The ASUS ZenFone 2 Laser HD ZE601KL arrived on my doorstep yesterday, and I couldn’t wait to unbox this beauty. Having heard quite a bit about the ASUS ZenFone series, I was super excited to test this baby out!
This model, released to Singapore on 19 December’15, comes in 3 different colours: Sheer Gold, Glacier Gray and Glamour Red.
I was glad to receive mine in neutral gray-silver – by choice, my previous phones had all been fully white or rose gold. Gray wouldn’t have been my colour of choice, but now that I have this in my hands, I’m liking the sleek gray tone which gives the ZE601KL a masculinity rather befitting of its size.
Here are the accessories that accompanied the ZE601KL [it’s always mad fun to unbox new gadgets!]: the box contains a Main Battery, Adapter Type + Plug.
Hear ye! The ZE601KL has a removable battery, on top of its supposedly super-long lasting battery life.
Let’s get down to business.
The first thing that came to mind as I picked up the ZE601KL for the first time: hell yeah, it’s so light! [190 g with battery] And much bigger than I imagined it would be. Very light for its size, yet it doesn’t feel flimsy.
Unlike my previous phones [I’ve been an Apple user for 8 years] which have rectangular edges, ASUS ZenFone 2 Laser’s rounded curves are a refreshing change. I can wrap my fingers naturally around the large 6″+ device. So it’s bigger than my current iPhone 6+, but I think some of us agree that with phone sizes it’s a slippery slope – once you go big, you can’t go back to using ’em small ones, ever.
This is just a matter of going bigger, again. Still smaller than the Samsung Note.
Okay so moving on to finally turning it on. Android to me is like oxygen to a Martian. Pardon me for taking ages to give it life. But hey, look how it roared to life!
The ASUS ZenFone 2 Laser uses the Android 5.0 Platform, powered by the internal Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 MSM8939 CPU, providing ample power for all daily multi-tasking activities. The device has up to 32GB internal storage, plus a MicroSD card memory slot that can take up to 120GB. Ostensibly a heavy consumer of high-definition dramas or videos would love this extension, simply because you’ll not need to free up space all the time. Thumbs up! The phone also works on LTE Category 4 for download speeds up to 150Mbit/s, and a 60ms touch response time.
Somehow the screen feels a tad like my Kindle – very flat-lay and texts are crisp and clear.
Additionally, I think drama lovers would be delighted by the 6-inch, full-HD 1920×1080 screen display, built with an IPS Capacitive Multi-touch panel Scratch Resistant Corning® Gorilla® Glass HCLR film technology screen. Well, that is one darn mouthful! To put it in human words, your ASUS ZenFone screen is scratch-proof and crack-proof; provided you aren’t thinking of throwing this off a cliff, the hardy exterior’s gonna last you a long long time. The enhanced Gorilla Glass 4 display offers twice the drop-damage resistance of its predecessor, plus a 2.5X increase in retained strength, and is 85% less likely to break in daily use.
I drop my phones – A LOT. I need a sturdy and tough phone like this. Most of the time my phones fall on my face while I’m texting in bed. So thank goodness ZE601KL has an ultra light body!
Speaking of its body, I haven’t quite shown enough of this baby’s back view. It’s got an extremely sexy behind.
See what I mean? Sleek huh.
Moving on, I must add that the camera function ain’t bad at all.
I’m big on camera functions. I’m a self-proclaimed selfie-addict as evidenced by my stash of just under a billion selfies. The thing I dislike about most phones is that the front cameras are disappointing. They take downright slipshod and blurry photos with no focus, bad lighting even on a sunny day, and produces terrible resolution.
So I’m heartened to learn that ASUS ZenFone 2 boasts laser auto-focus technology for the fastest possible snapshot clarity. The phone’s PixelMaster backlight [Super HDR] mode automatically captures multiple shots of the scene in the viewfinder, and processes these using ASUS Pixel Enhancing technology to give the final picture up to 400% more brightness. This is darn great for taking pictures in less-than-ideal lightings.
I guess it can’t yet serve the perfect selfie function – I can’t say that its front cam [5 Mega-Pixel] is fantastic. I wouldn’t trust a cell-phone to take a selfie that is of better resolution than with my Panasonic Lumix 6. However ZE601KL does boast a decent rear camera [13 Mega-Pixel] for its price. I guess I haven’t yet found my perfect selfie-phone.
My current earcandy is a Parody of Adele’s Hello by Key of Awesome on YouTube which says it all: HERE’S A PHONE I HAVEN’T TRIED. So in love with that song for so many reasons.
If you wanna experience the HD awesomeness, why not watch a vid-ception of the video played on my ZE601KL and judge for yourself.
See how ASUS doesn’t disappoint? I’m open to all mobile models, except maybe a
So… I guess thank you for reading thus far! I’ll be back to update on more ASUS experiences. I’m loving the ZE601KL! Gonna put my feet up and watch a few ABC Family comedies in bed, and not be afraid to drop the phone on my face.