The Zenfone 8: A Compact Powerhouse with Fantastic Display and Solid Cameras

The Zenfone 8 has a fantastic display for its price range, and even though it's not the highest resolution one around, I still think it's one of the phone's most attractive features. The screen is vibrant and responsive, making it perfect for watching videos or browsing the web. Whether you're reading in bright indoor conditions or dark environments, the display produces excellent images.

The Zenfone 8's rear camera module consists of a 64-megapixel main sensor and a 12-megapixel ultra-wide sensor, one less than last year's pricier models which featured a third telephoto lens. Despite this, the rear cameras produce solid images in both bright and dark environments. One notable aspect is that all zoom is digital, and the digital zoom maxes out at eight times. I put the camera to the test with a few shots, starting with the ultra-wide shot and moving up to 8x zoom.

Here's an example of how the camera performs under different conditions. For some shots at night, I took pictures of Hong Kong's iconic skyline. The photos look pretty good, but they're not true to life. The sky was grey, but in the photo, it appears bluish. I don't really mind it because I'm happy with the end result.

For selfies, the front-facing camera struggled to capture detail in lower light environments. Sometimes, images turned out whitish, as you can see in this example. This is not a problem for me, as I'm not a selfie aficionado, but for reference, take a look at the same picture taken with the 2018 iPhone Xs Max.

The camera isn't the best I've ever used, nor is it the best phone camera for its price range. However, I think that's forgivable because the camera isn't the main selling point of the Zenfone 8 or marketed to be that way. Pictures turned out respectable in most lighting environments, and overall, I'm pleased with the camera performance.

Now, let's talk about battery and performance. From my experience, the Zenfone 8 battery lasted me roughly 25 to 26 hours with medium use. This means I didn't use the phone for power-intensive games or tasks like gaming, video streaming, or playing music. Instead, I used it for more leisurely activities such as reading news, emails, making short phone calls, scrolling through social media feeds, and taking photos.

If you want the charge to last longer, you can take advantage of a suite of battery care tools tucked away in the settings menu. The Zenfone 8 has five different system modes that let you optimize battery life depending on your needs. For demanding tasks, you can crank up the system to high performance mode when juice is running low. The phone intelligently switches to ultra-durable mode to preserve as much power as possible.

When I eventually ran out of juice, I used the bundled 33-watt charger to replenish the 4000 milliamp-hour battery. It took about an hour and 20 minutes to hit a full charge, but it only took 30 minutes for the battery to get refilled halfway. The Zenfone 8 is powered by the top-of-the-line Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chip, along with 8GB or 16GB of RAM in the most expensive model with 256GB of storage.

The performance of the phone is peppy and fast, handling everything I threw at it without a hitch. In benchmark tests, the Zenfone 8 performed somewhere between the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 12 lineup, signaling that this phone is nothing short of a powerhouse. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get an overall score for 3D SlingShot Unlimited, as the phone was apparently too powerful.

While not perfect, the Zenfone 8 does have its flaws. Asus removed the microSD slot for expandable storage, which might be a deal-breaker for some users who value having more storage options. Additionally, last year's Zenfone 7 lineup had expandable storage of up to two terabytes, and there is no support for wireless charging.

Based on my experience with the Zenfone 8, I think Asus achieved exactly what it set out to do – guided by its design anthem of building a phone that was big in performance but also compact in size. The phone is durable, has a stellar display, respectable battery life, dependable cameras, and very powerful internals all crammed into a small and lightweight device.

