Asus Zenfone 7 series: Everything you need to know about these flippy phones
Asus released its 2020 flagships, the Zenfone 7 series, more than a year after the Zenfone 6 made its debut.
Thankfully, the new Zenfone 7 lineup, which includes a Pro iteration this time around, offers much of what made the 2019 device so special.
So, what kind of improvements should you expect? How do the Zenfone 7 and Zenfone 7 Pro differ? Is the flipping camera mechanism still present? Here’s everything you need to know about the Zenfone 7 series.
Asus Zenfone 7 and Zenfone 7 Pro: At a glance
The Asus Zenfone 7 series is the latest in the firm’s mass-market flagship range, offering a lower price than typical flagships these days.
While the pricey ROG Phone 3 focuses on gaming and flashiness, the Zenfone 7 devices dial features and pricing back a bit.
You’re still getting an impressive spec sheet for the price, however. The two devices feature flagship silicon, 90Hz OLED screens, triple cameras, 5G, and 5,000mAh batteries.
The Zenfone 7 packs the Snapdragon 865 processor, while the Pro variant ups the ante a little with the Snapdragon 865 Plus chipset.
Are the Asus Zenfone 7 and Zenfone 7 Pro worth buying?
The Zenfone 7 lineup offers everything you’d expect from an affordable flagship. A display with a high refresh rate, fast processors, large batteries, and good cameras.
It stands out from the crowd by being one of the few 2020 releases to come with a notch-less (or punch hole-less) design.
The unique flipping camera makes a return as well, bringing the full strength of the rear setup to your selfie and vlogging game.
While everything is great on paper, the Zenfone 7 series faces stiff competition and falls short in a few key areas.
Ultimately, the Zenfone 7 series proves to be for a very niche set of users. It excels in performance, battery life, and video recording.
This makes it a solid choice for those who want exactly what the Zenfone 7 Pro is — a vlogging smartphone. There’s plenty of storage with microSD expansion.
You can use all three cameras as front-facing shooters. The 5,000mAh battery will also let you film your day without needing to top up.
Very few people actually buy phones for vlogging, though. So, unless you are desperate for the flip camera and the huge battery, you might be better served by a competing device.
What the experts say about the Asus Zenfone 7 series?
The phone has a lot going for it when it’s pit against the competition.
The Pro iteration comes with the Snapdragon 865 Plus processor. The phones also have big batteries and a unique design.
Unfortunately, Ryan didn’t find these factors enough to recommend the device over similarly-priced alternatives.
Ryan says that the Zenfone 7 Pro doesn’t have the most compelling feature set at this price.
It lacks wireless charging and water resistance. There are issues with image processing as well.
Moreover, despite how heavy the phone is, it doesn’t feel as well-built as its heft would suggest.
He concludes by saying that the Zenfone 7 Pro makes for an excellent vlogging smartphone if that’s what you need. For anything else, the competition might be more enticing.
What other reviewers from around the web are saying
- TechRadar’s David Lumb says that the Asus Zenfone 7 Pro is an impressive but pretty standard 2020 flagship.
- He finds the phone heavy and uncomfortable to hold, but the battery life is impressive. The flip camera allows for some good-looking selfies as well.
- Ultimately, he finds the Zenfone 7 Pro to be more expensive than it should have been and says that the regular Zenfone 7 offers far more value for money.
- The Verge’s Jon Porter says that the Zenfone 7 Pro gets a lot right. The performance is snappy, and the battery life is excellent.
- He adds that while the flip cameras remain the “most eye-catching part of the phone,” the camera itself has image processing issues.
- XDA-Developer’s Mishaal Rahman appreciates the notch-less display and the impressive features with this version of the flip camera.
- ZenUI is one of his favorite software experiences, and it has gotten even better with the ZenUI 7 on the Zenfone 7 Pro.
- It’s admittedly heavy and unwieldy, but the entire package put together makes the Asus Zenfone 7 Pro his “new favorite phone of 2020.”
