Asus ZenFone 3 Deluxe Review

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Introduction

What defines a flagship smartphone? More times than not, a flagship handset is defined by an incredibly high price. Devices such as Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy S series are flagship product lines, and as such, they carry price tags of $600 and up. However, as recent times have shown, a flagship smartphone for a company doesn’t necessarily need to carry an enormous sticker price.

OnePlus first shook the industry in 2014 with the announcement of the OnePlus One - a smartphone with flagship specifications for a much cheaper price. This created for somewhat of an explosion in the smartphone industry, as we’ve been increasingly seeing more and more ‘flagship’ smartphones that cost less than similar products we’ve seen in the past.

The ZenFone 3 Deluxe is currently the highest-end smartphone that Asus is selling, resulting in it being the company’s flagship. The ZenFone 3 Deluxe has a lot to offer at a cost that’s very competitive when compared to similarly-speced devices, but does it bring enough to the table, or does it fall flat?

In the box

• Asus ZenFone 3 Deluxe
• ZenEar earbuds
• USB A to UBS C charging cable
• AC adapter
• Warranty and safety information

Design

A sophisticated and well thought-out design

On the design side of things, the ZenFone 3 Deluxe is a very sophisticated and attractive slab of metal. The width of just 7.5-millimeters and weight of 170-grams keep the phone both lightweight and thin, but not too much so that it feels cheaply made. The rounded corners both look and feel fantastic, and the metal finish on the top and bottom bezels around the screen display a circular pattern that looks quite stunning under the right lighting conditions.


Along with its good looks, the Deluxe’s hardware is also insanely well-built and thought out. The volume rocker and power/lock button on the right hand side are both incredibly tactile and feel great to press, the capacitive buttons on the front light up when pressed, and the fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone features the same rectangular shape that’s seen with the flash and laser-assisted autofocus systems that flank the square-shaped camera.

That fingerprint sensor is a great addition to have, but it’s something that we’ve really come to expect with a phone in this price range. And, unfortunately, it doesn’t always work that well. I often found that I needed to place my finger perfectly in the middle of the sensor in order for it to work, as having my fingerprint scanned at even a slight angle would prompt me with a message on the screen saying that the Deluxe couldn’t get an accurate reading. The sensor is incredibly fast when it works, but it fails more times than it should – especially for phone that’s being touted as Asus’s top-notch offering.

Interface and Functionality

Lots of added features help to even out a lackluster appearance

In regards to the software the Asus ZenFone 3 Deluxe is running, you’ll find Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow and Asus’s custom software experience. I’ve stated numerous times that I’m not the biggest fan of Asus’s take on Android, but the more I use it, the more I come to appreciate it for what it is.

Asus’s skin certainly isn’t the most aesthetically pleasing, but what it lacks here it makes up for in sheer functionality. Asus’s built-in launcher is one of the most customizable ones that you can get, offering the ability to customize the grid size of your app drawer and home screens, the option to completely get rid of the app drawer if you’d rather not deal with it, a complete theme engine, and so much more.

Processor and Performance

Plenty of horsepower

Packed inside of the Deluxe is the Snapdragon 821 processor and 6GB of RAM. That’s some serious power, and as such, the ZenFone 3 Deluxe is absolute joy to use in regards to sheer performance. Never once did I find myself running into a hangup with the phone, and multitasking and graphically intense games all run like butter.

Running the Geekbench 4 test on the Deluxe, we got a single core score of 1490 and a multi-core reading of 3953. That puts the Deluxe on comparable performance levels with the Google Pixel XL, and in other words, the ZenFone 3 Deluxe should be able to handle pretty much anything that you throw at it.

Connectivity

As for the ZenFone 3 Deluxe’s connectivity options, you’ve got quite a lot of solid options to play around with. For staters, the ZenFone 3’s GSM bands mean that it’ll work on AT&T and T-Mobile for calls/texts and LTE data. What’s unique here is the fact that the Deluxe features Asus’s very own PureMetal technology. Unlike most other smartphones that feature a metal design, the ZenFone 3 Deluxe doesn’t have any visible antenna bands anywhere on its body. This isn’t a huge deal, but it does make the phone look more refined and polished when compared to competing offerings.

When connecting to AT&T and T-Mobile’s networks, you’ll equip your SIM card in the tray that’s present on the left side of the phone. Similar to many other phones we’ve been seeing lately, the SIM tray on the Deluxe allows you to add either two SIM cards or one SIM card and a microSD card to expand on the included 64GB of on-board storage.

