The camera experience on the ASUS ZenFone 2 Laser (ZE500KL)

The main camera on the ASUS ZE500KL uses a 13 megapixels Pixel Master sensor made by Toshiba. It comes packed with a laser AutoFocus that allows for a focus time of only 0.3 seconds, a feature that is available also in the flagship ZenFone 2. This makes capturing macro images quite easy. The camera experience is also complemented by a dual-tone, Dual LED flash. The main camera of the ASUS ZenFone 2 Laser was able to deliver pictures with a maximum resolution of 4096x3072 pixels.

The five-prism Largan lens coupled with the Toshiba sensor managed to take a lot of good quality pictures (in daylight conditions) which displayed an optimum level of detail, saturation, and contrast. Still, in low-light conditions, the image noise is quite high. ASUS tries to come to the rescue with a low-light mode which manages to eliminate the noise but also reduces details. To help you in these types of situations, we found that using the Dual-LED flash does a great job in filling light and, as such, to reduce noise.

We also have to mention the fact that ASUS ZenFone 2 Laser offers a series of camera features that are not available in most mid-range smartphones. We are talking about the availability of Manual Mode, GIF mode, Time Lapse, Time rewind mode (camera captures several images of which you can choose the best), Selfie Mode (allows using rear camera for selfies), Miniature Mode (blurs the surroundings of the subject), HDR and others. Still, even though HDR uses the Super Resolution mode (Multiframe Fusion technology) that combines four images into a single highly detailed picture, we manage d to get only a few results that were to our liking. Of course, this can be a problem related to the shaky hand of the photographer.

In the gallery below, we included a series of photos that we took with the ASUS ZenFone 2 Laser. They involve a wide range of subjects, situations and lighting conditions. Unfortunately, we only managed to take one photo in sunny conditions because it either rained or it was cloudy the whole time we tested the smartphone. The photos were taken using auto settings, a few with the depth mode on and, of course, some were taken in low-light conditions.

The 5 megapixels front camera will help you take a lot of good selfies, in which you will look good thanks to all the beautification effects available.

The main camera can shoot 1080p videos at 30fps with stereo sound. In the first video sample, we tried to capture a moving subject from a static point at 720p. It worked pretty well, except for the cloudy day.

Below you will find a short video in which we captured a static panorama while moving the smartphone. Excuse my shaky hands, but it seems that when you use the highest resolution available for recordings, 1080p, the video image stabilization does not work so well. It does a better job though, if you lower the resolution to 720p.

The camera used by ZenFone 2 Laser (ZE500KL) is a plus for this smartphone. It comes with lots of features and options, both in the hardware and software areas, which allow you to capture good quality pictures even in low-light conditions.

Android 5.0 Lollipop, ASUS Zen UI & Bundled apps

ZenFone 2 Laser (ZE500KL) is powered by Android 5.0 Lollipop, but the standard operating system is enhanced by a custom graphic interface made by ASUS. This user interface, called Zen UI, includes a wide range of customizable features and proprietary apps that are designed to help you solve different daily tasks. This is a great feature, but these numerous applications can, sometimes, make the UI a bit heavy. We recommend that you carefully consider which are useful for you and remove or disable those that are not. This careful review of bundled apps will help you not overload the system.

To help you with the ASUS preloaded applications we have constructed below a small list with all the important apps and what they actually do:

• ASUS Support - Gives information about the Zen UI and support for any smartphone related problems.
• MyASUS - Offers access to 24/7 support from ASUS.
• AudioWizard - Lets you personalize the sound configuration.
• DataTransfer - Helps you connect your ZenFone 2 Laser to older phones that have Bluetooth.
• Do It Later - (our personal favorite) Helps you create and organize daily tasks, reminders, notes and other planning tools.
• Kids Mode - Is a great app that will help parents control what their children can access on the smartphone.
• MiniMovie - It will create movies from the photos saved on your smartphone, which you can then share on social media websites.
• Share Link - An app that will help you transfer files between your smartphone and a computer without needing to use a mobile connection.
• Splendid - Personalized settings for the IPS panel.
• ZenCircle - A social network that works by sharing smartphone created videos.
• ZenMotion - Customize a series of on-screen gestures to open a host of apps from the lock screen, customize the interface for one hand usage and other useful features.
• ZenTalk - A forum dedicated to all ZenFones that can prove quite useful.

Another feature related to the Zen UI that is worth mentioning is its lock screen. Its minimalistic design is highly customizable, as you will be able to choose a series of shortcuts that send you directly to their designated apps. By default, the lock screen contains shortcuts for camera, phone, and messages.

All in all, ASUS gives us a beautiful user interface that can be customized to your every wish. Zen UI is a custom graphic interface that sets itself apart from the stock Android pattern through simplicity and intuitiveness.

Performance in benchmarks

ASUS ZenFone 2 Laser (ZE500KL) looks like a serious contender in its particular market share (mid-range), especially in terms of performance. To check its hardware capabilities and to really see how good it is, we ran a series of standard benchmarks tests. As you are accustomed, here at Digital Citizen, we first test the CPU performance with Vellamo, a benchmark app developed by Qualcomm.