Asus Zenfone 7 series specs
| Asus Zenfone 7 | Asus Zenfone 7 Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Display | 6.67-inch AMOLED FHD+ HDR10+ 90Hz refresh rate Corning Gorilla Glass 6 |
6.67-inch AMOLED FHD+ HDR10+ 90Hz refresh rate Corning Gorilla Glass 6 |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 | Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus |
| GPU | Qualcomm Adreno 650 | Qualcomm Adreno 650 |
| RAM | 6GB / 8GB LPDDR5 |
8GB LPDDR5 |
| Storage | 128GB UFS 3.1 Expandable with microSD card (up to 2TB) |
256GB UFS 3.1 Expandable with microSD card (up to 2TB) |
| Battery | 5,000mAh battery 30W wired charging |
5,000mAh battery 30W wired charging |
| Cameras | Primary: 64MP Sony IMX686 sensor with EIS f/1.8 aperture 0.8μm pixels Dual LED flash 8K/30fps video Secondary: 12MP ultra-wide sensor (IMX363) Tertiary: 8MP 3x telephoto with EIS |
Primary: 64MP Sony IMX686 sensor with OIS f/1.8 aperture 0.8μm pixels Dual LED flash 8K/30fps video Secondary: 12MP ultra-wide sensor (IMX363) Tertiary: 8MP 3x telephoto with OIS |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 6 Bluetooth 5.1 NFC |
Wi-Fi 6 Bluetooth 5.1 NFC |
| SIM | Dual nano-SIM MicroSD card (up to 2TB) |
Dual nano-SIM MicroSD card (up to 2TB) |
| Operating System | Android 10 | Android 10 |
| Audio | Stereo speakers No 3.5mm port |
Stereo speakers No 3.5mm port |
| Dimensions | 165.08 x 77.28 x 9.6mm 230g |
165.08 x 77.28 x 9.6mm 230g |
| Colors | Aurora Black Pastel White |
Aurora Black Pastel White |
Asus Zenfone 7 series: The flippy camera explained
Arguably the coolest feature on the Zenfone 6 was the flip camera mechanism, as the rear camera housing flips over to handle selfies.
This mechanism is back in action on the Zenfone 7 series and is even better than before.
Both devices in the Zenfone 7 series come with a 64MP IMX686 main shooter, a 12MP ultra-wide camera, and an 8MP 3x telephoto sensor.
However, the regular Zenfone 7 doesn’t come with OIS. The phones also pack some impressive video tech such as 8K/30fps video recording, 4K/120fps slow-mo, three microphones, audio zoom, and wind filter functionality.
In his review, Ryan found that the Zenfone 7 Pro takes vibrant and bright photos with lots of contrast, but the experience varied across all three cameras.
You can see that the telephoto camera drops exposure, color, contrast, and dynamic range in the shots below. On the other hand, the ultra-wide shooter tends to exaggerate colors instead of flattening them.
The Zenfone 7 shines when it comes to video recording, though. Given its flippy nature, this makes it great for vlogging.
It can shoot in many modes, including 8K 30fps and 4K 120fps. Because the cameras flip around, you can vlog in these modes too.
Ryan found the colors to be a little over-saturated, while HDR performed really well.
How is the Asus Zenfone 7’s battery life?
The Zenfone 7 and 7 Pro come with massive 5,000mAh batteries, which is great news for anyone who plans to use the cameras a lot.
In his review, the Zenfone 7 Pro comfortably lasted Ryan for two days for the most part. Even with heavy usage, which involved recording videos, it lasted a full day.
Unfortunately, there’s no wireless charging. The phones come with fast 30W charging though, letting you fully top up the huge battery in around 90 minutes.
It’s not the fastest charging we’ve seen, but these aren’t phones you’ll need to plug in too often.
Asus Zenfone 7 series: Performance and software
Asus decided to pack the Snapdragon 865 Plus into its Zenfone 7 Pro, while the vanilla model gets the Snapdragon 865.
This also defines the phones the Zenfone 7 series is taking on. While the Zenfone 7 Pro targets 2020’s premium flagships, the Zenfone 7 is aimed squarely at the emerging affordable high-ender.
