Introduction
Some smartphone form factors only go down in history as one-off experiments, but the Asus Flip Camera isn't that. Improved and enhanced, it returns for a second year in a row on the Zenfone 7 showing that phones can still have moving parts and be cool.
We saw the mechanical slider a couple of times, but neither Xiaomi followed up the Mi Mix 3, nor did Honor with the Magic 2 (and no, we're not counting the Magic 2 3D). Whatever the Oppo Find X motorized contraption can be classified as, the Find X2 didn't want any of it. It's refreshing then that the Flip Camera lives on.
It doesn't just survive, it thrives. It holds three cameras now, a 3x telephoto joining the regular and ultra-wide modules. These two have gotten better too - the main cam now uses the 64MP Quad Bayer sensor in place of the 48MP unit on the Zenfone 6, while the ultra-wide cam gets a big sensor and dual pixel autofocus.
The tele camera was a notable absentee on the older model, but we weren't thrilled with its LCD either. For this generation, Asus talked to Samsung and got a nice 6.67-inch AMOLED, with a middle-ground 90Hz refresh rate too.
A big screen better have a big battery behind it, so the Zenfone 7 comes with the same 5,000mAh capacity power pack of the 6, now with faster charging. And in keeping with the model's position in the market, a flagship chipset is also part of the spec sheet.
Zenfone 6 (left) next to Zenfone 7 Pro
This perhaps is a good juncture to point out that there are two Zenfone 7s - a vanilla one and a Pro, with minor differences between them. The Pro gets the Snapdragon 865+ chipset, OIS on both the main cam and the telephoto, and 256GB of storage. The Zenfone 7 proper makes do with the Snapdragon 865 non-plus, non-stabilized optics all around (on otherwise the same cameras), and just 128GB of storage.
Asus Zenfone 7 ZS670KS • Asus Zenfone 7 Pro ZS671KS
What the plain Zenfone 7 has going for it, you guessed correctly, is a lower price tag, and its €700 make is seem like the better deal than the Pro is for €800. While we are reviewing the Pro version, we'll be using 'Zenfone 7' more often than not for the remainder of this review, only pointing out the Pro-vs-vanilla differences where they may be of significance.
Asus Zenfone 7 Pro specs
- Body: 165.1x77.3x9.6mm, 230g; Glass front (Gorilla Glass 6), glass back (Gorilla Glass 3), aluminum frame; Colors: Aurora Black, Pastel White.
- Display: 6.67" Super AMOLED, 1080x2400px resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 395ppi; HDR10+, 90Hz refresh rate.
- Chipset: Qualcomm SM8250 Snapdragon 865+ (7 nm+): Octa-core (1x3.1 GHz Kryo 585 & 3x2.42 GHz Kryo 585 & 4x1.8 GHz Kryo 585); Adreno 650.
- Memory: 256GB 8GB RAM (128GB 6/8GB on the non-Pro); UFS 3.1; microSDXC (dedicated slot).
- OS/Software: Android 10, ZenUI 7.
- Camera: Motorized flip-up camera module: Wide (main): 64 MP, f/1.8, 26mm, 1/1.72", 0.8µm, PDAF, OIS (Pro only); Ultra wide angle: 12 MP, f/2.2, 113˚, 17mm, 1/2.55", 1.4µm, dual pixel PDAF; Telephoto: 8 MP, f/2.4, 80mm, PDAF, OIS (Pro only), 3x optical zoom; Dual-LED flash, HDR, auto panorama (motorized rotation).
- Video capture: 8K@30fps, 4K@30/60/120fps, 1080p@30/60/240fps, 720p@480fps; gyro-EIS, HDR.
- Battery: 5000mAh; Fast charging 30W, USB Power Delivery 3.0, Reverse charging.
- Misc: Fingerprint (side-mounted, capacitive), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass; NFC.
Some concessions go with the unique form factor - the Zenfone 7 has no IP rating, likely due to the Flip Camera being hard to waterproof. Additionally, with a handset that's already on the thick and heavy side of average, adding wireless charging would have pushed things beyond reason, so it's missing that too. Let's pin this last one on the motorized cam then - there was no room for a 3.5mm jack so it had to go?
Asus Zenfone 7 Pro unboxing
The Zenfone 7 arrives in a larger-than-most cardboard black box with a simulated blue glow along the side edges and a large '7' printed on top. Inside it you get the HyperCharge adapter that supports up to 30W of power output (over USB PowerDelivery with PPS) and a USB-C-to-C cable to go with it.
There's no headset inside, and with the missing 3.5mm jack and no dongle included, you're limited to Bluetooth headphones or getting an aftermarket adapter. Of the assortment we had to test, the Zenfone didn't work with Xiaomi and Sony USB-C-to-3.5mm adapters but did play nicely with Samsung and Pixel ones and the one we had from the ROG Phone 3 (duh!). So passive adapters are a no-go, active ones should normally be fine.
Moving on, the Zenfone 7 is bundled with not one, but two protective cases. Both are made from hard plastic and have mostly the same shape and coverage. One is transparent, the other is pale blue on our Pastel White review unit and black on the Aurora Black version.
This second one is dubbed Asus Active case and features a physical latch to keep the camera from dangling about when, say, the phone is mounted to your bike's handlebar. The Zenfone would recognize the latch is in place and will give you a warning if you try to flip the camera with it engaged.
Design
The Zenfone 7 is no ordinary smartphone, that much is certain. In a sea of slabs with little personality and hardly anything to set them apart beyond the size of their camera bumps, the Asus Zenfone series readily stands out.
It was last year's Zenfone 6 that pioneered the motorized flip-up assembly, though that one was a notably more compact one. For this generation, the Zenfone has added a telephoto, an omission that was hard to ignore last time around. The other modules have grown in pixel count and sheer size alike and with the tele now joining them the Flip Camera has gotten quite bulky.
Zenfone 6 (left) next to Zenfone 7 Pro
Asus quotes a 2.2x increase in torque for the new motor, all the while making it 40% smaller, and with more precise position control too. The Flip Camera now rotates faster than on the Zenfone 6 and does so with a slightly quieter and more high-pitched whir. The mechanism is rated to 200,000 actuations, or 110 a day for 5 years - we can't imagine you'd be flipping the thing 110 times a day, plus we don't think you'd be holding on to the Zenfone or any other phone for 5 years.
