Hey Folks,
A bit more in this whole package than what you expect. I ordered this phone after watching a lot of reviews both +ve and -ve. And finally decided to buy it seeing its gaming performance. I had been running on my sluggish Moto G2 for quite sometime and was actually bored of the UI and the lags. Although I flashed CM12.1 on it and it was fabulous there after, but the same laginess had got me on my nerves.
I had compared Lenovo K3 note, Moto G3 and this one side by side and finally decided to go with this. All comes with almost the same hardware with bit of a difference, but Moto G3 was ruled out of my scope, Lenovo K3 Note have that dull looking screen and MediaTek proccessor and this one got a clear edge in my comparison bcz of the bigger battery, better screen viewing angle, great touch response screen, a Moto G3 matching snapdragon 410 chipset and an award winning design.
Here are few of my comments for this phone.
starting with CONS :-
1- A lot of bloatwares, you get a storage of 10.8/16 GB here. But I found a way to remove few of them by going in Settings->App->Uninstall Updates->Uninstall. Also few ASUS specific can't be removed. But many of them are quite useful, like the file manager, Notes, whether, minimovie, memo, supernotes. You can use them in place of downloading an alternate from play store.
2- 1 out of 2 GB ram is always in use. That doesn't slow the device though.
3- Fast charging option. I put a turbo charger and the touch was gone. recommendation - do not use a turbo charger. It takes around 3 hours to charge 90% of the battery.
4- No Headphones. But then who use these headphones. I had never used Moto G2 and X2 headphone either.
so thats all I can see as a con, which definitely is not that big.
and here are the PROs.
1- A very beautifully designed phone. Sleek and lightweight.
2- the HD screen is awesome. Viewing angle is tremendous. A very very responsive touch. My Moto G2 use to cry when I use it while putting on a flat surface, it took lot of effort in writing something on that. This one is awesome. Using the phone by holding it in hands or putting on bed, table anywhere no difficulty at all.
3- Games run like hell smooth. I installed Dead trigger 2 (~600 MB), Asphalt 8 (~1.6 GB), Reptite 2, Mortal Combat 5, Gaurdians of the sky, Subway surf and few other small games. I had not got a single lag till date. This is what I bought it for. Also to manage the space you can all the game related data on your SD card and can move few of the games too. You can use Auto Start Manager app in the phone to curb the use of RAM. This was of great help.
4- Battery is awesome. Simply better than Moto G2,G3, Lenovo K3. Gives fairly 1.5 days of backup with Whatsapp, FB and calls and around 8 hours with fair amount of gaming, 6 hours of continous Youtube. To test I played Asphalt 8 and it last 4 hours of continous play time, That was awesome.
5- Zen UI is a pleasure to use, provided when you come from a pure and boring android lollopop. You have to just run yourself through all of its features once and you are done. After that you use it to your ease. I guess the UI eats a lot of the phone memory as its highly customizing. Not sure though.
6- You will never use power button if you use double tap function. Till date I had used just once to boot my phone for the very first time.. :)
7- Volume rocker has a great placement. Although it took sometime to figure out where it is. That placement had made the phone more slimmer.
8- Phone is lighter as expected. I hate bulkier phones. It feels more comfortable than Moto Phones.
9- Finally Camera is a delight in good light condition, but low light images are poor. Moto G3 have an edge for low light shots. Laser auto focus is very very fast, manual focus takes a fraction of more, but images comes crisp and clear. You have got many modes too. Front cam is cool too. Beautiful works like butter and will make sure no pimples are visible. A GOOD PICK FOR SELFIE LADIES over there. Transition via Camera to Gallery is bit sluggish,a lag of 2 seconds I will say. But rest all is good.
This is all for it. Now coming to the price point, this phone does give all you can get in 10K.
A good pick for those who love gaming, for selfie lovers and who love bit of customization. Everything is in the phone and you don't have to download any third party app, just that you need to give bit of time to get through the features.
4.8/5 stars from me.
- Pratik Kumar21 Sep, 2015