As expected Asus has launched the Zenfone series in India. We just saw the Zenfone 4 listed on Flipkart for Rs. 6,999 and now the Zenfone 5 and 6 has been released. These Intel powered handsets are priced at under Rs. 18,000 and will be available soon on flipkart.
These handsets come with a completely different hardware they are using Intel Atom chipset. The Asus Zenfone 5 houses the Intel Dual core Atom Z2580 processor clocked at 2GHz. It runs on Android 4.3 (plus upgradable to Android 4.4). Screen is 5 inches with corning gorilla glass 3 protection and supporting resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels.
There is 1GB RAM, optional 8/16 GB storage and 64GB external card support. The handset comes with 2MP front camera and 8MP rear camera with flash. Weight is 145 grams and is 10.3mm thick. Key highlights are 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS (GLONASS) and Bluetooth. Battery is 2110 mAh and the Asus Zenfone 5 price is Rs. 9,999 for 8GB and approx Rs. 10,999 for 16GB version. (MRP is higher).
The Asus Zenfone 6 comes powered by Intel dual core ATOM Z2580 processor coupled with PowerVR SGX 544 MP2 GPU. It is a dual SIM handset running Jelly Bean 4.3 (upgradeable to KitKat) over a 6 inch screen with 1280 x 720 pixels resolution.
There is 2GB RAM, 16GB storage and 64GB external card support. 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth are supported. Also included is a 13MP rear AF camera with LED flash and 2MP front camera. The smartphone comes with 3300 mAh battery. Zenfone 6 weight is 196 grams and is about 9.9mm thick. It is priced at Rs. 16,999.
Update:
The Zenfone 5 and Zenfone 6 are now listed on flipkart. The Zenfone 5 is with 1.6GHz Atom Z2520 dual core processor with 16GB Storage and 2GB RAM. It is priced at Rs. 12,999.
The Zenfone 6 on the other hand is with the same 1.6GHz Z2520 dual core Intel Atom processor with 2GB RAM and 16GB storage. It is priced at Rs. 16,999.
dear gogi,
I need asus zenfone 6 with 2ghz processor.where can I get it?????
I am using reliance 3G sim with asus zenfone 5 bt i m getting only 20-30kbps speed .Checked the APN setting well n good even i m getting H sign but speed is still very low .any idea where the problem is ??
mobile or reliance sim compatibility??
“Dear Customer, We have registered your request. Your phone as modem will be activated shortly.”
after getting this msg from reliance your prob will be solved automatically… this msg will be received automatically…
For Audio and Video file download VLC player. So audio problem solved.
Please post your video review for this phone(asus zenfone 5). I’m waiting for your review..!
Yes, I am working on it.
How to update asus zenfone 5 update kitkat (4.4) ?
My friend need a phone Asus Zenfone 5 A501CG or Huawei Honor 3C ??
Requirements:
Large Display
average battery, camera
normal usage
temple run level gaming
otg not needed
latest os
Shijil, I ordered the Zenfone 5 for the review, I might get it before friday, review coming soon.
how to connect with internet on zenfone 5
I am using asus zenfone 5 from last 2 weeks. My phone heat up while using suppose if play subway surfer for 12 mins battery drained upto 98% to 92% and temperature 34′ c to 41’c. Is this normal or bad?
When playing games the handset will heat up, up to 48 degree is okay, and better take break for 5 minutes to let the handset cool down.
Thanks for that i will do that.
That’s mean it is normal heated up .
Please tell me what will be the minimum battery backup time a 2100 mh battery give.
review asus zenfone 6 also
Asus Zenfone 5 A501CG (White, with 8 GB) AVAILABLE Rs. 9999
on http://www.flipkart.com/
I have gathered foll 3 CONS on asus 1. poor speaker volume for ringtone, 2. Bad battery backup 5- 10 hrs only, service quality is unknown/ untested. I like the asus brand name and the intel CPU but that’s about it, nothing special on zenfone 5 or 6. avoid for now.
hi gogi, had recently got the asus zen4fone, and found the following issues:
1. the mobile gets warmer [during sim inserted under 2g calls and without sim, but with wifi, hang out chats]
2. the led blinks when pressing the on/off button when the screen is blank , also when the phone is off
3. during [without sim and wifi ON], hangout video chat initially before chat start, the front cam image is blurred and after that its okie]
4. during calls i get echo [but when the same sim is inserted into my samsung its not echoed]
is the above is weird? or okie with ASUS Zen4fone
Kindly address, so i can get it replaced because its below 1 week
Thanks
Which operator is compatible for zenfone 5 on 3g, aircel is not compatible.
I had same problem and the solution is you have to take manual setting from customer care of aircel, don’t worry.
Pls help me wid d aircel apn setting.
Aircel is f no help..Been asking ther desk since two weeks.
H speed is only 300kbps/s.Pls help,if u hv this issue solved.
Gogi sir plz make a review for asus zenfone 5.. eagerly waiting for your review
I don’t have the review unit I have asked Asus, no reply yet.
