Asus Zenfone 2 Laser Unboxed, Initial Impressions, Benchmark, Sample Photos

On August 29, 2015, that is tomorrow, Asus Philippines will unveil the next batch of Zenfone 2 series in the Philippines. Expected to launch are Zenfone 2 Laser, Zenfone 2 Selfie and perhaps the Asus Zenfone 2 Deluxe Special Edition.

We were able to hold a copy of the Zenfone 2 Laser.

Asus Philippines sent us a test unit which looks like a commercial unit already as the packaging is already in a commercial box.

The Zenfone 2 family was already launched in India and the indicative pricing of the Zenfone 2 Laser (Z2L) is around Rs 9,999 which is when converted to Pesos directly translates to P7,081.75

There are two variants of the Z2L — the ZE500KL and the ZE550KL. The first variant is the 5-inch model while the second, which what we got as review unit is the 5.5-inch model.

The Z2L resembles the Zenfone 2, same layout, same feel, same UI with a little twist in the layout of the camera because of the addition of laser autofocus feature that is intended to shoot photo faster.

Z2L has a removable back cover coupled with a removable 3,000mAH battery. It has dual micro-SIM with 4G/LTE. The micro-SD slot is located on top of the SIM 1 slot.

At the bottom is the micro-USB port for file transfer and charging the phone. While on top is the power button and 3.5mm audio port. The back has the volume rocker, the camera, the LED flash and the laser.

The same capacitive buttons are also present with the back button the left, home button at the middle and the menu button on the right. All of these don’t illuminate at night leaving you on a guessing game mode.

Asus Zenfone 2 Laser UI

If you own Zenfone 2, the Z2L is no different at all. It has the same feel, same user experience, but I noticed something new in the arrangement of installed apps. There is a view mode with a menu that auto-arrange the apps into a specific group. You can choose to group the apps into “Downloaded”, Customized, Frequent, or the stock option which is “All”.

If you are the kind of end-user who explores a smarpthone a lot, you will like the Z2L. It has vast of pre-installed apps, varying from productivity, photography, shopping, music and audio, social, tools and others.

Antutu Benchmark is . . .

Antutu scored Z2L 22,992. It is low because Z2L is being positioned in the midrange category. It has a Snapdradgon 410 SOC with QuadCore 1.2GHz processor. Talking about midrange, Z2L has only 2G of RAM and 16G of internal storage, but of course the micro-SD is your saviour when it comes to additional memory.

Z2L Sample photos

Now is the time to initially judge the Z2L. With the laser AF, has it become really fast in taking photos? What about the quality. Is it sharp and crisp? Let us show you some samples.

Note the blurred background with this photo above. I took this shot inside a mall using automatic settings of the Z2L camera.

Slow shutter speed took this photo, only 1/60 with ISO auto set to 320 and an aperture of f/2.5.

Taking photos in the evening on an event with crazy lights are flashing here and there is very challenging. But Z2L managed to take this photo. The subject is so sharp.

Here is another one from the same event.

And, for the selfie lovers, Z2L won’t disappoint you either. You can super-customize the shot before you hit the shutter button. In this sample above, we made sure that look so thin and we were successful. Hehe! Say hello to Jaja, she is the blogger behind Jajaramirez.com.

Bonus … Sample video clip with minor edits from iMovie

Final thoughts

If Asus Philippines will price the Z2L below P8,000, this will be a hit. I will be a perfect gift sugesstion comes December.

I found some hiccups during the initial review. But with the right tweaking and usage of the resource-hungry apps, you can be a happy Zenfone owner.