With the Flip Camera retracted, the back of the phone doesn't stand out much. Asus has chosen two color schemes for the Zenfone 7 and 7 Pro - Aurora Black and Pastel White, and we have the white one here for review. It's got a base pale blue to pale pink gradient with a subtle pearlescent effect on top. Aurora or Pastel, it's Gorilla Glass 3.
The central position of the Flip Camera when tucked against the Zenfone 7's back means the handset is immune to wobble - the bane of off-center big camera bumps. This one is big too, don't get us wrong - it sticks out by about 1.8mm from a phone that's already not one bit svelte.
The Zenfone 7 is 9.6mm thick - that 5,000mAh battery had to go somewhere, and with the flip-up mechanism taking up a sizeable chunk of space, the phone had to grow in the Z-direction. It's not just the thickness, though - the Zenfone is quite heavy at 230g. It's a substantial handset that will get tiring on your pinkie in prolonged scrolling sessions.
Another thing that can be pinned on the Flip Camera, another good one too, is keeping the display cutout-free. This generation, you're getting an OLED, and it's a Samsung-made 6.67" unit. The bump in size is less of an upgrade than the change in technology - getting an LCD on the Zenfone 6 was alright but we admit sitting in the OLED camp when it comes to our phones.
The chin is slightly thinner on the Zf7 than it was on the Zf6, but the sides are virtually the same, and we'd hardly call the bezels minimal. They're not big, but they're not thin either. The display is protected by a sheet of Gorilla Glass 6.
Slightly slimmer chin • No change up top
With the switch to AMOLED, you'd expect that Asus went for an under-display fingerprint reader. That's not the case, however, and you'll find the sensor on the right side of the phone, built into the power button - or Smart key as per Asus literature.
The Zenfone 6 had a Smart key itself, but it was a dedicated extra one towards the top of the right side, above the volume rocker. With the Zenfone 7, it's all in one - Smart key and fingerprint reader, in what we'd normally call a power button.
It's positioned nicely for access with either hand if you're going to use it for Power button and Smart key purposes. However, it doesn't provide quite the same ambidexterity for print recognition as a display-mounted solution. If you want to unlock your Zenfone 7 with the left index finger, you're likely to run into more unsuccessful attempts than if you stick to right thumb operation.
The midframe is made from 6000-series aluminum, a single chunk of it per phone. It's interrupted in several spots by white antenna strips - the Zenfone 7 has an extensive list of supported 5G bands, more of them than most other 5G phones we've encountered.
The status LED count is also in the Zenfone's favor against pretty much any current high-end phone - the Zenfone has one, others don't have any. It's located on the bottom of the phone, next to the USB-C port so it should be visible whether you keep the handset lying on its back or face down (if anyone does that).
The primary mic and loudspeaker are also in these whereabouts. You may have noted there's no 3.5mm headphone jack on the Zenfone 7, an unfortunate if entirely logical development.
On the other hand, Asus has kept the dedicated microSD slot - triple-slot trays are our favorite.
Status LED on the bottom • Card tray takes two nano SIMs and a microSD
There is one major trade-off that comes with the Zenfone 7's unorthodox form factor - it's not water-resistant. It's not inconceivable that the moving bits make it impossible or at least impractically difficult or expensive, but the end result is that the phone has no IP rating.
6.67-inch 90Hz AMOLED is a nice upgrade
One of the few areas where the Zenfone 6 wasn't quite up to flagship standard was its display - a decent but not in any way excellent LCD. Asus has addressed this on the Zenfone 7 and what we're getting here is a really nice Samsung-made AMOLED.
Zenfone 6 with an LCD on the left, Zenfone 7 Pro with an OLED on the right
It's got a 6.67-inch diagonal, making for a small step up from the Zenfone 6's 6.4-inch panel. Resolution has been kept at 1080p, or specifically 2400x1080px in a 20:9 aspect ratio - pixel density works out to 395ppi.
More importantly, the new display has a 90Hz refresh rate. Sure, 120Hz panels are now a thing and gaming phones can even be had with 144Hz displays. Asus makes one of these, after all - the ROG Phone 3. That one is a different beast, however, and where the Zenfone 7 stands, 90Hz should be enough. There's also the bit where it has a 200Hz touch sampling frequency for speedy registering of touch input.
In our brightness testing, we measured 741nits on the Zenfone 7 when the phone is exposed to direct light and the adaptive brightness is engaged. If taking the ambient light sensor out of the equation and operating the slider manually, the number was 529nits. That's with our usual 75% average picture level - Asus says the panel is capable of 700nits and 500nits respectively in the above two scenarios when the APL is 100%. Additionally, up to 1000nits are possible with smaller areas for HDR applications - the phone supports HDR10+.
The brightness readings we got are very good, if not quite Galaxy Note20 Ultra level good. A few other phones can go up to 100nits more than the Zenfone with the auto boost, but 741nits is plenty. Meanwhile, the 529nits is one of the highest manually attainable brightness readings we've recorded on OLEDs, for what that's worth.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, |
White, |
||
| 0 | 1024 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 858 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 854 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 850 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 848 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 797 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 741 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 733 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 719 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 622 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 607 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 529 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 518 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 518 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 516 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 511 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 510 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 504 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 503 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 499 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 489 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 464 | ∞ | |
| 0.399 | 455 | 1140:1 | |
| 0.353 | 424 | 1201:1 | |
| 0 | 422 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 379 | ∞ | |
Color reproduction on the Zenfone 7 out of the box isn't overly accurate and there's a fairly pronounced blue shift to everything white or grayscale. The average dE2000 in this Default mode (the default mode is called Default) when examining DCI-P3 test swatches is 5.2.
However, properly calibrated rendition of DCI-P3 content is possible in the Cinematic mode - we measured an excellent average dE2000 of 1.7. If you're more of an sRGB type of person, Standard mode is for you - we got the same average deviation of 1.7 for the sRGB swatches in this mode. Natural mode is about as inaccurate as Default though in its own, different way - 4.8 average dE2000 for DCI-P3 targets.
