Asus Zenfone 7 Pro Review: Triple Flip-Camera

Asus released the brand new Zenfone 7 and Zenfone 7 Pro series last week, and today we are ready to release our test of the company’s new “Mainstream” flagship device.

This year’s Zenfone 7 series, which includes the regular Zenfone 7 and Zenfone 7 Pro, is well received and sticks to the innovative flip-camera design, enhancing its specification by adding an additional camera module. With a significant change from the LCD screen to the new 90 Hz AMOLED display, we also saw major specification improvements to the phone with the adoption of Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 865 and 865+ chipsets.

This year, the company is releasing two variants of the phone – beyond the high tram and storage configurations, featuring high-end SoC on the high-end model, and distinguishing the camera settings by using OIS exclusively – which is an interesting way to segment things.

Starting from the phone’s earphones, the Zenfone 7 and 7 Pro use Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 865 SoC devices, thanks to the X55 modem. Asus here uses the new high-performance Snapdragon 865+ on the 7 Pro model, which brings 10% higher CPU and GPU performance, thanks to the increased frequencies of these IP modules.

The differences between the regular Zenfone 7 and 7 Pro lie in the DRAM and NAND storage field. The regular variant comes with 6GB of LPPDR5 and 128GB of UFS 3.1 storage, while the Pro gets 8 and 256GB respectively.

Unlike other phones on the market right now, the Zenfone 7’s selling point and distinguishing factor is that it uses a fullscreen display without any climax or camera cut-out, enabling a seamless screen experience without distractions.

A big improvement this year compared to last year’s model is the transition from an LCD to an LED screen, which makes this year’s model more attractive to users. The 6.67 ”screen has a 20: 9 aspect ratio of 2400 x 1080 resolution and a 90 Hz upgrade rate.

While the 90Hz is not the highest in the 2020 lineup, it is still a big improvement over other 60Hz phones and the Asus 200Hz model touch controller can be used, which has a huge impact on fluidity and responsiveness when interacting with your phone.

The back of the phone has a glass back-panel that comes in “Pastel White” (pictured) or “Aurora Black” color variation. The phone does not have wireless charging.

It should be noted that this is the largest phone based on footprint with the iPhone 11 Pro Max and Galaxy S20 Ultra, which is slightly larger and chunky than the Zenfone 6. This is something Asus seriously agrees with as it is a deliberate design choice that will fit in more components and larger batteries, as well as run the various antennas required by the 5G connection.

The camera system now consists of three modules. As the main main camera, we find a 64MP IMX686 sensor with 0.8µm pixels, which by default is 16MP thanks to its quad-bay color filter layout. The optics have a large f / 1.7 aperture.

The 12MP IMX363 on the ultra-wide-angle ROG phone III adopts the same layout as the 1.4µm pixels and dual-pixel grid focusing capability. Optics has an aperture of f / 2.2 with an angle of 113 ° wide. Unusually, it has auto-focus capability, which means that this module can perform dual duty as a macro module because it enables very close focus capabilities.

New to the system is the 8MP telephoto module, which offers 3x optical zoom, which can be digitally sculpted thanks to the multi-frame interpolation and can be zoomed up to 12x zoom for use in the camera application. The optics here have an f / 2.4 aperture.

The main camera and telephoto module in the Zenfone 7 Pro have OIS in their modules, while the regular Zenfone 7 does not have this. We ‘ve never seen a segment like this by a seller, but it’s one of the cost – cutting measures that Asus has decided on for the cheaper model.

The flip-camera is externally familiar with what we saw on the Zenfone 6, however Asus has greatly improved the internal mechanism of the new generation module. The new module uses a new motor that is 40% smaller but has a torque of 2.2x than its predecessors.

Asus has also replaced the complex 49 signal and power cables that connect different camera modules to the phone’s mainboard, ensuring that the total signal traces are doubled even though the new 18-layer flexible printed circuit cable has increased to 110. Publications. Asus claims that 200000 flips is enough, which is 100 flips a day for more than 5 years.

I’m never been happy to join hands with the Zenfone 6, but the camera mechanism in the 7 series feels very solid and robust.

A new feature for the flip-screen is the ability to position itself at intermediate angles from the camera app, which gives you different capture angles, which is basically impossible on any other phone on the market.

Beyond your usual fully flipped 180 setting the cameras can function as high quality frontal selfie games, with the module set at 90 ° or 135. The phone’s panorama capture feature uses the flip module to clear the terrain while holding the phone steady.

The phone is quite thick at 9.6mm, but this is mostly due to the 5000mAh battery, which lifts the device to a weight of 230g.

Asus has dropped the 3.5mm headphone jack for this generation. Their basis for this change is that due to the internal trajectory required for 5G antennas, they decided to remove Palau so that it could be stored in space.

One thing that is unique about the bottom of the phone is that it has an LED notification light on the left side of the USB-C port. Asus said here that they would have to remove it from the front of the screen due to the reduced bezel size, but did not want to drop the light entirely, so they shifted it to the bottom of the phone. This is actually a very effective and more powerful way to handle things than always on display, so I appreciate this description.

A long SIM tray on the left side of the phone can hold two Nano SIMs and a microSD card at the same time.

To the right is a traditional volume rocker, as well as a three-stroke power button. Asus has opted for a capacitive fingerprint scanner from Goodix integrated with the power button – one of the cost-cutting measures that will allow Zenfone to hit a lower price point. Beyond the traditional single-press power button function, double-pressing the button invites Google Assistant, and you can customize or disable this function.