Asus ZenFone Zoom review: Groundbreaking camera, iffy performance

The Asus ZenFone Zoom is the first phone with an optical zoom lens that doesn't protrude out of the phone, a mighty impressive accomplishment. But don't start tossing money at Asus just yet. The phone's spammy software and slow camera drag it down too much to recommend, especially when you factor in its premium price.

6.9

Asus ZenFone Zoom

The Good

Asus' ZenFone Zoom breaks new ground with a built-in optical zoom camera that doesn't stick out or appear to move. Photos taken are generally great, but worse in low light.

The Bad

The phone software peppers you with ads by default. Camera performance feels sluggish.

The Bottom Line

The Asus ZenFone Zoom puts cool new camera tech to work, but its bloated software and poor overall performance keep it from being a phone you'd want to buy.

At $399 (which is around £275 or AU$560), the Zoom isn't cheap -- you're paying the early adopter tax to get your hands on it. If you're looking at alternative phones with great cameras, then your best bet would still be flagships such as the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Apple iPhone 6S Plus; they cost a lot more, but you also get more for your money. When all's said and done, the ZenFone Zoom is a novelty, but one with the potential for a second-generation model good enough to stand on its own.

Asus ZenFone Zoom offers optical zoom without the bulge (pictures)

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Here's why this camera breaks new ground

Why should you care about an optical zoom lens? It's a carryover from compact and dSLR cameras, and promises far more accurate zooming, allowing you to capture details that would otherwise be lost using digital zoom (the type of zoom typically seen on a phone).

A sleek ZenFone Zoom has the potential to be the ultimate two-in-one phone. Unlike previous experiments in optical zoom phones, such as the Samsung K Zoom and Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom before that, the ZenFone avoids becoming a clunky old thing in your hand.

Design-wise, the ZenFone Zoom earns some real cred for shrinking down the zoom mechanism and sticking it inside the phone, so there's no protruding barrel. I've seen other solutions for optical zoom, such as the use of two cameras, but while that works, it's still not widely available. Unlike your normal smartphone camera, which uses digital software tricks to "zoom in" on an image -- really it just crops the current image to give you the impression of zoom -- the ZenFone Zoom's recessed lens can mechanically zoom in and out just like it would on a compact camera. Try as I might, I couldn't see any moving parts in the lens, though if your eyes are sharp enough, you could.

To do this, Asus uses a special Hoya-designed lens with the aforesaid 3x optical zoom and optical shake reduction. The module is just 6mm thick, and is called the Cube.

But are the photos any better? Yes and no, but mostly no. The ZenFone Zoom's camera does let you zoom close to the action and you get a bit more detail than you normally would, but not by much. Low light performance is mediocre, and sometimes the phone has trouble with closeup shots.

Should I get this?

While it's cool that the phone has some new tech that we may not see elsewhere -- Asus has a long history with experimenting, including a phone that transforms into a tablet -- the Taiwanese manufacturer has packed way too much bloatware into the Zoom's operating system, including annoying ads that are displayed by default (thankfully you can turn them off).

There are also things to like, especially the removable rear cover and its comfortable, leather-like grip. Battery life is also decent, lasting almost 10 hours in our CNET Video Labs test. But while the tech and design are certainly new and interesting, photo capture still isn't good enough for you to buy this first-generation version of the phone over other choices.