Another of our dreaded display sections where we observe the phone's behavior in terms of refresh rate is now due. On the Zenfone 7 things are fairly straightforward, though there are some peculiarities. First up, when you set it to 60Hz, it's 60Hz in everything, that much is clear. If you set it to 90Hz, it's 90Hz in most things, except the native video player, the camera app (both viewfinder and settings) and in games that are capped at 60Hz.
The Auto mode then stays mostly at 90Hz but similarly drops to 60 for the video player and camera app. It'll also switch to 60Hz for Gmail for example, but maintain 90Hz in Facebook and Instagram. There's no auto drop to 60Hz in Netflix or YouTube, however, and those display at 90Hz whether you have the phone set to 90Hz or Auto.
It's simple when it comes to games too. All the games we tried that support a high refresh rate (above 60Hz) have the phone operate in 90Hz, whether you've set it to 90Hz or Auto. Conversely, if the game itself doesn't go above 60fps, the phone will drop to 60Hz regardless of display mode.
Let's point out here that the Zenfone 7 has an always on display. Asus calls it Always on Panel and it comes with a total of 3 clock styles and no notification display capability - it's just a clock that is always on.
Display settings
Asus Zenfone 7 Pro battery life
The Zenfone 7 Pro has the same battery capacity as the phone it replaces. While 5,000mAh was a massive number last year, it's less striking in 2020. Having said that it's still one of the largest batteries you can find on a flagship-grade phone - the Galaxy S20 Ultra, Motorola Edge+ and LG V60 match it, and only Asus' own ROG Phone 3 goes beyond that with its 6,000mAh power pack. All other high-end handsets of the present day have smaller capacity batteries.
For our screen-on trials, we tested the Zenfone 7 with its display set in both its 60Hz and 90Hz mode. While in 60Hz things are clear, in 90Hz its native video player will, in fact, switch down to 60Hz. However, since in this mode other apps like Netflix and YouTube will maintain the 90Hz refresh rate (as they will in Auto mode, for that matter), we looped our video with the display refreshing at 90Hz.
With that preamble behind us, the Zenfone 7 Pro's battery results with its display set to 90Hz are good, but not class-leading - we clocked 12 hours of web browsing over Wi-Fi and 15 hours of offline video playback. Compare that to the Motorola Edge+ (14:27h and 20:14h), Mi 10 Pro 5G (13:44h and 17:44h), and the OnePlus 8 (14:22h and 19:45h), all of them with 90Hz displays for a fair comparison, and the Zenfone's numbers don't look that impressive, if still perfectly adequate.
Throw in the Zenfone's 30 hours of 3G voice call endurance and slightly better than average standby performance and you're looking at an Endurance rating of 99 hours.
Switch the Zenfone to 60Hz and you'll be getting more battery life out of it, which isn't always the case with 90Hz phones - some show no improvement. In our testing on the Zenfone, 60Hz meant 14:08h on our web browsing script and 19 hours of looping videos. That's within half an hour of the above three handsets - the 90Hz to 60Hz switch makes no difference on the Moto and the OP, while the Mi 10 Pro does up its endurance slightly.
Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSer App. The endurance rating above denotes how long a single battery charge will last you if you use the Asus Zenfone 7 Pro for an hour each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. We've established this usage pattern so that our battery results are comparable across devices in the most common day-to-day tasks. The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritty. You can check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.
While these formal tests are designed to offer a level ground for comparison, now more than ever your mileage will vary. How much of your video watching is downloaded clips in the built-in player and how much is YouTube or another streaming service? Will you set the phone to 90Hz or to its Auto mode? Will you really care about an extra hour of screen-on time if that means 60Hz as if it's 2019?
Anyway, once depleted at one display refresh rate or another, the Zenfone 7's battery takes 1:32h to fill up with the bundled 30W charger, with 56% showing in the status bar by the 30-minute mark.
30min charging test (from 0%)
- Huawei P40 Pro
80% - Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G
77% - OnePlus 8 Pro
63% - Galaxy S20+
62% - Asus Zenfone 7 Pro
56% - Sony Xperia 1 II
46% - Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
43% - Asus Zenfone 6
35% - Motorola Edge+
30%
Time to full charge (from 0%)
- Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 5G
0:50h - Huawei P40 Pro
0:50h - Galaxy S20+
0:57h - Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
1:23h - Asus Zenfone 7 Pro
1:32h - Sony Xperia 1 II
1:51h - Asus Zenfone 6
2:32h - Motorola Edge+
2:37h
That is, unless you delve into the battery options and opt for slow charging specifically, which can be capped at 10W or 18W depending on your preference. Other Battery care settings are available too including a custom charging limit (either 80% or 90%). Asus says that by setting a limit to 80%, 500 charging cycles later your battery will have lost just 7% of its initial capacity, as opposed to 15% if you're regularly charging to 100% and keeping your phone there the whole night.
Additionally, scheduled charging is available - that will fill up your battery to 80% and stay there until 2 hours before a set deadline, at which point it'll slowly top up to 100%. This can also be linked to your alarm, instead of a specific time.
Battery settings
Speaker test
The Zenfone 7 has a stereo speaker setup of the usual kind - a main loudspeaker on the bottom and the earpiece serving as the other channel in the stereo pair.
The one bit unique to Zenfones is that the earpiece driver is, in fact, in the Flip Camera assembly and the sound gets out through a slit where the front glass meets the frame.
The speaker behavior is rather orthodox - the earpiece adopts the left channel in portrait orientation, but will switch if needed to respect the phone's orientation in landscape if you happen to be holding it with the camera end on the right.
The Zenfone 7 Pro we tested scored a 'Good' result for loudness - a notch below its predecessor. It maintains a balanced and well-rounded sound reproduction with well defined highs and vocals. Bass is present too, though more so in the synthetic frequency response test than we're hearing in the songs.
Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.
Audio output quality
We've recently discontinued our audio output quality test.
The reason for that is that most phones that arrived for testing were already excellent in this regard and whatever difference there was, it was marginal and probably indistinguishable to anything but our lab equipment.
