Last edited by mail2ronit on 2017/4/19 13:33
The Zenfone 3 Ultra is a high-end smartphone offering from ASUS that is claimed to be the best hybrid between a Smartphone & a Tablet. But, how does this company claimed, great media device performs when it is pushed to it's limits ? In this article, lets find out.
For those who are always looking for the spcs sheet, here are the specifications for the Zenfone 3 Ultra.
Let's actually come part by part to the device. Without going too much into everything, I have organised this review in a way where it'll be easier for you guys to understand the device more transparently. In any point of this review where you think that I wasn't able to to do justice with the info, you can notify me in the comments section & I'll definitely try to clear all your doubts.
Keeping in mind that the Zenfone 3 Ultra comes with a huge footprint of 6.8 inches, Ergonomics & Design Aesthetics will matter a lot here. My biggest question seemed to be if it's actually comfortable in hand & easy to carry in the pocket. In my day to day usage, I had nearly 80-85% satisfaction with the ergonomics of the device. Going with Ultra Thin Bezels played a big game to keep the overall size of the device much smaller compared to other simmilar size devices. This makes the device to look much more like a Smartphone instead of looking like a Tablet. It's somewhere between those two so, a little bit bigger than a Phablet & smaller than a Tablet.
Can we call it a Capsule ?
Probably not 
Anyway, The phone is not slippery in hand & with my kind of hands ( slightly long fingers) it was easy to hold it with just one hand & carry. But, using the device with one hand was kinda difficult for me. Most of the time I used two hands or switched to the ZenUI One Hand Mode. If you wish to carry this in your pocket, then it fits fine in the normal size pockets. Only, tight jeans can make you feel uncomfortable with it.
Coming to the Built Quality, ASUS advertises this device as an All Metal Smartphone with Invisible Antenna Lines alongside the Zenfone 3 Deluxe. In real life, this device actually has great bulit quality. The Body is built using Aluminium Alloy of pretty good quality. This shall add some extra durability to the device.
The sides of the device is a different story though. There is a Plastic Coating on the Metal on the sides of the device. So, if you meet major frictions, that coating can get scratched. To avoid this, I'll recommend a case. Now why ASUS used this coating ? I think maybe it is making a way for the hidden antenna lines or helping the device to be less slippery in hands.
So, overall the Zenfone 3 Ultra passed the Design & Build Quality segment with "A" grade from my side. Looking at the premium price, a premium built quality was definitely needed.
The Zenfone 3 Ultra is aimed to be a Prosumer Media Device & that's why the Display is the biggest player of the game here. ASUS packed a 6.8 inch IPS+ Display that has the resolution of 1920 x 1080 on the Zenfone 3 Ultra. Now, what makes this display special is it's own procesor. It is powered by an ASUS Tru2Life+ Processor & this is something we can't find in the majority of High-end Smartphones of 2017.
In real life the Display looks awesome. The screen is extremely color accurate & placing it right next to my 22 inch 1080P Bravia TV resulted in better color accuracy in the Zenfone 3 Ultra. I was very very surprised by this result as I never expected it to surpass a budget 1080P TV. The outdoor visibility is also quite good but, while using the camera I got a little bit problem with the viewfinder. I wish they have added an extra 50 nits to it.
Now as I said before, this device is made for Prosumer Media Experience. Our main consideration here is how good the videos look on screen & upto which resolution we can play them.
The videos look great on this display. Thanks to the high NTSC Color Gamut of 95%, this thing tops the smartphone IPS display list. The Whites are great & the Blacks are decent as well. It's not an AMOLED display so, the Blacks are not perfect but, still it's 80% there I'll say.
The above image is a clicked photo of the screen & not a screenshot. Notice the Whites here & the shadow of the eyes will also give an idea about the Blacks. About the RGB balance, I think the Red channel has a slight edge over the other two.
So, overall the Zenfone 3 Ultra passed the Display segment with "A+" grade from my side. It does it's job at it's best here.
The OS it was running out of the box was Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. But, few weeks ago ASUS pushed an update for the device that Upgraded the OS to Android 7.0 Nougat . Getting OS upgrades are moment of happiness for most people so, keep it up ASUS.
