The Zen Phone 2 Laser: A Budget-Friendly Option with a Few Drawbacks

Asus has made significant improvements to their budget-friendly smartphone offerings, and the Zen Phone 2 Laser is no exception. This device offers a great display, exceptional software experience, and support at an affordable price point. However, it's not without its flaws.

One of the standout features of the Zen Phone 2 Laser is its display. The 5-inch touchscreen is bright and vibrant, making it ideal for watching videos or browsing the web. However, battery life could be better. With moderate usage, the phone can easily last a day, but heavy users may need to recharge more frequently.

In terms of performance, the Zen Phone 2 Laser is powered by a quad-core processor and comes with 3GB of RAM. While this may not seem like a lot compared to some flagships, it's sufficient for most users' needs. The phone also features 16GB or 32GB of internal storage, depending on the model.

The camera on the Zen Phone 2 Laser is another area where it shines. The 13-megapixel rear camera is accompanied by a laser autofocus feature, which significantly improves focus and sharpness. However, images still lack dynamic range, and HDR can sometimes make things worse. Low-light performance is also similar to the original Zen Phone, with some noticeable digital noise added due to Asus's image processing.

Despite these limitations, the camera app offers a good amount of manual control and over a dozen individual shooting modes. The professional mode is particularly useful for those who want more control over their photos. However, it's worth noting that additional digital noise seems inevitable when using low-light mode.

The software experience on the Zen Phone 2 Laser is where Asus really shines. The phone runs Android 5.0 Lollipop and features Asus's custom UI, Zenui. This software offers a good amount of customization options, including customizable quick access apps on the lock screen and many gestures available through Zen Motion. There are also various power-saving modes, an auto start manager, and an audio equalizer.

One feature that's particularly noteworthy is the built-in backup and restore app. This includes backing up app data, which can be a huge advantage for users who want to transfer their apps to a new device. Additionally, there's a surprisingly good mobile video editing app and a themes manager with support for custom fonts and icons within the default launcher.

However, Asus still includes some bloatware on the phone, including Clean Master, Doctor Safety, Zen Circle, and Zen Talk. While these apps are mostly redundant or unnecessary, they can be frustrating to deal with. On the other hand, Asus has made some of their apps, such as Link Series, installable through the Google Play Store rather than pre-installing them out of the box.

Asus also provides regular software updates, which is a major plus for Android enthusiasts. The company has a reputation for keeping its devices updated with the latest versions of Android, and this is especially important for budget-friendly options like the Zen Phone 2 Laser.

In terms of pricing, the Zen Phone 2 Laser starts at $1.99 for the 16GB model and goes up to $249 for the 32GB model. While this may not be the cheapest option available, it's still competitive with other Android smartphones on the market.

