Asus ZenFone 5Z for Rs 29,999: Should you buy over OnePlus 6?

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The ZenFone 5Z has every ingredient in the book to make the OnePlus 6 nervous. But, the most powerful weapon in its arsenal is its ridiculously aggressive price tag. It starts at Rs 29,999 which is Rs 5,000 less than what you'll pay for the base OnePlus 6 model. Meanwhile, the top-end version of the ZenFone 5Z is available for Rs 36,999. The top-end version of the OnePlus 6 will cost you Rs 43,999 which is Rs 7,000 more than what Asus is asking. Asus also has a third option that it is selling for Rs 32,999.

If that wasn't enough, if you happen to have an ICICI bank debit or credit card, you're eligible for a flat Rs 3,000 discount on the ZenFone 5Z. This will bring down the price of the ZenFone 5Z further to Rs 26,999, Rs 29,999 and Rs 33,999 respectively.

Clearly, its highly aggressive price tag is the biggest reason to invest in Asus' new flagship phone. That it doesn't compromise on specs is just an icing on the cake. In fact, the price of the ZenFone 5Z and the hardware at hand, would remind you of a Xiaomi phone. The ZenFone 5Z is a high-end phone with high-end specs. The Asus ZenFone 5Z is, in fact, the cheapest phone in India with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor inside. It is also the cheapest phone in India to ship with a whopping 256GB of internal storage. Both these titles were previously honed by the OnePlus 6.

To sweeten the deal further, the ZenFone 5Z, comes with high-quality earphones and a Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 18W charger in the box. In short, the ZenFone 5Z, is a complete package deal. Having said that, an attractive price, isn't enough to buy a new phone. Especially, when you have tried and tested phones like the OnePlus 6 in the market, that although are a little more expensive, offer the best in-class experience in almost all the fronts. Luckily for Asus, the ZenFone 5Z, is quite a star in real-world usage as well. In fact, it trumps the OnePlus 6, in almost all the departments.

THE ZENFONE 5Z HAS ROCK-SOLID BUILD QUALITY

Let's face it. The ZenFone 5Z has a derivative design. It looks like the iPhone X. But then even the top-rated OnePlus 6 is a mish-mash of the iPhone and a Samsung Galaxy. So we can cut Asus some slack here even though it was the first big-ticket company in the world to initiate the clone wars. It certainly won't be the last, as things have turned out.

What I really like about the ZenFone 5Z though is its build quality. It's rock solid. Even though, a major portion of it is glass. The phone has considerable heft but not unbearably so. You'll feel the phone in your hands but you won't find it taking the better of you. It's just the right proportion. And it is so very pocketable. The power button and the volume rocker on the right have just the right amount of tactile give, and also the mid-frame has a smooth matte finish that ups both the premium quotient as well as the in-hand feel. The ZenFone 5Z feels like an expensive phone that isn't expensive at all. That it comes with iPhone X-like looks, at a fraction of the cost, is just an icing on the cake.

THE ZENFONE 5Z HAS A GORGEOUS, COLOUR ACCURATE DISPLAY

The main highlight of the ZenFone 5Z is its iPhone-esque notch (and screen). The phone houses a 6.2-inch 1080p+ screen inside a 5.5-inch form-factor. And an unusual 19:9 aspect ratio that can be toned down -- to 18:9 and 16:9 -- via settings for specific apps to make best use of apps that don't support it for now. The screen's not OLED though, which means no VR, but the IPS LCD panel on-board can get really bright and produces rich and vibrant colours that look pleasing to the eyes. It has great viewing angles as well, unless you're out and about in direct sunlight. The ZenFone 5Z, in fact, has the best display in and around its price category. It is even better than the OnePlus 6, especially in terms of colour accuracy.

THE ZENFONE 5Z IS A FAST PHONE

The ZenFone 5Z rocks a top-of-the-line Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor and will be available in as many as three configurations: 6GB RAM and 64GB storage, 8GB RAM and 128GB storage, and 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. All the versions support expandable storage of up to 2TB via a hybrid micro-SD card slot. Clearly, that's as high-end as high-end can get, at this point of time. Moreover, the ZenFone 5Z is the only phone in the world that can channelize the full potential of Qualcomm's Hexagon 685 DSP, which means that it's also the smartest Android phone in the world right now.

