Review of the smartphone ASUS ZenFone 4 Pro

This smartphone is the flagship of the entire line of ZenFone 4. And any flagship has something advantageous to differ from the younger models. And the main features of the ZenFone 4 Pro are the top Snapdragon 835 processor, support in one of the smartphone modifications of the latest communication standard LTE 4CA Cat 16 with a theoretical maximum mobile Internet speed of 1 Gb / s, and finally the most advanced dual camera with ZenFone dual optical zoom and SuperPixel technology for enhancing the signal in the dark.

Specifications

Operating system : Android 7.1 with ZenUI 4.0 GUI
Processor : Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 (eight-core, 64-bit), energy-saving technology FinFET LPP
Graphics : Adreno 540
RAM : 6 GB LPDDR4x
Data storage : 64 GB UFS 2.1
Memory card : micro SD up to 2 TB
SIM card : 1 nano-SIM slot (LTE Cat 16 version) / 1 nano-SIM slot + 1 nano-SIM slot or micro SD (LTE Cat 12 version)
Display : 5.5-inch, 1920 x 1080, AMOLED, 500 cd / m2 brightness
Cameras :

• Rear: 12 megapixel, f / 1.7 aperture, focal length 25 mm (viewing angle 83 °), pixel size 1.4 μm, 4-axis optical stabilization (4 steps), TriTech high-speed focusing system.
• Additional rear: 16 MP, focal length 50 mm (47 ° viewing angle).
• Front: 8 MP, aperture f / 1.9, focal length 22 mm (viewing angle 87 °), pixel size 1.4 μm.

Sound : supports DTS Headphone: X technology, 192 kHz / 24-bit audio format playback; 5 magnetic speaker with amplifier TI Smart Amp; three noise-canceling microphones.
Wireless :

• LTE Cat 16 (up to 1000 Mbps) or LTE Cat 12 (up to 600 Mbps)
• WLAN 802.11 b / g / n / ac
• Bluetooth 5.0
• Wi-Fi direct
• NFC

Navigation : GPS, AGPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO
Battery : 3600 mAh, fast charge function (50% for 32 minutes)
Dimensions : 157 x 75.6 x 7.6 mm (H x W x T)
Weight : 175 gr.

Appearance

The smartphone is designed on the principle of "glass sandwich": the front and rear panels are plates of Gorilla Glass with rounded edges. The design of the smartphone is familiar, the Home button is a fingerprint sensor. To the left of the "telephone" speaker are the front camera and proximity sensor. On each side, the width of the frame is 2.1 mm.







By the way, although formally the smartphone is considered black, but in fact the front side and the ends of a very dark graphite color, with a slight tint a la metallic. However, the case of an already metal, aluminum, and thanks to this, as well as two glass panels, the smartphone turned out to be quite weighty.



At first glance, ZenFone 4 Pro is devoid of branded decoration - a concentric Zen pattern. However, it was simply “hidden”; instead of the front or back panel, it was applied to the decorative cover of the rear camera lens unit. To the right of them is a dual flash, color correction sensor and laser focus sensor. The lenses barely noticeable, about 0.2-0.3 mm protrude above the surface.







The volume and power buttons are traditionally located on the right side, and the SIM and memory card tray are on the left side. The smartphone comes in two versions: “normal” with the speed of the mobile Internet up to 600 Mbit / s has a double slot for SIM-cards (the second slot is a combined one, that is, you can use either two SIM cards or one SIM card and a memory card at the same time), and “advanced »With Gigabit LTE support, made in monosymmetric version.





Grid "caller" speaker and audio jack located on the bottom of the smartphone.



Unusually abundance of microphones scattered on the body: two on top, one on the right and one on the bottom. In theory, your interlocutors should be able to hear you well even under rather strong wind and other difficult conditions.



Included is a proprietary headset Zen Ear with interchangeable ear cushions of different sizes, as well as a simple transparent silicone case. Almost must have: the phone is not just big and heavy, it is also all glass and damn slippery! So with wet / wet hands it is better not to pull it out of your pocket without a cover, especially if your pocket is tight, and you need to pull it out over the edge, without a reliable grip. Falling to tile or asphalt can end sadly even for Gorilla Glass.

Display

The ZenFone 4 Pro has the same display as the ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro - a diagonal of 5.5 inches, AMOLED-matrix with a resolution of 1920x1080 and a maximum brightness of 500 cd / m2. Viewing angles are close to 1800, the information is readable even in bright light (although it is difficult to find the sun in Moscow these days, but nonetheless). The color rendition is customary for AMOLED saturated, the color gamut exceeds 100% NTSC. However, the sensation of "acidity" of colors does not occur, the picture is "tasty", but balanced, without "screaming" shades.

