The ASUS ZenFone 2 Review
by Brandon Chester on May 26, 2015 8:00 AM ESTWiFi Performance
While 802.11ac is still very much a cutting edge WiFi technology with limited adoption, it's rapidly becoming a necessity in the smartphone space just to remain competitive with the specifications of other manufacturers. Because of this, both the $199 and $299 models of the ZenFone 2 sport 1x1 802.11ac WiFi. It's funny to see this included in such an inexpensive smartphone when it's left out of $700 laptops like the ASUS UX305.
The ZenFone 2 uses Broadcom's BCM4339 WiFi + BT4.0 module. A single spatial stream 802.11ac implementation means that it's limited to a maximum speed of 433Mbps. To see how fast the ZenFone 2 can send UDP packets I've run it through our standard iPerf test for mobile devices.
Theoretical maximum speeds are rarely able to be achieved in real world testing due to interference, distance, and other factors. 293Mbps is pretty good for a 1x1 802.11ac implementation on a phone, and much better than some other inexpensive devices like the Lumia 735 which only support 802.11n. 802.11ac isn't very widely adopted yet among consumers and so I don't think ZenFone 2 users will be disappointed in their WiFi performance now or in the future.
GNSS
Thanks to a tip from a reader, I can confirm that the ZenFone 2 uses Broadcom's BCM4753. This is different from most devices which use the GNSS solution built into Qualcomm's Gobi modems. Despite this, I didn't notice any issues with the accuracy or speed of the GNSS implementation on the ZenFone 2. With GPS assistance data cleared and the device in airplane mode I was able to achieve a 3D fix in around 55 seconds. This will obviously vary depending on weather conditions, the positions of satellites, and various other factors. With GPS assistance info getting a lock took less than five seconds.
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speconomist - Wednesday, May 27, 2015 - link
Brandon, could you comment on the speaker?I have read somewhere else that it's not really good, I would welcome your objective comments (or even subjective too).
Brandon Chester - Wednesday, May 27, 2015 - link
Unfortunately I don't have any means of objectively evaluating the speaker which is why I didn't really comment on it. It doesn't sound any worse than the speaker on the iPhone 6 or Galaxy S6 really, but it's definitely not BoomSound, and it's not as good as you'd expect considering the speaker grille is so large.speconomist - Wednesday, May 27, 2015 - link
Thanks, sounds like good enough.thegeneral2010 - Wednesday, May 27, 2015 - link
i heard it was running android 5.0.1 in 32bit and after upgrading to 5.1 its 64bit got activated is this true?ketacdx - Thursday, May 28, 2015 - link
The Zenfone 2 is on 5.0. In CPUZ you can see it is an x86-64bit kernel so it is correctly 64bit by default. Ive read this elsewhere as well but its definitely a 64bit kernel.MeganKnight - Wednesday, May 27, 2015 - link
thats greatseh1984 - Wednesday, May 27, 2015 - link
Is this a review for the 2GB or 4GB model? If the 4GB model, can we get the benchmarks for the 2GB?tipoo - Wednesday, May 27, 2015 - link
They have the 4GB one, as noted in review. The Z3560 has about 80% the CPU performance of the Z3580, and GPU performance is the same between the two.JackF - Wednesday, May 27, 2015 - link
I just got my new ZenFone 2 yesterday. I finally broke down and made the switch from my iPhone5s which I like but wish it had a bigger screen, I doesn't seem as big as I thought it would be - it fits in my front jeans pocket with no problem. After reading the reviews, I am being super careful not to drop it. I routinely drop my iPhone but I have a rubberized type case to cushion the impact.So far I am liking the phone - after using it non-stop all morning (surfing, installing apps, playing games) my battery did get down to 40%. With the same usage tho, My iPhone 5s would probably have been close to zero. I am due for a upgrade in October, so I will see how this goes.
re2onance - Wednesday, May 27, 2015 - link
I ordered one myself and I'm coming from a iPhone 5 which is supposed to have really good web browsing battery performance, so I'm wondering how it will work out. I'm probably going to try to root the phone and run something like greenify to wipe all the crap I don't want on it which comes pre-installed. Hopefully that and updates will improve the battery life on the device, although I'm skeptical.