We don't yet know whether the Zenfone Zoom is destined for the UK, but the continued dialogue Asus strikes up with such a standout device makes us think that it wants to be considered a serious player in the space of high-end camera phones, much like Microsoft's top Lumias and to a degree, rivals...

Impressive camera; Massive internal storage

Samsung's K Zoom, Oppo's N1 and Lenono's Vibe Shot are some of the more recent attempts to provide better user experience and improved image quality. With so many choices out there now, can Asus' newly launched ZenFone Zoom do any better?

The ASUS ZenFone Zoom is an Android smartphone that comes with a camera that's capable of 3x optical zoom. Check out how it fares when it comes to figurine photography!

I cringe every time I watch someone pinch-to-zoom on their smartphone's screen right before snapping a photo. The seemingly simple act of zooming in on an object, despite what the screen on the phone displays at the time, almost guarantees the end result will be a pixelated, garbled mess of a photo.

True to its name, the Zenfone Zoom lives up to the name of being an optical zoom camera smartphone. The zoom works very well and is definitely the best innovation so far from ASUS. But having said that the area where Zenfone Zoom fails to impress is the pricing.

At a glance, you may assume the phone we're testing here is one you've seen before -- a Nokia clone perhaps? Despite having a similar circular camera fixture on the handset's back side, suggesting a strong focus on photography, this is actually a newly released phone produced by ASUS.

There have been huge advancements in the lens technology found in today's smartphones, but it's still commonly the low point of the experience. The Asus ZenFone Zoom hopes to reverse that trend.

Your phone has been lying to you. Every time you zoom in to catch that perfect shot of that expensive hamburger, you're not actually zooming in. The software in your phone is really just cropping the image and blowing it up like Patricia Arquette in CSI: Cyber.

The Asus Zenfone Zoom may have an optical zoom camera, but the image quality isn't worth Rs. 37,999. It's basically a Zenfone 2 with optical zoom, which doesn't make sense at this price range.

Good performance; Good display

Sub-par camera image quality; Sub-par battery life

The Asus ZenFone Zoom has a premium price tag of Rs 37,999 which is may not go well with a lot of people as having an optical zoom is not a necessity in the phone. It terms of experimentation, Asus has done a decent job with ZenFone Zoom but there are miles to cover before they stop.

Camera; Overall design

Battery; Single SIM