Asus Zenfone 8 Review | Best Compact Phone of 2021? By Tech Spurt

So, if you've had yourself a bit of compact smartphone action in 2021, while your options are slightly slimmer than an anorexic stick insect and by compact I mean anything, that's sub six inches, which certainly in 2021 counts as diminutive, sorry fellas. On the android front, there is not much beyond Google's own pixel 5, but ANZUS has noticed this infuriating gap in the market and brought relief to our bulging pockets and air con fingers with its fresh before 8. That's a 5.9 inch mini mobile, which won't wreck your thumb joints, but the slightly more affordable price tag than the pixel to boot. Now I've got my sim stuffed inside this dinky Wii blower all week long so here's my in-depth ANZUS, before 8 review and from one of the latest greatest tech. Please do poke subscribe and ding that notifications bell cheers so the design of the before 8 is, paradoxically, one of the best and the worst things about it. Kind of like Gwyneth Paltrow and her vagina candles on the plus side that compact build is a blessing for one-handed use, especially as ASUS has added other tools like the iPhone style screen shrinker to help out if you're still struggling.

However, I've got to say I'm not particularly thrilled by the aesthetics of the before 8. I mean around back it's a rather bland plain, matte finish, which feels kind of functional. At best, I mean frankly, as far as thrills and excitement go it's right up there. With the average episode of bargain hunt plus the before 8 only comes in a piddly choice of two colors, just like the pixel 5, in this case obsidian black and horizon silver. There are no brighter hues to at least raise the old pulse a wee bit still, despite the fact that the before it's Arlene looks like it could be constructed from plastic.

It is actually a little of gorilla, glass, 3 right there and after a week of use, that's definitely doing its job, not a single scratch or scuff anywhere inside just give it a quick polish up, and it looks box fresh and meanwhile, around front. You've got a bit of gorilla glass, Vitus action, the latest freshest gorilla glass, so that's drop resistant as well as scratch, resistant and again no nix or scuffs to speak of, and the before 8 is ip68 rated to boots or for its ruggedness score. It gets a very respectable 4.5 stat hams out of 5. On the software front, it's once again a Zeus's own renew launcher, which I'm definitely still a massive fan of, not least because it mostly leaves that android 11 setup well alone, while adding in a fair few bonus features that are actually worthwhile, surely likes. The always on display selection could use a few more design choices as you're incredibly limited, compared with rivals from OnePlus and Xiaomi, but most of the other extras which I'll touch on throughout this review do get the spurt seal of approval and also like how you've got a dedicated notification like here on the bottom edge of the before 8, particularly useful.

If you've got the phone lined face down, so you don't be fully disturbed, we can just let you know there is something awaiting your attention. However, on the default settings it does also flash whenever the phone is charging, which is not particularly great if you charge it at night, it's right next to your uh head. Basically, because then it just flashes and annoys you all night, long, uh, so yeah not, not ideal. The before 8 in display fingerprint sensor is generally fine, but occasionally doesn't want to play a ball taking two or three pokes to unlock, certainly not one of the worst defenders out there, though you do have the usual face and lock shenanigans with raze to wake support as well, but this isn't the most secure around it worked. Even when I was wearing a pretty hefty face mask now, you do have a choice of 128 or 256 gigs of nippy UFS, 3.1 storage as well, but sadly, no micro, SD memory card support to back that up. So on that front, just like other compact smartphones, like the pixel 5 and the iPhone 12 mini now, the before's 5.9-inch AMOLED screen is a bit of a stunner, as you would expect from a Samsung crafted panel, and although it is considerably smaller than most modern day, 6.7 inch monsters. I was perfectly happy to take in a movie on that mini display, as the full HD plus visuals were crisp and gorgeous.

You have full hdr10, plus support for streaming services and boy. Do those images look natural with the sharp contrast, certainly helping out in moody affair? However, Netflix is definitely still stuttering at times when streaming HDR content. I was hoping this would just be an early doors issue, but it is continuing to do so a week on. This only seems to happen with HDR video standard. HD content seems to be absolutely fine, so really hoping that gets sorted out in an update very, very soon indeed, but in better news on the occasional rare sunny day here in the UK, I had absolutely no problems with visibility on that display when I bumped it up to top brightness levels, even when wearing shades, and it also tops off at 120 hertz, with an auto refresh option as well, and thanks to the nice light launcher.

You certainly feel that superfast refresh rate whenever you're skimming around through menus and your desktops, all that good stuff and audio followers will also bloody lately love the before 8, because I mean the stereo speaker. Output is absolutely fine, no great shakes there, but you do actually get a headphone jack on this Wii blight, which is something that was cold for the pixel 5 and that iPhone 12 mini with full high-res audio support. I also found I had a flawless experience using Bluetooth, 5.2 all the major codecs and tech such as DAC and apex adaptive all supported, and you've got that audio wizard feature to fine-tune the output with an equalizer. If you want to get really geeky with it and so on to performance. The before 8 is certainly impressed there with Qualcomm's top-tier snapdragon 808 chipsets stuffed inside it's commonly found these days in upper mid-range to flagship style smartphones.

