Zenfone Live: Broadcasting As It Happens
As the smartphone market is growing and evolving too, smartphone manufacturers are looking at features that can drive the market. Live broadcasting is something that is gaining popularity on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and Instagram. Asus Zenfone Live is a phone specially aimed at that segment.
Asus Zenfone Live
Very Basic Hardware
Zenfone Live comes with a display of 5 inches, a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels. 2GB RAM along with Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, 16GB of internal storage, which can be expanded up to 128GB via microSD card. The battery is 2650 mAh. Primary camera 13-megapixel and the front camera is 5-megapixel. Clearly nothing special about the hardware specifications. The pricing is Rs 9,999
What’s Great
Beautification Tool
This is the highlight of Zenfone Live. Probably the biggest pain point in live broadcasting or even impromptu getting live is “Am I looking fine?”. This phone has been tackled that issue rather well. You can live stream through the primary 13-megapixel camera or through the 5-megapixel front camera. The BeautyLive app integrates seamlessly with Facebook, Instagram and YouTube for live-streaming beautification. You can choose beautifications levels between 1 to 10.
Good Design
The design is not just beautiful but overall really easy to handle. It’s compact, easy to hold. The phone is lightweight, weighing only 120 gms. It’s a well-designed phone with good ergonomics.
Display
It has a good display. It’s vibrant and with good light sensitivity.
What’s Not Great
Very Basic specs
The specs are too basic for a phone of this calibre. On the technology adoption curve, someone using live broadcasting would probably need better hardware specs. 2 GB RAM is too less.
Buggy UI
The phone runs on Android 6.0.1, layered with an older version of ZenUI. There is bloatware plus there are lots of apps you may not want but can’t delete.
Low on Storage
Consider this, 6 GB is taken up by the system out of 16 GB of storage. You can expand however through the hybrid SIM slot though by giving up the second sim.
The Last Word
I think it’s a great product for the price. Plus it’s specially targeted at the consumer who is interested in live broadcasting. The BeautyLive App is a definite plus point in live broadcasting. The hardware specifications are very basic and leave you wanting more. It would be interesting to watch how the future series of Zenfone Live series shape up.