The Zenfone 7 Pro has 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, while the regular iteration comes with 6GB or 8GB options and 128GB of storage.
Overall, you get snappy performance with either phone, but the Zenfone 7 Pro undoubtedly impresses.
In his review, Ryan found that the Zenfone 7 Pro could handle everything, from scrolling through social media to playing intensive games, with ease.
Helping with speedy performance is Asus’ ZenUI 7. Based on Android 10, this take on the OS comes quite close to stock, but with a few useful tools and settings to enhance the experience.
This includes smart key customization features that let you program the power button to perform different tasks with long and double presses.
You also get Game Genie from the ROG Phone. It’s a handy, quick-access gaming toolkit that pauses notifications, locks the screen refresh rate, and adjusts the brightness. You can also use it to start a live stream and record gameplay.
What are the differences between the Zenfone 7 and the Zenfone 7 Pro
The Zenfone 7 and the Zenfone 7 Pro are identical on the surface. You get the same display, design language, and build quality with both phones.
The great news is that its biggest selling point, the cameras, remains the same as well. However, the vanilla Zenfone 7 cameras don’t feature optical image stabilization, which is an issue if you plan to record many videos.
The differences also lie in the processing package. The Zenfone 7 comes with the Snapdragon 865, while the Pro iteration packs the slightly more powerful 865 Plus.
The 7 Pro also features 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The regular Zenfone 7 has 128GB of storage and either 6 or 8GB of RAM.
Of course, this results in a price disparity as well. The difference is surprisingly significant actually — the Zenfone 7 is almost $200 cheaper than the 7 Pro.
Competition and alternatives
The Asus Zenfone 7 series marks a move towards higher pricing, but the standard phone is still cheaper than base flagships from Samsung and Xiaomi.
Fortunately, there are still quite a few options out there if you like the idea of a cheaper high-end phone.
The Poco F2 Pro is one of the better Zenfone 7 alternatives in this regard, starting at €499 in Europe. This makes it significantly cheaper than the base Zenfone 7 while offering much of the same hardware and features.
Along the same lines is the Xiaomi Mi 10T series. It also comes with a vanilla and Pro iteration, features flagship processors, and offers excellent battery life.
Another notable alternative is the €600 (~$709) Realme X50 Pro, the firm’s first 5G flagship.
If you’re looking for devices available in the US, the OnePlus 8 series or the newer OnePlus 8T are great options.
Pricing and availability
The vanilla phone starts at 21,999 New Taiwan dollars (~$750) for the sole 6GB/128GB option in its home market.
Meanwhile, the Zenfone 7 Pro starts at 27,990 New Taiwan dollars (~$955) for the 8GB/256GB model.
European users have to pay €699 for the base model (8GB/128GB) of the Zenfone 7. The 8GB/256GB Zenfone 7 Pro retails for €799.
Top Asus Zenfone 7 series questions and answers
Q: Does the Asus Zenfone 7 family support headphone jacks?
A: Unlike their predecessor, the Zenfone 7 and 7 Pro don’t support 3.5mm ports. So, USB-C/dongle or Bluetooth connections are the only options. Asus says there wasn’t enough room for the port due to 5G requiring additional antennas.
Q: Do these new phones support wireless charging?
A: Unfortunately, the Asus Zenfone 7 devices don’t pack wireless charging support. However, they do offer 30W wired charging capable of topping up your phone in 93 minutes. That’s far better than the Zenfone 6’s 18W charging that took two and a half hours.
Q: Do the Asus Zenfone 7 devices pack microSD and/or dual-SIM slots?
A: Yes, both the Zenfone 7 and Zenfone 7 Pro actually offer triple slots. That means you’ve got two nano-SIM slots and one dedicated slot for microSD cards.
Q: What storage variants are these phones available in?
A: The standard Zenfone 7 is only available with 128GB of storage, while the Zenfone 7 Pro offers 256GB of storage.
Q: What happened to the Smart Key?
A: Asus has ditched the separate Smart Key for shortcuts in favor of using the power button. The power button can also be programmed to launch certain apps/features with a double-tap or a long-press in addition to featuring a fingerprint scanner.
