Asus ZenFone 4 Hands-On And First Look: A Surprisingly Honest Price Tag Smartphone

By Anuj Bhatia

| Updated: Monday, July 14, 2014, 13:01 [IST]

Rating:

4.0/5

More Gallery »

PROS

Decent Processor
Dual-SIM connectivity
Elegant Design
Affordable Price

CONS

Poor Display
Underwhelming camera

<div class="clear"></div><div class="review-content-navigation"><div class="review-content-pag"><select class="review-content-pagination-selbox" name="reviewSelect" id="reviewSelect" onchange="if (this.value) window.location.href=this.value" ><option value="/mobile/asus-zenfone-4-hands-on-and-first-look-a-surprisingly-honest-price-tag-smartphone-018248.html" selected="selected">Form Factor & Operating System</option><option value="/mobile/asus-zenfone-4-hands-on-and-first-look-a-surprisingly-honest-price-tag-smartphone-2-018249.html">Processor & Benchmark</option><option value="/mobile/asus-zenfone-4-hands-on-and-first-look-a-surprisingly-honest-price-tag-smartphone-3-018250.html">Camera & Video</option><option value="/mobile/asus-zenfone-4-hands-on-and-first-look-a-surprisingly-honest-price-tag-smartphone-4-018251.html">Battery Life & Verdict</option></select></div></div>

India's handset market is having a good time, with more and more companies coming to test their luck in the world's fastest growing market place. For the last few months, there has been much speculation on when or if Asus will enter Indian handset market with its ZenFone smartphone line.

Back in April this year, GizBot had exclusively reported that Asus will finally launch their much publicized handsets in India sometime in July, and looks like they have finally introduced their new smart phone lineup in a big way.

Taiwanese giant, best known for the Google Nexus 7 tablet, has officially introduced three phones in the country - ZenFone 4, 5 and 6. While we've already posted our detailed first look article of the Asus ZenFone 5 - which comes at a refreshing price of Rs. 9,999.

These days almost all leading manufacturers have set their eyes on affordable segment. With the instant success of the Motorola Moto E in India, so it should not be a surprising thing to see that Asus is not looking to capture this very segment. After spending Asus press conference in New Delhi on July 9 we got to spend a brief time with the new low-end Android handset. Here is our quick take on the Asus ZenFone 4.

Asus ZenFone 4 - Form Factor, Design and Operating System

Asus' ZenFone 4 should be seen as an alternative to the Moto E and the Unite 2 in the sub Rs.7000 price bracket. It is cheapest of all three phones that Asus launched in the country. In terms of design, the ZenFone 4 looks absolutely identical to the ZenFone 5. Of course the affordable handset comes with a smaller 4-inch display.

For a budget device, the ZenFone 4 appears great, plus it comes in a variety of colors (Black, White, Red, Yellow and Blue). The ZenFone 4 is no different compared to popular phones in the same league. The new phone is made out of shiny polycarbonate plastic. Notably, we found the device a bit slippery which wasn't the case with the ZenFone 5. The dimensions of the ZenFone 4 are decent enough, measuring in at 124.4 x 61.4 x 11.2mm which means it's not exactly super thin but we think that it's way comfortable to hold, and on the plus side it only weighs in at 115g.That said, the ZenFone 4 is so far a solid looking device at a price point of Rs. 5,999.

The 4-inch (800 x 480) TFT display isn't a stellar screen we've seen on a budget device. Viewing angles were not so great and same cannot be said about colors. Again, it's far from being a perfect display used in a budget device.

The ZenFone 4 comes with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean with Asus' ZenUI slapped on top. For many the home baked ZenUI is notably new, and it will take some time to get used to the phone. Surprisingly, the UI is way easy to use than we'd have thought it to be. In our brief time spent with the device, we've hardly faced any hurdle while scrolling through apps and notification center. Asus has added tons of native apps to make the overall experience joyful.