However, ambush flagship smartphones come with six, maybe eight, perhaps even 12 gigabytes of ram stuffed in size. My review model of the before 8, somehow managed to pack in 16 gigs of ddr5 memory and yeah you'll have to pay more cash for that maximum 16 gig layouts, but seriously like what so anyway yeah. It wasn't really a massive shock that I didn't see: a single stumble or jello my entire time using the before, 8 and gamers can smash through whatever the hell they like. Although really intensive titles like gentian impact, do cause the before 8 to get a bit toasty. Thankfully this didn't seem to throttle the performance even after a good 40 50-minute session, I saw nothing more than the occasional, tiny little judge, and that was playing on top detail settings here on mention as well, so definitely very impressive stuff, and that starts out by is user's game genie feature which is one of the more comprehensive efforts out there serving up all manner of useful tools just like on ASUS's dedicated gaming phones.

You've got like some macro support, and you can quickly google for help. If you're stuck on a tricky bit, you massive Jesse and the screen is well suited to gaming, with its 240 hertz touch response rate. It's just assuming you don't get those excellent triggers of the rogue phones thrown in there as well and courtesy of that 888 chipset. You've also got full 5g support here on the before 8, although only one of the two sim slots is actually supported there, plus Wi-Fi six as well. So on the connectivity front, it's all gravy baby.

However, the one area where I do tend to get a bit nervous with compact smartphones is the battery life is gonna, be able to last all day long, because, obviously you can't fit a massive cell into that tiny little chassis and sure enough. It's a 4, 000 William cell here on the before 8. I was hoping it would last you all day, no problem as long as you don't absolutely hammer it helped along by the fact that renew launcher is rather light, but sadly that's not the case. Almost every day I was at the very best on serious drags by the time I finally rolled into bed, and that was because I was playing it safe. The last sort of a couple of hours of the day, but more often than not, I did have to give it a little boost towards the end of the day.

I found around four hours of screen on time was generally enough to kill this thing dead and yeah. That is, with the always on display feature turned on, but I kept the refresh rate set to auto the screen. Brightness level was set to auto. I made sure I didn't absolutely take the piss with all the various features. So sadly, the before 8 does not impress in that realm as much as some rivals like the pixel 5 and the iPhone 12.

Many you've got 30 watt charging it on here as well, not as fast again as some rivals, but it'll do the job issues to plug it in for 20 30 minutes towards the end of the day. Give you that final boost to keep you going until you're, all tucked up with teddy and then last up the camera tech and the before 8 is a departure from last year's before 7, as the rear cam doesn't rotate to become the selfie shooter, and that is something that I definitely missed here on the before. It wasn't just because I'm a sucker for stupid, gimmicky tech, but if that is a dealbreaker for you, don't worry. ANZUS has also released a before 8 flip, which reinstates that flippy camera attack. Now the primary 64 megapixel lens uses Sony's iMac 686 sensors with built-in optical image stabilization, and I found that just like previous engines, my photo samples were more than satisfactory.

The default 16 megapixel resolution is plenty for pumping out highly detailed snaps with natural colors on shore, even in quite strong lighting, you can choose to shoot at that maxed out resolution. If you really want to. Although then you are sacrificing the HDR smart, so definitely don't go expecting the before 8 to churn out the same lifelike results. Meanwhile, the second lens slapped there on the off center of the before 8 is a 12 megapixel, ultra-wide angle lens using a different Sony sensor. This time, the mix 363.

And the photos. I capture with this option were pretty impressive. Those colors were almost as natural as the result from the primary shooter with limited distortion to boot, and that is it just two lenses slap there on the back end of the before 8, just like the pixel 5, absolute rarity in 2021, and I couldn't be happier no bloody macro lens to speak of joy. Joy, hallelujah praise the baby Jesus. Of course, all the usual bonus camera fare is present and correct, including a respectable portrait mode that accurately dissects your subject from the background.

The before 8's night mode also works pretty well too, while other phones produce brighter shots. Here, you will get results closer to what you see with the naked eye, albeit with warmer tones and then there's that video mode, which serves some great looking 4k home movies with the same natural vibe as that photo modes. This can once again handle harsh lighting and I had absolutely no issues with the focus. Even when my subject was zipping about like a corked up, cocker spaniel, you can switch to the ultra-wide angle, camera at that high-res level and again capture good, looking footage with a pulled back viewpoint and either way the audio came through loud and clear from all directions, except for when things get a bit blustery and if you're all about maxing out that resolution, there is a 8k video mode that records at 24 frames per second, but be warned a mere one-minute. Clip will eat up well over a gig of your phone storage ouch and while yes, sadly, the box standard, before 8 can't uh flip that rear camera to then take selfies as well.

You do have a 12 megapixel front facing camera, using the mix 663 sensors and when shooting outdoor selfies against a bright sky. I found that my PSD skin tone was accurately replicated, as were all of those lovely lines and creases. The portrait mode does tend to completely blow out the background, but if you want the photo to be all about, you, then mission accomplished so right. There's my full final review of the ANZUS before 8 after using it as my full-time smartphone for a week- and I have to say it's such a shame- that the battery life in particularly hot on this thing, because I really enjoyed using it as my smartphone, apart from that, the compact design is great, the camera is super reliable. The performance is frankly, freaking amazing and while the battery life issue in quite so severe these days, when I'm still stuck at home, most of the time when I do eventually start going out and about and seeing people and doing things again, that's going to be a bit of a problem.

So anyway, that's what I think would be great to hear what you guys think down in the comments below as well and stay tuned, hoping to bring you some more before 8 action in the form of the before 8 flip really shortly and for more on the latest and greatest tag. Please do poke subscribe, ding that notifications bell and have yourselves a fantastic rest of the week, cheers everyone loves you. You.

Source : Tech Spurt