Now, in case you need VoLTE, this upgrade also includes that in the feature list. Anyway, the OS is fused with ZenUI 3.0. On top of Android Nougat, the ZenUI feels snappier compared to Android Marshmallow. We do have Zenmotion like the other Zenfones that include Double Tap to Sleep & Wake Up, One Hand Mode, Lock Screen Gestures etc.
My favourite software feature though is again the Split Screen Mode of Android Nougat where you can keep two active apps on the screen at the same time.
There are plenty of people who like the Pure Stock Android experience & don't like a Custom Skin. But, I kinda like ZenUI as it gives me a lot of customization options.
Coming to the Security options, we do have a front facing Fingerprint Scanner on this device. It is embedded into the Physical Home button is the device.
It's not an Active Fingerprint Scanner though. That means, to wake up the device from sleep, you need to press down the Home key to unlock it. The scanner supports 360 degree recognition & is 70-75% accurate. So, most of of the time it gets the job done.
Overall in Software & Security department it gets an "A" grade from me.
The Zenfone 3 Ultra is claimed to have the exact same camera as the Zenfone 3 Deluxe. In the back it comes with an 23MP Sony IMX318 sensor with a f-2.0 lens & in the front it comes with a f-2.4 lens but, the sensor is unknown in this case.
Here are a few shots taken from the rear & the camera.
I have made a detailed Camera Review for this device, so head over to the link given below for more sample shots & detailed discussion on the Camera.
Overall, I'll give an "A" Grade in the Camera segment.
The Zenfone 3 Ultra is packing high performance hardware inside the hood. It is powered by an Octacore Snapdragon 652 with 4 Cortex A72 cores running at 1.8GHz & 4 Cortex A53 Cores running at 1.4GHz. The total amount of RAM equipped is 4 Gigabytes & it is LPDDR3 type. The hardware shortlist looks like this...
In the performance segment, the SD652 is quite a powerful player. It is not build on the newer 14nm process, it's actually having a 28nm architecture. But, still the performance level is quite impressive on this one. The device kept it's snappiness even under medium to heavy loads. Anyway, I know you guys are looking for Benchmarking scores. So here are the scores that I got during the testing period. Few of you were interested to know on social media that, how the device will perform if we edit 4K video on it. So, I have also included the Work 2.0 test alongside Antutu & Geekbench tests.
Just as the benchmarking scores suggest, the both the Single & Multicore Core performance is good. Now, if you want to edit 4K videos on your phone that the majority of people never do, you can edit but, it'll not be comfortable. 1080P footage will hold up just fine.
The GPU is an Adreno 510 running at 600MHz with a count of 180 Gigaflops. It's actually a good option for Moderate to Heavy Gaming. And if you have already started to search again for the Gaming Benchmarking scores find the 3D Mark scores down below for Five Different Tests...
I personally prefer 3D Mark over any other Benchmark as it has a variety of tests at different resolutions starting from 720P going all the way to 1440P(2K) & it also shows real time frame rates so, I can get a clear idea how good will different games perform on a perticular device.
So, at 720P you'll average at 60 frames per second, at 1080P that frame rate will reduce & average at 40-45 frames per second & at 1440P you'll average at 30-35 frames per second. Now, these values may vary game to game but it will definitely be near to the average values.
Last time many of you complained about not including gameplays in this section so, I am including two highly performance intensive gameplays. These are not the most common games to find in a review article but, they are kinda the Bleeding Edge of Smartphone Gaming. These games are known as Marvel Future Fight & Godfire. After you finish watching the gameplay videos, we'll move to the brief part for these games.
In terms of real life performance, it performs pretty well. Games like Asphalt Xtreme & N.O.V.A 3 run buttery smooth in their Highest Graphics settings. Now, performance intesive games are the real test of Smartphone Gaming. As you have already seen, I have played super high-end games like Marvel Future Fight & Godfire on the device. At highest graphics it handled Marvel Future fight completely well.
