Introduction

Asus has made a follow up to its flagship phone. Packed with an Intel 64-bit processor and a 4 GB RAM, this monster can handle just about anything.

Hardware

The Zenfone 2 ships with a Quad Core (Z3560 or Z3580) 64-bit processor, 2 GB or 4 GB of RAM (DDR3L-RS 1333), and a 16/32/64 GB option for eMMc storage. In addition to your large internal memory, you also get an SD card slot, not bad. The screen comes with a colorful full HD resolution on a 5.5 inches display. The screen has a protective layer of Gorilla Glass 3, saving you the trouble of applying a screen protector. Which in my opinion, a screen protector would just reduce the quality of screen color and touch texture. The screen comes with a double tap wake up feature, which is quite handy at times, or if you have small hands. The volume buttons are placed behind instead of the traditional side buttons, which some may need to get used to. Taking screenshots are now more troublesome since the volume buttons are placed behind. And it's harder to take screenshots with one hand with this design.

Sensors wise, it comes with everything you would expect from a high end flagship phone. It has all the standard sensors from accelerometer to gyroscope. But it doesn't stop there, this device also comes with gesture sensors such as flick, step, lift, shake and all.

Software

Since I got this device, there's been nothing but updates from Asus. Depending on your view, this could be both positive and negative. This means Asus is constantly giving support for this device, patching up security flaws, fixing bugs, and so on. At the same time, it may be time consuming to keep updating your firmware.

One thing that bugs me though, is that if you have an SD card inserted to your device, you get a notification for it every time you boot up your device. It's as if you just inserted the SD card. But hey, with Asus' constant updates, I am optimistic that this will be fixed in the near future.

Build Quality

The device is of a candy bar form factor. It has a nice build to it, the weight is enough to give you a nice grip on to the device. The curved back gives off a thinner device feel than it actually is. It's also easier to pick up on a flat surface.

Benchmark

The benchmark scores are pretty much off the charts with this one.

Antutu resulted to a 47,000 score. Internal memory read and write are 130 MB/s and 70 MB/s on A1 SD. 3DMark's Ice Storm and Ice Storm Extreme resulted to a maxed out while Ice Storm Unlimited resulted to a 20,000 score. Battery wise, it is able to last a whole day on normal usage with light gaming. But just 4 to 5 hours on heavy gaming usage with a couple of apps open in the background.

Gaming

Gaming on this device is pretty smooth. The PowerVR G6430 with a 2 GB RAM should be more than enough for most Android games today, let alone a 4 GB RAM. There should be nothing this device wouldn't run on today's Android games. Here are records from a 4 GB RAM device: Asphalt 8: Airborne and Dead Trigger 2.