Published 17:06 IST, August 26th 2019
Asus 6Z review: A flipping genius
Phones like the OnePlus 7 and Redmi K20 Pro may give you slightly more bang for your buck, but the Asus 6Z is a flipping genius - unlike any other smartphone
It’s not easy making a new smartphone these days. With so many compelling options available – across all price points – you got to do something different to stay ahead of the curve. Asus really surprised us with the ZenFone 5Z last year. Surely it received a lot of negative press at launch, for, you know, being the first mainstream Android smartphone to have an iPhone X-style notch, but Asus let its product do the talking. A year later, it’s safe to say that the ZenFone 5Z has been a runaway hit for Asus – and a case study on how good artists borrow, great artists steal.
Asus has now launched the 6Z in India – which is a rebranded ZenFone 6, because Asus has been banned from selling Zen branded smartphones in the country for allegedly infringing on an existing trademark for the word Zen owned by Telecare Network India Pvt Ltd. The 6Z, in case you haven’t guessed already, is the successor of the ZenFone 5Z. Unlike a phone like the ZenFone 5Z that came out of nowhere, the 6Z has some big shoes to fill. Not to mention, it also has to do something different to stand out from the crowd.
Now, I’ve been using the 6Z for well over two weeks now, and basis of my extensive usage I can say this, the phone’s a flipping genius. I’ll go so far as to say that I liked it more than I had expected. But does that mean it’s better – read, more value for money – than the phone that it replaces? Mostly.
Design
The Asus 6Z is a phone that you’d want to show off – modesty be damned. The key highlight of the phone is its near all-screen display, only Asus has come up with a unique workaround to achieve its goal – flip-up dual cameras. Even though mechanized pop-up cameras aren’t uncommon these days (you can now get a pop-up camera phone at under Rs 20,000), Asus has done something out of the ordinary here – conjuring a whole new level of engineering that sets the 6Z apart from competition in more ways than one.
The phone has a dual camera module on the back which is part of a mechanical lifting or flipping mechanism – and when it does lift or flip, the whole module rotates on its axis by a full 180-degree to function as the front camera(s).
We’ve seen Samsung do something similar with its Galaxy A80, but Asus is taking things to an all new level. The 6Z’s motorized flip-up camera module can be used at any position in between (the two end stops), and you can control the angle manually in software or using the physical volume rocker. No other smartphone can do that just yet. And I doubt that any other smartphone will ever will.
Mechanical moving parts always carry a durability risk – wear and tear may take the better of them sooner or later. Asus says the flip-up module in the 6Z is made of liquid metal which is four times stronger than steel – and the setup is designed for 100,000 flips at least. Also, the module auto-retracts as and when it detects free fall, much like any other phone with a pop-up mechanism.
But in the interest of full disclosure, because the flip-up module in the 6Z is larger (and a lot more mobile, because it’s not just popping up and down, but doing a full flip on its axis) leaving a huge cavity when in use, I am really interested to see how this thing holds up to everyday scrutiny - than more conventional pop-ups. I am not a big fan of the screeching sound it makes when obstructed, just so you know. Also, it’s a fraction of a second slower at doing its thing than your usual pop-ups. But chances are, you might not even notice that – the thing’s so cool to watch after all!
The 6Z has a stepper motor with a gearbox plus a ginormous 5,000mAh battery inside (plus the rest of the smartphone stuff) – which means that those looking for paper-thin dimensions should look elsewhere. The 6Z is a big, chunky phone – bigger and chunkier than last year’s ZenFone 5Z. But if it’s any consolation, it’s not any bigger, or chunkier, than competing products like the Xiaomi Redmi K20 Pro or the OnePlus 7 Pro. At least, Asus has done a good job in ergonomics. The 6Z isn’t as unwieldy as its paper specs would have you believe (9.1mm, 190 gram), especially for a 6.4-inch phone.
And Asus has done a good job at everything else too. The 6Z has a glass (Corning Gorilla Glass 6) and metal sandwich design – that seems greatly inspired by its much more expensive ROG phone – with a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner that’s fast and accurate. The power button and the volume rocker on the right offer good tactile feedback – plus there’s a new Smart Key for quick shortcuts, that could have been placed slightly lower, but oh well! The left side has a dedicated slot for two SIM cards and a micro-SD for storage expansion. There’s a headphone jack and dual stereo speakers to complete the package.
Although the 6Z is a package deal in more ways than one, if there’s one area where it really cuts some corners, it’s in the display. The 6Z has an IPS LCD display with a 1080p+ resolution and while it supports the DCI-P3 and HDR10 standards, it’s simply no match for OLED-toting phones like the Redmi K20 Pro and OnePlus 7 - blacks aren’t as black, and brightness levels leave a lot to be desired.