Android 10 with ZenUI 7
The Zenfone 7 runs Android 10 with ZenUI 7 on top. The software package is essentially a normalized version of what we saw on the ROG Phone 3 - minus the Republic of Gamers theme and the Air Triggers customization (for obvious lack of Air Triggers). In fact, you could get this same ZenUI AOSP-like look on the ROG Phone 3 as well.
Lockscreen • Homescreen • Folder view • App drawer • Notification shade • Task switcher
There is, however, an extensive list of added features behind this seemingly stock facade - all well-organized and bringing added value. The battery and display settings we already covered on the previous page, and the Advanced settings menu houses most of the other system-wide additional proprietary bits.
A new addition with the Zenfone 7 is the Smart Key - what we'd normally call the power button that houses the fingerprint reader as well. It has two possible actions - double press and press and hold. Either can be set to launch any app of your choosing or operate basically any function on the phone - toggle a setting, take a screenshot, launch the timer. You can set it to launch the camera, but (Pro Tip!) make sure it's selected from the Quick access menu and not the Open app menu, because the latter will require you to unlock the phone first negating any speed of access benefit.
The double press action can be set to open Google Assistant, while press and hold launches Assistant in listening mode.
The double press action can be disabled, but not the press and hold, while the press and hold can be set to act as a good old power button.
Advanced settings menu • Smart key
Mobile Manager is a tool for handling phone maintenance - non-battery-related things like memory and storage cleanup, permission and security as well as data caps and usage. Twin Apps lets you have a couple of instances of the same app with two different accounts logged in. Since it does require support from the app itself to work, you get a nifty list of apps you can download in alphabetical order. Safeguard offers SOS emergency contact options. And OptiFlex is a proprietary app launch optimizer that works in the usual way - caching certain resources, often times in RAM, so that they can remain easily accessible to the most used apps.
Mobile Manager • Twin Apps • Safeguard • OptiFlex
Circling back to the Smart key and its other functionality - the built-in fingerprint reader. The setup process is straightforward - you tap until the phone builds a full picture of your fingertip. Unlocking with it is mostly trouble free if you're using the phone with the right hand. If you're left-handed for the purposes of your smartphone operation, unlocking with the left index finger could be more of a 50-50 experience due to the slightly pinched state the finger ends up in.
Face recognition is available too. While the 200,000 actuations that the flip mechanism is rated for is indeed plenty and the flip action is actually quicker than on the Zenfone 6, we still don't feel like using face recognition on the Zenfone 7.
Biometrics and security
As was the case on the ROG Phone 3, there are plenty of gestures on the Zenfone 7, including options for writing out virtual letters on the display and actions based on double-taps and motion.
There are in-depth controls dealing with both Screen recording and Screen capture in the advanced menu as well. Things like resolution, orientation, whether or not to record sound and touch inputs are all configurable. A small touch, but one that shows Asus is really keen on catering to their streamer and content-creator audience.
Gestures • Gestures • Screen recorder • Screenshot
The Zenfone may lack the gaming-centric aesthetic of the ROG Phone 3, but has Game Genie on board just as well. It's an in-game overlay that gets automatically enabled for games but is supported for any other app, as per your desired settings. A swipe from the left side of the screen brings it up, and its main goal is to offer convenient access to gaming-relevant features.
Most of the options are easily self-explanatory, like the toggles to disable calls and notifications, lock the brightness or cycle between the current display refresh rate. In order to work properly, or at all, certain bits of Game Genie do need some extra setup. Most notably, the live streaming functions. Once set up you can use a single key to go live on YouTube and Twitch.
CPU and GPU load, temperature, battery level, and fps count are all available in the Game toolbar, which can be freely dragged and positioned over the game. There is even an experimental feature that tries its best to estimate how much game time you have based on your current load with the battery charge remaining in the phone.
Game Genie
Synthetic benchmarks
The Zenfone 7 Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 865+, the tweaked version of Qualcomm's top-tier chipset with overclocked CPU and GPU. It's the same chip you can find in Asus' own ROG Phone 3 and the Galaxy Note20s in some parts of the world.
The otherwise identical 1+3+4 CPU core configuration in the S865+ has the prime core ticking at up to 3.1GHz (as opposed to 2.96GHz on the S865) while the GPU's clock rate is upped to 645MHz (otherwise 587MHz). The Zenfone 7 non-Pro, meanwhile, has that regular Snapdragon 865 inside.
The Pro is available in a single configuration with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The vanilla model has 6GB and 8GB options, both with 128GB of storage. The storage is the fast UFS 3.1 in all versions.
The Zenfone 7 Pro defaults to a High Performance mode when it detects a benchmark, but since it's quick to inform you of that plus it's a mode you can select yourself in the battery settings, we wouldn't consider it benchmark cheating. It results in more liberal thermal management and lets the hardware run at its limits for longer.
In the CPU-centric GeekBench, our Zenfone 7 Pro even inched ahead of the ROG Phone 3 in the single-core test - an insignificant advantage, but enough for bragging rights. The two S865+ phones we've tested do have a minor lead in front of the S865s of this world here.
GeekBench 5.1 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Asus Zenfone 7 Pro
973 - Asus ROG Phone 3 (144Hz)
975 - vivo iQOO 3 5G
928 - nubia Red Magic 5S
927 - OnePlus 8
919 - Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
916 - Realme X50 Pro
911 - Motorola Edge+
910 - OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
902 - Sony Xperia 1 II
897 - Xiaomi Mi 10 5G
895 - Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
886 - Huawei P40 Pro
780
In the multi-core test, the 'plus' in the Snapdragon's name changes little, and there are fairly minimal differences between all S865 and S865+ handsets.
GeekBench 5.1 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- vivo iQOO 3 5G
3402 - OnePlus 8
3399 - nubia Red Magic 5S
3386 - OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
3374 - Asus ROG Phone 3 (144Hz)
3357 - Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
3332 - Xiaomi Mi 10 5G
3322 - Sony Xperia 1 II
3318 - Asus Zenfone 7 Pro
3302 - Motorola Edge+
3295 - Huawei P40 Pro
3197 - Realme X50 Pro
3175 - Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
2703
Over in Antutu, it's another narrow victory for the Zenfone over the ROG Phone 3. Again, the two are a notch above the S865 crowd with a wild overachieving Realme X50 Pro being the outlier among them.