Gogi, A friend of mine who is into fabrication works asked me to suggest a dual Sim phone that has a good camera. I feel like suggesting Asus zenfone 5. Would you recommend this or some other model? His budget is in the range of 10k to 20k.
I have not yet done a review of Zenfone 5, I am not sure how the camera will be, and specially when your friend is looking for a good camera.
Should I recommend idol x plus from Alcatel?
That would be the best if the person can afford.
Thank you Gogi, guess I will do that. I just tried asus zenfone 5 a friend has and I am not very sure I liked its low light photography. I got my mi3 delivered in cochin today evening and its low light photography is much better than I expected.
Thanks
Lijoe
I liked ASUS ZENFONE 6 as per my requirement. Plz help me Gogi – Whether its right decision Or I look for other ?
Dear Gogi, I am bit confused between Moto G and asus zenfone 5. Please suggest which would be better in performance wise and battery backup, I would like to purchase any one of them.
It seems zenfone is not best for 3g net users, who used every day 5/6 hours continuous, in view of all comments of users.
Can applications be installed on external drive?
Yes you can….
I think You Have got the wrong Specs For Zenfones. On Flipkart it is mentioned that Zenfone 5 & 6 are powered by Intel Atom Z2560 at & Zenfone 4 is powered by Intel Atom Z2520. I think you should have a look at update section where its is mentioned wrong.
The post is too old now and the time I did the article much of the specs have changed on the flipkart site. You can go through the comments.
Update list of best phones. Any comment about zenfones and xiaomi phones?
How is incoming ring sound. What quality of loudspeaker sounds, battery performance on 3g net lasts 5/6 hours or not; in a day, can any user clarify.
Incoming ring sound is not loud. It is audible enough indoors, but certainly not in traffic! But quality is ok not like cheap phones. Everything else is working fine, and in fact good enough, but the major let down is the battery, 🙁 It will not last for 6 hours on 3G. I am presently using it on a single 3G SIM, and it lasts for 3-4 hours if mobile data is turned on (at minimum brightness). On using wifi, and playing games, one can actually see how fast the battery is draining! It is sad that one can not enjoy the performance of this beautiful phone due to the pathetic battery.
Rahul, are you using 3G continuously? if yes then it is normal. but say if you have 3G enabled and occasionally check the mail then it should last longer.
Thanks for your reply Gogi. I am not using 3G continuously, Just surfing intermittently. Anyways here is another result: Consider this situation, 3G data off, no wifi, no GPS, brightness minimum, no apps, single sim, and I am just looking at the battery usage graph in this case, I can see the battery drop by 1% for every 6minutes! Is this normal for a 5 inch device? Gogi, can you pls do a similar test on any of your phones, so that we can compare, and get to know whether the battery is really bad?
Rahul in 6 minutes if there is 1% drop with minimal activity that comes to approx 10 hours which is not good. I think some issue with the battery, did you try using the phone as long as it auto shuts off, if not try that. Cause at times there is battery calibration issue, you will find the drop is faster at higher % and at lower % it will look at the % has just stuck.
If you still have an issue I guess you need to ask for a replacement. As per what you have mentioned, battery backup on your phone is below average.
Rahul please update your phone. They released second update for asus zf 5. Me too faced same problem like you. But after updating the battery problem is solved. I played games for 20 minutes, few calls, wifi and mobile data is on, installed 6 applications. After 4 hours battery % is 61 to 54 only.
Thanks Sudharshan, I have installed the 2nd update (around 30MB).. Here are the current battery usage numbers:
FHD Videos 20min – 5% drop, temp: 36.2
Benchmarks 18min – 7% drop, temp: 38.9
Gaming 7min – 4% drop, temp: 39.8
checking Email on 3G for 6min – 2%, temp: 37.1
All the above are with full brightness.
I have also compared the numbers with Micromax Colors handset and the battery performance is almost similar. So I guess the battery in my particular handset is not abnormal, although the battery performance for zenfone 5 in general is no doubt slightly below average. Let us see if they improve with more battery cycles and future updates, Rakesh and Sudharshan, can you confirm these with your phones?
Gogi what do you say about these numbers. I know its not enough data, will come up with more numbers later.
Thanks Rahul, looks good 3 to 6 hours depending on usage, gaming estimate is up to 3 hours.
Having same issue wit my asus z5, battery is not up to mark 🙁
For me using wifi and light games. It end up to 1 day.
Yeah for me too, playing games for 2 hours (Subway Surfer, Temple Run , Traffic Racer), wifi for 4 hours, 3G SIM, and 3G data for an hour. It lasted for 14 hours. Rakesh, did u get the flip cover from flipkart? Its always out of stock. I had prebooked the phone and wanted to make use of the 50% off offer, but its always out of stock! 🙁
Gogi Plz review the ZENFONE 5 as soon as possible. I went at many different site but got no one to give detailed or helpful as yours. I’m talking about details like move to sd is present or not AND available ram and all necessary stuff to justify our need. So Plz Review It.