Q: Is the Asus Zenfone 7 series water-resistant?
A: Unfortunately, the Zenfone 7 and 7 Pro lack a significant IP rating due to the flip camera setup.
Q: What’s in the box when you buy a Zenfone 7 or Zenfone 7 Pro?
A: You’ll get a rugged Active Case, a transparent case, a 30W USB-C charger, and a USB cable.
The Samsung Galaxy S21 and S21 Plus
- A new leak has revealed everything about the Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S21 Plus.
- The information includes details about specs, features, and European pricing.
There is absolutely no mystery left to Samsung’s expected January 14 launch event for the Galaxy S21 series.
Adding to the barrage of leaks and rumors we’ve seen already, a new report from WinFuture over the weekend revealed absolutely everything there is to know about the Samsung Galaxy S21 and S21 Plus.
Display
The Samsung Galaxy S21 and S21 Plus are both said to come with flat panels that sit flush with a metal frame.
The vanilla S21 will likely feature a 6.2-inch Infinity-O Dynamic AMOLED screen, while the S21 Plus will extend it to 6.7-inches.
The resolution on both, however, will be identical at 2400 x 1080 pixels. Both phones will also get a 120Hz display refresh rate.
The panels are protected by Corning’s seventh-gen Gorilla Glass Victus which was previously seen on the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.
There’s also an in-display fingerprint sensor on both the S21 and S21 Plus.
Performance
Under the hood, the new flagships will be powered by the Exynos 2100 in Europe and other markets like India.
This is also something Samsung store officials confirmed to us a few weeks back.
The new Exynos chip will launch a few days ahead of the phones and is believed to come with a 2.9GHz main core, three high-performance cores that run at up to 2.8GHz and four energy-saving cores clocked up to 2.4GHz.
Of course in markets like the US, the Galaxy S21 series is said to pack the Snapdragon 888 processor.
The base variants for the Galaxy S21 and S21 Plus are said to come with 8GB of RAM and 128GB storage.
Both versions will likely have 256GB storage options available.
Cameras
The latest leak suggests that the imaging setups for the Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S21 Plus are identical.
The phones are expected to feature three rear cameras consisting of a 12MP primary sensor, a 12MP ultra-wide sensor, and a 64MP telephoto sensor with 3x hybrid zoom. A 10MP camera is said to reside on the front.
Other leaked camera features of the S21 and S21 Plus include support for 8K video recording at 30fps, 4K at 60fps, and FHD videos at up to 240fps.
Connectivity and other specs
For connectivity, you should expect the Galaxy S21 and S21 Plus to bring support for NFC, Bluetooth 5.0, and Wi-Fi 6.
The phones are also believed to be IP68 rated for water and dust protection.
The Galaxy S21 is said to be getting a 4,000mAh battery and the S21 Plus is rumored to house a 4,800mAh battery.
Both phones will feature a USB-C port for wired charging. They’ll also support wireless and reverse wireless charging.
Once again, the report confirms that Samsung will not bundle chargers in the box.
It also says that the optional S-Pen support is limited to the Galaxy S21 Ultra, as we discovered in an FCC filing.
Samsung Galaxy S21 and S21 Plus prices
As also leaked before, the Samsung Galaxy S21 is expected to cost at least €849 (~$1,037), while the S21 Plus is said to start at €1,049 (~$1,281).
So that was all the leaked information about the Galaxy S21 and S21 Plus.
Fast Charge: Cheaper 5G, next-gen screens and Magsafe dominate 2020
This past year has been a weird one for a variety of reasons. But one of the positive reasons is the sheer number of awesome innovations we’ve seen appear in the world of mobile.
Over the past 12 months we’ve seen everything from awesome new mobile chipsets to dramatic improvements being made in the mobile camera tech.
In fact, there’s been so much cool new stuff that you may be justifiably struggling to keep up. Here to help, we’ve used this week’s Fast Charge to break down the biggest innovations to appear in the world of mobile in 2020.