AnTuTu 8
Higher is better
- Asus Zenfone 7 Pro
602934 - Asus ROG Phone 3 (144Hz)
601858 - Realme X50 Pro
592447 - Xiaomi Mi 10 5G
578056 - vivo iQOO 3 5G
575601 - Motorola Edge+
574155 - OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
573276 - OnePlus 8
564708 - nubia Red Magic 5S
557210 - Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
538221 - Sony Xperia 1 II
534701 - Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
500114 - Huawei P40 Pro
496356
Moving on to graphics benchmarks, the Zenfone 7 Pro continues to excel. It consistently ranks towards the top of our charts in GFXBench and posts particularly strong results in 3DMark.
GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- Motorola Edge+
128 - Asus Zenfone 7 Pro
128 - OnePlus 8
127 - Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
127 - Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
126 - nubia Red Magic 5S
124 - Realme X50 Pro
123 - OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
123 - Asus ROG Phone 3 (144Hz)
123 - vivo iQOO 3 5G
122 - Sony Xperia 1 II
120 - Xiaomi Mi 10 5G
119 - Huawei P40 Pro
118
GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Asus ROG Phone 3 (144Hz)
111 - Motorola Edge+
89 - Asus Zenfone 7 Pro
89 - Xiaomi Mi 10 5G
88 - Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
84 - vivo iQOO 3 5G
62 - Realme X50 Pro
60 - OnePlus 8
60 - Sony Xperia 1 II
60 - Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
60 - nubia Red Magic 5S
60 - Huawei P40 Pro
59 - OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
58
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- Asus ROG Phone 3 (144Hz)
92 - Asus Zenfone 7 Pro
90 - Motorola Edge+
89 - nubia Red Magic 5S
89 - OnePlus 8
88 - Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
87 - Realme X50 Pro
86 - vivo iQOO 3 5G
86 - OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
86 - Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
85 - Xiaomi Mi 10 5G
84 - Sony Xperia 1 II
84 - Huawei P40 Pro
75
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Motorola Edge+
83 - Asus ROG Phone 3 (144Hz)
82 - Asus Zenfone 7 Pro
78 - Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
75 - Xiaomi Mi 10 5G
73 - vivo iQOO 3 5G
61 - Realme X50 Pro
60 - Sony Xperia 1 II
59 - Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
59 - nubia Red Magic 5S
59 - Huawei P40 Pro
52 - OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
43
GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- Asus ROG Phone 3 (144Hz)
56 - nubia Red Magic 5S
54 - Asus Zenfone 7 Pro
54 - OnePlus 8
52 - Motorola Edge+
52 - Realme X50 Pro
51 - vivo iQOO 3 5G
51 - OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
51 - Sony Xperia 1 II
51 - Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
51 - Xiaomi Mi 10 5G
50 - Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
50 - Huawei P40 Pro
44
GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Motorola Edge+
48 - Asus ROG Phone 3 (144Hz)
48 - OnePlus 8
46 - Asus Zenfone 7 Pro
46 - Realme X50 Pro
45 - vivo iQOO 3 5G
42 - Xiaomi Mi 10 5G
42 - Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
42 - Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
40 - Sony Xperia 1 II
39 - Huawei P40 Pro
31 - OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
24
Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Motorola Edge+
32 - Asus Zenfone 7 Pro
31 - Realme X50 Pro
30 - OnePlus 8
30 - Xiaomi Mi 10 5G
29 - vivo iQOO 3 5G
28 - Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
28 - Asus ROG Phone 3 (144Hz)
27 - Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
26 - Sony Xperia 1 II
20 - OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
17
Aztek OpenGL ES 3.1 High (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Motorola Edge+
33 - Asus ROG Phone 3 (144Hz)
32 - Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
32 - Realme X50 Pro
31 - OnePlus 8
31 - Asus Zenfone 7 Pro
31 - vivo iQOO 3 5G
29 - Xiaomi Mi 10 5G
29 - Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
28 - Sony Xperia 1 II
27 - OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
17
3DMark SSE OpenGL ES 3.1 1440p
Higher is better
- Asus Zenfone 7 Pro
7687 - Asus ROG Phone 3 (144Hz)
7645 - nubia Red Magic 5S
7545 - Motorola Edge+
7409 - OnePlus 8
7290 - vivo iQOO 3 5G
7261 - Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
7223 - Realme X50 Pro
7221 - Sony Xperia 1 II
7138 - Xiaomi Mi 10 5G
7132 - OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
7127 - Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
6819 - Huawei P40 Pro
6062
3DMark SSE Vulkan 1440p
Higher is better
- Asus Zenfone 7 Pro
7002 - OnePlus 8
6720 - nubia Red Magic 5S
6678 - vivo iQOO 3 5G
6675 - Motorola Edge+
6666 - Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
6660 - Xiaomi Mi 10 5G
6490 - Realme X50 Pro
6472 - OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
6425 - Galaxy S20+ (120Hz, 1080p)
6354 - Sony Xperia 1 II
6167 - Huawei P40 Pro
5637
With the High performance mode's entire premise for continued high output, the Zenfone 7 Pro does get quite hot after prolonged high load. So much so that after 7 or 8 Antutu runs, it becomes uncomfortable to hold. We didn't experience such discomfort while gaming, however, so real-world use even in High performance mode is a non-issue.
Triple camera on the Zenfone 7
The Zenfone 7 Pro brings improvements in the imaging department - ones that couldn't have fit in the Zenfone 6's Flip Camera. The triple-cam setup now comes with an extra telephoto cam and upgraded main and ultra wide angle modules.
The main camera now uses a 64MP 1/1.7" IMX 686 sensor - one of Sony's Quad Bayers that's meant to capture 16MP images. It's paired with a stabilized 26mm equivalent focal length lens with an f/1.8 aperture.
The ultra wide angle camera now uses a 12MP Sony IMX 363 sensor - a 1/2.55" imager with 1.4µm pixels and dual pixel autofocus. The Zenfone's ultra wide is capable of focusing all the way down to 4cm so you can do close ups, but also use it to exaggerate perspective with nearby subjects and not just for vast (and vastly boring) landscapes. The lens has an f/2.2 aperture and what's looking like a 17mm equivalent focal length - so say a few hardware apps and visibly not as ultra wide as some competitors.