Sound

A sure sign of the high positioning of the ASUS smartphone is support for DTS Headphone: X technology and playback of 192 kHz / 24 audio format. I have written more than once about what it is, so I’ll repeat it briefly: if you buy headphones that support the same technology and turn on recording (audio or video) with a DTS track, you will enjoy full 7.1 surround sound. Without a pile of speakers, registration and SMS.

Filming

Still, the main feature of ZenFone 4 Pro is its cameras.

Most previous models of ASUS smartphones used this scheme: the main camera (and an extra wide-angle one, that is, with a shorter focal length. In the ZenFone 4 Pro, the opposite was done - a camera with a longer focal length (50 mm FD) was added to the main (FR of 25 mm), that is, a smaller viewing angle and double optical zoom. And in the camera interface, instead of not too informative camera switching icons - one tree and three trees - they made understandable “1.0x” and “2.0x.” In fact, there is also a third mode, zoom mode "5.0x", but it same software zoom in the additional camera.

The main camera is equipped with a 6-element lens, and an additional - 5-element:



For the main camera, the famous Sony IMX362 matrix was used (the ZenFone 3 Zoom , ZenFone 4 and the ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro main front camera are also equipped with it) with a resolution of 12 megapixels and a 25 mm lens. The main advantage of this matrix is ​​the increased pixel size - 1.4 microns. Due to this, each element captures more light, which increases the signal-to-noise ratio and allows you to make shutter speeds shorter, which further reduces the amount of noise in the image. 4-axis optical stabilization of the lens (used when shooting video) and the aperture f / 1.7 (which allows 67% more light than the aperture of f / 2.2) contribute even more to improving the quality of images in low light. And for focusing, the TriTech system is used: it is a combination of phase, servo, and laser focusing.

The secondary camera has a resolution of 16 megapixels, a Sony IMX351 matrix and a focal length of 50 mm. Compared with the main camera, the field of view is about half as much (47 ° versus 83 °), but the image also “increases” approximately twice. The pixel size of the additional camera is 1 µm, and only phase is used as the focus.

By default, in addition to the basic shooting modes of both rear cameras - "1.0x" and "2.0x" - there is a third digital zoom mode of the additional camera: "5.0x". But if you want, you can click on the icon and drag it left / right with your finger, choosing the exact digital zoom yourself from 1.1x to 10x.





Also, when shooting with rear cameras, a color correction sensor is used to correct the color temperature of the images.

Available shooting modes:


Manual shooting mode:



Other nice features of ZenFone 4 Pro include video recording in 4K format with a frequency of 30 frames / sec., Recording photos in RAW files

Well, the front camera is based on the Sony IMX319 matrix with a resolution of 8 megapixels. The pixel size of this matrix is ​​the same as that of the main camera - which means less noise in low light. Aperture f / 1.9, focal length 22 mm (viewing angle 87 °). If you wish, you can activate the BeautyMaster self-portrait auto enhancement feature. Pictures from all three cameras are processed by one specialized graphics processor - SuperPixel.

Performance and mobile communications

ZenFone 4 Pro received a powerful eight-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor with a graphics chip Adreno 540. 6 GB RAM, 64 or 128 GB allocated for data storage, up to 2 TB can be added using a memory card.


Today, Snapdragon 835 - one of the best mobile processors, and it is not just powerful, but also saves energy. Drop from 100% to 20% battery charge:


Also Snapdragon 835 allowed to introduce in the ZenFone 4 Pro support for mobile communications standard LTE 4CA Cat 16 (in one of two versions of the smartphone). This standard allows you to download data via a mobile network at speeds up to 1000 Mbps. Of course, the actual speed depends on a number of conditions. Alas, I did not manage to achieve such a result, but the smartphone has nothing to do with it: Moscow has such a dense distribution of radio frequency bands that cellular operators simply do not have wide enough bands. For example, with a MegaFon SIM card in my area, I had this speed:

Conclusion

ASUS ZenFone 4 Pro can be recommended first of all to those who are interested in “mobileography”. I liked the solution with a longer-focusing additional camera, in everyday life I often want to “zoom in” the subject, “cut off” part of the environment, and not capture the scene wider. In all three cameras of the smartphone, good matrices with high photosensitivity and low noise are used. Although the battery is not the most capacious, but thanks to the energy-efficient processor, the smartphone can work for a long time without recharging. Yes, and it charges very quickly.

If you want to take a modification of ZenFone 4 Pro with LTE 4CA Cat 16 support, it is better to find out in advance if your provider in your city supports such data transfer speed. Otherwise, you can enjoy hundreds of megabits per second only on vacation or on a business trip.

Recommended retail price: 49,990 rubles for a two-part smartphone and 54,990 rubles for a version with 1 Gbit / s.