If you enjoyed this video, feel free to like and subscribe for more content. And if you want to read this coverage, pop onto the CNET website, which also has a link in the description box below.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enour small phones here to stay asus is betting they will stick around with the new zenfone 8 its new mid-range flagship billed as the ultimate compact android phone hi everyone i'm serena and i've been using this phone the zenfone 8 which asus just launched for maybe a week now so i'm gonna do a review video on this and i'm gonna start off by covering uh the design then move on to display uh the camera battery and performance then wrap up with an overall summary on the device now this phone should be releasing in europe soon if it hasn't already and it will start at 599 euros a us launch is also in the cards but pricing there might vary from 599 dollars to 799 though that price is not confirmed now for some housekeeping for those tuning into my videos for the first time for the sake of transparency know that asus sent me the zenfone 8 ahead of its official launch but don't worry that won't affect my analysis or opinions on the phone compared to asus bold effort last year with zenfone 7 the company went down a much safer path with the zenfone 8 so don't expect to turn heads with this one this year the camera bump does not flip the bump houses two cameras a flashlight and a microphone flip it around and you'll see a crisp 5.9 inch amoled panel rounded off with a punch hole camera on the upper right on the right side there's a volume rocker and a power button that can be customized to access system features and apps on the bottom there's a dual sim card slot a notification light and on the top there is a headphone jack with dimensions of 148 by 68.5 by 8.9 millimeters the zenfone 8 is certainly small for today's phone standards and it's probably one of the most compact 5g phones around it's also lightweight weighing 169 grams but it's still slightly heftier than the iphone 12 mini either way as someone who otherwise prefers to use a large phone it was great to be able to tuck the phone into my back pocket without it sticking out too much the zenfone 8 is slim and lightweight too weighing just 169 grams so one-handed use was comfortable at least for me asus said the zenfone 8 is the most durable phone it's built yet partly thanks to the gorilla glass victor shielding and ip68 rating for water and dust resistance let's talk about the display now the zenfone 8 features a flat 5.92 inch oled panel from samsung that was visible in various lighting scenarios thanks in part to high peak brightness of 1100 nits in addition the zenfone 8 has full quad hd plus resolution that's 2400 by 1080 pixels and 120hz display which can be dialed back to 90hz or 60hz to preserve battery life most phones have refresh rates of 60 hertz which means the screen refreshes 60 times in a second 120 hertz displays can look a lot smoother by comparison that's also the same speed seen across samsung's latest galaxy s21 lineup including the 1200 galaxy s21 ultra as well as xiaomi super lux mi 11 ultra phone in practice the display was super responsive and there's also an in-screen finger reader which worked like a charm taking all this into consideration i can say the zenfone 8 has a fantastic display for its price range and even though it's not the highest resolution one around i still think it's one of the zenfone 8's most attractive features now moving on to the cameras the zenfone 8's rear camera module consists of a 64 megapixel main sensor and a 12 megapixel ultra wide sensor one less than last year's pricier models which featured a third telephoto lens in front there's a 12 megapixel selfie shooter in general the rear cameras produce solid images whether i was clicking away in bright indoor and even dark environments because there is no telephoto camera on this device know that all zoom is digital and that the digital zoom maxes out at eight times now here's the zoom in action starting with the ultra wide shot all the way up to eight times zoom you can see how it gets blurry when zoomed in fully now for some shots at night these are pictures of hong kong's iconic skyline i think the photos look pretty good but they aren't true to life the sky was grey but as you can see on the photo the sensors captured a bluish sky i don't really mind it because i was happy with the end result now for selfies the front facing camera struggled to capture detail in lower light environments sometimes images turned out whitish like this one i'm not a selfie aficionado so i don't mind but for reference take a look at the same picture it's much warmer and this one was taken with 2018's iphone 10s max on the spectrum of smartphone cameras this isn't the best camera i've ever used not even close nor is it the best phone camera for its price range but i think that's forgivable because the camera isn't the main selling point of the zenfone 8 nor is it marketed to be and i think pictures turned out respectable in most lighting environments let's talk about battery and performance now from my experience the zenfone 8 battery