Asus 8Z Review: Buy It If You're Done Using Big Phones

Asus 8Z Review: Design

The Asus 8Z is built like a premium smartphone with a glass sandwich design along with a metal frame. On top of that, you also get an IP68 rating for water and dust resistance. What's more interesting is the fact that the phone even has a 3.5mm headphone jack, which is something that we don't even see on regular-sized smartphones.

Coming to the design language, just like the iPhone 12 mini, the Asus 8Z is a plain-looking smartphone, and one could easily mistake it for a mid-range or even an entry-level smartphone. I would have liked to see a little more style and shimmer, which would have made the Asus 8Z look more premium and unique.

Asus 8Z Review: Display

The Asus 8Z has a 5.9-inch AMOLED display with FHD+ resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. The display can offer a peak brightness of 1100nits and it has a delta-E value of less than one, which makes this a color-accurate panel. With the Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protection, the phone screen is scratch and damage resistant to an extent.

There is a tiny punch hole on the top left corner, which is for the selfie camera. And the display does have a higher screen-to-body ratio along with an in-display fingerprint sensor. Again, the optical fingerprint sensor on the Asus 8Z isn't the fastest that we have tested. In fact, phones like the OnePlus Nord CE 2 5G has much faster in-display fingerprint sensors.

As the Asus 8Z has an OLED display, the phone offers a great contrast ratio and vibrant colors. However, as this is physically a small-sized phone, you won't be able to enjoy activities like either watching movies or even playing games. If you want a device mainly for content consumption, consider a phone with a bigger display.

Asus 8Z Review: Cameras

The Asus 8Z has a dual-camera setup at the back with a 64MP primary sensor with OIS and a 12MP ultra-wide angle lens. There is no gimmicky 2MP macro or depth sensor, and I really appreciate that. At the front, there is a 12MP selfie camera. Do note that, the ultra-wide angle camera also doubles as a macro camera with a 4cm focus distance.

In terms of features, the Asus 8Z offers everything that one expects from a flagship camera phone. The device supports 8K video recording, it has super slow-motion (720p 480fps) video recording support. The Asus 8Z even offers a pro video mode with more control over various aspects like ISO, shutter speed, EV, and white balance.

The primary 64MP camera does a good job of capturing highlights and details in normal day-light conditions. There is also a dedicated night mode, which will improve the picture quality in low-light situations. Do note that, the night mode is available for wide-angle and ultra-wide angle cameras.

Although these are not the best cameras on a phone they cost around Rs. 40,000, you can definitely take some great shots in most lighting conditions. The availability of OIS will also help you to capture more stable pictures and videos. Overall, the Asus 8Z has an above-average camera setup that won't disappoint most users.

This is an ultra-wide angle camera sample from the Asus 8Z. As one can clearly see, the pictures has a lot of details. However, it does lack the contrast and dynamic range that we have seen in the pictures captured on the primary camera.

Asus 8Z Review: Performance

The Asus 8Z is based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC, making it the most compact smartphone with this chipset. On top of that, the phone also offers LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 storage. Hence, on paper, the Asus 8Z is as powerful as the Asus ROG Phone 5.

On Geekbench 5, the device posted 1116 points on the single-core CPU test and 3246 points on the multi-core CPU test. Similarly, on the AnTuTu benchmark, the device scored 702472 points, and the phone got 9 degrees hotter while running the benchmark. Also check out our stress test of the Asus 8Z, which gives you more idea regarding the capabilities of this device.

The problem with the Asus 8Z is not the performance but the fact that the phone cannot sustain the performance for an extended period. Even while playing games like COD: Mobile, the phone would get excruciatingly hot so much so that I cannot even hold the smartphone in hand, especially the top half portion of the smartphone.

Asus 8Z Review: Software

At the time of launch, the Asus 8Z came with Android 11 OS. However, the company swiftly released the Android 12 update to the Asus 8Z. So, I have done most of my testing with the latest Android 12 OS. As the phone offers stock Android UI, it gets a new notification panel along with all the goodness of Android 12 OS.

The phone supports HD streaming on major OTT platforms like Netflix, Prime Video along with HDR playback on YouTube. Although there are a few pre-installed third-party apps, you can uninstall all of them with just a click of a button, again, offering a clean Android experience. On top of that, the Asus 8Z is also eligible for the Android 13 update, which makes it future-proof.

Asus 8Z Review: Battery Life

The Asus 8Z has a 4,000 mAh battery, which is a respectable capacity for a phone of this size. The phone also supports 30W of fast charging via the USB Type-C port. However, the phone does not support wireless charging. The phone takes around an hour to fully charge, and you can also use any USB-PD certified charger with the Asus 8Z.

When it comes to battery life, the phone offers around four to five hours of screen-on-time with moderate usage. Hence, you might have to refill the battery at the end of the working day to keep the phone going. If you are someone who plays a lot of games, then the battery will run out at a much faster rate.

Asus 8Z Review: Verdict

For its size, the Asus 8Z is one power-packed phone, capable of doing all the things and a little more than most of the flagships of 2021/2022. Due to its compact form factor, it is not a great device for content consumption, although it offers features like a stereo speaker setup and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

As we discussed in the performance segment, the phone can offer good performance. However, it fails to sustain that performance for an extended period. Hence, the phone can handle almost all the tasks and can even offer smooth gaming on titles like BGMI or COD: Mobile. However, the performance does get degraded in no time.

If you are in search of a compact smartphone that does offer the best possible hardware and runs on the Android operating system, then the Asus 8Z is the only device you can consider. Overall, the Asus 8Z is one phone that mimics the iPhone 12 mini in the Android world.