Variable refresh rate phones
High refresh rate screens have been around for a while. Razer kicked off the trend with its gen’ one Razer Phone many moons ago. Then, last year pretty much every Android phone maker under the sun followed suit, resulting in a wealth of handsets with 90 or 120Hz refresh rates.
While this is awesome, since a higher refresh rate generally makes a phone smoother to use and more responsive, all the handsets missed one key trick: the refresh rates weren’t variable.
This meant you had to manually instruct them to run at either 60 or 90-120Hz. The downside to this is it meant you had to sacrifice battery life to enjoy the higher refresh rate – because a higher refresh rate boosts the number of images per second a screen displays, consuming more juice in the process.
Thankfully, this has been fixed in 2020 thanks to the arrival of handsets such as the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. The handset is one of the first to feature a screen that can intelligently raise or lower the phone’s refresh rate depending on what it’s doing. This is a key innovation that helps the device to conserve battery when doing basic tasks that don’t merit a high refresh rate, and bump it up when gaming, for example.
We’re hoping to see more phones with the feature in 2021.
Apple MagSafe
The Apple iPhone 12 line isn’t revolutionary, but the MagSafe attachment system it supports is. For those who don’t know, MagSafe allows for the attachment of a wealth of peripherals to the iPhone 12 magnetically. Highlights include custom 15W chargers to cool leather wallet attachments.
Affordable 5G chips
5G hasn’t taken off in the way we hoped, with mmWave still yet to arrive in the UK – and the ongoing pandemic diminishing its usefulness for most general consumers, who are shut up tight in their WiFi-enabled homes.
But that hasn’t stopped chip makers making great strides in driving the cost of the connectivity down. This year, Qualcomm stole the show with its affordable Snapdragon 765G chipset. The chip offers great bang for your buck and has appeared in some of Trusted Reviews favourite mid-range phones. Highlights include the stellar Moto G 5G Plus and Pixel 5, which both offer fantastic value and 5G connectivity.
For those unaware, 5G is a new networking technology that’s being rapidly rolled out across the globe. It offers significantly faster gigabit-per-second data speeds than 4G, which open the door for things like 4K video streaming and the ability to play triple-A games over the cloud using services such as Google Stadia or GeForce Now.
Awesome flagship CPUs
The mid-range market isn’t the only one to see some big innovations this year. We’ve also seen two of the coolest-looking flagship phone CPUs hit the scene in the shape of the Apple A14 Bionic and Qualcomm Snapdragon 888.
The A14 Bionic originally debuted on Apple’s iPad Air 4 before making its way onto the iPhone 12 line. It’s an absolute beast of a chip that, according to Apple, offers a 40% speed-boost on the older A13, and it’s also capable of “console”-quality gaming performance. We’re guessing those claims relates to the PS4 and Xbox One, not the new PS5 and Xbox Series X.
Either way, with real-world testing we found it to be one of the best chips on the market. The A14 blitzed through every test we threw at it, ranging from playing Apple Arcade games on the iPhone 12 to digital painting on the iPad.
The Snapdragon 888 was unveiled mere weeks ago and looks set to be the chip of choice for most of 2021’s flagship phones. We haven’t had a chance to benchmark it yet, but on paper it appears to come with some innovative features.
The biggest of these is the addition of mmWave 5G functionality. Technical speaking, mmWave is viewed by experts as the “real” version of 5G. On paper, it offers radically faster connection speeds than the sub-6GHz version currently running in most territories including the UK. This makes the chip a pretty enticing and innovative bit of kit that we can’t wait to get our hands on in 2021.
Xiaomi announces Mi 11 launch date
- Xiaomi has confirmed a launch date for the Mi 11 series.
- The flagship lineup will be announced in China at the end of the month.
- There’s still no word on its global launch and availability.
Xiaomi revealed the Mi 11 launch date on Chinese social media platform Weibo. A poster shared by the company confirms that the launch will take place in China at 7:30 PM local time (6:30 AM ET).
There’s still no word on a global launch date for the Mi 11 series, but we expect it won’t be far behind.
That said, we don’t expect the series to become available outside of China before January 2021.
