Asus 8Z Review: Loaded with specs, Miniature in size

Asus 8Z Review Summary

Editor’s Rating- 4/5

Asus – Taiwanese tech giant finally managed to launch its Asus 8Z in India. Globally, it retails as Asus Zenfone 8 with the same hardware and design. The phone was first introduced on May 12, 2021.

The Asus 8Z offers a compact design, good innards hoping to repeat iPhone Mini-series success in the Android world. But the question remains can it give an iPhone-level performance? Can it be the dream phone of those who want compactness with features? Is it worth its price? Well, I lived with Asus 8Z for some days and thus I am trying my best to help you decide if Asus 8Z can be THE ONE? Read on.

Specs | Price & Availability | Unboxing | Design | Display & Sound | Battery | Camera | Performance | Verdict

Asus 8Z Specs

• Processor- Qualcomm Snapdragon 888
• RAM- 8GB
• ROM-128GB
• Display- 5.92-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display
• Refresh rate- 120Hz
• Touch Sampling rate- 240Hz
• Rear Camera- 64MP+12MP
• Front Camera- 12MP
• Battery- 4000mAh
• Fast Charging- 30W
• OS- Android 11
• Supported Networks- 5G. 4G LTE, 3G, 2G, WCDMA, GSM
• Dimensions- 68.5x148x8.9mm
• Weight- 169 grams

Asus 8Z Review: Price & Availability

Asus 8Z is available for purchase via Flipkart and all Asus stores and outlets. The device comes in a single memory configuration with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage in 2 colors- Black and Silver. Its MRP on the box is Rs. 48,999 but it is currently selling for Rs. 42,999 in India.

Asus 8Z Review: Unboxing

• The box of Asus 8Z contains-
• Asus 8Z Handset
• 30W USB Type-C Power Adapter
• Type-C to C Cable Bumper
• SIM Ejector Tool
• User Guide
• Warranty Card

Asus 8Z Review: Design

Asus 8Z smartphones come with a tagline of ‘Compact but Powerful’ and when you hold the smartphone in your hand for the first time, you realize that Asus has lived up to the Compact part of their marketing tagline. Asus 8Z focuses a lot on its form factor with being under 6-inches in total size (5.92-inch screen to be exact) and 8.9mm thick. The smartphone can be used with one hand easily as its compactness makes it fit in the palm of your hand easily operate with your thumb.

It weighs just 169 grams which means it’s super light to hold and has curved edges which makes it even more comfortable in your palm. It has a metal frame with a glass front and back. There is Corning Gorilla Glass on both front and back glass ensures it doesn’t get scratched that easily.

The Asus 8Z front is dominated by a large screen that has very thin bezels on the sides. There’s a selfie camera is sitting on the front inside a punch-hole cutout. While the left edge of the device is left empty, the right side houses the volume rockers and power button doubled up as a fingerprint scanner. The power button is blue which makes it stand out as the rest of the body is black. The top has a 3.5mm headphone jack which is no longer a common sight in 2022.

The bottom edge of the phone includes a SIM tray, USB Type-C port for charging, and stereo speaker. The backside has a slightly protruded rectangular camera module on the top left side as well as Asus branding in the center. The phone’s frame is made of aluminum which adds strength to a glass-dominated phone. The phone is IP68 certified for water and dust resistance. Overall the smartphone looks stylish, sleek and is compact & comfortable to use. It easily fits in your hand as well as carries in your pocket.

Asus 8Z Review: Display & Sound

The Asus 8Z has a 5.9-inch Full HD+ AMOLED (2400×1080 pixels) panel with a 120Hz refresh rate. A high refresh rate can be experienced while browsing as the text never blurs or feels difficult to read no matter how fast I scroll through the page when the panel is set to max. There are no jerks or delays of any kind. You might use the adaptive refresh rate feature too so it can automatically switch different refresh rates as per the content. It comes with a touch sampling rate of 240Hz which makes the screen super responsive and quick as I experienced during typing and gaming.

The Samsung display panel supports HDR10+ which we were able to enjoy on Amazon Prime Video. Although the screen size is small than other phones coming these days, great visuals make up for the size. The saturation level is well maintained and colors are on a cooler side in this display.

I have attached some screenshots to show the display quality of HD content on Asus 8z. The outdoor visibility of the display is above average as even under the brightest of sunlight, the screen was visible with slight reflectivity.

Asus smartphones always boast good audio quality and this seems to continue with 8Z too. Asus 8Z comes with two speakers, both giving precisely loud and clear sound quality. One is at the bottom whereas one is at the front. They were equally efficient for casual music listening as well as attending video calls. The sound output was impressive even at the highest volume as there was no jitteriness in the sound quality. As mentioned above, the phone comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack too which is useful for those who still listen to music or watch videos old-fashioned way with wired earplugs.

