The Asus ZenFone 8 is an Android iPhone mini

After a few generations making telephones with flip-out cameras and more and more massive shows, Asus has taken the ZenFone 8 in a completely totally different course: small.

The flipping digicam idea lives on within the also-new ZenFone 8 Flip, but it surely’s now not a normal characteristic throughout this 12 months’s ZenFone lineup. Instead, beginning at $629 for 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, the ZenFone 8 lands within the upper-midrange class with a traditional rear digicam bump and a a lot smaller 5.9-inch show. An 8GB RAM / 256GB storage configuration can also be obtainable for $699.

Rather than an attention-grabbing digicam characteristic, the main focus of this design has been to create a smaller cellphone that’s comfy to make use of in a single hand, which Asus has performed with out skimping on processing energy or higher-end options.

It’s an Android iPhone mini, and it’s incredible.

Asus ZenFone 8 display screen and design

The ZenFone 8 could also be small, however that hasn’t saved it from providing the newest flagship processor: a Snapdragon 888 chipset, coupled with 6, 8, or 16GB of RAM (my evaluation unit has 16GB). I can’t discover fault with this cellphone’s efficiency. It feels responsive, animations and interactions are clean, and it retains up with demanding use and speedy app switching. This is efficiency becoming of a flagship machine.

The show is a 5.9-inch 1080p OLED panel with a quick 120Hz refresh charge that makes routine interactions with the cellphone — swiping, scrolling, animations — look far more clean and polished than a normal 60Hz display screen or perhaps a 90Hz panel. By default, the cellphone will mechanically swap between 120 / 90 / 60Hz relying on the applying to avoid wasting battery life, however you may manually choose any of these three refresh charges if you happen to favor.

The show’s 20:9 side ratio was fastidiously thought-about by Asus. The firm says it settled on this barely narrower format so the cellphone would match extra simply right into a pocket, and it does. I can’t get it all the way in which right into a again denims pocket, but it surely largely suits. More importantly, it suits properly inside a jacket pocket and doesn’t really feel prefer it’s going to flop out if I sit down on the ground to tie my footwear. The ZenFone 8 is rated IP68 for mud safety and a few water submersion.

The entrance panel is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus and homes an in-display fingerprint sensor, whereas the again makes use of Gorilla Glass 3 with a frosted end that’s on the matte facet of the matte / shiny spectrum. The entrance panel is flat, however the rear encompasses a slight curve on the lengthy edges for a better match within the hand. At 169 grams (5.9 ounces), it’s heavy for its dimension, and it feels surprisingly dense once you first decide it up. The cellphone’s body is aluminum, giving the entire bundle a high-end feel and look. There’s even a headphone jack on the highest edge as a deal with.

The energy button (an thrilling shade of blue!) is well-positioned so my proper thumb falls on it naturally with the cellphone in my hand. Same for the in-screen fingerprint sensor: the goal seems to be positioned larger on the display screen than common, however that truly places it inside a snug attain of my thumb.

I’ll admit up entrance that I’ve a private bias towards smaller telephones, however the ZenFone 8 simply feels nice in my hand. I’ve spent lots of time utilizing massive units over the past six months, and I’ve gotten used to it. But the ZenFone 8 is the primary machine that feels prefer it was tailored to me, not one thing I’ve needed to adapt to utilizing.

Asus ZenFone 8 battery and software program

The cellphone’s small dimension makes a smaller battery a necessity — 4,000mAh on this case, a lot smaller than the ZenFone 6 and seven’s 5,000mAh. I felt the distinction in utilizing this cellphone versus a battery-for-days price range or midrange cellphone, however I had no downside getting by a full day of average use. I even left Strava working for 20 hours by chance, and the battery nonetheless had some life in it the following morning. The ZenFone 8 helps 30W wired charging with the included energy adapter, which takes an empty battery to one hundred pc in a bit greater than an hour. Wireless charging isn’t supported, which makes the ZenFone 8 a little bit of an outlier within the flagship class.

Asus affords a ton of choices to assist stretch day-to-day battery life in addition to the general lifespan of your battery. There aren’t any fewer than 5 battery modes to optimize cellphone efficiency or battery longevity each day, and totally different charging modes allow you to set a customized charging restrict or stagger charging in a single day so it reaches one hundred pc across the time of your alarm for higher battery well being. You received’t discover class-leading battery capability right here, however relaxation assured if you have to stretch the ZenFone 8’s battery, there are many choices.