Now, Godfire was kinda different story. Now, this was not a game that an Adreno 510 should handle well. Because, the GPU will simply fall short of enough Gigaflop power. While 600MHz & 180 Gigaflops are not low counts but, something like Godfire requires even more power, specially on the Gigaflop side. An Adreno 530 is a much better choice fo playing Godfire. However, the Zenfone 3 Ultra held the game wisely with noticable frame drops of course. But, the experience was quite playable so, if you want to play Godfire at highest graphics in it, you can.
RAM management is again simmilar to Marshmallow & that 4GB of LPDDR3 RAM is enough even if you're doing a hefty multitasking.
So, overall in Performance & Gaming segment, I'll give it an "A" Grade.
Zenfone 3 Ultra comes equipped with 64GB of Internal Storage & transfer speed....... Wait, first check out the test results yourself.
Now, the transfer speeds look fairly good at this price point. One let down though is the compromise in SQLite scores. Anyway, I don't think that average SQLite scores will effect day-to-day usage.
So, overall it gets an "A" Grade in the Storage segment.
This is definitely my favourite part after the entire evaluation. First of all the Zenfone 3 Ultra has a Dual-speaker setup at the bottom of the device. Now, these are 5-magnet speakers & if that sounds fammilier that's because ASUS has used 5-magnet speakers before. But, there is a huge difference in the inside of this device.
The Audio is powered by a Smart AMP by NXP & the device comes with 24-bit audio support. So, if you have a high-end headphone, the Ultra will handle them just fine. It ships with ZenEar S in the box that is the most high-end earphone that ASUS currently makes for Smartphones & it also supports Hi-Fi Audio.
About the loudness of the speakers, here are the test results,
So, wiith the average of 78dB, the audio is quite loud. In terms of quality I'll say that is was the best smartphone speaker that I have heard till now. Highs-Mids-Lows are well balanced, small details are crisp & it also manages to balance the Loudness & Clarity like a pro.
So, on this device I can say that ASUS SonicMaster team has done an awseome job & in this section an "A+" Grade is what the Zenfone 3 Ultra deserves.
The Zenfone 3 Ultra comes with a huge 4600mah Battery that is a non-removeable & Li-ion type.
From the above consumption chart, we can get a clear idea about the battery life. One important consideration here is that, the above chart is kinda the Worst Case Scenario as it was calculated during my testing period. You are not going to throw this much work at your phone ever, so expect an additional 3-5 hours of Battery Life depending on your usage habits.
In this case it was charged to 100% at 10:23 AM & it came all down to 1% at 9:20 PM. So, around 11 hours of Battery Life with super high usage. That means with Normal to Moderate usage, you can actually get 14-16 hours quite easily. So, it can easily last the full day & you'll probably need to plug it in everyday before you go to sleep.
Keeping in mind that, this device comes with a huge 6.8 inch display, the battery life is actually good. I think the main reason of using a 1080P Display instead of going with a 1440P Display was to lower the power consumption.
In terms of Heating this thing heats quite a bit. While gaming the temparatures are comfortable but, if you're watching 4K Videos or using the Camera for a long time, it feels hot. That was expected though as that's a quite known issue with the 28nm Snapdragon 652 Platform but, at least this device doesn't become way too hot like some other ones.
So overall in the Battery & Heating department it gets a B+ Grade from my side.
The Zenfone 3 Ultra stands somewhere between the Pemium & the Mid-end segment. But, at a price point of 49999 INR, is it a worthy purchase ? Let's check the PROS & CONS first.
So, should you pick it up ? My answer is, it depends on what you want. This device is made to be a Prosumer Media Device & I think it does that job at the best level. The Visuals & the Audio Output are best in their class. The big screen also helps in E-book Reading & Web Browsing better than any other phablet in the market right now & Watching Videos are an absolute pleasure. So, if you're a Mediaphile, go pick it up & you won't be disappointed. In case you're looking for best-in-class performance, the Zenfone 3 Deluxe is available at the same price point.
That's it for this review. If you liked it give me huge thumbs up & also tell me your views & queries in the comment section below.
Catch you in my next article so till then, Good Bye !
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