Pros: Very fast on T-mobile data.
Large nice screen.
Plenty of storage.
Zen UI is fine
Price is fantastic compared to other phones with similar specs

Cons: WiFi is mediocre at best, i get a fourth the speed as other comparable phones in the same room (20 mb/s vs 80 mb/s and drop to 60 KB/s(!!!) just a room away, while others are still doing 40 MB/s plus.
Also, does not support 5 GHz WiFi
Many apps freeze up consistently (Pandora, for example, will play three stations at the same time then lock the phone up)
Camera inst that great and is always taking pics in my pocket (no idea how, I turned all of my shortcuts off).
Movie audio lags about 1 second behind when using my LG tone Bluetooth head set.
Android ads, i mean good grief! No one ever mentions the amount of ads there are tied to every dang app.

Other Thoughts: I had a Nokia Lumia before this phone for 4 years and liked it. Coming from that old phone with windows i was really expecting more from Android, with all the you always hear and read. The claims of being smoother and better apps isn't really true. The only thing i got that i didn't have was snapchat, and windows does actually function much more smooth.

Pros: The device hardware is excellent. The dual quad-core processor can handle anything I've thrown at it, and still maintained impressive battery life (the stock ASUS power manager, though pedantic, does seem to help with that). The ZENUI environment is one of the more customizable Android skins available from OEM, and all of the bloatware can be either uninstalled or disabled (this is in contrast to devices I've owned from Samsung and LG where you're inexplicably stuck with several of them).

The screen is wonderful quality, as is the camera. I like the color temperature/vibrance manager for the screen. The laser assisted focus at close range is legitimately useful, and the camera has decent depth of focus for such a small sensor. I love the manual mode built into the stock camera app, it provides at least as good quality as your average digital point-and-shoot.

Audio quality from the loudspeaker is pretty good. There is no bass, as to be expected, and it's not the loudest, but clarity is impressive.

My favorite feature is the ASUS software support. Firmware images, the kernel, and even an OEM bootloader unlocking utility are available from the ASUS website, which shows surprising customer sympathy. This makes the process of upgrading to a custom ROM relatively simple.

In the aftermarket world, there is a rooted bootloader available, and the CyanogenMod betas for Marshmallow already run with no visible instability (they're just not done playing around with added features yet). Upgraded software really makes this hardware shine, and I can't wait for performance managers.

Cons: The display does not have a huge brightness range. The dimmest is not very dim, and the brightest can't compete with direct sunlight, but the screen is very useable in most normal settings.

Button placement is unique, probably fora reason. The volume buttons start to make a little sense when your watching a video with the phone on its side, but there's no real justification for the power button. I'm glad the "double-tap the screen to wake" option works.

Pros: This takes very good low light photos for the cost. The sound quality is good from the speaker once you adjust in audio wizard. Actually, I'd say that that is applicable to most everything that anyone has claimed to be a con, if you adjust for it it's perfect!

Cons: The only really coin worth mentioning is the power button being placed on top. This makes it easy to accidentally reset the phone in my pocket.

Other Thoughts: If you want something that's perfect right from the box you should look elsewhere and be ready to spend a couple hundred more dollars. If you want something that you can tune to your liking you'll appreciate the value this phone offers.

Pros: All good

Cons: NO

Pros: Looks nice. Probably is nice with a good ROM.

Cons: This phone is so loaded with bloatware and UI modifications it can no longer be considered an Android phone. DO NOT BUY if you value your personal information. I have never had a phone ask for credit card information just to log in to my google account before so that's a good indication of what's going on here.

Other Thoughts: Do not buy this phone unless you plan on installing a clean Android ROM.

Manufacturer Response:

Hello Carl,

Thank you for your review. We value your feedback and apologize for any inconvenience. ASUS Customer Loyalty is dedicated to bringing resolution to all issues related to ASUS products. Although there are many built in ZenUI apps, you have the option of disabling most of these in Settings>Apps>All>(select app to disable). You can also hide these apps from view if not being used.

Please note Google setup credit card info is for your Google Play Store account should you want to purchase any apps, games, movies & TV. You can skip this step if you don't plan on purchasing anything from Google Play Store.

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me direct at cl-frank@asus.com. Please include a link to this review as a reference.

Sincerely,
Frank
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: This thing is great! It has plenty of Ram and processing power for most everything I need. The battery makes it through a while day and I always have great reception. The camera takes pictures of very high quality. I could write a never ending list of the great things about this phone. The ZenUI is great for customizing, that's why it's the number 1 rated launcher in the play store currently. If ZenUI isn't your thing you can always download a launcher you prefer.

Cons: There's not too many cons on this phone. The only things are: the power button, the heat, and the bloatware. The power button being on top gets pressed while bending over and restarts the phone occasionally. The heat while using processor intensive apps is rather high for a phone this new. Lastly, the bloatware is a bit much, but about 10 minutes of cleanup and no harm done, just be sure to delete the data from apps you disable.