Overall, the Zen Phone 2 Laser is a great option for those looking for a budget-friendly smartphone with a great display and exceptional software experience. While there are some drawbacks, such as limited battery life and a lackluster camera, Asus has done an excellent job of filling in the gaps and providing a solid alternative to more expensive flagships.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enasus's original Zen phone 2 was one of our favorite mid-range smartphones of 2015 thanks to the unprecedented value it brought to the table with yet another variant Asus is maintaining its focus on affordability while still offering very respectable specifications this is Bailey Stein with Android authority and this is my full review of the Asus zenphone 2 laser the Zen phone 2 laser looks a lot like the original it has the same 5.5 in screen size same ergonomically pleasing curve and overall could be easily mistaken for the original that's not to say that the phone's design is without a few minor differences of course in addition to the unsurprising addition of a laser autofocus you can now swap out the battery there's also access to dual micro SIM card slots as well as a Micro SD card expansion slot although the Zen phone 2 laser is certainly still in fablet territory its dramatic curve and flat edges make it both easy and comfortable to hold with a single hand despite this asus's tab Center power button placement is still well annoying to say the least thankfully double tap to wake and sleep are still here as part of Zen motion among other gestures the power button is undeniably difficult to reach nonetheless but it does feel more tactile than it did on the original oddly enough this comes at the expensive feeling cheaper which is also extended to the volume buttons on the top of the device you'll find a 5 megapixel front-facing camera on the right as well as a notification LED to the left there's also three non-illuminated standard capacitive keys on the bottom just above asus's signature metallic chin the Zen phones bezels are a bit large compared to other devices but that's not that big of a deal once you actually start using it overall the Zen phone 2 laser is one of the best built and designed devices in its pric category category Asus has no trouble pulling off a premiumness often reserved for more expensive devices even with the Laser's all plastic construction while some may frown upon asus's use of a recycled design we feel that the design here is more than adequate the Zen phone 2 Laser's 5.5 in 1080P IPS display looks about the same as it did on the original it has excellent viewing angles great color production and overall it just looks really good we do wish that the panel was a bit brighter however as sunlight readability is sadly just as poor as it was on the original auto brightness also tends to be a bit conservative even with the adapted brightness slider set on maximum The Splendid color settings that Asus has added are definitely a nice touch despite the display's already great color calibration it's also nice to see a blue light filter toggle available straight from the notification shade which makes the display easier to read in Darker environments finally Asus took the opportunity to upgrade the displays glass from Corning Gorilla Glass 3 to four a seemingly small but very welcome change especially for the price powered by the Snapdragon 615 the zenphone 2 laser makes a somewhat surprising switch from x86 to arm as expected the benchmark scores are a bit lower on the Zen phone 2 laser but day-to-day performance is about the same most apps launch fairly quickly and there's minimal leg throughout while the laser does have a marginally less powerful processor it does receive a bump up to 3 GB of RAM from the original base models 2 2 GB that's great to see especially when we still have some $200 phones shipping with just 1 GB of RAM coupled with the adreno 405 gaming performance was pretty good on the Zen phone 2 laser I was able to play games like Asphalt 8 airborne with little noticeable leg even on high with support for 80211 n Wi-Fi GPS and Bluetooth 4.0 the Zen phone 2 laser offers all of the connectivity options you'd expect it is missing NFC however which is a bit unfortunate considering that the original Zen phone 2 had it what the original didn't have though was ban 12 support for T-Mobile 4G LTE users this time around Asus is launching their unlocked dual SIM device with full HSPA plus and full 4G LTE support within the US this Z phone 2 laser is available with either 16 or 32 GB of internal storage but you can always expand that with a Micro SD card up to an additional 128 GB Asus seems to have used the same rear speaker found on the original for the Zen phone 2 laser while sound quality is about average the maximum volume is still too low for some environments battery life was also close to the same on the zenphone 2 laser with the same 3,000 mAh battery capacity I was able to get an average of about about 3 and 1/2 hours of screen on time with 18 hours of usage when I did use it more heavily however I was able to get just over 4 hours of screen on time with 14 hours of use while there doesn't seem to be much of an improvement over the original's mediocre battery life Asus does now give you the opportunity to swap out the battery if needed the 13 megapixel rear camera on the Zen phone 2 laser is now accompanied by a laser autofocus the laser autofocus does seem to help the phone focus on specific objects and some images were noticeably sharper on the laser in comparison to the original with the exception of better sharpness and detail however images appear to be about the same there's still a lack of dynamic range but unlike with the original HDR now often makes things worse the camera is certainly capable of producing great images but it is held back quite a bit due to this issue low light performance on the Zen phone 2 laser was also similar to the original and that we were able to get some decent looking images even even in Darker environments well there is still a lot of digital noise added with asus's image processing it's one of the best low light cameras that we've encountered for the price asus's low light mode also helps quite a bit at the expense of resolution but we should note that additional digital noise seems to be inevitable zeni's camera app offers a good amount of manual control in addition to over a dozen individual shooting modes they're fun to play around with and the professional mode is excellent for those wanting a bit more control the Zen phone 2 laser is running asus's