On to the newly added telephoto camera. It uses a lens with an equivalent focal length in the whereabouts of 80mm and its aperture is f/2.4. This gives it 3x optical zoom power when comparing against the main cam. The resolution on this one is 8MP and Asus isn't quoting Sony as the supplier of this sensor, so we reckon it isn't.
While both the main cam and the telephoto on the Zenfone 7 Pro feature OIS, the Zenfone 7 has no optical stabilization on any of its cameras.
The Camera app on the Zenfone looks like most camera apps, but with controls added to operate the flipping mechanism. The simple tap-to-switch button that does the 180-degree flip can be operated by sliding too, for precise manual angle adjustment. Then there's the custom angle switch which lets you save three custom positions of the Flip Camera for quick access.
That aside, operation is as usual. You can switch modes one by one by swiping horizontally in the viewfinder, or many modes at a time by swiping on the mode carousel below. The three position zoom switch uses mountains for indication of zoom level - trees, mountains, numbers, it's all the same. The shutter release has a hidden self timer feature - you slide it up to pick a timer delay up to 10s in 1s increments.
On the opposite end there are controls for HDR mode (auto/on/off), aspect ratio (4:3, 16:9, 1:1, and 20:9 fullscreen), and flash mode (off, on, auto, and torch). A Google Lens shortcut and a cog wheel for access to settings complete the list of icons.
A Pro mode is available too and you get to control all three cameras from here. Shutter speed can be set in the 1/10000s to 32s range (up to 16s on the telephoto), the ISO range is 25 to 3200 (1600 on the telephoto). Exposure compensation can be added in 1/3EV increments in the -2EV to +2EV range, white balance can be set by light temperature with icons denoting common light sources, and you can use a slider to focus manually, though there's no focus peaking. As far as aids go, a tiny histogram is available as well as a digital level.
Camera UI
It's worth reiterating here that there's one annoying bit about the camera and its operation without touch input - we touched upon it in connection with the Smart key. While a double press on the Smart key can be set to launch the camera, doing so from a locked phone requires you to unlock it first before being able to take a picture. That's not really a shortcut, is it?
Daylight image quality
Daylight photos out of the Zenfone's main cam leave little to be desired. Detail is plenty and 16MP is a meaningful upgrade over the 12MP defacto standard on a lot of the big-name flagships. It's rendered in a fairly conservative way too so there are no sharpening halos or other signs of overprocessing. Colors are appealing without going into excessive saturation - the Zenfone adopts a more true-to-life approach than the Samsungs of the day.
Daylight samples, main camera (1x)
Perhaps the one area where the 7 appears to be a bit lacking is dynamic range. We had more blown out highlights in the Zenfone's samples than what we're used to. It's not strictly an issue and it could be a conscious choice on Asus' part to achieve a more contrasty look. In any case, it may be worth overriding its exposure if you care for detail in a particularly bright spot in your frame.
Daylight samples, main camera (1x)
Shooting in the nominal 64MP is possible too. You stand to gain some extra fine detail in well lit conditions at the expense of a drop in dynamic range and an increase in noise.
Daylight samples, main camera, 64MP
The ultra wide angle cam of the Zenfone 7 turns in a solid performance too. It's not quite as wide as what you'd get on a Samsung, for example, but Samsungs can't autofocus and this one here can delivering sharpness where you want it. And even against other AF-ing competitors like the OnePlus 8 Pro or the Find X2 Pro, the Zenfone 7's ultra wide compares favorably in sharpness and detail. Distortion is also well corrected for, whether that's entirely due to the optics or in software - there's no toggle for that in the app. Once again, we'd take some wider dynamic range that what we're getting.
Daylight samples, ultra wide angle camera
With the autofocusing capability of the Zenfone 7's ultra wide you get to shoot close-ups with subjects down to 4cm from the camera, as well as emphasize and contextualize nearby subjects. That last bit is among the main uses of ultra wide lenses in principle, yet you don't get it with fixed focus ultra wides that leave near subjects blurry.
Daylight samples, ultra wide angle camera
The Zenfone 7's telephoto delivers some of the sharpest and most detailed 8MP 3x shots we've seen. Cropping an 8MP portion from the main cam's 64MP shots returns practically the same coverage and while usable, that's nowhere as sharp as the 8MP images from the tele. A fair bit of noise can be seen at 1:1 zoom level, but it's not obtrusive. Colors are closely matched to the main unit's reproduction, dynamic range is alright.
Daylight samples, telephoto camera (3x)
Low-light image quality
In low light, the Zenfone 7 has sort of an auto Night mode behavior when in photo mode. That's operated by a toggle in settings and you can turn it off. Otherwise Photo mode and Night mode will produce the exact same results (there's a bit more nuance to that, but more on it later).
So, plain Photo mode photos out of both the main camera and the ultra wide are soft, and have limited dynamic range. The ones out of the main cam are also quite noisy, while on the ultra wide one more aggressive noise reduction has smoothed that out too, alongside the detail.
Low-light samples, main camera (1x)
Low-light samples, ultra wide angle camera
Night mode makes a significant difference and improves things considerably. Highlights and the areas around them get much better developed while shadows stop being an indiscernible mush and get actual detail in them.
Low-light samples, main camera (1x), Night mode
Low-light samples, ultra wide angle camera, Night mode
This is where that nuance comes into play. Night mode is available in two flavors on the Zenfone 7 - 4s and 7s exposures. The default is 4s and that's what you'd be getting if you enable the auto Night for the Photo mode. When in the dedicated Night mode you can pick between the two durations. We, however, can't see a meaningful difference between the two, and the added time of having to stay relatively still feels wasted. 4s it is.
Low-light samples, main camera (1x), Night mode: 4s • 7s
There's no Night mode of any sort on the telephoto camera on the Zenfone 7. Its photos are decent and can be used in a pinch, as long as you don't look at them at pixel level magnification where they do show softness and noise. It's worth noting here that it could pay off to check for focus before leaving the scene, as the tele tends to hunt in dim light.
