Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML is a very decently priced phone, that offers all you need and there are some drawbacks within the phone, which may not be apperciated by many of us.
Advantages:
ZenUI on top of android provides high customizability.
Camera app by Asus is optimised for the phone, low light perfomance is outstanding. Again there's mannual mode and different kinds of modes which seems kinda cool. Front cam is decent for selfies too.
You get powerful processor packed with 4/2 GB of ram. Four gigs of ram is what made it so much of a hype during its release.
You get fast charger with 4GB ram model, not with 2GB ram model. However, 2GB ram model supports fast charging too and the fast-charger can be bought seperately from Asus authorized dealer, if needed.
Design looks absolutely premium and feel in the hand is good due to the curve body at the back.
Is a 4G phone and has features like NFC and also features a huge list of censors.
The speaker output is quite loud and can be heard clearly till little far distances.
Gaming can be done without any hangings of application even at high graphics.
Disadvantages:
ZenUI has customizability, but the way they provide colourful things in everything like in their themes, I don't personally like it. I like material design. But, that's my personal choice. If you are a fan of material design you might not like it. You can still put a different material laucher like me.
Camera is good. But in artificial lighting that is, in indoor light the photos are grainy. In sunlight its fine, but in artificial light it gives grainy photo.
Yes, you get a powerful processor with 4GB of ram, that was the hype. But, out of the box you will get 2GB of free ram out of 4GB. That's a very bad ram management by the Asus team. And if you buy 2GB version you get 500MB of free ram out of the box.
Fastcharging. But, did you know that the average battery life of this phone is 5 hours with continuous usage? Even after high optimization provided by the company, not a noticeable progress in saving battery. You will feel like hell without a 10, 000 mAh powerbank with you. This is not a software problem. This is because of Intel chips and their technologies, they consume alot of power when compared to snapdragon or any other chips. Still, we can say decent battery life.
Design looks premium. The coating on the back behind turns black near the speakers after heavy use for couple of months, yes the same thing which asus quoted metal hairline brush coating. So, the plastic back cover is not durable. However you can get another back panel from the Asus shop if you wish after a year or so.
Has dual sim feature. 4G is only for first sim, another sim slot supports only 2G.
At complete high volume of speakers, the sound output seems to be little unclear and there is noise in it.
When you start gaming huge graphics games like Asphalt 8, you will lose your battery faster. Except the battery nothing else is a big problem regarding this phone.
Bottomline: You might buy this phone along a powerbank to be not frustrated with its battery life.
Overall nice phone for what you pay.
Thank you.
