscious effort to hold back and focus on the essentials and let the users figure out the rest and install apps and features separately if they wish, instead of making the decision for them and then forcing it on them.
But that's the only major complaint we have with the phone. The price might seem to be a bit on the higher side for the larger model, although we don't think it is a major issue. It is uncomfortably close to the OnePlus 3 price, which includes a more powerful Snapdragon 820 processor, but doesn't necessarily feel any faster in everyday use, and the two phones are more or less on par otherwise.
Overall, the ZenFone 3 is a highly capable device and easily the best Asus has put out so far. We hope the company improves the software experience of its devices, but otherwise, it is on the right track.