The first test we ran for this review is called Vellamo Multicore and it is a benchmark that aims to measure the CPU performance when running multiple tasks simultaneously. After it finished checking our ASUS ZenFone 2 Laser, this application rated the smartphone at 1455 points. It is a solid score that places the ZenFone 2 Laser almost on par with the ASUS ZenFone 2 and only marginally lower than a Nexus 5.

Then, as there are many apps that do not know how to use more that one CPU core, we measured how well this smartphone handled single core tasks. For this particular situation we used the Vellamo Metal and our ASUS ZenFone 2 Laser obtained 902 points. This is a score that places the ZE500KL a little lower than a Lenovo A7000 which is equipped with a 1.5 GHz octa-core processor (Mediatek MT6752) and also runs on Android 5.0.

The result from this second preset, which gives us a better idea on how the CPU performs in real-world scenarios, further accentuates the fact that ASUS ZenFone 2 Laser is one of the best mid-range smartphones on the market.

Moving on from the CPU tests, we assessed this device in terms of gaming performance. To measure its capabilities we used two of the benchmarks offered by GFXBench GL Benchmark: the Manhattan and the T-Rex tests. As always, we only take into consideration the Offscreen versions, because they run at a resolution of 1080p, regardless of the native resolution of a device.

In the Manhattan Offscreen test, ASUS ZenFone 2 Laser managed to render 111 frames. Unfortunately, this result takes this smartphone to the lower area of the list and rates its performance to be similar to what you'd get from a Samsung Galaxy A3 or a Xiaomi Redmi 2.

The result of the next test, T-Rex Offscreen, does not differ much from the first one in the GFXBench GL Benchmark, as the ASUS ZenFone 2 Laser (ZE500KL) managed to render only 290 frames (5.2 Fps). This means that this smartphone does not go too far up the ranking ladder and remains in an area with smartphones like Samsung Galaxy Ace or the above mentioned Xiaomi Redmi 2.

After testing the CPU and gaming performance of the ZenFone 2 Laser (ZE500KL), it was necessary for us to test this smartphone in a more common situation - browsing the web. For this benchmark, we turned to Vellamo again and used the Explore test. The browser tests that are carried out by this application measure the performance of a device when it needs to display a webpage that consists of HTML5, CSS3 or Javascript. The score obtained by ZenFone 2 Laser is consistent and the 1879 points place it somewhere in the middle of the rankings ladder. This means that the performance of ASUS ZE500KL in terms of web browsing places this smartphone just above HTC One, Nexus 4 or Samsung Galaxy S3.

In the final part of our benchmarks, we wanted to test the autonomy of the ZenFone 2 Laser (ZE500KL). To do this, we fully charged the smartphone's battery and then attempted to run PCMark's Work battery life. We were finally successful in obtaining a result after trying to run this benchmark for a half dozen times, as it terminated with errors each time. This last attempt to find out what the 2070mAh battery is capable of was successful and the ASUS ZenFone 2 Laser presents itself with a running autonomy of 6 hours. This is a great result, that places this smartphone as a heavy contender in the mid-range category, in terms of battery life.

The last test we performed on this device is related to the network speed. As such, we turned to Ookla's Speedtest app. We checked for a good signal coverage and then ran a series of benchmarks on Internet speeds while using a 4G connection from Orange Romania. ASUS ZenFone 2 Laser (ZE500KL) successfully achieved, in our geographical area, an average download connection speed of 29.34 Mbps and an average upload connection speed of 11.80 Mbps. To our amazement, one of the benchmarks (of which you can see a screenshot below), achieved a maximum download connection speed of 68.91 Mbps and an upload connection speed of 31.55 Mbps.

All the benchmarks we ran confirm that the ASUS ZenFone 2 Laser (ZE500KL) has solid specs for a mid-range smartphone. It will not allow you to play the most demanding games available in Google Play, but it will surely accommodate the needs of the average user. We were very pleased with the performance of the ZenFone 2 Laser in our day to day usage and the fact that it handled well all the tasks we threw at it.

Verdict

The ASUS ZenFone 2 Laser (ZE500KL) is a budget-friendly version of the flagship ZenFone 2 (ZE551ML). This smartphone retains the beautifully designed body of the ZenFone series, but in a smaller form factor as it only uses a 5-inch screen. The quad-core 1.2 GHz processor, its 2 GB of RAM memory and the option to expand the smartphone's internal storage with a microSD card of up to 128 GB are more than enough in terms of performance and space for apps or games. We really enjoyed the design features of the ZenFone 2 Laser, because ASUS paid a lot of attention to ergonomics and successfully created a smartphone that offers a great grip and easily accessible buttons. The camera offers a fast autofocus, dual-LED flash and a multitude of useful modes; features that are rarely found on mid-range smartphones. The simple ZenUI Android user interface can accommodate any taste and solve any task you might think of with the help of its bundled apps from ASUS. There are some issues in the performance area, but they become acceptable once you understand that this is a smartphone built for budget-conscious users. We enjoyed using this smartphone and we can say that ASUS ZenFone 2 Laser (ZE500KL) is one of our top contenders in the "Budget choice" options. It is a smartphone that looks like a flagship and offers good performance while still maintaining a reasonable price tag.