The ZenFone 8 ships with Android 11, and Asus says it’ll present “at least” two main OS with safety updates for a similar timeframe. That’s on the low facet of what we’d count on for a flagship cellphone, particularly in comparison with Apple’s typical four- or five-year assist schedule. An vital word for US buyers is that the ZenFone 8 will solely work with AT&T and T-Mobile’s LTE and Sub-6GHz 5G networks; you may’t use this cellphone on Verizon, and there’s no assist for the quick, however extraordinarily restricted, millimeter-wave 5G networks.

Asus ZenFone 8 digicam

There are simply two cameras on the ZenFone 8’s rear digicam bump, and they’re each price your time. Rather than cram in a depth sensor, macro, or some monochrome nonsense, Asus simply went with a 64-megapixel important digicam with OIS and a 12-megapixel ultrawide. They’re borrowed from final 12 months’s mannequin, minus a telephoto digicam and the flipping mechanism.

As within the ZenFone 7 Pro, the 8’s important digicam produces 16-megapixel pictures with vibrant coloration and loads of element in good mild. Images can lean somewhat too far into unnatural-looking territory, and a few high-contrast scenes look somewhat too HDR-y for my liking. But general, this digicam does positive: it handles reasonably low-light situations like a dim retailer inside properly, and Night Mode does an okay job in very low mild, offered you may maintain the cellphone nonetheless for just a few seconds and your topic isn’t shifting.

Grid View

A skin-smoothing magnificence mode is on by default once you use portrait mode, and it isn’t good. Skin appears over-smoothed, unnaturally flat, and brightened, like your topic is sporting a few layers of stage make-up. Turning this off improves issues considerably.

The ultrawide digicam additionally turns in good efficiency. Asus calls it a “flagship” grade sensor, and whereas which may have been true in 2018, it’s a minimum of a step up from the smaller, cheaper sensors typically present in ultrawide cameras. Likewise, the front-facing 12-megapixel digicam does positive. Beauty mode is turned off by default once you swap to the selfie digicam, and thank goodness for that.

There’s no telephoto digicam right here, simply digital zoom. On the digicam capturing display screen, there’s an icon to leap to a 2x 16-megapixel “lossless” digital zoom to crop in rapidly, which works okay, but it surely isn’t a lot attain, and it simply makes the restrictions of the small sensor and lens extra apparent.

On the entire, the digicam system is nice however not nice. The lack of true optical zoom or a telephoto digicam is a disappointment, however you may’t have all the pieces on such a small machine, and I’d personally take an ultrawide earlier than a telephoto any day.

The ZenFone 8 fills a void within the Android marketplace for a full-specced, small-sized machine. The Google Pixel 4A is across the identical dimension, but it surely’s decidedly a price range machine with a step-down processor, plastic chassis, and fewer niceties like an IP ranking or a fast-refresh display screen. Aside from battery life, which is manageable, you quit little or no in the way in which of flagship options to get the ZenFone 8’s small type issue.

You should look to iOS for this cellphone’s most direct competitors: the iPhone 12 mini, which it matches nearly spec-for-spec from the IP ranking all the way down to the digicam configuration. The 12 mini is definitely somewhat smaller than the ZenFone 8, and once you consider storage capability, it’s the costlier alternative at $829 for 256GB. However, when you think about that the 12 mini will most likely get a pair extra years of OS and safety assist, it might be the higher purchase in the long term, if you happen to’re versatile in your alternative of working system.

I just like the ZenFone 8 rather a lot, however I’m unsure it’ll discover a massive viewers, a minimum of within the US. Apple is having hassle promoting the iPhone 12 mini, and if there’s one factor Apple is nice at, it’s promoting telephones to US prospects. As a lot as I hate to entertain the concept, possibly we’ve gotten used to large telephones. I really like how the ZenFone 8 feels in my hand and in my pocket, however I do discover how a lot smaller the display screen and all the pieces on it appears in comparison with the larger telephones I’ve used just lately.

There are additionally just a few vital concerns, like the dearth of compatibility with Verizon and the comparatively brief assist lifespan of the cellphone. If you want the best possible in battery life the ZenFone 8 can’t supply that, and if you’d like a class-leading digicam, you’ll must look elsewhere.

All that stated, the ZenFone 8 would be the proper match for a selected sort of individual, and I can heartily suggest it to my fellow small cellphone followers. You’ll get flagship-level construct high quality and efficiency fairly actually within the palm of your hand.

Photography by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Update June twenty ninth, 11:50AM ET: Updated to incorporate last US pricing.