The ZenFone 5Z is, as a result, a great Android phone that offers great all-round performance -- largely because of its top-tier hardware -- and yes, Asus' software also has a lot to do with it. But the question is: is the ZenFone 5Z faster than the OnePlus 6? Well, no. Is the ZenFone 5Z as fast as the OnePlus 6. Well, yes and no.

The ZenFone 5Z is as fast as the OnePlus 6 in terms of regular day-to-day usage. Basic tasks are handled very well, which means you can make phone calls, text and WhatsApp, watch movies, listen to music, browse the Internet and also play less demanding games on it, without breaking a sweat. The same is true about graphical games like PUBG as well. But, every once in a while, the ZenFone 5Z, would slow down. And by slowing down, I don't mean slowing down in the literal sense: I mean when compared with the OnePlus 6, a phone that's notorious for blazing fast speeds. So chances are many users won't even notice the occasional lag or two that creeps up inside the ZenFone 5Z, especially while navigating between home screens, pulling out and closing the app drawer, even powering up the phone at times. Note that such instances are occasional, but they're there, and they're noticeable only because a OnePlus 6 exists. Also note that this isn't a hardware thing, but the last ounce of flab that Asus' skin brings to the table: it is cleaner and fluid but still high on boot animations and some of these animations are prone to stutter every now and then.

That's just me nit-picking because I have been spoiled by the OnePlus 6 and its near stock Android experience. But then, the ZenFone 5Z can get really close which is saying a lot about Asus and how it has come a long way, working and re-working on its software to reach the level that it has in its current avatar.

THE ZENFONE 5Z HAS BEST IN-CLASS CAMERAS

The ZenFone 5Z is easily among the best camera phones at its price point right now. It comes with a vertically aligned dual camera system on the rear that consists of a primary 12-megapixel sensor -- a Sony IMX363 -- with large 1.4um pixels, and large f/1.8 aperture, with dual-pixel phase detection autofocus, four-axis optical image stabilisation, and electronic image stabilisation for videos. The secondary camera, meanwhile, consists of an 8-megapixel wide-angle sensor that assists in portrait photography or photos with shallow depth of field as well as for taking wide-angle shots much like how things are in LG's top-tier flagships.

Photos clicked with it in good lighting come out well, with lots of detail and colours which are mostly true to source. Dynamic range is also spot-on. In fact, it's easily among the best in the business. The ZenFone 5Z is also capable of taking some good shots in tricky and low light conditions. The sensor manages to hold on to detail (at the cost of some noise) in such conditions, resulting in some well to-do photos. The phone also comes with an in-built night mode that ups the detail (even further) and leads to brighter photos at the cost of resolution (4-megapixel).

But it's the 8-megapixel wide-angle sensor that really sets the ZenFone 5Z apart. Not in terms of sheer quality or detail. But in terms of the added functionality - including a pretty amazing portrait mode -- that it brings to the table. A wider lens means the phone's rear snapper can cover a larger area with a distinct fish-eye effect on the edges. It kind of gives you a 3D-like panorama sweep of what you're clicking without having you to move your phone in a certain manner. Much like it is in the LG G6.

THE ZENFONE 5Z HAS GREAT BATTERY LIFE, CHARGES AS FAST AS ONEPLUS' DASH CHARGE

The ZenFone 5Z's all-round performance may not beat the OnePlus 6, but, Asus' new phone has a lot of juice inside to hit OnePlus' phone out of the ball park in almost all the other departments, including battery life. The 3,300mAh battery inside the ZenFone 5Z lasts way longer than the similarly sized battery inside the OnePlus 6, and it charges as fast as OnePlus' Dash charge. This means, most users will be able to get at least one full day out of the ZenFone 5Z, no matter how you decide to push it. If that wasn't enough, you can top it off in some one hour fifteen minutes using the bundled 18W Qualcomm Quick Charger 3.0 charger, which is nothing short of phenomenal.

THE ZENFONE 5Z COMES WITH TOP-NOTCH AUDIO CREDENTIALS

The ZenFone 5Z has stereo speakers that can get really loud, and also the phone supports High-Resolution audio via compatible wired and wireless headphones.

CONCLUSION

The Asus ZenFone 5Z looks better, has better cameras, has better battery life (and charges as fast as Dash Charge), is as fast and is also cheaper: in short, it's a OnePlus 6 killer. The ZenFone 5Z is the best phone that Asus has ever made and even though there's room for improvement here (mostly in software), the price at which Asus has launched its high-end flagship phone in India makes you sit back and appreciate all the other things that it brings to the table. And it brings a lot of things to the table.

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