Did you know that Asus makes great smartphones? The Taiwanese brand has been off the market in the Netherlands for a while with its smartphones, but just releases the eighth generation of the Zenfone here. You can read more about the smartphone in this Asus Zenfone 8 review.
Asus Zenfone 8
MSRP From € 679,-
Colors black and white
OS Android 11 (ZenUI 8)
Screen 5.9 inch amoled (2400 x 1080, 120 Hz)
Processor 2.8GHz octa-core (Snapdragon 888 5G)
RAM 6GB
Storage 128GB
Battery 4,000mAh
Camera 64, 12 megapixel (rear), 32 megapixel (front)
Connectivity 5G, Bluetooth 5.2, GPS, NFC, WiFi 6e
Format 14.8 x 6.9 x 0.9 cm
Weight 169 grams
Other 3.5mm jack, IP68
Website www.asus.com/nl
8 Score 80 
- Pros
- Powerful specs
- Handy and sturdy design
- Minimalist Android Skin
- Negatives
- Update Support
- Screen brightness
After a patent dispute with Philips, Asus entered the Dutch smartphone market again. Recently, the Asus ROG Phone 5 was released, a powerful smartphone aimed at gamers. The Zenfone series doesn’t go out of style for this target group. On the contrary, the Zenfone 8 is quite modest. Both in appearance and in price.
Small and sturdy
Where most smartphones appear on the market with an increasingly larger size, Asus keeps it within limits. The smartphone is 14.8 by 6.5 centimeters in size and has a screen with a diagonal of 5.9 inches (15 centimeters). That’s quite a bit bigger than the other modest smartphone, the iPhone 12 Mini, which analysts say has so far not been a sales success like other iPhones.
When you hold the compact device in your hands, you immediately notice the sturdy build quality. The back is made of frosted glass and the edge is made of metal. You will also find an audio connection in this edge at the top. Stranger is that the LED notification light is placed next to the USB port on the bottom. Personally I don’t think this is an ideal location.
The matte back ensures that the smartphone is not a fingerprint magnet. The device feels quite heavy for its size, which is not a problem in use, but a case is therefore recommended.
Amoled
The previous Zenfone that has been on the test bench here was the Asus Zenfone 6, a smartphone that came out quite well in the test and stood out because of the rear camera, which could rotate to double as a selfie camera. That rotating camera is not on the Zenfone 8, but on the simultaneously announced Zenfone 8 Flip. The Zenfone 6 had a major drawback: the LCD screen was not so good. That shortcoming has been remedied with the Zenfone 8, thanks to a modern AMOLED screen with a higher refresh rate of 120 hertz, so that images run more smoothly.
Behind the screen are also a fingerprint scanner and the front camera in a camera hole in the top left corner. The image quality of the screen is excellent for its price range. The color reproduction and detail are very good, only the screen brightness is a bit disappointing. You notice this especially if you use your smartphone outside in bright sunlight: there is less to read.
The refresh rate of the screen can be adjusted manually. There is also a mode that adjusts the refresh rate when needed. That is a nice addition, because a high refresh rate weighs heavily on the battery. With this mode, the refresh rate will be high when you go through the system, and it will be a bit lower when you watch a video, for example (video images usually play slower than the refresh rate). If desired, you can also set the refresh rate of the screen at 120, 90 or 60 hertz.
Battery
The Zenfone 8 is equipped with a 4,000 mAh battery. That is not the highest battery capacity on paper. But that does not mean that the battery life is disappointing. The modest screen size naturally results in a somewhat less high energy consumption – especially if you have not set the refresh rate to its highest setting. With normal use (and with the dynamic refresh rate) you can do a little more than a day with a charged battery.
In terms of charging techniques, the Zenfone 8 is not that far. Despite the glass back, wireless charging is not possible. Fast charging goes with a maximum of 30 watts, which does not break charging records.