Low-light samples, telephoto camera (3x)
A quick comparison between the Zenfone 7 and the Zenfone 6 reveals a notable generational improvement in low light - present on the main camera, but properly striking on the ultra wide. Mind you, the Zenfone 6 does appear to apply some of that Night-mode-in-Photo-mode action with no option to turn it off, so a Photo mode side-by-side would be misleading. Here are the Night mode samples instead.
Low-light samples, main camera (1x), Night mode: Zenfone 7 Pro • Zenfone 6
Low-light samples, ultra wide angle camera, Night mode: Zenfone 7 Pro • Zenfone 6
Portraits
Portraits on the Zenfone 7 are shot with the main cam but with a 1.6x-ish zoom. They still come out at 16MP and consequently some upscaling is involved and it shows. Absolute detail isn't great and there's a prevailing softness to faces - and those should be sharp in portraits. You could live with it, it's just that it could and should be better.
At a seemingly modest f/2.0 setting on the simulated aperture, the background blur appears a bit over the top, but you can adjust that when taking the shot or later in the gallery as well. Subject isolation is otherwise very good.
Portraits
We toyed with the idea of using the 3x zoom tele for portraits, in Photo mode because it's not available in Portrait mode. As it turned out, the combination of a tiny sensor and relatively narrow aperture doesn't offer nearly as much separation, unless you place your subject a good deal away from the background.
People shots, tele camera, 3x zoom
Going back into Portrait mode, you can use it for isolating non-human subjects too. It works similarly well for subject isolation and the slight loss of fine detail from the 1.6x crop and upscale action is somehow not as prominent when you're not looking at faces.
Portrait mode on non-human subjects
Selfies
The Zenfone 7 has the best selfie camera setup you can find on a phone right now - seeing how it uses its entire triple rear camera setup for selfies as well. Shots out of the main cam come out with abundance of detail and spot-on skin tones. Dynamic range, in the context of selfie cameras, is properly excellent too. There's a fair bit of subject isolation too - with the big 1/1.72" sensor and the close focusing distances when shooting selfies, the depth of field is fairly thin.
Selfie samples, main camera (1x)
The ultra wide fairs alright for selfie purposes, it's just not quite as capable as the main cam. Pixel-level detail isn't quite as good and skin colors look a bit off. The extra coverage will be much appreciated for group shots, however, though you'll need to provide your own group.
Selfie samples, ultra wide angle camera
Selfies can be taken with the tele camera too, though we can't see why you'd want to - an entire face can't fit in the frame when holding the phone at arms length. The tele camera will focus this close and you'll get very detailed shots. Too detailed. Here's a couple samples, no more.
Selfie samples, tele camera (3x)
While you can just shoot with the main cam and call it a selfie portrait thanks to the fairly thin depth of field, a Portrait mode is also available to strengthen the effect with some computational blur.
You'd think that selfie portraits on the Zenfone would be like regular portraits taken with the camera looking away, but that's not the case. The 1.6x zoom applied for rear facing Portrait mode makes sense so you don't stick the phone into another person's face, but for selfie portraits the coverage is the native one of the main camera. That's the logical approach in this context, letting you get more in the frame than just a head.
With no upscaling going on, these images are noticeably sharper than if you're shooting someone else with the camera flipped back. Subject separation is once again very competent, even after swapping out the model, though the blur level is a bit excessive once more.
Selfie portraits
Panoramas
Automated panoramas are one of the unique applications of the Zenfone 7's Flip Camera. They are implemented somewhat differently than on the Zenfone 6. For one, here you can use either the main cam or the ultra wide angle one, while only the main cam is used on the 6. Another change is that the Zenfone 7 takes 6 separate images at different angles of the Flip Camera assembly, as opposed to the continuous sweep on the previous model. Additionally, here the panoramas are around 1700px tall, as opposed to the 2000px on the Zenfone 6 - what's that about.
Panorama sample, main camera
Panorama sample, ultra wide angle camera
Video recording
The Zenfone 7 is a very capable video recording tool. It can capture video in 8K resolution at 30fps (as opposed to Samsung's 24fps) with its main cam, as well as up to 4K at 60fps with both the main and the ultra wide modules. The Telephoto is more limited in its shooting options - it tops out at 1080p 30fps.
You can choose between the h.264 and h.265 codecs with the former being selected by default. Even the 8K clips are encoded using that by default, so you end up with pretty massive file sizes - 8K has a 105Mbps bit rate, or close to 800MB for a minute of footage. Switching to h.265, however, doesn't help as the phone maintains the same bit rate. The bit rates in the other modes are similarly generous - 4K60 gets 75Mbps (some savings can be made here if using h.265 - 65Mbps there), 50Mbps for 4K30, 30Mbps for 1080p60 and 20Mbps for 1080p30.
8K footage from the Zenfone 7 is, well... detailed, but not as detailed as we've seen on the 8K-capable Galaxies, and we don't like those all that much to begin with. It's a nice checkmark in the specsheet, but the end result is a huge file that's hard to work with, you have nowhere to play it, and it doesn't make you go wow when you examine it from up close.
Footage out of the main camera is well detailed in both 4K and 1080p, with hardly any difference between 30fps and 60fps modes. Sharpening is handled with moderation, so things aren't overly artificial and there's no noise to speak of either. As in stills, color reproduction is very appealing, with just the right amount of saturation and no color casts. Videos are contrasty and dynamic range is reasonably wide.
The ultra wide angle has a slightly more desaturated color rendition and we're seeing a gentle pink tint to what should be a gray road surface - perhaps unnoticeable in isolation, but you'll pick it up if you watch clips side by side. Detail is very good in both resolutions too and there's no drop in quality if you switch from 30fps to 60fps either.
The tele camera can only do 1080p at 30fps, but it does it really well. There is some of that color shift on the street that we saw on the ultra wide, but the detail is great, there's no noise and footage is nicely contrasty.
EIS is available in all modes and on the Zenfone 7 Pro it's aided by the OIS on the main and telephoto cams - the non-Pro has no OIS. In any case, we've reached a point where electronic stabilization can almost do miracles. Having said that, we can't be positive the non-Pro will behave the same way as the Pro in this respect.