zenui over Android 5.0 Lollipop the software experience remains primarily unchanged from the original but that's not necessarily a bad thing while we can't cover every aspect of the software we will say that Asus has done an exceptional job in adding value through the software experience virtually everything is well thought out and Asus has been very good about filling in the gaps in stock lollipop it definitely follows a design language of its own but the overall experience is one of the best you'll find from the customizable quick access apps on the lock screen to the many customizable gestures available with Zen motion zenui offers a good amount of room for customization there's also many features like Ram cleanup play to support several power saving modes with automatic or scheduled switching an auto start manager an audio equalizer a built-in backup and restore app that actually includes app data FM radio a surprisingly good mobile video editing app a quick memo app a sound recorder app a themes manager with support for custom fonts and icons within the default launcher thank you very much an easy mode a kids mode a one-handed mode a glove mode and finally frequent Asus app updates through the Google Play Store speaking of apps we can't talk about zenui without talking about bloatware while Asus has reduced the amount of pre-installed apps by a fair amount there's still a lot of unnecessary and redundant additions FS like clean master doctor safety Zen Circle and Zen talk are included out of the box with the latter two being unable to be uninstalled with that said Asus has made some of their apps most notably their link series installable through the Google Play Store rather than pre-installing them out of the box there's also a good amount of apps which have been moved into the settings menu reducing the amount of scrolling required in app launchers although it does ship with Android 5.0 lolipop we are nearly certain that this device will receive Android 6.0 marshmallow sometime during the first half of 2016 16 Asus has one of the best track records for keeping their products updated for example the zenphone 5 which launched in early 2014 shipped with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean was updated to Android 4.4 KitKat and then to Android 5.0 Lollipop that kind of software support is difficult to find in even some Flagship Android smartphones nowadays it may just be the key selling point for some Android enthusiasts starting at $1.99 the zenphone 2 laser is priced competitively if 16 GB isn't enough there's also a 32 GB model available for 249 just to be clear the model that we're reviewing here is the ze551kl there are many models of the zenone 2 laser available depending on the region so we suggest that you carefully review specification list before making any purchases although the Zen phone 2 Laser's display could be brighter battery life could be better and speaker could be louder Asus still offers a very competitive option in the C of cheap Android smartphones the great display exceptional software experience and support and bonuses like Gorilla Glass 4 and 3 GB of RAM are enough to make this one of our favorite smartphones for under $200 thank you for watching this video and please make sure to give it a thumbs up below if you enjoyed it also please be sure to subscribe to the channel if you'd like to see more content finally make sure to visit the Android Authority website for additional coverage as we are your source for all things Androidasus's original Zen phone 2 was one of our favorite mid-range smartphones of 2015 thanks to the unprecedented value it brought to the table with yet another variant Asus is maintaining its focus on affordability while still offering very respectable specifications this is Bailey Stein with Android authority and this is my full review of the Asus zenphone 2 laser the Zen phone 2 laser looks a lot like the original it has the same 5.5 in screen size same ergonomically pleasing curve and overall could be easily mistaken for the original that's not to say that the phone's design is without a few minor differences of course in addition to the unsurprising addition of a laser autofocus you can now swap out the battery there's also access to dual micro SIM card slots as well as a Micro SD card expansion slot although the Zen phone 2 laser is certainly still in fablet territory its dramatic curve and flat edges make it both easy and comfortable to hold with a single hand despite this asus's tab Center power button placement is still well annoying to say the least thankfully double tap to wake and sleep are still here as part of Zen motion among other gestures the power button is undeniably difficult to reach nonetheless but it does feel more tactile than it did on the original oddly enough this comes at the expensive feeling cheaper which is also extended to the volume buttons on the top of the device you'll find a 5 megapixel front-facing camera on the right as well as a notification LED to the left there's also three non-illuminated standard capacitive keys on the bottom just above asus's signature metallic chin the Zen phones bezels are a bit large compared to other devices but that's not that big of a deal once you actually start using it overall the Zen phone 2 laser is one of the best built and designed devices in its pric category category Asus has no trouble pulling off a premiumness often reserved for more expensive devices even with the Laser's all plastic construction while some may frown upon asus's use of a recycled design we feel that the design here is more than adequate the Zen phone 2 Laser's 5.5 in 1080P IPS display looks about the same as it did on the original it has excellent viewing angles great color production and overall it just looks really good we do wish that the panel was a bit brighter however as sunlight readability is sadly just as poor as it was on the original auto brightness also tends to be a bit conservative even with the adapted brightness slider set on maximum The Splendid color settings that Asus has added are definitely a nice touch despite the display's already great color calibration it's also nice to see a blue light filter toggle available straight from the notification shade which makes the display easier to read in Darker environments finally Asus took the opportunity to upgrade the displays glass from Corning Gorilla Glass 3 to four a seemingly small but very welcome change especially for the price powered by the Snapdragon 615 the zenphone 2 laser makes a somewhat surprising switch from x86 to arm as expected the benchmark scores