Other Thoughts: Buy it if you're tech savvy and enjoy the extra cash you've saved

Pros: 1. Great 1080P 5.5 inch screen,love the clarity of it. Its not a OLED but IPS is still very good at 1080p for a screen of this size.
2. 3GB of ram,this was the biggest reason for me to buy this phone,I'll never buy another tablet or phone with anything lower now. 3GB of ram=Tons of apps and tabs open at once but the phone still runs smoothly.
3. Buttery smooth UI,there is no lag with this phone. I use Smart Launcher 3 and its just very quick.
4. Can handle higher end games like Asphalt 8 with no lag.
5. 4G speeds are very fast from this phone,I had an older phone that had terrible 4G web browsing speeds so this was a very nice upgrade.
6. Supports up to 128GB microSD cards.
7. Dual sim slots.
8. Works with MetroPCS,and T-Mobile apparently.
9.Phone contours to my hand so its very nice to hold.
10. Sound quality is great,I use this phone at work everyday with several different in ear moniters and they all work well with this phone.
11. Loud built in speakers. If your speakers seem low then your device is either defective or your hearing is bad,I've read some reviewers saying the speakers were low but I use them everyday for music and they are loud enough for a room while the volume is at max.

Cons: 1. Battery life won't last more than 2 days with wifi on,I just charge it at night before bed so this isn't an issue for me.

Other Thoughts: I'd recommend this phone to anyone looking for the best non-contract phone for under $250. There are plenty of cases for this phone too if anyone is wondering,just google it.

I've had this phone since January and waited awhile before writing this review and I'm very satisfied with this purchase. Marshmellow is coming soon too from Asus,but the XDA forums already have CyanogenMod 13 for it which is a Android 6.0.1 update.

Pros: Unlocked, dual SIM. Replaceable battery, micro SD slot, 32GB storage (not even close to running out of room yet) decent signal reception w/ AT&T sim in it. Volume rocker is on back, doesn't get accidentally pressed when picking up phone. I don't mind the power switch being on top like on my last phone. Feels pretty solid to hold on to. Minor updates have seem to shown up regularly for things like better data reception.

Cons: Asus, you need to include less bloatware (yes, you wrote the apps but it's still bloatware that I had to go in and disable) that sucks up RAM. Screen could be brighter in sunlight. Have to go manual to get good low light pics with the camera. Can get really warm (like when using Google Maps actively for a while) with intensive use. Speaker on back can get muffled easily when playing videos or music, needs to be in front under the Home button. No Marshmallow yet.

Other Thoughts: All in all, I like the phone. I've had it since just before Xmas, ordered it here on sale. Haven't added another SIM to it yet, but LTE reception seems to be good in my area. No upgrade to Marshmallow yet though. Most of the ASUS brand software I have no use for; I figured that since the phone is unlocked I could just delete what I didn't want, but the phone will need to be rooted for removing some of it. (I am not a fan of just disabling what you don't want since it leaves the apps taking up space on the phone, and sometimes reactivating during updates. It's happened in my Samsung and HTC stuff as well so that's not uncommon. Windows 10 pulls that mess too.) Otherwise, it's been great to use, fast enough for my needs (I don't play games on my phone, that's what I have a PC with a GTX 960 card for) and seems like it will last me a couple of years or more. If you see it on sale, definitely look at getting it.

Pros: Price, obviously. 3GB of RAM with a decent camera and decent performance. 32GB of storage with the ability to add a microSD card means space won't ever be an issue. Removeable battery. 5.5" 1080p screen is acceptable. Pretty much decent all around.

Cons: All cons should be taken with a grain of salt given the price. Screen doesn't get very bright and is always an issue outdoors. Performance and battery life really fall off a cliff if you push this phone too hard with too many apps, but if you keep it relatively uncluttered, things are snappy and this phone will get you through the day. I generally like Asus, but this phone is filled with bloatware and I recently got an update that broke the mic (it's since been fixed). I'm also not a fan of ZenUI. The speaker on the back of the phone is bad.

Other Thoughts: None of these cons are deal breakers if you don't live on your phone, but if you're a power user, this phone will probably disappoint you. This phone can't compete with the ones that are 2 or 3 times its price, but it's the best for under $200.

Pros: none

Cons: Everything about the phone and the customer service

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for taking the time to write a review of ASUS Zenfone. We value your feedback and apologize for any inconvenience. If possible can you please provide more detailed problem description. ASUS Customer Loyalty is available for warranty assistance or any technical related issues you may have. For basic troubleshooting assistance please try ZenUI app called ASUS Support which has basic phone troubleshooting techniques for your device's software and other parts such as Battery, Sound, Display & Touch, 3G / LTE / WIFI / GPS, among many others.

If you have any questions, concerns or would like further assistance, please feel free to contact me directly at cl-frank@asus.com with case # N160345013 in the subject line.​

Sincerely,
Frank
ASUS Customer Loyalty