I did not like the Asus ZenFone 2 at first. It looks chunky feels cheap, the user interface reminds me of all the annoying ways companies take advantage of Android’s open nature.

But after some time with it, the ZenFone 2 eventually grew on me. I used its Themes app to customize the interface. I took some pretty neat low-light photos of my cat wistfully looking out the window. I played through many levels of ggle Blast before I ran out of lives. It wasn’t so bad after all. 

I haven’t used a budget phone in a while—not since I took the Moto E out for a spin back in February. I did not expect that the ZenFone 2 would grow on me as much as it did, but in the end it won me over. Its hardware is powerful enough to do almost everything a flagship phone could do, its camera abilities are capable enough for posting to Instagram. After a period of time, however, I started to experience some of the limitations of Asus’s inexpensive device. For everything it does as well as a pricier, high-end device, there’s still bits of the ZenFone 2 that come out remind you that it’s still just a middle-of-the-road kind of Android phone.

iced at $200 (unlocked off contract) for the version with 2GB of RAM 16GB of storage, or $300 for the 4GB/64GB version (reviewed here), the price is definitely right on Asus’ latest.

An underwhelming design

Brushed metal is nice, but you need more than that to pass off a phone as premium-looking. The Asus ZenFone 2 is a solid, study smartphone, but compared to comparably-priced devices from the likes of Huawei Xiaomi, it’s so… looking. It’s like Asus took some of the materials its used for its cheaper laptops pasted it onto an Android device.

at’s up with this rear-facing button trend that’s taking over the market lately? Asus hopped on that bwagon, too, but while it works wonders for , it doesn’t work too well in Asus’s implementation. The volume rocker on the back is too thin to press comfortably without cradling the phone with the other h, the power button on top is awkward to hit.

The ZenFone 2’s back panel is removable. It features dual SIM card slots a MicroSD slot. The battery is tightly nestled underneath the slots, so it isn’t removable. At least you can tack on a neat Asus-made folio case or other backings to customize the phone to your liking. 

A capable 1080p display

t’s get back to what I like about the ZenFone 2. Its 5.5-inch screen reminds me of why I prefer bigger phones. The 1080p display has great viewing angles for watching videos reading ebooks, though you can tell that it has its quirks. The colors may not be as saturated as Samsung’s Super AMOD displays, for example, the blacks are simply not black enough—you can tell where the display ends the bezel begins. If you decide you want more vibrant colors, however, you can use the ZenFone 2’s built-in color calibrator to play around with the display’s color settings. At the very least, the ZenFone 2’s display doesn’t look cheap.

As fast as last year’s flagships

The ZenFone 2 comes in two configurations: a 2GB of RAM version with a quad-core 1.8GHz processor ( Intel Atom Z3560), a 4GB of RAM version with a quad-core 2.3GHz processor (Intel Atom Z3580). I’m in possession of the latter, so that’s the one we benchmarked.

Any mid-range device should be capable of running memory-intensive applications without crashing on you. The ZenFone 2’s processor is mostly good for it—I say “mostly” because while it performed on par with last year’s Samsung Galaxy S5 in our benchmark tests, it also threw several minor tantrums along the way. As soon as I tacked on a theme with the built-in Themes app, the interface became a little sluggish. Apps would hiccup here there, ggle Blast took a while to load when it’s usually up running in just a few seconds on other devices. 

Of course, once an application did load all the way, the ZenFone 2’s processor pulled through: ggle Blast was smooth during gameplay, photos videos were quick to edit within Instagram, Hulu streamed beautifully through -Fi while I laid out in the backyard. There are moments when the phones feels like it’s just another mid-range device that’s over promised on performance, but once that Atom processor gets its bearings, it’s nice a speedy. I’m curious to see what this phone performs like after a few months of daily usage.

Battery that could be better

Asus equipped the ZenFone 2 with non-removable 3000mAh battery pack—that’s as big as the battery in ’s G4 flagship, bigger than the battery pack that’s packed into both the Samsung Galaxy S6 HTC One M9. 