The Zenfone does indeed stabilize videos very well removing nearly all signs of walking induced shake. Even 3x zoomed in clips are very stable. It'll also comfortably stay pointed in one direction if that's what you want. Pans are generally smooth too, except for that brief moment of transition at the start of a pan where we saw a slight roll before the footage got horizontal again.
There's also the HyperSteady stabilization. That mode works only in 1080p though it does still let you choose between 30fps and 60fps. While the zoom selector has the same three positions for ultra wide, normal and tele, the first two are captured on the ultra wide cam, while the last one is sourced from the main one - the actual tele doesn't do HyperSteady. As is customary with these 'steady' modes, the Zenfone's Hyper ones come with a noticeable floaty action and viewfinder lag.
The Zenfone's Pro video mode comes with some interesting features. Sure it has ISO and shutter speed control, but it also adds a histogram and audio levels, as well as wind noise reduction and options for which mics to use for audio capture.
A point zoom feature is also available where you tap on the screen and then move a slider and the phone will zoom in to that part of the frame. That only works with about 2/3 of the frame, however, as the right third of the viewfinder is overlayed with other controls and tapping there doesn't move the zoom point. You could, technically, flip the phone around so the controls end up on the other side. That likely won't be necessary though - the resulting zoom action is quite choppy and you'd probably not want to use the feature anyway.
With the Flip Camera on board, the Zenfone 7 is unmatched in its selfie video recording capability. The main module will barely fit your head when recording in landscape (an odd clarification, as if you can record in any other orientation), so you may default to the ultra wide for a much needed increase in coverage. However, we'd advise getting a short selfie stick and using the main cam anyway - its higher quality and natural background blur are worth it. We can see the Zenfone being used for vlogging or for improvised work-from-home quarantine-style YouTubing.
Competition
The Asus Zenfone 7 Pro's biggest competitor is very likely the Asus Zenfone 7. A Snapdragon 865 in place of the 865+, half the storage (at a perfectly usable 128GB, still expandable) and no OIS on the main and telephoto cams can easily be conceded when that means keeping €100 in your pocket.
This is the Zenfone 7 Pro, but it could very well be the Zenfone 7
For Zenfone 7 Pro money you could buy the Galaxy S20+, even cheaper if you don't insist on 5G. That will come with the Exynos in Europe, but if the Snapdragon vs. Exynos conundrum doesn't get you all riled up, so what? You'll be getting dust and water protection in a more pocketable package, a 120Hz display, and well, it'll be a Samsung. The Zenfone's selfie camera prowess is unmatched, of course, and all things considered, it could be the more versatile cameraphone.
If the Samsung badge is, in fact, a downside, you could be a OnePlus person. The thing is though, the OP 8 Pro is a €100 on top of the Zenfone 7 Pro, and for half the storage with no expandability on the table. The premium could be justified by the 8 Pro's higher-res, higher-refresh-rate display (1440p+, 120Hz), its IP68 rating, wireless charging, and under-display fingerprint sensor. But the ultimate selfies, a chipset with a plus, and money in your pocket are strong arguments in the Zenfone's favor.
Meanwhile, the Realme X50 Pro retails for about €100 less than the Zenfone 7 Pro - for a 12GB/256GB trim level too. The Realme is a close match for the Zenfone in display and rear camera hardware and even has an ultra-wide selfie cam - not that it can compete with the Zenfone for selfies even with it. The Realme charges faster and has an under-display FPR, the Zenfone 7 Pro has the newer chipset and a microSD slot.
It gets even trickier for the Zenfone 7 Pro against the Poco F2 Pro. The Poco in its base 6GB/128GB trim is half the Zenfone's price and it's not half bad. Some trade-offs will be unavoidable, of course - it's the non-plus Snapdragon you'd be getting, only a single speaker, no microSD slot, and motorized as it may be, the F2 Pro's selfie cam isn't up to the Zenfone standard, not to mention there's no real telephoto on the Xiaomi phone. But the Zenfone at twice the price won't get you a 3.5mm jack or an infrared emitter, both present on the Poco.
It's worth mentioning that the Zenfone 7 Pro has some of the most comprehensive 5G band support you can find in a single phone. While that may be irrelevant to the vast majority of buyers for now, it could be of interest to some and can add value where we don't normally look for it. For example, the Poco above only covers two bands, the S20+ can be had in 4G-only trim and even its 5G version doesn't match the Zenfone's wide-ranging 5G band support. At the same time, the OnePlus 8 Pro comes with regional 5G specifics on top of an already more limited set of bands. A bit surprisingly, the Realme covers the most bands of this curated bunch of rivals, still not as many as the Zenfone.
Samsung Galaxy S20+ • OnePlus 8 Pro • Realme X50 Pro 5G • Xiaomi Poco F2 Pro
Verdict
The Zenfone 7 Pro was met with much excitement by our team - moving bits on phones typically do that with us geeks, and the Asus Flip Camera is about as unique as these come. The whirring action of the flip-up module wouldn't have been enough to hold our attention if it didn't carry capable cameras and there wasn't a fine smartphone attached on the other end.
The Zenfone 7 Pro is a fine smartphone indeed. It offers a remarkably balanced package of display, endurance, performance, and image quality. It's perhaps the best option if selfies are a top priority - whether placed there by vanity, vlogging aspirations, or even quarantine-related work-from-home content creation without the hassle of a dedicated camera.
The Zenfone 7 Pro then comes at a sensible price for all that it can do just as well as most competitors and the things only its Flip Camera is capable of. But you know what other phone ticks those boxes? The Zenfone 7 non-Pro. We'd save €100 and get that one instead.
Pros
- Unique motorized camera assembly is cool, recognizable and useful.
- Cutout-free bright 90Hz AMOLED display, color-accurate and HDR10+-capable too.
- Dependable battery life, reasonably fast charging, extensive battery care options.
- Chipset is a powerhouse, software options let you use it to the fullest.
- Good image and video quality across the board, top-grade selfie videos and photos.
Cons
- Heavier than most, thick too.
- No IP68 rating.
- 3.5mm jack is now gone.
- Less than ideal fingerprint reader experience.
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