The ASUS ZenFone 2 Review
by Brandon Chester on May 26, 2015 8:00 AM ESTGPU Performance
As I’ve already mentioned a few times, both models of the ZenFone 2 use the PowerVR G6430 GPU from Imagination Technologies. This is the same GPU used in Apple’s A7 chip, although the implementation in A7 likely has a max GPU clock of around 450MHz, while in Atom Z3560 and Z3580 it peaks at 533MHz. While one would think this would give the ZenFone 2 a lead over the Apple A7 based iOS devices, factors like driver optimization can also play a role.
The ZenFone’s performance in 3DMark is very good, and is one of the highest that we’ve seen. Much of this is due to the score in the physics test, which bests even the Galaxy S6 that had previously topped the chart, and second only to the Venue 8 7000 tablet. In the graphics test it achieves a score similar to that of the iPhone 6. The overall weighted average of the two tests puts the ZenFone 2 in fourth place, between the Galaxy Note 4 and the Galaxy S6 Edge.
In BaseMark X we see that the ZenFone 2 stumbles compared to the G6430 implementation in the iPhone 5s. Despite the higher clock speed on the GPU, it trails the iPhone 5s in both the Dunes and Hanger tests. The final score ends up right in the middle of the chart. It’s not as quick as the iPhone 5s and faster devices, but it’s quicker than those that use Snapdragon 801 and Adreno 330.
Our last benchmark is GFXBench. In the off screen 1080p tests we see that the ZenFone 2 is slightly quicker than the iPhone 5s in both Manhattan and T-Rex HD. The differences are small enough to be attributed to test variance, but the important point is that the G6430 GPU ends up being as quick as the implementation in Apple’s A7 SoC. The fact that it’s only as quick as the iPhone 5s despite its higher clock speeds indicates that PowerVR GPU drivers on Android are not as well optimized as on iOS, and it would be great to see GPU performance improve a little bit down the road via driver improvements.
Overall, the GPU in the ZenFone 2 is more than fast enough to run the OS smoothly and run any 2D or 3D games a user will want to play. The performance is substantially better than any other phone at this price point. It looks like there's still a gap between the optimization of PowerVR GPU drivers on iOS versus Android, but despite that the ZenFone 2 still delivers performance that I know won't disappoint any of its buyers.
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Brandon Chester - Tuesday, May 26, 2015 - link
Google Chrome is used for all of our browser tests, including battery life.re2onance - Tuesday, May 26, 2015 - link
I remember watching a review earlier about the screen being low in brightness. I thought it may have been on purpose although I assumed it was due to Asus trying to make up for the Intel SoC power consumption.I've read in the XDA forums that people experience better battery life after rooting and removing a lot of the bloatware apps, particularly the Asus built-in web browser that seems to be attached to the Trend Micro security. Honestly, people shouldn't have to root their device in order to eek out better battery life.
It seems kinda weird how Asus would spend the effort to gimp the screen from what it is actually capable of, and then fill it with apps which probably also could hinder battery life as well.
It seems like a good value phone, but the direction is all over the place.
I think the review seems fair since this is both the hardware and software Asus shipped with and updated.
T1beriu - Tuesday, May 26, 2015 - link
Brandon, could you actually disable all ASUS bloatware?I got an ASUS MeMO Pad 7 (ME572C) updated to 5.0 that looks exactly as your screenshots and I can't disable any of the useless ASUS apps.
Shame on you ASUS.
Brandon Chester - Tuesday, May 26, 2015 - link
No you can't disable all of it. I probably should have been more specific about that. You can uninstall or disable some apps such as the Apps4U apps and a few others like Omlet chat. Most of the apps that are actually from ASUS are stuck there though.ketacdx - Tuesday, May 26, 2015 - link
Hey Brandon. I thought the same but if you follow the method of holding the app in the app menu and drag it to uninstall at the top, that seems to work for most. For some reason I wasn't able to uninstall in Google Play for the same ones oddly, only disable.Brandon Chester - Wednesday, May 27, 2015 - link
That isn't working for me for apps like ZenCircle, Mirror, etc. The button to disable is greyed out.ketacdx - Thursday, May 28, 2015 - link
Yeah, I cant get those off either but it worked a lot of them thankfully. I really wish they enabled uninstall for the rest...tipoo - Tuesday, May 26, 2015 - link
"In the case of the ZenFone 2, we see that it lasts exactly as long as the HTC One (M9). Last run GPU performance is noticeably slower though."But isn't that just the relative performance difference between the two GPUs? I guess I still don't really understand the last run GPU framerate metric, shouldn't it be as a proportion of the first run framerate to mean anything? If one device performs at 100, another performs at 50, and the final runs of both are 50, the final run FPS would appear the same, but the second device didn't throttle at all while the first throttled by half.
Does the test already take this into account?
SHartman1976 - Tuesday, May 26, 2015 - link
I think you guys need to rerun the Nexus 6 battery benchmarks with 5.1 - the experience of myself and many others regarding N6 battery life is nothing like what you found on the initial 5.0 review.Brandon Chester - Wednesday, May 27, 2015 - link
I just finished re-testing the Nexus 6 on 5.1 and it lasted for 7 hours and 24 minutes in our browser test which is a worse result than the initial review. It's a small enough difference that I'll attribute it to battery degradation and/or test variance, but the point is that it hasn't improved at all.