The ASUS ZenFone 7 Pro Review: The Triple Flip-Camera
by Andrei Frumusanu on September 1, 2020 3:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Mobile
- Asus
- Smartphones
- ZenFone 7
- ZenFone 7 Pro
System Performance
System performance of the ZenFone 7 Pro is quite a bit more straightforward than what we’ve seen last week on the ROG Phone III – the mainstream device lacks the more complicated performance modes that the gaming-oriented sibling exposes to its users. Instead, we’re seeing a relatively simplified choice in regards to refresh rates: 60 or 90Hz, and a “high performance” mode.
Unfortunately, this high-performance mode functions the same as the higher performance X-modes on the ROG Phone III in that it essentially just disables DVFS and just runs the SoC at maximum frequencies all the time. It’s not a mode that I would recommend anybody to run their phone on, unless you really don’t care at all about battery life.
In PCMark’s web-browsing test the scores essentially line up with the refresh rate, and the ZenFone 7 Pro tracks the results of the ROG Phone III at 60Hz, and landing in-between at 90Hz.
In the important writing test, the ZenFone also performed extremely well and represented amongst the better Snapdragon 865 devices.
Photo editing is also performing excellently and again slightly ahead of some other S865 phones.
The data-manipulation scaled with the refresh rate bump so it means the ZenFone is able to render frames within the expected 12ms frame-time limit.
Overall, the ZenFone 7 Pro performed quite well in PCMark and there’s not much we can complain about in regards to its performance.
One thing I need to make note is that I’ve noticed that ASUS is doing some sort of benchmark detection on its phones. On both the ROG Phone III and this new ZenFone 7 Pro I’ve noted that the system detected PCMark. Unlike other detection mechanisms that raise performance in benchmarks, ASUS’s behaviour here seems to have been to force the 60Hz mode, even when 90Hz was enabled in the settings. Using an anonymised version of PCMark bypassed the detection and I was able to get the 90Hz scores and battery life tests. I’ve reached out to ASUS for comment on this, and I’ll update the matter when I hear back a response.
In WebXPRT3 the ZenFone 7 Pro performed significantly better than the ROG Phone III – I’m not sure what’s changed on the OS side of things but it looks like the ZenFone is slightly more aggressively tuned for performance by default.
Speedometer 2.0 also doesn’t showcase the same performance oddities as seen on the ROG Phone III and we get top scores here.
Similarly, JetStream 2 lands where we expect it to.
Overall, performance of the ZenFone 7 Pro is excellent and top-notch amongst current flagship devices. It doesn’t have the 120 or 144Hz refresh rate of some other phones in the market, but 90Hz already marks the biggest jump in user experience, and thanks to the 200Hz touch sampling rate it also gives the feel of an extremely responsive device.
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PeachNCream - Tuesday, September 1, 2020 - link
Introducing the ASUS ZenFone 7 with twice as much gimmicky camera market differentiator at a cost of functionality as last year's model!RollingCamel - Tuesday, September 1, 2020 - link
I would suggest a revisit the camera performance for a number of phones while using GCAM. Should be an interesting read.Here is the link for Zenphone 7/pro GCAM files.
https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/p/gcam-...
skavi - Tuesday, September 1, 2020 - link
i was hoping to see the panorama mechanism in action. that’s a really cool idea.eastcoast_pete - Tuesday, September 1, 2020 - link
Thanks Andrei! With video recording being a key interest of mine, the lackluster performance disqualifies this phone for me already. Too bad ASUS spent all their engineering time on gadgetry, and not on making the camera function what it could and should have been.FredFlog - Tuesday, September 1, 2020 - link
I know ASUS is a Taiwanese company but does anyone know exactly in which country this phone is produced / assembled / made?Kashif ali - Tuesday, September 1, 2020 - link
Sir I need Asus Zenfone v 520 kl unitldx00 - Wednesday, September 2, 2020 - link
I think Asus are losing their way. They are not a premium manufacturer for 2 very important reasons. Their software and their support is terrible. I have had many Asus products but I am now seriously going off them. Their hardware is always great, I mean really good, but their software is often buggy and most importantly of all, is never maintained for as long as you might expect and is often abandoned way too quickly, even by budget manufacturer standards, never mind a premium one. At least unlock the bootloader or something so we can keep using the products. I know they have done this for some products but it's too random which products get it and which not. One of the most horrible examples come from their tablets, specifically the Z500KL which I own (zenpad 3S 10 LTE). It was a very expensive tablet, over £300 at the time and was vertigo made and functions well to this day, after 3.5 years of heavy use, yet it shipped with android 6 which was already basically obsolete, then it got 1 android version update to 7 and that was it... Almost no security updates either. They have released a bootloader unlock for the Z500M, the non LTE version, but nothing for the Z500KL. With this kind of attitude, they will never be accepted as a premium phone manufacturer. I have to say though that I do like the flat screen on a top end device. I hate the curved screens and if it wasn't for the software and the ridiculous price, this could well be an attractive set of phones. Also, no headphone jack. Pity...gutsonator - Saturday, September 5, 2020 - link
One of the main issues I have with Asus phones is software rather than hardware. Phone runs fine until you get an update that screws up a major issue like sound or display or even brick your phone completely like what happens to my zenfone 4.Also Asus after zenfone 4 started to cut cost on the OS but removing the customization features they used to provide
gamer1000k - Tuesday, September 22, 2020 - link
I've got a Zenfone 6 and was excited to read about the 7 until I read that the headphone jack was removed, and the price went up 50%. Hard pass.itsjustaprankbro - Wednesday, January 6, 2021 - link
I don't get all these salty comments. I bought a Zenfone 7 Pro and I LOVE this device. The phone feels extra premium. The camera is great. The performance is superb. Sound is great, call quality is great, signal/reception/GPS is great. Everything is awesome about it, I really have NO clue why people are complaining all this much.Before this phone I've had a OnePlus 7 Pro, Mate 20, then a Note 10+, then a Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro. This is the best phone (both software and hardware wise) out all of them, hands down.
No, ASUS have not paid me a cent to make this post. I just truly believe this phone is awesome. I wish they'd have used IPS LCD on this phone as well (just like on the 6), but whatever, it works.