are a bit lower on the Zen phone 2 laser but day-to-day performance is about the same most apps launch fairly quickly and there's minimal leg throughout while the laser does have a marginally less powerful processor it does receive a bump up to 3 GB of RAM from the original base models 2 2 GB that's great to see especially when we still have some $200 phones shipping with just 1 GB of RAM coupled with the adreno 405 gaming performance was pretty good on the Zen phone 2 laser I was able to play games like Asphalt 8 airborne with little noticeable leg even on high with support for 80211 n Wi-Fi GPS and Bluetooth 4.0 the Zen phone 2 laser offers all of the connectivity options you'd expect it is missing NFC however which is a bit unfortunate considering that the original Zen phone 2 had it what the original didn't have though was ban 12 support for T-Mobile 4G LTE users this time around Asus is launching their unlocked dual SIM device with full HSPA plus and full 4G LTE support within the US this Z phone 2 laser is available with either 16 or 32 GB of internal storage but you can always expand that with a Micro SD card up to an additional 128 GB Asus seems to have used the same rear speaker found on the original for the Zen phone 2 laser while sound quality is about average the maximum volume is still too low for some environments battery life was also close to the same on the zenphone 2 laser with the same 3,000 mAh battery capacity I was able to get an average of about about 3 and 1/2 hours of screen on time with 18 hours of usage when I did use it more heavily however I was able to get just over 4 hours of screen on time with 14 hours of use while there doesn't seem to be much of an improvement over the original's mediocre battery life Asus does now give you the opportunity to swap out the battery if needed the 13 megapixel rear camera on the Zen phone 2 laser is now accompanied by a laser autofocus the laser autofocus does seem to help the phone focus on specific objects and some images were noticeably sharper on the laser in comparison to the original with the exception of better sharpness and detail however images appear to be about the same there's still a lack of dynamic range but unlike with the original HDR now often makes things worse the camera is certainly capable of producing great images but it is held back quite a bit due to this issue low light performance on the Zen phone 2 laser was also similar to the original and that we were able to get some decent looking images even even in Darker environments well there is still a lot of digital noise added with asus's image processing it's one of the best low light cameras that we've encountered for the price asus's low light mode also helps quite a bit at the expense of resolution but we should note that additional digital noise seems to be inevitable zeni's camera app offers a good amount of manual control in addition to over a dozen individual shooting modes they're fun to play around with and the professional mode is excellent for those wanting a bit more control the Zen phone 2 laser is running asus's zenui over Android 5.0 Lollipop the software experience remains primarily unchanged from the original but that's not necessarily a bad thing while we can't cover every aspect of the software we will say that Asus has done an exceptional job in adding value through the software experience virtually everything is well thought out and Asus has been very good about filling in the gaps in stock lollipop it definitely follows a design language of its own but the overall experience is one of the best you'll find from the customizable quick access apps on the lock screen to the many customizable gestures available with Zen motion zenui offers a good amount of room for customization there's also many features like Ram cleanup play to support several power saving modes with automatic or scheduled switching an auto start manager an audio equalizer a built-in backup and restore app that actually includes app data FM radio a surprisingly good mobile video editing app a quick memo app a sound recorder app a themes manager with support for custom fonts and icons within the default launcher thank you very much an easy mode a kids mode a one-handed mode a glove mode and finally frequent Asus app updates through the Google Play Store speaking of apps we can't talk about zenui without talking about bloatware while Asus has reduced the amount of pre-installed apps by a fair amount there's still a lot of unnecessary and redundant additions FS like clean master doctor safety Zen Circle and Zen talk are included out of the box with the latter two being unable to be uninstalled with that said Asus has made some of their apps most notably their link series installable through the Google Play Store rather than pre-installing them out of the box there's also a good amount of apps which have been moved into the settings menu reducing the amount of scrolling required in app launchers although it does ship with Android 5.0 lolipop we are nearly certain that this device will receive Android 6.0 marshmallow sometime during the first half of 2016 16 Asus has one of the best track records for keeping their products updated for example the zenphone 5 which launched in early 2014 shipped with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean was updated to Android 4.4 KitKat and then to Android 5.0 Lollipop that kind of software support is difficult to find in even some Flagship Android smartphones nowadays it may just be the key selling point for some Android enthusiasts starting at $1.99 the zenphone 2 laser is priced competitively if 16 GB isn't enough there's also a 32 GB model available for 249 just to be clear the model that we're reviewing here is the ze551kl there are many models of the zenone 2 laser available depending on the region so we suggest that you carefully review specification list before making any purchases although the Zen phone 2 Laser's display could be brighter battery life could be better and speaker could be louder Asus still offers a very competitive option in the C of cheap Android smartphones the great display exceptional software experience and support and bonuses like Gorilla Glass 4 and 3 GB of RAM are enough to make this one of our favorite smartphones for under $200 thank you for watching this video and please make sure to give it a thumbs up below if you enjoyed it also please be sure to subscribe to the channel if you'd like to see more content finally make sure to visit the Android Authority website for additional coverage as we are your source for all things Android\n"