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00:00Asus just announced their new Zenfone 6, and before you close this window just because I said the word Zenfone, I get it.
00:10They've been making bad phones for years. Their very first Zenfone was okay.
00:14The second phone was also pretty good for the money, but the software has been terrible.
00:19For the past four years, ever since Zenfone 2 to Zenfone 5, they've just had good hardware with terrible software.
00:28Just filled with bloatware to the point where I, as a reviewer, just stopped reviewing their phones.
00:32They sent them every year, and I was just like, this isn't worth showing my audience
00:36because I would never openly recommend those older Zenphones solely for their software issues.
00:41Zenfone 6 changed all of that. Now, I don't know what it is, something at their company,
00:45something with their, I guess, decision-making process for how they wanted to market these phones.
00:50They don't have any bloatware on this phone. When you look at the installed apps, they have one thing,
00:56they have the MyASUS app, and everything else is just stock Google or maybe this weather app.
01:01But basically, everything on here is super clean. If you look at this in comparison to their old stuff,
01:06they were just stuffed with crap, and I think they've realized that filling your phones with useless apps
01:10that no one uses and having these really terrible names does not make them sell well.
01:14So, Zenfone 6, very clean UI, and it's finally fitting of that Zen UI name.
01:19The menus, the interface, the whole phone feels so much cleaner, and I think they finally made a phone
01:24that was worthy of being in this competitive space in that kind of $500 smartphone market.
01:29Okay, so for that money, that, I think they're trying to hit $500, I don't know the official pricing yet,
01:34but I've been told it's gonna be around $500. For that money, you get hardware features that are really solid.
01:40You get a Snapdragon 855, you get 6 gigs of RAM, there's 64 gigs of storage for the price,
01:45but it's expandable, you can pop out the SIM tray, you'll get a microSD in there.
01:49You also get a headphone jack, which is something that I think a lot of people want back in 2019.
01:53You also get stereo speakers, I mean the hardware on this thing overall is very solid.
01:58There's a Google Assistant button on the right, and in the software you can control it to be like a double tap
02:03or press and hold, so you have a couple options with that.
02:06The battery in here is also quite big, it's a 5000 mAh battery.
02:09It doesn't support crazy fast charging, it only goes up to 19 watts for the charger,
02:13which is reasonably fast, but it's not as fast as like some of the big boys out there.
02:17It is a giant battery though, I cannot stress like, this is a comfortable 2-day battery for the average user.
02:22If you use it more heavily, you'll get like a day and a half, but I think for a lot of people
02:26they'll actually be able to hit the advertised 2-day battery, because it's not a particularly demanding screen.
02:31Now this screen is basically all screen, it's got a 92% screen-to-body ratio,
02:36and it is really what makes the design aesthetic of this phone more unique.
02:40For 2019, a lot of phones still have notches and punch-outs and stuff like this.
02:44This is a completely obstruction-free display, and right now there are not many phones
02:48that have a clean software experience with this type of display,
02:51as well as a $500 price tag, or $500-ish price tag.
02:56Now, there's one thing I don't like about this screen, and it's an LCD panel.
02:59So I've been staring at a lot of OLED screens over the past year,
03:02so when I switched over to this, it is noticeably a inferior screen.
03:06It's not a terrible screen, LCD panels still look fine,
03:09but they just don't have that contrast and pop that I've grown to like on OLED panels.
03:14It's 1080p, it's bright, and the size is really nice for my hand.
03:17I don't have huge hands, so when I use larger phones, like compared to the OnePlus 7 Pro,
03:22this is a very nice-looking screen, but it's a large phone.
03:26And when I pick up this, it's just, it fits my hand better.
03:29It is, unfortunately, an LCD panel, but I do like the size better.
03:32It's also a flat screen. I've mentioned this in a lot of videos,
03:35but I like that flat edge compared to the curved edge on a lot of other panels.
03:40Now, as much as I wish they'd gone with an OLED panel for this device,
03:43I think that if they did, this thing would be jacked up in price by like $100.
03:46So, I feel like it's good that they didn't, because they were able to hit this kind of price point.
03:51Okay, the reason why they did this screen, I'm sure as you've figured out by now, was for this camera.
03:57If you've seen the presentation for this device, you'll recognize that this camera is a flip camera.
04:02And I'll just activate it real quick here.
04:05When you take a selfie, you press the selfie button, and the camera flips up, like so.
04:11I have mixed feelings about this camera system.
04:13I've only been using it for a couple days, so I can't really comment too much about the image quality and stuff.
04:17I took a few pictures. It seems, honestly, on par with something like a OnePlus phone.
04:21The processing isn't ideal for my eyes, but some people might like it.
04:26But the camera system itself is, on one hand, innovative.
04:29Like, it's kind of cool they're able to use the same camera for the rear-facing.
04:33It just pops up, and now that rear-facing camera has become your selfie camera.
04:38So, it's innovative, right? I get it. It's cool.
04:41But it seems like a really short-sighted way to achieve this design aesthetic.
04:45Not that the engineering is poor. It's well-made. It seems like there's nothing that's physically wrong with the device.
04:50But, I just can't help but think that a moving part like this isn't the way moving forward.
04:56There's a little bit of lag on the flip. Like, it takes maybe one and a half, two seconds to make it pop up.
05:01So, when you switch it to selfie mode, it does take some time to pop up.
05:04And there's also the issue with face unlock. Like, if you do want to use face unlock on a phone like this,
05:08you gotta wait for it to flip up, recognize, and then flip back down.
05:12You also have granular control to the angle of that camera that flips out.
05:15So, using the screen control, you can make it go up and down to the angle that you want.
05:20You do get some cool features with this flip camera, like having a really wide-angle selfie,
05:24and having an automatic panorama mode.
05:26And you also have this tracking feature, which moves the camera around while you're moving around.
05:31It's kind of neat, but at the same time, it feels a little gimmicky to me.
05:34Not that it's bad, it's just that I would personally not use it.
05:37And I feel like most people purchasing these phones would find those features kind of neat, but not all that useful.
05:43But, the reason why they even have this camera is because of the screen.
05:46And the screen, with its notchless and punch-hole-less aesthetic, looks really good for the price.
05:52Zen phones have never been expensive phones.
05:54They usually have good hardware with good pricing, and then they ruin all of that with terrible software.
05:59And finally this year, they have very good software for these phones.
06:02They actually have a very compelling product for the market.
06:05Now, if you're interested in something like this, like in that $500 price range,
06:09you're probably looking at stuff like the Pixel 3 XL, like the 3A XL.
06:14You're probably also looking at the OnePlus 6T from last year.
06:17And, well, not the OnePlus 7 Pro. This is a lot more expensive.
06:20But, I think the Zenfone 6 this year is offering something that is pretty unique.
06:26You don't have that nice combination from many other devices of good software, a $500 phone with a clean aesthetic on the screen.
06:33It's actually relatively unique, and I think for the people that are looking for a device like this,
06:38especially one with a headphone jack and a big battery, this is actually a pretty cool option.
06:42Now, I like what Asus has done here.
06:44I feel like it was difficult for them to dump their old UI and make something completely new like this.
06:49Like, this is not something you would expect from Asus.
06:53But, I'm glad they did it because they finally have something that's competitive in today's smartphone market.