Asus had been on a roll last year with its mid-range Zenfone 2-series smartphones, which includes the Zenfone 2, Zenfone Selfie and the Zenfone 2 Laser . This year the company kick-started with a sub Rs 10,000 smartphone called Zenfone Max with 5,000mAh battery, followed by a camera centric...

T hey might have been claiming to match and even outdo ‘proper' cameras for a while now, but phone manufacturers know that even the most humble point and shooter in tech town has something that most phone cameras do not – the optical zoom.

Asus Zenfone Zoom is a real pleasure for people looking a device that can suffice their shooting needs, without compromising on performance. It doesn't only look rich also having the 3X optical zoom capability, huge 128 GB storage capacity, 4 GM RAM and Intel Atom processor, this smartphone can...

Premium device with rich look and feel; dedicated camera buttons; great camera; turbo-speed charging

Average battery life; Older Android 5.0

Article Contents 1 The Good 2 The Not So Good 3 Specs 4 Design and Hardware 4.1 Display 4.2 Camera 5 Performance 5.1 Software 6 Conclusion It wasn't long ago that ASUS, while beloved by many on the desktop computing scene, was hardly a player when it came to smartphones.

Camera The Zoom mostly delivers on its promise of a top-notch camera; Battery life The 3000mAh battery is good-not-great in terms of raw capacity; but OS optimizations make charging an every other day activity; Performance The 64-bit Intel SoC with 4GB of RAM does not disappoint in daily use,...

Display It's big; it looks nice and gets brighter than cheaper ZenFone variants; but we're rapidly approaching a point where 1080p on 5.5" canvas is budget quality; Faux Cheap leather I'm not a fan of plastic; but I'd prefer the high-quality plastics of other ZenFone models to the...

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.

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?

We want to reward daring design. We want to celebrate when companies take risks. The ZenFone Zoom is an incredible feat of camera design, but the crown jewel feature of this phone in many ways compromises the camera that the zoom lens is supposed to enhance.

+Practical build quality with premium materials; +Camera-centric ergonomics; +Innovative camera zoom design

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.

The Asus ZenFone Zoom is the first phone with an optical zoom lens that doesn't protrude out of the phone, a mighty impressive accomplishment. But don't start tossing money at Asus just yet.

Asus' ZenFone Zoom breaks new ground with a built-in optical zoom camera that doesn't stick out or appear to move; Photos taken are generally great, but worse in low light

The phone software peppers you with ads by default; Camera performance feels sluggish