Bro I bought yesterday, very good exp. You can send apps to sd card which is extendable to 64gb. Ram is 2gb but free available is up to 1.14gb ram.
Hi Rakesh, I just got the phone today evening! It is good and everything is working fine. But I am not able to connect to 3G using my Reliance SIM. I tried Vodafone too. But it doesn’t connect. Did you get to use 3G? If yes, which provider? I tried entering the APN settings manually, which I copied from my previous phone. But still it did not connect. Gogi, any ideas?
Bro, can you test the gps in the fone and let us know it’s performance?
Anesh, I tested the GPS, it works but it is not commendable. The first lock was in 1 min and 6 seconds and the future locks were in 6-7 seconds. This was outside, in open but inside I could not get a lock. However with my previous phone I got the first lock in 20 sec and the future locks in <5 seconds. And it also got locked while being inside in 10 seconds. So GPS does work, but not that good.
Thanks Rahul. I guess this is better than Mediatek chips housed in Micromax coz they are pathetic and takes more than 3mins on average for the lock.
Well, I do not know much about Micromax, but my old Samsung phone was too good in getting a lock!
I am using gps inside using wifi I am getting lock within 3.4 second.
I am using airtel, ask customer care for setting.
Thanks Rakesh, I had finally got it working using the settings from my old phone. Its working fine. And the GPS locks it fine and faster if done along with wifi on.
Can anyone please confirm if the soft keys are backlit or not? Urgent. I wanna order zenfone 5, only this issue is stopping me.
No they are not… 🙁
No they are not back-lit, but don’t stop for that after you will regret for it. You will get used in future don’t worry go for it.
Oh come on Gogi at least tell us why you are not reviewing it.
Simple reason I have not yet got the review unit, also I do allocate a small budget to buy handset in case I do not get the review unit. But that is only for models that I think will be worth it. Zenfone 5 is good but I guess the allocation is now set for Mi3.
Thank you for your response Gogi. I hope you will get the review unit soon, and also before xiaomi mi3 bcz it will launch at 22nd July, and also for xiaomi mi3 a beast in performance, but to me here brand matters. I also want a phone with such a big performer SoC but price comes huge and when its available at 15k not getting brand. I think if xiaomi able to get service center increase in future it will be the best selling phones, but for now I can only afford 10K for zenfone 5 scoring 19.5K on AnTuTu which is very good.
I ordered for zenfone 5 at 9999/-
Me too bro which color?
Can you comment on the performance of its gps as compared to Samsung phones? I went to a nearby Asus store and tried Google maps. It did not lock the position even in open skies.. Somehow I felt that it does not have a very good GPS CHIP..
Anesh gps is fine, right now I again checked it got lock in 4sec. May internet problem only mine is wifi. Try using wifi or 3g.
I bought the phone last week and the GPS performance is really very poor. I was able to get a lock on my Samsung phone in 5-10 seconds and Zenfone could not get a lock even after waiting for a long time. GPS tools showed that Samsung located 11 satellites and Zenfone was not able to locate even one!. Seems some hardware issue. Even the mobile signal based location doesn’t seem to work. I shows the approx location using mobile signal and the location gets frozen even if you are moving. Unless you exit the app and restart it gets frozen at the same location. GPS is virtually non-existent.
Hi J.S.,,,
Please update your phone.. And try testing GPS outside first.. the very first lock would take time, vut the future locks would be much faster.. I am using this phone since 15 days now.. and all the GPS locks are under 10 seconds.. I use GPS Test for checking… And I can see the same number of satellites on my Samsung phone and Zenfone..
If you can not get a lock, and do not see any satellite you can get the phone replaced..
It could be something wrong in your phone..
The only thing bad about Zenfone is the battery.. Rest all things function normally..
Thanks Rahul. Then probably there was an issue with my phone. Because it used to take 5 minutes minimum to get a lock even in open clear skies even after updating firmwares, apps and even doing a factory reset. So I decided to return my phone back. But I am sure yet because one of my friends is also facing a similar problem with pathetic GPS performance.
Does asus zenfone 5 8/16gb has 2gb of ram or not?
The only interesting option is the zenfone 6(the other devices are easily outdone by other phones at the same price and with the same form factor) But it seems we are only getting the 1.6 ghz CPU model in India. People are also complaining about the battery life and the brightness and viewing angles not being that great whereas both the display and battery life are highly praised in the international option. Like Samsung’s S series and Note series in recent times, we may be getting a faltu compromise product for the Indian market. Only the camera remains top-notch. Even if you buy, wait for the competition by Xiaomi to drag the price down to about 13 k.
I want to know which mobile I should buy asus zenfone 5 or xiaomi redmi note or other devices I am waiting for your review.
Pls tell about warranty of these phones. I think there is no service centres of xiaomi, zenfone, wickedleak. So how can I repair my device.
If they don’t have service centre they do provide pick and drop facility (free in case under warranty).
Karan Bro,
Xiaomi service centers list