About a year ago, the Asus brand expanded the very interesting ZenFone line with five new gadgets, each of which is designed for a specific category of users. Smartphone ASUS ZenFone Selfie ZD551KL (16Gb) is clearly designed for the most beautiful half of humanity: excellent performance of the front camera, which raise the quality of selfies to unprecedented heights, as well as the presence of bright and “fun” color options for the device. In addition, the gadget received a very good stuffing and an intelligent display.
So, the subject of today's review is the ASUS ZenFone Selfie ZD551KL (16Gb) smartphone. Reviews, specifications, design and equipment, as well as the advantages of the device along with its shortcomings will be considered in our article.
Contents of delivery
The gadget is packaged in a very nice box made of thick cardboard, on which all the most remarkable characteristics of the device are indicated. The color of the package is made in the same gamut as the acquired model ASUS ZenFone Selfie ZD551KL (16Gb). Owner reviews very warmly noted this point - you do not need to open each box in the store in order to check and feel the color, because a bare name on a package like Blue or Gold will not tell you about the details. In any case, quickly deciding on the choice of a gadget, this nuance will even help.
In the box you will see:
- ASUS ZenFone Selfie ZD551KL (16Gb);
- customer reviews and advertisements on numerous brochures;
- short manual in Russian;
- mains charger;
- micro USB cable.
The package bundle can be called weak, but maybe it’s for the better, because many people prefer to buy additional accessories on their own to their taste and color, and an extra “chip” in the kit significantly raises an already rather big price.
Design
The ASUS ZenFone Selfie ZD551KL (16Gb) is a 5.5-inch gadget with an original back cover and a “female” color, which can be called the main design decision. In general, the gadget looks quite solid, and to call it cheap or pass-through language simply does not turn, the appearance - by five points.
If you do not take into account the color, then the design is structurally identical to the previous generation ZenFone. As for the location of the functional and the main controls, here we see the classic Asus representative: the volume rocker is in the center of the rear panel, the on / off button is on the upper end. This arrangement has its share of practicality, that is, when working with the gadget, and with any hand, the finger always reaches the main elements of the ASUS ZenFone 2 Selfie ZD551KL (16Gb). Owner reviews on this subject unanimously note that all interfaces are intelligently and ergonomically distributed.
Design Features
The front of the gadget, regardless of the chosen color, is always black, which creates a positive contrast to the overall appearance. Under the back cover you can see a removable battery (many thanks to Asus for this) and slots for micro-SIM cards.
Decorative design is typical for this line, where the lower front part is decorated with a pattern of concentric elements. Above the device’s screen, the front camera stands out that you can’t call small, and on both sides of the eye there is a flash and a speaker, and, interestingly, they are the same size in the ASUS ZenFone Selfie ZD551KL (16Gb). The feedback from the owners of the relative appearance of the smartphone is generally positive: all the colors turned out to be pleasant and soft, and the size and layout of the interfaces fully correspond to the dimensions of the gadget.
Ergonomics
The phone feels quite comfortable even in the thinnest female pen, but managing it without the help of another is not quite convenient. Alternatively, you can enable the function that allows you to work with the gadget with one hand, where the active screen area is set in the menu. The mode easily turns on and off with the usual double “tap” on the “Home” key.
The case has rounded corners, which makes the smartphone “slimmer” a little, but still eleven millimeters of thickness is a bit much for a device designed for a female audience. But in any case, for a 5.5-inch gadget, the model meets all ergonomic standards: it fits perfectly in the palm of the hand due to the specific rear panel, and the sensible arrangement of interfaces allows you to control the device with one hand, even with the special mode on.
Screen
The smartphone simply begs for all kinds of praises for a really high-quality IPS-matrix, which easily copes with a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels, and this is with a very good pixel density of 403 ppi. The picture remains clear and understandable, even if as close as possible to the eyes of ASUS ZenFone Selfie ZD551KL (16Gb).
Overview of the angles is also at the proper level for the matrix, so you can easily look through the photo or watch a video to the company of girlfriends and friends. The maximum degree of tilt at which the picture begins to darken is 45 °. In addition, the screen was distinguished by natural color reproduction and high-quality oleophobic coating, coupled with a proprietary anti-glare film specially designed specifically for ASUS ZenFone Selfie ZD551KL (16Gb).
Owner reviews are full of positive context regarding the characteristics of the screen: the image is clear, rich and moderately contrast. Not without a fly in the ointment - this is too small a supply of backlight brightness. If you set even the maximum value, then in order to read the data in the sun, you will have to significantly strain your eyes.