Something else that’s great to see here is the addition of USB Type-C. USB-C is one of the most versatile and powerful ports that currently exist in the consumer market, and along with all of that power, the reversible nature of the port makes plugging in and charging the phone much more convenient.

Cameras

Lots of megapixels to play around with

Taking a look at the camera package that’s present here, the Asus ZenFone 3 Deluxe delivers a 23MP camera on the back and an 8MP selfie-camera. There’s not much going on with the selfie cam, but Asus packed in quite a bit of tech with the rear-facing shooter. Along with the high megapixel count, you’re also scoring laser-assisted and phase detection autofocus, a Sony IMX813 sensor, f/2.0 aperture, optical image stabilization, and a layer of sapphire over the camera to securely protect it from the real world.

Asus’s camera app, just like the rest of its Android skin, offers a lot of functionality but won’t win any awards for its looks. You’ve got your standard array of manual shooting controls, beauty mode for capturing the perfect selfie, the ability to stitch together multiple shots for a single 92MP image, and a ton more. Most folks probably won’t mess around with everything that Asus has included here, but it’s nice to know that it’s there if you ever want to tinker with it.

Image Quality

Photos look good, just make sure you don't turn the lights down too much

With all of that tech packed inside of the rear-camera, how does it perform in real world use? Images taken with ample lighting can turn out looking very, very good. That 23MP resolution helps to capture quite a lot of detail, and the IMX318 sensor allows you to get some nice portrait/bokeh shots even when shooting on normal auto mode. The sensor does have some trouble balancing out highlights at times, and shooting in dimly-lit areas will cause you to lose a bit of detail and see some digital noise. There’s definitely a lot to like with photos that the ZenFone 3 Deluxe captures in well-lit scenarios, but it still falls a bit flat when compared to more refined camera like the Galaxy S7 or iPhone 7.

As for the front-facing camera, I really don’t have anything to complain about here. The 8MP resolution allows you to capture a good bit of detail, and the wide-angle lens is also a very-welcome touch.

Battery

Fast recharge times are the only saving grace for offensively weak battery performance

Powering the ZenFone 3 Deluxe is a 3,000 mAh battery, and paired with a Full HD panel, I was expecting to get some really solid usage time with the phone. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case at all. In my personal experience, I barely made it to 9:20 PM after first turning the phone on around 6:30 AM that morning. This included 3 hours and 44 minutes of screen on time, and compared to the 5 hours and 13 minutes of SOT I got out of the ZenFone 3 Laser, this resulted in a lot of disappointment.

On our battery test, the Zenfone 3 Deluxe scored 5 hours 26 mins, which is on the lower end of the ranking.

You do have access to QuickCharge 3.0 technology when it comes to topping up the Deluxe, and going from 0 to 100% took just 84 minutes. That’s some seriously fast speed right there, and it helps to alleviate some of the pain you’ll feel from the lackluster endurance of the phone.

Conclusion

The ZenFone 3 Deluxe is a good purchase in a bubble, but that isn’t the case here

Overall, Asus has crafted a very good smartphone with the ZenFone 3 Deluxe. Here we have a phone with an all-aluminum construction, decent display, an extremely fast processing package, good cameras, 64GB of expandable storage, and a ton more for just $499 completely unlocked.

In a bubble, the ZenFone 3 Deluxe is a fantastic purchase. Unfortunately for the phone though, that isn’t the case. The sub $500 price range is extremely competitive right now, and because of that, a few small issues here and there can make or break one’s decision to purchase a phone.

Weak battery life, an unattractive software skin, and wonky fingerprint sensor wouldn’t be enough to have us outright advise against purchasing the phone if it stood alone in this price bracket, but that isn't the case.

Not only that, but Asus’s own ZenFone 3 Laser features a similar design, exact same screen resolution, and considerably better battery life for just $200 – that’s $300 less than what Asus is asking for the Deluxe.

Add all of that together, and it becomes increasingly more difficult to advise that you go out and purchase this handset. There are some very strong pros that the ZenFone 3 Deluxe has going for it, but the various cons it also brings to the table - coupled with all of the competition it’s currently facing - make this a purchase that I would advise against. I do think that you’d enjoy the ZenFone 3 Deluxe if you made the decision to buy it, but you cannot ignore the fact that you can simply make smarter use of your money if you’re looking to buy a new sub $500 smartphone.