The existence of smartphones for selfie still remains an attractive selling point in Indonesia. ASUS, though not the market leader in this segment, continues to take part in getting a portion of the selfie smartphone market share. After launching its phenomenal first Zenfone Selfie in 2015, they are now spawning the next generation with both the ASUS Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro & Zenfone 4 Selfie.
Why up to two? ASUS really likes it. Some variants of its products are similar but with different specifications made its own series. Both products are part of the Zenfone 4 ranks are quite a lot. In this article, we focus more on the Asus Zenfone Selfie 4 Pro series which is a flagship for the selfie.
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Design
We immediately fell in love to see the design of this phone with a red color that is so tempting. Actually, there are three color choices namely Deepsea Black, Sunlight Gold, and Rouge Red. However, it must be admitted that this red color that gives effect aka a strong allure. The color is so fitting, not flashy. There are both seductive and soothing effects. So overall, the design looks so beautiful.
When first grasping this smartphone, that feels is the impression of solid and premium. Both impressions are firmly attached to this device. This impression more noticeable after feeling, it turns out the smartphone also has a thin body with a thickness of only 6.85mm and light weight of 147 grams.
In the rear body, ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro is designed using an aluminum alloy with the concept of the unibody. Based on the information we get, to design this body design, ASUS uses Nano Molding Technology or NMT. That is a way to make the equivalent of aluminum alloy body and design used in the device, the more solid and have a good aesthetic value.
The use of aluminum alloy not only make it strong but also make the body light. The smartphone weighs 147 grams, is also very beautiful because it has a thin bezel with a screen to body ratio reaching 76.7 percent.
In general, ASUS has succeeded in designing a pretty slick phone design. There is no design breakthrough or follow the trend of the trendy Full View Display, but it is pretty unsightly and nice to hold. Oh yes, before moving to the bottom, you should watch our unboxing video for a while.
Display & User interface
As I mentioned above, ASUS body design is still conventional. There is no new breakthrough that makes it completely different. Or even follow the trend Full View Display as adopted some of the latest mobile phones. Use of Full View Display makes the screen look more leverage because it uses almost the entire surface.
While on ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro is still like a mobile phone in general. The screen is equipped with AMOLED screen with a brightness level of 500nits and Full HD resolution (1920 x 1080). The screen also uses a 2.5D concept and is coated with a Gorilla Glass protector.
In general, the quality is the same as other Full HD phones. Although still conventional, but with a thin bezel ratio 76.7% screen to the body, making it more effective where the body is not too large and remain thin. So it is still pleasing to the eye.
The display screen is reinforced with the freshest interface ZenUI 4.0 is still fresh. Compared to the previous version of UI, ZenUI 4.0 design looks cleaner with fresher icons and wallpapers. Apparently, ASUS has rid of 29 applications that are rarely used by the user. In order for more space left from the internal storage capacity that can be used. No wonder, it feels to be lighter.
ASUS does some updates related to this Interface user. Like the gallery with AI (artificial intelligence) approach in the form of facial recognition. So as to categorize the photos that have been detected as a family or friends into a special group that has been created by the previous user.
Next Page Marker for Chrome browser that can be used to mark the web page you want to save. Then Safeguard SOS is useful when in a bad state or emergency situation. When activating this feature, we can use SOS Call feature which automatically contacts emergency phone such as police and so on. The other feature will send a message of your location to a friend you’ve specified.
Camera
Selfie became the main selling point of ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro so that the front camera features more superior than the rear camera, seen two lenses that can be used for selfie and wefie. The first camera with a viewing angle of 83 degrees has a real resolution of 12MP but in its marketing language is called 24 MP. Because it brings DuoPixel technology that allows the image resolution can be increased twice with equivalent quality. While the other camera with a resolution of 120 degrees wide angle only has a 5MP resolution.
ASUS Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro’s main self-contained camera on the left has a f / 1.8 lens diaphragm and Sony IMX362 sensor with 1 / 2.55 “lens size and 1.4μm pixel size for a better 2x light sensitivity level.As ASUS also developed SuperPixel Engine technology that controls light sensitivity sensors with clever and reduced image noise, resulting in quality HDR photos, including in low light conditions.
