Zenfone2 Laser: Asus entry ticket into affordable segment (Gadget Review)

Asus entered the Indian market last year and is already making a name for itself with a flurry of device launches of which most of them are 4G LTE. The Taiwanese electronics firm enjoyed a lot of success with the Zenfone and the Zenfone2 which were targeted at medium price band customers.

Now, the company has decided to give consumers more options as well as expand its playing field keeping in mind the affordable price band. We took the new Zenfone2 Laser out for a ride and here is what we thought of it:

The things that are good:

The Laser's USP seems to be the offerings that come in the price bracket of Rs.9,999. The phone comes with a 5-inch HD display protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 4 which is the toughest available in the market. The phone is 4G LTE compliant and supports all bands up to 2,500MHz.

The Laser comes with very good camera units supported by PixelMaster technology which allows the phone to capture high-resolution photos with zero shutter lag. The camera comes with several modes including manual. Rewind, Time Lapse and Smart Remove mode, along with low-light condition, allows the user to take photos under any conditions.

The Laser comes with a 13-megapixel rear camera with f/2.0-aperture lens, LED flash and auto-focus. The front camera is a five-megapixel unit.

Interestingly, Asus seems to have cut down on a lot of bloatware on the Laser. Also, the ZenTalk, ZenLink and other apps are also present, making it easier for the user to connect and share data. ZenTalk is a platform where users can talk to the company to troubleshoot their devices.

Other good features about the phone is that it runs on Android Lollipop and has Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, GPS, GLONASS and AGPS support. There is an Asus menu button on the home screen which the user can use to do the most popular functions on the phone. In terms of storage the phone has 16GB internal memory expandable to 128GB via a microSD card. Asus is also giving 5GB of free lifetime ASUS WebStorage with the device.

What doesn't work for the phone?

The Laser 2 is a little laggy in terms of general day-to-day heavy usage which is due to the 2GB RAM unit installed in the system. Essentially, switching between heavy games on this device could be cumbersome and might see the device reboot or hang.

The Laser comes with 2,070 mAh Li-polymer removable battery which could have been extended to give the phone more standby time. Also, the use of Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 is a little disappointing as there are other phones in the market within the same price bracket which are using higher Snapdragon processors. The Adreno 306 graphics card that comes with the processor is not made for heavy games or higher graphics and tends to heat up on persistent usage.

Verdict: The phone seems like a toned down version of the Zenfone2. It has nearly all the software features and other utilities that the earlier phone came with. Given the price bracket, the phone seems to come with enough features to engage the user and align with his or her daily use.

(Anirban Ghoshal can be contacted at anirban.g@ians.in)