Asus Zenfone 2 or something else

Krekeris · Sep 11, 2016

Hi boys. I was looking to change my old Nokia Lumia 920 to something new. So decided to pick Zenfone 2 (ZE551ML), but maybe I`m missing some other good options.

All I want is good screen, OS running smooth and decent battery life. Budget is about 300 euros.

Komshija · Sep 12, 2016

It's a good phone, but unpractical. It depends whether you really need a phone over 5" or not. Keep in mind that anything over 140mm in length and over 70 mm in width is just too big to operate with one hand or to use comfortably.
Thus, if you really need phablet (phones with 5.1"or bigger screen), than this Asus is not a bad idea.
HTC One X9 has much more powerful CPU and faster RAM, but weaker graphic. That's not an issue unless you are buying phone primarily to play games on it. Lenovo Vibe X3 seems wise choice with slightly less powerful Snapdragon CPU (compared to HTC's Mediatek 6795) but more powerful GPU. Huawei Honor 8 is also good choice that is slightly superior to Asus Zenfone 2. Other good option would be LeTV 1S X501 which has similar characteristics to HTC One X9.

If you need comfortable phone with reasonable dimensions, than I would recommend Xiaomi Mi4s, Lenovo Zuk Z2 or a little bit older but powerful Lenovo Vibe X2 which has very positive reviews in my country and in neighbouring countries.

WhiteNoise · Sep 23, 2016

I received the Zenfone 2 to review and keep. It was a fantastic phone in all areas especially price and I had the 64GB version which was nice. That said i gave it to my wife as I had an LG G4 at the time and didn't see the need for it even though I felt it was the better phone at the time. But at about 6-8 months of daily use it started having all sorts of issues, locking up, and the camera stopped working all together too. After some research I found that camera failure was very common and Asus never tried to fix it. Even a year later i looked into it as I still have the phone but still no fix. I bought my Wife a iPhone 6s to replace it and she has been happy ever since.

So yeah I would stay away from that phone myself.

System Name	Handsome Bear
Processor	Intel Core i5 4690K
Motherboard	MSI Z87 MPOWER
Cooling	Be Quiet Dark Rock 3
Memory	Kingston HyperX FURY Black 16GB
Video Card(s)	MSI GTX 970 GAMING 100ME
Storage	OCZ Vector 180 240GB Plextor M6S 256 GB
Display(s)	LG 34UC88
Case	Fractal Design Define R5 Black
Audio Device(s)	Creative Sound Blaster Z
Power Supply	Antec EDGE 550W
Mouse	Tek Syndicate Gaming Mouse
Keyboard	Logitech Illuminated Keyboard K740
Software	Windows 10 Pro / Linux Mint 17.1

System Name	1.21 gigawatts!
Processor	Intel Core i7 6700K
Motherboard	MSI Z170A Krait Gaming 3X
Cooling	Be Quiet! Shadow Rock Slim with Arctic MX-4
Memory	16GB G.Skill Ripjaws V DDR4 3000 MHz
Video Card(s)	Palit GTX 1080 Game Rock
Storage	Mushkin Triactor 240GB + Toshiba X300 4TB + Team L3 EVO 480GB
Display(s)	Philips 237E7QDSB/00 23" FHD AH-IPS
Case	Aerocool Aero-1000 white + 4 Arctic F12 PWM Rev.2 fans
Audio Device(s)	Onboard Audio Boost 3 with Nahimic Audio Enhancer
Power Supply	FSP Hydro G 650W
Mouse	Cougar 700M eSports white
Keyboard	E-Blue Cobra II
Software	Windows 8.1 Pro x64
Benchmark Scores	Cinebench R15: 948 (stock) / 1044 (4,7 GHz) FarCry 5 1080p Ultra: min 100, avg 116, max 133 FPS

Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Motherboard	AsRock X670E Phantom Gaming Lightning
Cooling	Be Quiet! Dark Rock 4
Memory	G.SKILL Trident Z5 Neo DDR5-6000 32GB (2 x 16GB)
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 XTX
Storage	Samsung 980 PRO Series 1TB, Samsung 980 PRO Series 1TB, Crucial P3 NVMe M.2 2TB
Display(s)	LG OLED55G2PUA
Case	Lian Li O11 Dynamic XL ROG Certified
Audio Device(s)	Digital out to high end dac and amps.
Power Supply	EVGA GQ 1000W
Mouse	Logitech G600
Keyboard	Logitech G413 Carbon
VR HMD	Oculus Rift CV1, Oculus Rift S, Quest 2, Quest 3
Software	Windows 10 Pro

Asus Zenfone 2 or something else

Krekeris

Komshija

WhiteNoise