I constantly forget to charge phones when I’m reviewing them. It’s a bad habit, because I’m usually juggling a few phones at a time. However, I was pleased to see that even with my forgetful nature, the ZenFone 2 was holding on for dear life with at least 10 percent battery life every time. I’d leave it in my bag over night into the next afternoon it’d still be kicking syncing notifications. I used it to play games peruse Twitter while watching TV was surprised at how little power it ate up. 

The battery testing suite said otherwise. The ZenFone 2 performs as well with battery life as the Galaxy S5, but that’s not the best thing in this case. However, it’s worth considering that other inexpensive devices don’t use up as much power because they’re not as powerful. It’s worth pointing out that Intel’s mobile Cs aren’t known for battery efficiency, either. 

A slow camera with low-light abilities

I’m a bit perplexed by the ZenFone 2’s 13-megapixel rear-facing camera. It’s pretty good at taking photos, both in the lab outside in the real world. The color composition is on point when the lighting situation is agreeable I was pleased that it lived up to its low-light promises. However, the shutter speed on the camera is excruciatingly slow at times, the phone constantly had issues focusing on the subject ahead. The ZenFone 2 is slow to snap shots when the flash is in use too.

Oddly, the ZenFone 2 defaults to shooting photos at 10-megapixels in a cropped 16:9 aspect ratio, though the sensor is capable of 13 megapixels at a 4:3 aspect ratio. I don’t like the fact that it doesn’t shoot at full resolution by default. so, there’s no optical image stabilization, so even the slightest shake of the h could ruin that low-light shot you were hoping to take.

Regardless of its kinks, the ZenFone 2 takes passable photography compared to a majority of other inexpensive phones out there. Its low-light capabilities will come in hy in many situations, but don’t solely rely on this phone to capture the most essential moments of your life.

The ZenFone 2’s 5-megapixel front-facing camera is also worth talking about it. It works well for snapping a headshot its instant-beautification features actually work rather nicely. I did manage to do some extreme post-processing with the camera’s built-in editing software, though, which made me look like an alien. had some fun with that feature here around the office.

There’s also a GIF animation feature that records up to 50 frames. You can edit the animation speed before saving it, then share it to social networks.

As far as camera interfaces go, the ZenFone 2 could be worse. There’s an overwhelming number of built-in features available to use, but I’d prefer that the extra camera modes were optional to download.

st a little bit of llipop

Kudos to Asus for not completely aboning ’s idea of what an Android interface should look like. However, be prepared to spend some time disabling bloatware.

The ZenFone 2 comes with a bunch of software pre-installed. Only some of it is useful—like the Amazon Kindle Zinio apps, which you might have installed yourself anyway—while the other apps will drive you bonkers. The whole point of Android is that it’s a blank canvas for which the user can customize to her liking. ave it that way—please! 

Despite the bloatware, the best part about the ZenFone 2’s user interface is its Themes application. I’m so excited about this. I invested in dozens of icon packs when Beautiful Icon Styler was alive well in the ay Store, but now that the app is no longer compatible with llipop, I have no way of easily skinning my icons without installing a separate launcher. Asus lets you customize the heck out of the interface with your favorite icon packs, though. In the screenshot above, I’m using the Cryten icon pack. It’s awesome! I love looking at a Home screen with colors icons that match my mood for the day. It’s one of the perks of being an Android user. 

Should you buy this phone?

As I mentioned earlier, there are two versions of this phone: a $200 variant with 2GB of RAM a $300 variant with 4GB of RAM. My experience with the 4GB variant was relatively positive—enough that I feel like the ZenFone 2 is worth its $300 price tag right off the lot. It’s an unlocked phone with dual SIMs a memory expansion slot, in addition to 64GB of storage. It supports a large library of E bs around the world, so you’re covered almost anywhere you go with the ZenFone 2 in tow. And you can swap out those back covers personalize the phone the way you see fit.

As far as mid-range phones go, the Moto G still succeeds for its fantastic front-facing stereo speakers clean near-stock Android interface, but if you’re looking for something a little more powerful with a slightly better camera, the ZenFone 2 is worth considering.