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Asus 8Z Review: Battery

Asus 8z comes with a 4000mAh battery which lasts a full day on light o moderate usage but doesn’t expect much from it. I am someone who uses Instagram a lot and sometimes plays games too (mostly on weekends), so I had to charge the phone in the evening. My 100% battery mostly lasted for around 6 hours with heavy usage.

Like all Asus phones, it too has battery-saving modes that restrict CPU, CPU, and lower display brightness to conserve battery. What helps is 30W fast charging support which charges the phone in a reasonable time (about 1 hour 30 minutes). Charging status is indicated by different colors of the light at the bottom. When the device is not fully charged, the light is orange in color and as soon as it is fully charged, the color changes to green. Being a phone that retails for more than Rs 40K, I was expecting wireless charging support too, which is missing here.

Asus 8Z Review: Camera

Coming to the Camera department of Asus 8z, the smartphone’s rear camera setup is different from most other smartphones which sport at least triple lenses at the back. Asus 8z comes with a dual-camera setup on the back- a 64MP main camera with a 1/1.7-inch Sony IMX686 sensor with EIS and a 12MP secondary sensor with a ½.25-inch Sony IMX363 sensor and a 113-degree FOV.

This was about the technical specs written on paper but when I put the camera setup to test in the real world scenario, it gave bright, sharp, and crystal clear images in daylight. The ultrawide angle sensor covered a good area and I had to make minimal adjustments to enlarge the area to be captured. The detailing in the images was on point and the colors were vibrant and life-like. I did miss OIS at some times, as this would have made this powerful camera setup even more powerful.

Photos in artificial light (Clicked indoors) are good as well, but their quality depends a lot on the type of lighting in the room. A well-lit room gives better shots.

Surprisingly, the shots were taken in low light (or nighttime) came out to be above average too. Photos taken in auto night mode are well lit and not too grainy. Zooming in might show slight graininess, but otherwise, images are decent. The main camera works amazingly well in low-light mode.

Asus 8z comes with a 12MP selfie camera which proved to be disappointing after I had experienced the good performance of its main camera setup. Selfies are soft and lack detail as well as texture. The dynamic range could have been improved as selfies look overexposed in natural light.

Videos can be recorded at up to 8k 30fps on Asus 8Z but detailing is limited in these 8k videos. Videos in 4K resolution are much better.

Note- Asus is waiting for a software update for the cameras and it might improve things when it arrives.

Asus 8Z Review: Software and Performance

Let’s start with the software, the Asus 8z runs Zen UI based on Android 11.  It is a clean and good UI experience but does not come with Android 12 pre-installed. It has features like Game Genie that might help regular gamers with DND and resource monitor services. The software allows personalization and customizations and there are is no adware which makes the overall experience well-polished. It comes with Google Chrome as the default browser but you can change this easily if you want.

On the hardware side, the Asus 8Z is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 Chipset. It is a chipset that might not be the latest but packs solid features. The processor is meant for gamers and its 8GB LPDDR5 RAM can handle any task thrown it’s way. The processor supports 5G connectivity which makes Asus 8Z ready for the upcoming 5G services that will be needed. The processor is based on the 5nm technique and thus gives good efficiency to the device. Multi-tasking is seamless, apps load swiftly and games can easily be played with high graphic settings for hours. It supports 10-bit HDR graphics as well.

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I put the Asus 8Z under stress, played some games, and ran several benchmark tests. For gaming, I Played BGMI and Call of Duty both of which ran better with HD graphics. The touch responsiveness was good but the phone started warming up after 35- 40 minutes of gaming.

I did a CPU throttling test results were a throttle performance of 80% after 15 minutes. One thing that I noticed was the extreme heating up of Asus 8z during the CPU throttle and wildlife stress test. The phone felt burning hot in my hand, especially the area near the camera module. Although the device started cooling down within 5 minutes, still thermal performance is something that Asus needed to work on seriously. I have attached the screenshots of benchmark test results here.

Geekbench 5 test gave a score of 1097 for single-core and 3540 for multi-core. Both are high than other flagship devices like Asus’s own ROG Phone 3 which gives a score of 950 for single-core and 3215 for multi-core Geekbench test.

Asus 8Z Review verdict: Should you buy it?

Well, speaking from my experience, Asus has made a good compact flagship with a smaller design factor but good specs. It is comfortable to carry around, has a good processor, clean software, and a decent rear camera setup but has some downsides in the form of low battery life, slow charging, heating issues, and an underperforming selfie camera. The biggest issue I have with this phone is the timing of the launch. It’s a phone at least 6 to 8 months back. While it will beat most android phones in compactness I fall shorts in terms of value. Having said that, if compact size is your priority, you can consider Asus 8Z even in 2022.