It was previously tipped that the Mi 11 lineup would launch on December 29. However, the leak did not confirm if it’s a global launch date or a China-only timeline.
Nevertheless, we expect to see the Mi 11 and Mi 11 Pro models during Xiaomi’s launch event on its home turf.
There isn’t much out there in terms of credible rumors, but we did see some images of the alleged Mi 11 floating about online.
There’s also some information available on the display and battery capacity of the two flagships. You can read all the rumors and leaks about Mi 11 series here.
We expect Xiaomi to start teasing more details about the upcoming phones over the next few days. We’ll be sure to bring you any new information as and when we come by it.
The new Honda Rebel 1100: Full Review 2021
The new Honda Rebel 1100: Full Review 2021
So a little while back we introduce the Rebel 300 and the Rebel 500.
Amazing cruisers that are great for both beginners and seasoned riders.
But now, it’s time to step up. Meet the all new Rebel 1100.
You’ll notice some Rebel “family” similarities at first glance, but under no circumstances should you be thinking that we simply dropped a larger engine into the frame of a Rebel or 500.
No, this new Rebel was made to be one of the most advanced cruisers on the market.
Let me explain. Cruisers start with styling and the 1100 is not short of aggressive styling cues.
It begins by blacking out most of the components and giving you a relaxed “easy riding” seating position, plus LED lighting that will remind on lookers that this is the New Rebel and NOT an old barnyard find that you put a can of polish on.
But to be fair,creating that look, wasn’t that hard. Here’s where innovation and decades of experience come in.
The designers of this Rebel were challenged to lower the overall height of the engine, create a lower center of gravity and a deeper bank angle.
For those of you new to the sport, bank angle is basically the degree to which a bike can safely lean without tipping over, and the reason this is important, is it makes turning easier – something that is often a criticism of large cruisers.
And how did they do this? With a unicam valve train and dry sump with the oil tank built into the crankcase to make the oil pan thinner.
Now, we’re not all gear heads, so if you didn’t understand that last part, just go back to thinking about those big sweeping turns.
Okay, moving on to power. The 1100 CC engine powering this beast is based on the parallel twin engine from our legendary Africa Twin so it’s been tested, tried and true.
But, for the Rebel, torque and output have been adjusted to suit cruiser style riding; weather that’s a more relaxed ride or a more exciting ride – you decide.
Another top priority when it comes to cruisers – the exhaust note.
Honda engineers weren’t lost on this either – now it’s a little difficult to explain an exhaust note, but trust me when I tell you that the Rebel 1100 will give you the low pulse you want around town and a deeper more powerful town as you accelerate.
Most importantly, a good, well tuned exhaust note says “QUALITY” and NEVER “obnoxious”.
Okay, so Styling, check, engine and exhaust check – so far the Rebel 1100 has the makings of top notch cruiser – but now, it’s time to pull away from the pack.
Honda is not about to launch our top of the line cruiser with just good looks and plenty of power – decades of engineering some of the most advanced bikes in the world, and technology from our full line of bikes have been incorporated to make this Rebel 1100 one of a kind.
Here we go:
Standard cruise control – because on a bike like this, you’ll go far, trust me. Standard ABS, because you can’t always control your riding environment, Honda selectable Torque control and traction control.
Plus, and I know you’re not going to believe this is on a cruiserWHEELIE control which limits lift on acceleration allowing for strong but safe starts – because on a bike like this, you know what it means when the light turns green.
And finally, this is a cruiser with DIFFERENT RIDE MODES!! Including Standard, Rain, Sports and a custom user setting.
All of this tech and fine control is accessible to you, through this 120mm LCD multi-function display, that maintains a simple design keeping with the classic cruiser style.
And finally, the 2021 Rebel 1100 will be available in both a traditional manual shift, as well as Honda’s state of the art Dual Clutch transmission, already found in our Gold Wing and Africa Twin.
So what is the Rebel 1100 – other than your next bike? – It’s a cruiser that fits the mould with it’s looks, styling and sound, and then changes what happens inside that mould with advanced technology and engineering making it a more enjoyable, safer and accessible cruiser for all riders.