While the wide angle lens that can shoot with the Field of View (FoV) 120 degrees is located on the right. The lens allows users to shoot as well as record video with a wider frame.
When about to take a photo of the selfie in wide use of portrait mode, the maximum resolution allowed is 5MP. This mode is fairly unique and rarely found on smartphones that rely on other front cameras. But actually it would be better if the resolution is also 12MP so that the results of the photo selfie wide angle will be more leverage.
One more interesting thing, the front camera capable of recording 4K UHD resolution video (3840 x 2160). The higher resolution allows the viewing experience to be more real, more detailed and sharp. Although the upload and the creation of the video must take longer. When recording a selfie video, the EIS (Electronic Image Stabilizer) discards all incoming vibrations so that the video output becomes very stable. Although ideally using OIS (Optical Image Stabilizer), but still slightly better than nothing.
To capture bokeh photos with an opaque background, we can use Portrait mode on both front and rear cameras. When combined with Beautification mode that improves the quality of the face, the results will be even better.
Beautification Mode will intelligently improve the quality of the user’s face (read: beautify) with effects such as makeup polish including smoothing the skin and also skin color bleach. Not only the effect of blush on and color improvement, eye modification even cheeks are also available. Facial beauty effects can also be set in several levels and can be viewed in real-time before being photographed and then the results are stored as a personal documentation.
Although in this series Asus focuses focus on the front camera for selfie needs, the quality of the rear camera is also quite good. At the back, there is a 16MP resolution camera lens that is prepared to accompany photography activity of its users.
Some of the capabilities of the rear camera include a fast autofocus system (0.03 seconds) using PDAF (Phase Detection Autofocus Technology) System technology, an electronic video retrieval stabilization system called Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS) for Full HD shooting. Interestingly, the rear camera is also capable of taking video up to 4K resolution and capture images with the RAW mode.
Photos Results ASUS Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro
Selfie (front camera)
Rear Camera (indoor)
Rear Camera (outdoor)
Full Photo Gallery
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Connectivity
ASUS Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro is equipped with a complete connectivity. This phone uses SIM Card Dual SIM type Nano where both can be active simultaneously. One of the slots is a hybrid that can be replaced with a micro SD. In our opinion, with 64GB capacity is sufficient so do not need micro SD again. Even if it takes additional capacity, more comfortable using cloud services.
LTE 4G connectivity has become mandatory where the phone supports Cat LTE which in theory can upload data at speeds up to 50 Mbps and download data up to 150 Mbps. Of course, this depends on the mobile carrier network. This phone supports FDD-LTE frequencies (Bands 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20)
TD-LTE (Band 40) which means most of the 4G LTE card from the mobile operator can be used here.
Unfortunately, there are two points in terms of this connectivity which we think is a minus from ASUS Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro. It still has not adopted the latest USB Type C which makes the process of transferring data between devices and the contents of power using the cable becomes faster. This phone is still with the old micro USB 2.0 port model. Whereas most recent smartphones have adopted Type C.
In addition, ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro also still lacks NFC where its current feature is quite important especially for people living in large urban areas. For the context in Jakarta, the main purpose of NFC is to make it easy for us to top-up and check the balance of e-money cards.
Performance
Before discussing further, we discuss some of the main technical specifications of the ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro ZD552KL. This Smartphone has the innards of the engine, among others, CPU Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 Octa SoC core (8x ARM Cortex A53), Qualcomm Adreno 506 GPU, 4GB RAM, 64GB storage, Full HD resolution screen, Android 7.1.1 operating system lined by user interface or ZenUI 4.0 interface system.
In terms of performance, after using this phone within a week, the performance of ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro ZD552KL smart enough to run the latest applications, graphics, and games. The ability of the processor while working, either in single-core or multi-core mode is quite capable.
Editing video recordings of Asus Zenfone Selfie 4 Pro camera directly on the device using the application FilmoraGo or Kinemaster no problem. We are very satisfied with the performance given this smartphone.
Multitasking also feels very smooth. There are no obstacles when having to move from one application to another while the system is running. Technically, on paper, the processor speed is able to gain speed up to 2.20GHz and the performance feels rushed. In conclusion, there is nothing to worry about the performance of this smartphone.
Asus ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro Tech Specs
