ASUS Zenfone Selfie Review

We recently gave you a hands-on look at ASUS‘s camera-centric handset, the Zenfone Selfie. It packs a 13-megapixel camera for both its rear and front shooters that are coupled with two-tone, dual LED flashes in addition to an array of software features to produce high-quality images. Will it perform well on its specializations? We find out.

Design and Construction

Since it also belongs to the popular Zenfone family, the physique is almost identical to the Zenfone 2 with the button placements up top and at the back. The screen is also one of the things that remained constant, with a 5.5-inch Full HD IPS display reinforced with Corning’s Gorilla Glass 4.

Obviously targeting the younger crowd, the Zenfone Selfie takes a more vibrant approach with bright colors in pink, blue and green. The back cover has a smooth matte finish that’s almost similar with the ZE550ML variant we reviewed back in April. We would have preferred the diamond-cut back cover as this matte, rubbery finish is a fingerprint and smudge magnet.

The ASUS Zenfone Selfie takes the term selfie to the center of the picture — that is, a 13-megapixel front-facing camera to take that perfect selfie. To be clear though, ASUS is not the first one to do such a feat. There have been others before it, most notably the HTC Desire EYE which also has a 13.1MP front-facing camera, f2.2 aperture and dual LED, dual-tone flash.

What the company added to its front camera is the 88-degree wide angle lens that could fit more people into the shot and take a better group selfie. The dual-tone, dual LED flash along with the earpiece speaker flanks the camera lens right up in the center.

The trio of non-illuminating capacitive buttons (Back, Home, Recent Apps) also make their appearance here, right above the company’s signature concentric-circle design for the bottom panel.

Turning it around, we have the same 13MP rear camera with dual-tone flash. What makes it different from its front shooter is the implementation of a laser auto-focus similar to what LG G4 is using to quickly focus on subjects while shooting.

Also seen here is the volume rocker that doubles as a shutter button to make things easier when taking a seflie.

Up top there’s the power and lock button right beside the 3.5mm audio jack for connecting headphones.

While down below we have the microUSB port for charging and transferring files. From this angle we can also see the handset’s convex form factor when lying on its face — a common sight for Zenfones.

Removing the plastic back cover, you will be greeted with its removable battery, dual SIM card trays, and a microSD slot for memory expansion. This also reveals the speaker which, just like other Zenfones, is just placed in one side and is in no way a long grille like the holes on the back cover suggest.

Spotting it from the side we can see that the Selfie doesn’t really boast of a thin form factor. Instead, it possesses a somewhat chunky build, but doesn’t affect its handling significantly.

Finally, it also has curved corners that make it easier to hold as it sits comfortably on the hand.