Many other manufacturers’ phones also come with beautification modes. However, these modes are only for photos. The ZenFone Live is claimed to offer artificial beauty enhancement feature in live videos. Does Asus ZenFone Live help you look better online? Learn about the phone’s overall performance.
Asus Zenfone Live design
Asus is known for launching phones with similar designs in a particular series. Instead of launching the Zenfone Live with a new look, the company has launched it with the same design as the Zenfone 3 series. The Zenfone Live is available in Rose Pink, Black, and Gold colour variants. The curved edges and corners of the phone make it easy to hold. Weighing 120 grams, we found the phone to be light. Asus has used plastic as the primary material for the phone and it doesn’t feel premium.
Asus ZenFone Live has a 5-inch display with 2.5D glass. The phone has a front camera, selfie flash, proximity sensor and metal mesh earpiece above the display. Asus has replaced the onscreen navigation buttons with capacitive touch buttons. However, the lack of backlight on these buttons is disappointing and it is difficult to use the phone in the dark.
The Zenfone Live has volume and power/lock buttons on the right side and has a textured finish. The different texture makes it easy to differentiate between the two buttons. On the left side is a hybrid SIM tray that can be used for two nano SIM cards or one nano SIM card and one microSD card.
The Asus Zenfone Live has a Micro-USB port, a single speaker grille and a microphone port and 3.5mm audio jack at the bottom while there is a secondary microphone at the top. The phone has a 13-megapixel camera on the rear with LED flash. There is a metallic Asus logo in the middle on the rear. The Zenfone Live does not have a fingerprint sensor and this is disappointing.
Asus Zenfone Live Specifications
Asus has not given details about the processor of the Zenfone Live on its website, but has directly mentioned the Qualcomm Snapdragon Quad Core processor. Most people would guess the Snapdragon 425 or the older Snapdragon 410 processor. But Asus has opted for the Snapdragon 400. A phone launched in 2017 has a processor from 2013. The processor runs at 1.5 GHz and 2 GB of RAM has been provided.
The Zenfone Live has 16GB of inbuilt storage of which only 10GB is user friendly. The storage can be expanded up to 256GB via a microSD card. The battery is non-removable and is 2650mAh. Asus bundles a SIM ejector tool, a USB cable and a 5.2W charger in the box with the phone.
Asus Zenfone Live Camera Performance
The Zenfone Live has a 15-megapixel front camera with a selfie flash. There is a 13-megapixel rear camera with a single LED flash. The camera app is easy to use and offers a variety of modes.
During our usage, the phone was quick to focus in daylight. While it took a little while to focus when clicking macro shots, the images are decent and worth sharing on social media.
In low light, the camera takes time to focus and the quality of the photos is also not good. There is an option to switch to low-light mode in the camera which can increase the ISO and reduce the shutter speed. Apart from this, the resolution of the photo in this mode is limited to 3 megapixels.
For video recording, the camera supports a maximum resolution of 1080p. However, the camera does not autofocus continuously and you need to tap while recording. Software-based video stabilization is available but the resolution needs to be reduced to 720p to enable it. Beautification mode is also available while recording videos but it offers very few beautification options. Apart from this, we noticed that switching on the beautification mode caused a slight lag while recording videos.
The 5-megapixel selfie camera on the Zenfone Live with 1.4 micron pixels and support for a selfie flash will help you take good pictures in low light. The beautification mode is on by default and there are many options to make changes in it. When beautification is enabled, the phone takes time to process the pictures. The selfie camera can record videos up to 720 pixels. And the beautification mode can be used here as well. We found that the device has problems while shooting with this mode. There are problems while recording videos on the phone, applying filters and displaying output on the screen.
The Live Beautification feature works as it is advertised. The ZenFone Live currently supports Live Beautification for streaming on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. This mode shows a dial from zero to 10 that lets you adjust the beautification level as per your requirement. Live Beautification works for both the front and rear cameras, and we noticed that the filters applied were not great. The feature worked well during testing on Instagram.
Asus Zenfone Live Performance
We were very disappointed when we saw that the phone came with the Snapdragon 400 processor. This processor was first used in the Moto G (Review) and is also the most commonly used processor in Android wearable devices. Choosing an older processor is a bit odd and could be a big mistake.
Right from the start, it’s obvious that the Zenfone Live comes with an old processor. Apps and games take a long time to load and having 2GB of RAM doesn’t help either. The Zenfone Live’s RAM management is so active that apps relaunch frequently. And the lag time it takes for apps to load is annoying.
There is a ZenUI skin on top of the old Android Marshmallow but the phone is easy to use and runs like stock Android. Asus has opted for a light theme and large icons for quick toggles which makes them easy to use. Apps can also be launched using gestures and the display can be turned on and off by double tapping on the display. Asus has pre-installed a lot of apps including Facebook and Instagram which might not be useful for everyone.
We played games like Clash Royale, Breakneck, Warhammer 40K and Asphalt 8 Airborne on the phone. Breakneck and Asphalt 8 Airborne took a while to load. While playing Breakneck, the phone slowed down so much that we even had trouble seeing the notification shade.
Asus Zenfone Live runs on all games but the battery drains fast. The 2650mAh battery won’t last very long. Asus has promised 4G and VoLTE support on both SIM slots in the Zenfone line but only one SIM can run on 4G at a time while the other is limited to 2G connectivity.
Our verdict
Asus Zenfone Live claims to have the first live beautification mode for social media. While the phone has some good qualities, it also has some shortcomings. The Zenfone Live being powered by an old processor is a big question mark and the absence of a fingerprint sensor is also disappointing.
Asus has introduced a good feature and with good hardware it will work well. It will be interesting to see if this feature comes to other Asus smartphones or not. The processor is the only component in the Zenfone Live that hampers the overall performance of the phone. At a price of Rs 9,999, the Zenfone Live is hard to recommend, especially when smartphones like the Redmi 4 (Review) and the Moto G5 offer a great overall package for the money.
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