lasted me roughly 25 to 26 hours with what i would describe as medium use that means i didn't use the phone for power intensive games instead i use it for things like reading the news or emails making a few short phone and video calls or scrolling through my social media feeds and taking photos of course i'd expect less than a day's worth of battery life when you're gaming or using the phone for more intensive tasks but if you want the charge to last longer you can take advantage of a suite of battery care tools tucked away in the settings menu zenfone 8 has five different system modes that you lets you optimize battery life depending on your needs for demanding tasks you can crank the system all the way up to high performance mode when juice is running low the phone intelligently switched to ultra durable mode to preserve as much power as possible when i eventually ran out of juice i used the bundled 33 watt charger to replenish the 4 000 milliamp hour battery took about an hour and 20 minutes to hit a full charge but i needed just 30 minutes for the battery to get refilled more than halfway powering the zenfone 8 is the top of the line qualcomm snapdragon 888 chip along with 8 gigs or 16 gigs of ram in the most expensive model with 256 gigs of storage the pricier samsung galaxy s21 ultra also has 16 gigs of ram but this isn't just a bunch of numbers when i put the phones through paces the zenfone 8 was peppy and fast and handled everything i threw at it without a hitch in the benchmark tests i performed the zenfone 8 performed somewhere between the iphone 11 pro and iphone 12 lineup signaling this phone is nothing short of a powerhouse i wasn't able to get an overall score for 3d slingshot unlimited which didn't output an overall score because the phone was apparently too powerful but the zenfone 8 doesn't have everything of course asus removed the microsd slot for expandable storage and last year's zenfone 7 lineup had expandable storage of up to two terabytes there's no support for wireless charging either now based on my experience with the zenfone 8 i think asus achieved exactly what it set out to do guided by its design anthem of building a phone that was big in performance but also compact in size i mean it crafted a durable phone with a stellar display respectable battery life dependable cameras and very powerful internals and all that is crammed into a small and lightweight device so that's pretty much all i have to say on the zenfone 8 but if you enjoyed this video feel free to like and subscribe for more but thank you for watching and also if you want to read this coverage pop onto the cnet website there's also a link in the description box below thanks for watchingour small phones here to stay asus is betting they will stick around with the new zenfone 8 its new mid-range flagship billed as the ultimate compact android phone hi everyone i'm serena and i've been using this phone the zenfone 8 which asus just launched for maybe a week now so i'm gonna do a review video on this and i'm gonna start off by covering uh the design then move on to display uh the camera battery and performance then wrap up with an overall summary on the device now this phone should be releasing in europe soon if it hasn't already and it will start at 599 euros a us launch is also in the cards but pricing there might vary from 599 dollars to 799 though that price is not confirmed now for some housekeeping for those tuning into my videos for the first time for the sake of transparency know that asus sent me the zenfone 8 ahead of its official launch but don't worry that won't affect my analysis or opinions on the phone compared to asus bold effort last year with zenfone 7 the company went down a much safer path with the zenfone 8 so don't expect to turn heads with this one this year the camera bump does not flip the bump houses two cameras a flashlight and a microphone flip it around and you'll see a crisp 5.9 inch amoled panel rounded off with a punch hole camera on the upper right on the right side there's a volume rocker and a power button that can be customized to access system features and apps on the bottom there's a dual sim card slot a notification light and on the top there is a headphone jack with dimensions of 148 by 68.5 by 8.9 millimeters the zenfone 8 is certainly small for today's phone standards and it's probably one of the most compact 5g phones around it's also lightweight weighing 169 grams but it's still slightly heftier than the iphone 12 mini either way as someone who otherwise prefers to use a large phone it was great to be able to tuck the phone into my back pocket without it sticking out too much the zenfone 8 is slim and lightweight too weighing just 169 grams so one-handed use was comfortable at least for me asus said the zenfone 8 is the most durable phone it's built yet partly thanks to the gorilla glass victor shielding and ip68 rating for water and dust resistance let's talk about the display now the zenfone 8 features a flat 5.92 inch oled panel from samsung that was visible in various lighting scenarios thanks in part to high peak brightness of 1100 nits in addition the zenfone 8 has full quad