Camera(s)
The 6Z has a 48MP primary rear camera with Sony’s IMX586 sensor with f/1.79 aperture. There’s also a secondary 13MP ultra-wide camera on the back with a 125-degree field-of-view. Camera quality is good, if not great. This is because unlike last year when the ZenFone 5Z had little competition, its successor, the 6Z has lots – both in terms of quality and versatility. On the one side, there’s a phone called the Google Pixel 3A that does so much more with just the one lens, and on the other, there’s the Honor 20 that brings four high-quality rear cameras at around the same price. There’s also the Redmi K20 Pro with its triple camera setup that’s quite a steal deal at an even lower price.
There’s no one size fits all solution anymore, if you ask me. It’s all about what you want, and what you need. If you must absolutely have to have the best still camera, the Pixel 3A is what you should be looking at. If you want more cameras, the Honor 20 should be your go-to choice. If you’re looking for cheap and best, the Redmi K20 Pro should serve you well.
Where does that leave the Asus 6Z. Well I’d say it’s a jack of all trades – unless you also want a dedicated telephoto lens. The 48MP main sensor (that shoots 12MP photos by default) can capture some good-looking photos with good detail and good dynamic range in well-lit situations. By default (and auto HDR enabled), the 6Z shoots photos with more pleasing and a neutral colour palette, with little or no metering issues. There’s also an option called HDR Enhanced, should you be looking to bump up the saturation in photos. The 6Z really takes a tumble in tricky and low light scenarios though – photos come out soft and mushy, with the level of noise gradually increasing as the intensity of light goes down further. Asus’ long-exposure night mode helps shoot brighter, more detailed photos in such cases, but we’ve surely seen better.
As for the wide-angle camera, it offers a wider perspective so you can capture a lot more of your subject. The quality may not be as good as the primary camera, but at least you get the option. Also, Asus’ distortion correction works well most of the time, something that not many ultra-wide camera phones have been able to crack.
I may have had mixed feelings about the 6Z’s cameras in terms of still photography, but Asus has an ace up its sleeve - the same cameras are used for taking selfies, because, they flip! Which invariably means that the Asus 6Z is the best selfie camera phone that money can buy at its price point. The fact that it lets you shoot ultra-wide selfies is enough to attract attention, but the real star of the show is that main camera that shoots some outstanding selfies with lots of detail and natural colour tones. While HDR Enhanced helps shoot visibly better selfies in challenging light scenarios, especially indoors. The same is true about portrait shots – the 6Z does well to isolate the subject with the background generating a creamy blur that doesn’t look as forced or artificial as ones produced by rival phones.
The 6Z is one of the few phones that lets you capture 4K UHD selfie videos at 60 fps with EIS on main camera sensor, and at 30 fps on secondary camera (with EIS).
The flip-up dual cameras, in addition, also let you shoot 180-degree panoramas, just in case. There’s also a feature called motion tracking that lets the flip camera follow a subject if it moves across the frame – during videos.
Performance and battery life
The Asus 6Z is powered by a top-of-the-line Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor paired with up to 8GB RAM and 256GB storage (which is also expandable). There’s a massive 5,000mAh battery under the hood with support for 18W fast charging through USB Type-C – Asus is bundling an 18W fast charger in the box. The software inside is ZenUI based on Android 9.0 Pie.
Now that we have that out of our way, let’s talk basics
-- The Asus 6Z is quite literally a performance powerhouse breezing through everything you can potentially throw at it without breaking a sweat. It can get warm when you’re stress-testing it, but it’s also quick to cool down.
-- The software inside is near stock Android with a few Asus tidbits thrown in – that remain largely unnoticed unless you really want to put them to use.
-- It really helps that Asus has been able to well optimize the software with the hardware. The 6Z is easily the fastest Asus phone I have ever tested - and while phones like the OnePlus 7 will feel faster, the 6Z can get close.
-- The 6Z has outstanding battery life – this is easily a one and a half-day phone even for the most demanding users.
Should you flipping buy the Asus 6Z?
The 6Z may be straight out of the future, but it’s also a firmly grounded phone that sticks to the basics like its predecessor. And it gets these basics right – that's its main USP. I am talking about build quality, display, all-round performance, cameras, and battery life – the 6Z nails them all.
And it’s very aggressively priced too, much like its predecessor. Asus has launched the Asus 6Z in India at a starting price of Rs 31,999 for the base variant with 6GB RAM and 64GB storage going all the way to Rs 39,999 for the top-end variant with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. The Asus 6Z is also available with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage for Rs 34,999.
Phones like the OnePlus 7 and Redmi K20 Pro may give you slightly more bang for your buck, but then the Asus 6Z is a flipping genius – unlike any smartphone you’ve seen before.
(Photos by Saurabh Singh)
Updated 18:33 IST, August 26th 2019