Asus has also built in some smart features in Android to make the battery last well in the long term. The saver modes aren’t the best idea, they cut down background processes (apps), making your system more unstable. The interesting options are below Battery care in the settings. Fast charging and charging above 80% will cause more battery wear in the long run. In these settings you can set a charging limit and configure fast charging, for example when you charge overnight this only happens slowly. After all, if your smartphone is on the charger all night, you don’t need a fast charging function.
There is a version of the Zenfone 8 with 16(!) GB of RAM.
Specs
The Zenfone 8 has a powerful chipset, (Snapdragon 888), which also offers 5G support. It is a high-quality chipset, which ensures excellent performance. But it is mainly the working memory that catches the eye in our review device: the Zenfone 8 has 16GB(!). That’s a lot. Maybe even a bit unnecessarily much, but however you use your smartphone: the performance is always impressive and even in line with smartphones that are twice as expensive as this smartphone.
The Zenfone 8 that we tested had 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, which has a suggested retail price of 809 euros. There are also two less expensive versions with 8GB of RAM and 128 or 256GB of storage, which cost 679 and 739 euros respectively. The Zenfone 8 does not have a memory card slot, so check in advance how much storage you think you will need.
Android 11 with ZenUI
The Zenfone 8 runs on Android 11 and at the time of writing has the latest security patch from April 2021, with Asus’ Androidskin ZenUI over it. This Android skin is very nice, because Asus has not tinkered much with the internals of Android. This makes the system run smoothly and stably. Unfortunately, Asus found it necessary to add bloatware from Facebook. There is also a Mobile Manager present, which puts an unnecessary memory cleaner on your device.
The modern chipset, the amount of RAM and the relatively clean Android version open the door for long-term update support. The smartphone can handle it and the developers need to rebuild Android less heavily when a new version is released. If you look at the support policy, Asus has some room for improvement. The support time of version and security updates is too short and the rollout too slow. Unfortunately, Asus doesn’t seem to be taking this responsibility more seriously, you can expect two version updates. That is insufficient.
Cameras
Many Android smartphones are equipped with as many lenses and other optical sensors on the back as possible. But in many cases they are of little use in practice, especially zoom and macro lenses are often of such poor quality that you will not use them in practice. Asus does not pull this marketing trump card and has provided the Zenfone 8 with only a regular and a wide-angle camera at the rear. There is no zoom or macro camera, and nothing is really missing.
Often there are large perceptible differences when you look at the photo quality of the lenses on a smartphone. That is not so bad with the Zenfone 8. You don’t have to sacrifice much in quality if you choose to capture more with the wide-angle lens. But there is a difference, if you want to capture more color detail or if you have challenging lighting conditions, you will always get the best results with the regular camera.
The camera shoots decent photos, which are not to be faulted. Even in difficult lighting conditions such as low light and backlight. But as all-round good as the top smartphones from Samsung and Apple. That is not the camera of the Zenfone 8.
The regular and the wide-angle camera of the Asus Zenfone 8.
Alternatives to the Asus Zenfone 8
With the Zenfones from Asus you would actually like to turn the tables. The previous generation I tested was an excellent alternative to OnePlus smartphones, which were slowly falling out of favor, partly due to their price increases. Asus’ smartphones had the same processing power, a clean Android version and also some unobtrusive camera performance. You could also put this Zenfone 8 in the same way as an alternative to the OnePlus 9. But less than before, as Asus has a similar price for the Zenfone 8. The two smartphones differ little from each other, the Zenfone is perhaps more interesting if you are looking for a smaller device.
In lower price ranges you will find smartphones from other Chinese brands such as Xiaomi. In terms of computing power and camera performance, the devices are equal. However, in Asus’ favor is the ZenUI software shell.
However, the biggest competitor for the Zenfone 8 comes from Samsung’s stable. The Galaxy S21 is also a relatively compact device. Although it has less processing power on board, the Samsung smartphone does have a better camera and better update support.
Conclusion: buy Asus Zenfone 8?
The Asus Zenfone 8 is a handy, powerful smartphone that can hardly be faulted. The screen, the camera, the battery life, the software. Actually, everything is fine. It is a pity that Asus alone in terms of update support does not really take its responsibility yet.
.