The new budget king!

The ZenFone 2 Laser has turned out to be a solid option in the sub-Rs 10,000 category, says Himanshu Juneja.

From being a consultancy service in the late 1980s to offering impressive mobile phones, Asus sure has come a long way. Its constant effort and dedication in expanding its portfolio resulted in the success story of the ZenFones last year, and now Asus is ready with the 2015 iteration.

Asus has been on a launching spree of late and with its ZenFone 2 Laser, the company is ready to try and grab a foothold in the budget category mobile phones. They seem to have paid heed to the feedback from last year and made relevant changes along with some impressive additions as well.

Let's get down to the business end of the things and see what has Asus got in store for us.

Built and design

The phone measures 6.00 x 3.04 x 0.43 inches and weighs 170 grams. Thanks to the screen to body ratio of 71 per cent, the phone never seemed unwieldy. The phone wastes little space in accommodating the screen.

The curved back panel allows the phone to sit comfortably in the hand and the matte finish assists in making the phone non-slippery. The notification LED along with the front-facing camera has been placed on top of the screen, while three capacitve touch buttons are located below the display. The signature metallic strip towards the bottom is also present.

The Power/screen lock button has been placed on the top edge, while LG inspired volume rocker button is located at the back. The rear camera lens has been placed just above the volume rocker. The LED flash and the speaker grill are found at the back as well.

The back panel has been made removable. Beneath the panel, one finds the two SIM, as well as microSD card slots.

It would have been great if the the capacitive buttons had been backlit, making it easier to use them in the dark. Other than that, the phone is well crafted and should impress most observers.

Display

The ZenFone 2 Laser comes with a 5.5-inch IPS LCD display panel. The screen carries a resolution of 720 x 1280p, which translates to a decent pixel density of ~267 ppi.

In terms of performance, the display renders natural colours with impressive sharpness and viewing angles. The brightness is very good and sunlight readability doesn't disappoint either. In fact, the Asus ZenFone 2 Laser's display outperforms that of Motorola Moto G3, which is a commendable achievement.

The text looked crisp unless one swooped down at really close range to look for the jagged edges.

The display has been given Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection, which is another feather in its cap. Phones usually marked for the higher price segments sport this high level of Gorilla glass robustness.

Hardware

Asus has decided to dump the idea of going with Intel processor this time, and the decision should evoke more confidence among potential buyers.

The ZenFone 2 Laser carries a Qualcomm MSM8916 Snapdragon 410 based chipset, powered by a 64 Bit Quad core processor, clocked at 1.2 GHz. The graphics department is handled by Adreno 306, while ample memory has been supplied by including 2 GB worth of RAM.

There is 16 GB of onboard storage, which can be further expanded by another 128 GB via microSD card.

Connectivity

The dual SIM mobile phone is 4G/LTE capable. Other features include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth ver 4.0. For navigational assistance, the phone comes equipped with AGPS and GLONASS. There was no NFC, but to expect that from a budget mobile phone would not be a fair demand.

The presence of FM Radio will boost the chances of the phone getting the vote from music enthusiasts more readily.

Software

ZenFone 2 Laser comes with Android 5.0.2 Lollipop, with Asus' ZenUI skin applied on top.

Users can start customisation from the lockscreen itself, where one finds the option to launch operations like the dialer, camera, or the browser. The UI allows the user to assign gestures for launching specific apps as well.

Once inside, one finds plethora of apps and widgets. The presence of app drawer is a sight for the sore eyes these days. The apps here can be arranged according to user-preferred ways.

The ZenUI aims to make the user feel at ease especially by keeping their preferred apps handy. There is the provision to pin three favourite apps to the quick launch bar, and the smart folder aims to achieve similar motive as well by providing easy access to apps based on their usefulness and user access preference.

What was annoying to see, was the tradition of including bloat from Asus. Presence of near duplicate apps like two browsers, Super Note and Quick Memo etc look as annoying as they sound. Asus should have avoided this. They could have easily kept only the useful apps onboard like Zen Link apps (which allows apps to connect with the PC) and reduced the strain on a budget class processor.

A good deal of this bloatware can be either disabled or removed, but not all.

The skin supports theming options as well, and should keep many users busy with customisations. The single hand use mode can be easily activated by double tapping the home key. This mode comes with fully functional navigation keys to boot!

For those who have lots of people vying for their device, the kids mode allows for restricted and password protected usage. As a counter balance, Asus decided to include an Easy mode as well, which is aimed at elderly users. This mode presents a truncated version of the phone, showing only very relevant apps in an enlarged display. The mode is customisable and one can add more apps along the way.

Overall, the skin is pretty good. It includes good features and should keep the users interested. One sure hopes that Asus would reduce, or better, remove the bloatware in the future. The Asus phones will definitely gain better traction that way.

Performance

The ZenFone 2 Laser is a budget segment phone, but performed impressively while going about with the day to day tasks.

The phone showed no lags or stuttering while opening of apps, or during the transition effects. The ample RAM ensured that a good deal of apps can be run simultaneously. Browsing through the internet was smooth as well, but some lag was experienced while dealing with heavier content. The processor showed its budget limitations here.

The latest games ran smoothly. The bright display provided a rich gaming experience and games like Leo's fortune especially turned out crisp looking. Asphalt 8 however did show some signs of stuttering occasionally, but nothing to make one overtly concerned or annoyed.

Overall, keeping in mind the budget factor, the phone impresses thoroughly. Anybody looking for a cost effective solution for a phone shouldn't find reasons to complain apart from few instances which can be easily managed and worked around with.

Battery

ZenFone 2 Laser comes with a 3000 mAh battery. The back up provided was very impressive as the the battery lasted for nearly a day and a half on a single charge. This was while using the phone with a moderate to heavy usage pattern. Users can keep the display's brightness turned up, access the mobile internet without apprehensions, and still be left with good amount of juice in the battery at the end of the day.

The battery is removable, which gives the users the advantage to pop in a fully charged unit if the need arises.

Competition

The ZenFone 2 Laser comes in three colours, namely Ceramic White, Glamour Red and Charcoal Black.

As things stand, the phone competes directly with Lenovo K3 Note as well as Motorola Moto G2 (till the latter's stocks last). While ZenFone 2 lacks the full HD screen of K3 Note, it surges ahead in the competition with its Laser focus enabled camera and has a significant upper hand owing to the K3 Note's heating issues as well.

The ZenFone 2 Laser definitely seems to be the new budget king.

Verdict

Asus tried to bring forward an option for the budget conscious users with their ZenFone 2 Laser, and the phone has turned out to be a solid option in the sub-Rs 10,000 category.

There has been no attempt to redefine the competition, or disturb the status quo in a hard fought segment. A well-made mobile phone with impressive display, a fairly good camera, and a long lasting battery. Asus has concerntrated to get the basics right.

Add to all this, the smooth performance along with the bragging rights of a laser focus system in a budget category mobile phone, the ZenFone 2 Laser stands out comfortably. The phone has been priced nicely at Rs 9,999 and taking a stock of the competition, it seems like Asus has a clear winner on its hands.