Asus has been able to attract a large number of customers through its ZenFone line. After all, before producing such high-quality, functional and affordable models, Asus positioned itself as a developer of laptops and tablet computers.
However, the experience set by them in 2014 was a success - the released line really turned out to be successful. At the same time, she counted different devices belonging to the budget or middle class. Among the ZenFone was a “flagship”, but in this case it is not the object of our review. Today we are talking about the most affordable in its "family" - Asus ZenFone 4 A400CG. Reviews, specifications and other useful information about this smartphone - all this will be presented in our article.
Apparatus position
The initial look at the phone in question can hardly allow anything interesting. Many reviews indicate that the budget device is already visible at first - these are modest parameters, design that does not attract attention, inexpensive assembly materials.
However, do not rush to write off the model from the accounts of quality devices from Asus. With the operation of the device, according to many buyers, the real potential of the smartphone becomes noticeable. And frankly speaking, he impressed even specialists.
After reviewing our review, you may also realize that the Asus ZenFone 4 A400CG (which we are also going to provide reviews in today’s article) is not as simple as it seems at first glance.
Design
We begin any characteristic of a smartphone with a description of its appearance. This is a tradition, since the buyer encounters the design of the device first of all immediately after picking up the phone. And, as already noted, the Asus ZenFone 4 A400CG (reviews will confirm this) is nothing special.
The front of the smartphone is completely covered with glass, except for the bottom panel. It is intentionally separated from the rest of the screen, and visually this trick is completely justified.
The back cover of the device is made like that of Lumia smartphones: it has a bright color and due to its shape completely covers the side edges of the phone. This solution is budgetary, but fully justifies itself due to the ability to change the lids and thereby individualize the appearance of the device to your taste. Moreover, the manufacturer promises 5 color variations on sale - black, white, red, yellow and blue phones.
Smartphone Asus ZenFone 4 A400CG has a classic layout of navigation elements. Three physical keys are presented immediately below the screen (above the decorative panel mentioned above). They are responsible for switching to the home panel, returning to the previous window, and also opening the “Properties” tab. In addition to them, on the side faces (and in fact - on the sides of the removable cover) there are sound and lock buttons.
Screen
Regarding the display, the situation arose two-digit. On the one hand, the technical specifications here are not the most enviable: the resolution is 800 x 480 pixels, the diagonal is 4 inches, the density is 233 pixels. The screen operates on the basis of TFT technology, which in itself cannot provide such color rendition as the IPS-matrix.
On the other hand, we see that the reviews on the Asus ZenFone 4 A400CG indicate quite tolerable quality of the image displayed on the display. This is also evident from the way its illumination changes insignificantly when the device is tilted.
Another plus of the screen installed on the model we are describing is the presence of a special layer of oleophobic coating. Thanks to him, firstly, the sliding speed of the finger on the surface of the display increases, and secondly, the degree of susceptibility of the screen to fingerprints decreases. Due to this, they can be seen much less than on phones without such a layer.
Separately, we note the ability to work with color reproduction and the degree of image quality on the screen due to the Splendid application. It is installed by default on all Asus devices, in it the user can change the color temperature, hue, saturation of the display.
operating system
According to tradition, again, ZenUI graphical shell is installed on all ZenFone devices (and the one described by us). It looks somewhat similar to the fifth generation of Android (at least, gradients and the visual design of windows prompt this idea). In fact, Android 4.4.4 was installed on the Asus ZenFone 4 A400CG smartphone. As to whether there is an update to the latest version of the assembly for the device, there is no information.
Performance
The platform on which the device is built does not have a high response frequency and, therefore, cannot provide high enough performance for working with “bulky" applications. However, for most of those games that are presented with normal and minimal requirements (in terms of performance), the Asus ZenFone 4 A400CG smartphone (reviews confirm this) is suitable.
Speaking from a technical point of view, we are talking about the Intel Atom Z2520 processor, built on two cores with a clock frequency of 1.2 GHz. The RAM here has a capacity of only 1 GB, of which no more than 300 MB will be available in constant mode.
The amount of internal memory on the Asus ZenFone 4 A400CG is 8 GB. Reviews note the possibility of connecting a memory card, due to which it is possible to expand the volume up to 32 GB.
