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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tipoo - Wednesday, May 27, 2015 - link
File system metadata structures in HFS+ have global locks. Only one process can update the file system at a time. The benchmark that only uses one IO thread isn't artificially limiting the iPhones, it's using exactly what it can. In the future, may as well use the newer multithreaded one for Androids even if the iPhones is single threaded, imo.soccerballtux - Wednesday, May 27, 2015 - link
videos of this 'smoothness' in the ZenUI and app animations you spoke of would have been cool. I don't notice it [desensitized] like I used to, but Android has very...uncomfortable...transition animations.blzd - Thursday, May 28, 2015 - link
Android does? Are you sure you're not thinking of Touchwiz or some other poorly implemented manufacturer skin?Android 5 (Lollipop) has very smooth animations. Heck even Kit Kat did. Nexus and Motorola devices (stock android) have been 100% smooth for 2 years or more now.
Sammaul - Thursday, May 28, 2015 - link
Very smooth animations. Camera is.....ok. But as I am coming from a Mate 2, it's actually an improvement for me lol. Been using the phone for 3 days now, and have seen no stutter, no jittery animations. Everything loads quickly and smoothly. The 2 channel ram is very nice imoCory Yalowicki - Wednesday, May 27, 2015 - link
I'd like a review that compares this phone with the Alcatel Onetouch Idol 3.Seems like that is this phone's closest competitor.
tipoo - Wednesday, May 27, 2015 - link
That performs pretty bad in games from what I saw in video comparisons, GPU is much weaker than this one. The 8 A53 cores are dumb too, the 4 slightly higher performing ones in the Zenfone 2 are preferable. The Idol 3 has better battery life.vision33r - Wednesday, May 27, 2015 - link
For $300 I think the G3 is a better phone. You get a QHD display, very good camera, performance is usable, removeable battery and micro SD. The QHD Display looks very sharp and clear. The Asus is a good phone but I can't use a smartphone with a horrible camera in 2015. G3 has optical focus and shoots great videos too. I don't get one thing is how bulky the Asus looks but yet the battery is not user replaceable. The ASUS TF series has really spotty QC such as bad batteries I can't trust relying on Asus hardware.blzd - Thursday, May 28, 2015 - link
Where is the G3 $300? I know the G2 is around there now, G3 is still about $500 from what I can see.Sammaul - Thursday, May 28, 2015 - link
G3 at $300? Where? And please don't say Swappa, or any other resale site. Personally I refuse to buy used phones.YB0006 - Thursday, May 28, 2015 - link
i got a asus phone days ago from dhgate.com and it feels very good till now!