Asus Zenfone Live review: Niche phone for social media-savvy consumers

Last month, Taiwanese smartphone-maker Asus launched a entry-level phone dubbed as Zenfone Live in India.

The highlight of the device is the feature-rich front camera and its real-time beautification application, which allows users adjust their tone of the face colour and other editing options to make them look good while doing live streaming on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

Also read: OnePlus 5 news alert: New teasers reveal photo modes, blue light display feature

Does the Asus 'Zenfone Live' live up to its reputation? Well, read our review below.

Asus Zenfone Live-Design, build quality and display review:

Asus Zenfone Live flaunts eye-candy design language similar to the company's flagship Zenfone 3 series, but the shell is made of polycarbonate-based plastic. Having said that, the back cover is very sturdy when held in hand and is more than capable of surviving a accidental fall.

As for the display is concerned, it features 5.0-inch HD (1280x720p) screen with 2.5D glass, which not only enhances visual appearance, but also protects the screen from cracking in the edges during a fall. It also houses a front facing camera, selfie flash, proximity sensors and the metal mesh earpiece on the top. And at the bottom, it features capacitive-based touch button. But, keys are not backlit and will definitely make difficult for navigation during the night.

Though the display has only 720x1280p resolution, users won't be deprived of viewing high-resolution graphic videos, as the compact structure makes the media look sharp on the phone's screen.

Asus Zenfone Live-Performance review:

Asus houses a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad-core CPU paired with 2GB RAM and 16GB storage. We were bit disappointed with the used two-generation old CPU for a 2017-series phone. Though phone does not put benchmarks apps on fire (24,770 on AnTuTu, whereas), it showed no sign of lag during switching between apps and other normal day-to-day functions.

[Note: Asus Zenfone Live scored 24,770 on AnTuTu. And on the Geekbench, it managed to get 484 and 1063 points on single and multi-core tests, respectively]

If you are heavy gaming user, we urge you to go for higher-end Zenfone 3 series or wait for new Zenfone 4 series.

Asus Zenfone Live-Camera review:

The most notable aspect of the new Zenfone Live series phone is the real-time beautification technology incorporated in the front camera. It allows users remove facial scars or blemishes, increase/decrease skin tone and do other adjustments without any hassle, that too while broadcasting live video streaming on Facebook (or Periscope or YouTube) video from the phone.

Its front snapper also features 1.4um pixel lens size having 2X light sensitivity, soft-light LED flash for natural skin tones and is fitted with dual MEMS microphones, which is capable of detecting and suppressing the background noise.

To further enhance the video recording experience, the company has incorporated dual micro-electrical-mechanical system microphones to eliminate background noise and enhance voice audibility.

On the back, the Zenfone Live houses pretty good 13MP camera with f/2.0 aperture and LED flash. It took decent pictures in the bright light conditions, but the quality began to go down during the evening and the night.

All-in-all, the Zenfone Live camera is good in its price-range class.

Asus Zenfone Live-Battery review:

Asus Zenfone Live houses a standard 2650mAh battery and given the fact that device has compact 5.0-inch screen with HD resolution, it easily lasted one full day under mixed-usage.

Asus Zenfone Live-Final verdict: (2.5/5)

Though Asus Zenfone Live is an entry-level phone, it is offers pretty interesting camera feature. While several players are vying for a big share in the highly competitively budget and mid-tier range smartphone market in India with beefed up hardware (read RAM and Storage configuration), Asus has taken brave step to cater to every possible category of people.

It found success battery-oriented Zenfone Max, camera-centric Zenfone Zoom and also Zenfone 3 series with its good-quality camera and visually appealing design language. Now, the new Zenfone Live comes up as a refreshing phone and we believe will definitely attract not-so shy millennials, who are active on social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Periscope and Twitter.

Having said that, Zenfone Live would have been more tempting provided it had at least Snapdragon 430 series instead of the out-dated 400 series.

Pros-

• Feature-rich front camera
• Reliable battery
• Visually appealing design language and dependable build quality

Cons-

• Snapdragon 400 CPU is bit under-powered