Asus Zenfone 6 Review: One of the Best Android Phones of 2019
The camera
Lisa Eadicicco/Business Insider
The biggest feature that sets the Asus Zenfone 6 apart from its rivals is its rotating camera, which juts out from the top of the phone and spins to face you when needed. When you’re not taking selfies or using facial recognition to unlock the phone, the camera folds down and sits on the back of the device, similar to where the camera would be situated on any phone.
Asus isn’t the first company to try this form factor; the $500 OnePlus 7 Pro also has a camera that pops out from the top of the device as necessary. But OnePlus uses this system only for the front-facing selfie camera, whereas the main camera is located in a fixed position on the back of the phone.
The Zenfone 6’s camera system consists of two lenses: a 48-megapixel main camera and a 13-megapixel ultrawide-angle camera. That latter addition has become a staple on flagship smartphones from companies like Apple and Samsung, enabling users to take photos with a significantly larger field of view to capture more of the scene. It’s nice to see this feature make its way to more affordable smartphones, too.
The Zenfone 6’s camera performs adequately and was able to capture crisp, colorful images both in daylight and indoors. But it wasn’t quite as good as the camera on the much-pricier iPhone 11 Pro and similarly-priced OnePlus 7 Pro.
Though the Zenfone and the OnePlus 7 Pro performed similarly when photographing flowers outside, Asus’ phone fell behind both the iPhone 11 Pro and the OnePlus 7 Pro when taking indoor portraits in mildly dim circumstances. The photo taken on Asus’ smartphone was a little darker and less sharp than those taken by Apple’s phone and OnePlus’ device.
The Zenfone 6 does have one unique capability thanks to its flip camera. You can adjust the specific angle of the camera by sliding a button on the screen, making it possible to alter your shot by anywhere between zero and 180 degrees without have to actually move the entire frame. It’s a feature that pushes the experience of taking photos on your smartphone forward in a meaningful way that makes the flip camera feel like more than a gimmick.
The Zenfone 6’s rotating camera is certainly cool, but it’s also worth noting that it’s unclear precisely how durable the mechanism is. I’ve been using the Zenfone 6 for only a couple of days, but I’m wondering how well it will hold up after years of use. The phone can also sense if you drop it and retract the camera accordingly if it’s in use, but I’ve found this feature to respind a bit slowly in my experience.