hd plus resolution that's 2400 by 1080 pixels and 120hz display which can be dialed back to 90hz or 60hz to preserve battery life most phones have refresh rates of 60 hertz which means the screen refreshes 60 times in a second 120 hertz displays can look a lot smoother by comparison that's also the same speed seen across samsung's latest galaxy s21 lineup including the 1200 galaxy s21 ultra as well as xiaomi super lux mi 11 ultra phone in practice the display was super responsive and there's also an in-screen finger reader which worked like a charm taking all this into consideration i can say the zenfone 8 has a fantastic display for its price range and even though it's not the highest resolution one around i still think it's one of the zenfone 8's most attractive features now moving on to the cameras the zenfone 8's rear camera module consists of a 64 megapixel main sensor and a 12 megapixel ultra wide sensor one less than last year's pricier models which featured a third telephoto lens in front there's a 12 megapixel selfie shooter in general the rear cameras produce solid images whether i was clicking away in bright indoor and even dark environments because there is no telephoto camera on this device know that all zoom is digital and that the digital zoom maxes out at eight times now here's the zoom in action starting with the ultra wide shot all the way up to eight times zoom you can see how it gets blurry when zoomed in fully now for some shots at night these are pictures of hong kong's iconic skyline i think the photos look pretty good but they aren't true to life the sky was grey but as you can see on the photo the sensors captured a bluish sky i don't really mind it because i was happy with the end result now for selfies the front facing camera struggled to capture detail in lower light environments sometimes images turned out whitish like this one i'm not a selfie aficionado so i don't mind but for reference take a look at the same picture it's much warmer and this one was taken with 2018's iphone 10s max on the spectrum of smartphone cameras this isn't the best camera i've ever used not even close nor is it the best phone camera for its price range but i think that's forgivable because the camera isn't the main selling point of the zenfone 8 nor is it marketed to be and i think pictures turned out respectable in most lighting environments let's talk about battery and performance now from my experience the zenfone 8 battery lasted me roughly 25 to 26 hours with what i would describe as medium use that means i didn't use the phone for power intensive games instead i use it for things like reading the news or emails making a few short phone and video calls or scrolling through my social media feeds and taking photos of course i'd expect less than a day's worth of battery life when you're gaming or using the phone for more intensive tasks but if you want the charge to last longer you can take advantage of a suite of battery care tools tucked away in the settings menu zenfone 8 has five different system modes that you lets you optimize battery life depending on your needs for demanding tasks you can crank the system all the way up to high performance mode when juice is running low the phone intelligently switched to ultra durable mode to preserve as much power as possible when i eventually ran out of juice i used the bundled 33 watt charger to replenish the 4 000 milliamp hour battery took about an hour and 20 minutes to hit a full charge but i needed just 30 minutes for the battery to get refilled more than halfway powering the zenfone 8 is the top of the line qualcomm snapdragon 888 chip along with 8 gigs or 16 gigs of ram in the most expensive model with 256 gigs of storage the pricier samsung galaxy s21 ultra also has 16 gigs of ram but this isn't just a bunch of numbers when i put the phones through paces the zenfone 8 was peppy and fast and handled everything i threw at it without a hitch in the benchmark tests i performed the zenfone 8 performed somewhere between the iphone 11 pro and iphone 12 lineup signaling this phone is nothing short of a powerhouse i wasn't able to get an overall score for 3d slingshot unlimited which didn't output an overall score because the phone was apparently too powerful but the zenfone 8 doesn't have everything of course asus removed the microsd slot for expandable storage and last year's zenfone 7 lineup had expandable storage of up to two terabytes there's no support for wireless charging either now based on my experience with the zenfone 8 i think asus achieved exactly what it set out to do guided by its design anthem of building a phone that was big in performance but also compact in size i mean it crafted a durable phone with a stellar display respectable battery life dependable cameras and very powerful internals and all that is crammed into a small and lightweight device so that's pretty much all i have to say on the zenfone 8 but if you enjoyed this video feel free to like and subscribe for more but thank you for watching and also if you want to read this coverage pop onto the cnet website there's also a link in the description box below thanks for watching\n"