Battery
The device that we describe in this review has a 1200 mAh battery. Of course, this is not enough for a device with such functionality, therefore, even in the reading mode with the screen brightness set at 25-35 percent, the device will be able to work for no more than 8-9 hours. If we talk about games, this figure can easily be divided by 3. It is not surprising that many users complain in their reviews about the low level of autonomy of the smartphone.
There are several ways to deal with this. The first is to significantly reduce energy consumption, try to install any applications on your smartphone that control it, optimize background processes, and the like. The second is just to use portable charging stations (such as PowerBank) and wear them when you need to increase the duration of the device.
And so, given the small thickness of the case, it is not surprising that the developers chose such a small battery - an element with a larger capacity would simply not fit into the device.
Camera
On the Asus ZenFone 4 A400CG White (we will give reviews about the device after our review), there are 2 cameras installed - with 5 and 0.3 megapixel sensors. The phone’s camera capabilities are quite wide: you can shoot video in FullHD quality, various settings are available for more stable shooting, and so on.
In fact, as the Asus ZenFone 4 A400CG White reviews report, you can make sure that the cameras have significantly saved. Settings that can be skillfully operated on a more functional generation ZenFone 5, here simply do not save the situation.
You need to come to terms with this, given the cost of the phone and its position in the Asus product line.
Communication
The phone supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB; There is, of course, an adapter for receiving a GSM signal in networks of all formats, including a 3G connection (high-speed Internet). In addition, it should be noted the possibility of working with two SIM cards, which will make the mobile device more profitable to use. True, as the Asus ZenFone 4 A400CG 1A356RUS model describes the reviews, due to the fact that there is only one radio module, the second SIM card is turned off during a conversation on the first.
Sound
The technical description of the smartphone, posted on the official website, claims about a special technology to improve the sound quality of the device, which is called SonicMaster. Allegedly, by default it improves the purity of sound using hardware and software filters.
In practice, again, the situation is somewhat different. As noted, including the reviews describing the Asus ZenFone 4 A400CG phone, the phone sounds lousy before updating the firmware. After it, apparently, some new software audio processors are installed on the device, due to which the sound quality increases significantly. But then again, given the class of the smartphone, hoping for something supernatural is not worth it.
Reviews
We gave a number of technical descriptions of the device based on the experience of interacting with it. Now, for a more objective review, it is necessary to point out the reviews left by other buyers describing the Asus ZenFone 4 A400CG 1B360RUS. At the very least, it will help to identify those advantages and disadvantages that we could not reveal.
However, there are no hidden advantages in the smartphone, since all its “strengths” are already visible due to the technical description.
As for the shortcomings, this is, for example, periodic malfunctions in the software, which are expressed in the self-disconnection of the smartphone or its playback of some extraneous noise of unknown origin. This will not be written about in any review, but such a failure can be detected only in practice after prolonged use.
Also, reviews describing the Asus ZenFone 4 A400CG 1B360RUS White note that after flashing the device to Android 5.0, some shortcomings disappeared, while others, on the contrary, appeared. For example, the device began to seriously slow down in the process, even at an everyday level. You can get rid of this by resetting the phone to the factory settings and deleting less used applications.
In addition to the described, users also complain about the battery’s battery drain too fast, bad pictures taken with the camera, the screen visibility in the sun. There are also reviews describing the Asus ZenFone 4 A400CG 1B360RUS smartphone, which refer to the low quality of the materials from which the device is assembled (in particular, it is plastic instead of glass on the display).
Also a common problem is the loss of SIM card connection or lack of 3G support (despite the fact that there is an item on the choice of this format in the settings).
conclusions
What can you say about the smartphone, which is devoted to today's review? The fact is that according to the general description, according to some basic characteristics, the Asus ZenFone 4 can be judged as a pleasant, functional and affordable model, endowed with wide capabilities.
On the other hand, you can see a lot of negative comments left by customers, where the work of the smartphone is criticized in every possible way, its main disadvantages are revealed. This leads to the fact that serious problems arise that make interaction with the model less comfortable.
For this reason, it would be unfair to recommend purchasing this model to anyone who is looking for an affordable and reliable smartphone. Maximum, the device can be used as a temporary replacement for the main phone. But again, you need to be prepared for malfunctions and other troubles. Or just take a higher priced ZenFone.