The cheapest Android phablet yet.
Phablets are smartphones that are almost as large as tablets. Most phablets to date have been pretty expensive (£400 and upwards), but that’s not the case with the Asus Zenfone 6, which costs just £250 without a contract, although it lacks 4G.
As its name suggests the Zenfone 6 has a whopping 6in screen, so it’s closer in size to the Nexus 7 tablet than to other phones. As you might expect then, this makes the Zenfone 6 tricky to hold and inconvenient to use with one hand (we almost dropped it on several occasions).
The screen is bright and sharp however, with a resolution of 1280x720 pixels. While other, more costly phablets have a higher 1920x1080 resolution, the Zenfone 6’s screen is more than good enough for reading and watching videos. Colour accuracy isn’t great, though, especially if you change your viewing angle. This causes colours to shift dramatically, but this is a compromise you’d expect in a phablet at this price.
The Zenfone 6 has a plain, black casing which bends and flexes under pressure more than we’d like. You can exchange the rear panel for a red, gold or white version to liven things up, but doing so is easier said than done. Prising off the rear panel requires long fingernails and a considerable amount of force - so much so, we feared we’d snap the panel. You’ll need to go through this process to access the microSD slot, which accommodates storage cards to boost the built-in 16GB.
Unlike most Android devices which have ARM processors, the Zenfone 6 has an Intel Atom processor. Although it didn’t top the charts in our web-page-loading, 3D-graphics and app-loading benchmark tests, the 2GHz dual-core Z2580 paired with 2GB of memory was still respectably fast. Responsiveness was also impressive - the touchscreen had no trouble keeping up with our finger gestures.
Battery life was slightly below average. When used on 02’s network in central London for phone calls, web browsing, photography and navigating the streets using Google Maps, the battery lasted just short of 21 hours. We’d expect smartphone batteries to survive at least 24 hours and most phablets as long as 25 or even 30 hours. Call quality, while not outstanding, was good enough. Voices sounded somewhat fuzzy, but the superfluous sounds of a nearby building site were kept to a minimum.
Oddly, the Zenfone 6 comes with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean installed instead of the latest version (4.4 KitKat). Asus has added a ‘one-handed mode’ which shrinks the entire interface into a resizable window that can be then located on either side of the screen. It looks silly, but it does help make the Zenfone easier to use with one hand. Another useful option is the ability to adjust the sensitivity of the touchscreen so you can still use it while wearing gloves - handy in cold conditions. The rest of Asus’ modifications are merely cosmetic.
If you can live without 4G then the Asus Zenfone 6 is a good-value phablet. Ideally, the battery life would be a little longer and build quality more rigid, but you won’t find a better phablet at this price.
VERDICT: Cheap and fast but the lack of 4G and Its lacklustre battery life is disappointing.
SPECIFICATIONS
6in 1280x720-pixel touchscreen • 2GHz Intel Atom Z2580 dual-core processor • 2GB memory • 16GB storage • 3G • Micro SIM • MicroSD slot • Android 4.3 Jelly Bean • 196g • 167x84x10mm (HxWxD) • One-year warranty