Platform
The model works on the Android platform version 5.0 with the mark “Lollipop” on the ZenUI branded shell. The interface showed itself quite quickly, and ASUS ZenFone Selfie ZD551KL (16Gb) did not notice any friezes, brakes and other lags. User reviews especially note a very successful solution for the function of scrolling home screens - I want to do it again and again, especially since the manufacturer equipped the platform with a whole bunch of animated slider options.
In addition, if you are not satisfied with the basic settings of the application grids and the order of their grouping, then you can transfer everything at your discretion. Nevertheless, the regular location principle turned out to be quite successful and for the most part thematic: the “Social” folder contains all the well-known network clients for communication, and in the “Photos” section you will find the “Instagram” shortcut and other services for working with images.
Utilities & Applications
Brand utility utilities of the brand look interesting and beautiful, which are also thematically scattered, ranging from the file manager to the task scheduler with an alarm clock. In general, the set of pre-installed applications is very impressive for ASUS ZenFone Selfie ZD551KL (16Gb / Gold). Owner reviews noted the most interesting third-party utilities: Amazon Kindle - “reader”, Zinio - magazine store, TripAdvisor - travel manager, and Dr.Safety - a virus fighter.
The user has the opportunity to choose the desktop location system: in the “single layer” mode, the icons will be arranged in the usual way on the home screens, and in the “two layers” a button will appear for the application menu, which is very convenient if you are “plus” by nature install everything in a row.
Performance
Unlike its predecessor, the ZD551KL selfie option instead of the Atom chipset from Intel received the eight-core Snapdragon 615 series processor, operating at 1.7 GHz frequencies. For the graphic component, the rather nimble Adreno accelerator from the 405 series is responsible.
RAM on the gadget - 3 GB, which is quite serious, although much more modest than the flagship of this series. As for the built-in memory (16 GB), some will miss it, so you can immediately buy a flash card (up to 128 GB) if you are not satisfied with the base phone ASUS ZenFone Selfie ZD551KL (16Gb).
Owner reviews regarding the smartphone’s performance are mostly positive: it copes with the high-resolution video stream perfectly, regular applications and the interface do not slow down, and the device “thinks” very rarely, only if it is not heavily loaded (more than five tabs in the browser, “heavy” program, etc.).
In addition, the device proved to be excellent in gaming applications. Even the most demanding modern games run without problems, and there are no subsidence on the FPS or friezes. However, with such a chipset and a video accelerator this is not surprising.
Cameras
The front-facing selfie camera is the jewel of this phone. From here came the name of the gadget and the advertising expression: “You are in the best light!” The "front" is inferior to the "rear" only in focusing speed - the main camera is equipped with laser lenses.
Nevertheless, the front eye has a wide-angle lens for taking panoramic photos as much as 140 °, which the main camera lacks. The characteristics of both matrices are also impressive: 13 megapixels, dual LED flashes and autofocus.
Offline work
High screen resolution and a powerful eight-core processor, coupled with a graphics accelerator, significantly reduce the battery life of the device. The 3000 mAh battery fully discharges in approximately 7 hours of continuous video viewing in Full HD format.
Demanding and volatile applications like games consume about 15-20% of the total battery charge. If you use your smartphone in its usual mode (web surfing, voice communication, SMS), then the battery is enough for one day, that is, before bedtime put on charge and forgot about the battery until the evening. In general, a short battery life is the trouble of the entire “Android” brotherhood, so this point can hardly be called critical.
Summarizing
Selfie ZD551KL from the famous brand "Asus" is a rather interesting gadget in the new line. The smartphone has a very expressive design and unusual for the domestic market coloring of the case.
In addition, the device received an excellent front camera for a perfect selfie and a screen that deserves all praise. The smartphone has a well-proven hardware platform with some attractive features of its own, moreover, it can be easily adjusted to your personal needs.
All of the above plus a very reasonable price (about 17,000 rubles), as planned by the manufacturer, will certainly attract girls (maybe even guys). The only thing that disappoints is the too short battery life, because with this front camera you want to take a lot more selfies.
Advantages of the model:
- original and interesting appearance, which many girls will surely like;
- excellent characteristics of the front camera (just a paradise for "selfies");
- high-quality screen in many respects;
- a good set of chipsets, as well as excellent performance;
- proprietary and multi-functional ZenUI shell;
- the balance of price and quality is fully observed.
Disadvantages:
- the battery lasts only for a day of routine work;
- it is difficult to read information in direct sunlight.