Asus Zenfone 5 review: AI cameras at midrange price

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Asus Zenfone 5 review: AI cameras at midrange price

Art Fuentes,

ABS-CBN News

 | 

Updated May 11, 2018 09:55 AM PHT

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MANILA - Asus hyped the Zenfone 5's AI-powered imaging capabilities when it unveiled the handset in Barcelona last March.

But when the Zenfone 5 dropped in stores last April, Asus was entering a crowded mid-tier market, where a lot of handsets also claim to employ AI on their cameras.

So how does the Zenfone 5 stack up?

On specs alone, the Zenfone 5 looks pretty decent. It's main camera uses a 12MP Sony sensor with an F1.8 aperture lens. The secondary 8MP camera uses a wide-angle 120 degree F2.0 lens.

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Its front camera, which uses an 8MP sensor paired with an F2.0 lens, is not going to blow away the competition. But it is relatively standard in the mid-range segment.

Asus resisted the temptation to oversaturate the Zenfone's photos

It was a bit strange that Asus chose to put an F1.8 lens on the Zenfone 5’s main camera when its former flagship the Zenfone 4 Pro used a brighter F1.7 lens.

But lens aperture aside, the Zenfone 5’s primary shooter delivers sharp pictures with very good details and exposure.

Unlike other camera phones that tend to oversaturate the colors, the Zenfone 5 opts for more natural colors.

Colors appeared more "natural" than on other phones

But if you want to add more “pop” to your snapshots, you just need to swipe right to access a set of filters that will let you “warm” up a scene or make it more “hipster.”

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Yes, there is something called a "Hipster" filter

Users who want greater control over the camera can switch to its “Pro” mode, which allows manual adjustment of exposure, shutter speed, ISO, white balance and other settings. You can also save photos in RAW format for more serious editing on a PC.

But if you’re just a casual shooter, Asus says the camera’s AI system will take care of adjusting these settings for you.

The Zenfone 5's AI recognized the subject as food

The Zenfone 5's AI recognized the subject as a flower

During our tests, the Zenfone 5 was able to recognize different photo subjects such as food, faces, landscapes and flowers. We’re not quite sure what settings it adjusted for these subjects, but the resulting photos were pretty good.

The phone's low light snapshots were decent

The Zenfone 5 also performed well in low light conditions. Night shots looked above average, though understandably with still a bit of noise.

But while the main camera produced great snapshots, the rear's secondary wide angle camera did not perform as well in our test shots.

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Sunset captured on the Zenfone 5's main camera

Zoom in and the picture still shows fine details

Zoom in on the photo captured by the wide angle shot and you'll notice that a lot of details got lost

In well-lit environments, the photos were okay. But in low-light conditions, snapshots showed poor detail and too much noise.

For landscape shots, it's probably best to skip the wide-angle lens and use the main camera instead.

On the plus side, the wide angle lens does allow you to fit more people in a group shot without distorting the scene too much.

Having two cameras in the rear allows the Zenfone 5 to do something called “depth effect.” Similar to Huawei’s “wide aperture” feature, it lets users create bokeh or blurred backgrounds around their subjects.

Using the depth effect sometimes results in weird blurring

But just like in Huawei’s phones, this feature sometimes results in very artificial-looking blurred backgrounds. It’s a hit or miss feature depending on the subject being photographed.

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Compared to other smartphones in its price range, the Zenfone 5’s front or selfie camera did not exactly stand out. It’s adequate for most selfie situations, but 8MP pales in comparison to 25MP from Oppo F7’s 25MP selfie camera and even the Huawei P20 Lite’s 16MP.

Asus however is obviously not positioning the Zenfone 5 as a selfie gadget. The Zenfone 5Q, also known as Zenfone 5 Lite, can better handle selfies with its dual front cameras with a 20MP Sony sensor.

But if selfies are not a priority, the Zenfone 5 is a very good option if you’re looking for a standout mid-range phone.

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