ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip Review

ASUS has recently brought back the Zenfone smartphones to the Philippine shores but unlike before, these Zenfones packs the latest and powerful chips from Snapdragon, the Snapdragon 888, and today, we’re gonna review one of the two Zenfones to arrive in the country, the ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip.

ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip Review: Design and hardware

The ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip still carries the same design of the predecessor. The form factor and the design is pretty much the same. For the materials used on the smartphone, well, it’s very premium. I like the glass feel at the back of the smartphone and also the premium metal sides of the smartphone.

It is tough and premium but the body of the ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip is noticeable thick compared to most smartphones this 2021. So having a case on the smartphone means that the smartphone will be even thicker but I highly suggest that you use the case on this one as the back is mostly made up of glass.

For the ports, the ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip comes with a USB-C port that supports 30W charging on the smartphone which is a little bit slow considering that most smartphones are above that and the ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip comes with a 5000mAh battery inside.

As for the buttons on the smartphone, the power button is placed on the right and above it is the volume rocker but as for the fingerprint scanner, the smartphone comes with an in-display fingerprint scanner and I don’t really recommend using facial recognition on this smartphone you might wear out the flip camera of the smartphone.

Speaking of the flip camera, I noticed that it was fast and smooth when flipping. Of course, it comes with a protruding camera module at the back but the flip was solid on this one. There are some safety features on the smartphone as it automatically flips back in case you’re using the camera and you suddenly drop your smartphone to protect it from more damages.

ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip Review: Display

The display of the smartphone is pretty big like before. We got here a 6.67-inch 20:9 Samsung AMOLED display with Delta-E<1. It also comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 6 for its protection and it does come with 110% DCI-P3 colors. For the display aspect ratio, we got here a 92% screen-to-body ratio thanks to its flip camera so there’s no notch or punch-hole camera over here.

Now the colors and the screen size might sound excellent for users but the smartphone still comes with a 90Hz display instead of a 120Hz display which can be found on most flagship smartphones these days. The smartphone’s display is still great nonetheless and it’s very visible outside and it’s perfect for watching videos as it has no notch or punch-hole cameras

ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip Review: Battery

Again, the ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip comes with a 5000mAh battery and it might take some time before you can fully charge the smartphone with its 30W battery. Despite having a large 5000mAh battery inside, I only got a score of 8 hours and 11 minutes on the PC Mark Work 3.0 Battery Life test.

I was not surprised though as my smartphone’s usage cannot last a single workday for me and I’ve been looking for a charger before the day ends.

ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip Review: Software and performance

What I like about the ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip is that the software and the UI of the smartphone are fast and very responsive and one of the reasons why is because the UI of the smartphone is clean and almost untouched. There are no heavy customizations on this one.

There are only a few bloatware that comes with this smartphone and as for the responsiveness, well, it’s excellent and it’s fast. The 90hz refresh rate does add some smoothness to the smartphone.

As for the performance, we got here the best of Qualcomm inside as the smartphone runs on Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor inside along with 8GB of RAM, and for the storage, we got here a 256GB of internal storage on the smartphone.

The smartphone might be powerful and it might have the same processor of the ASUS ROG Phone 5 but the ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip is too hot to handle. I mean, literally. We’ve noticed that after playing a few minutes of Genshin Impact on the smartphone, it gets really hot to the point that the smartphone is uncomfortably hot to use.

Nonetheless, the smartphone was able to run any games that we’ve installed on it and the benchmarks on the smartphone are what we’ve expected.

ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip Review: Camera

The camera is the main highlight of the smartphone and ASUS did a tremendous job on this one. Yes, it’s a flip camera so you might probably be worried about its mechanism on the smartphone. But in my usage, it was sturdy and it comes with some safety features like what I’ve mentioned earlier.

You can even control the flip mechanism manually if you want to take an angled shot on the smartphone which is pretty cool. The flip mechanism was fast and it was good. AS for the cameras, we got here a 64MP main camera along with a 12MP ultrawide camera and also an 8MP telephoto lens.

The smartphone is capable of zooming up to 12x on this one and it’s also capable of recording videos at up to 8K and when it comes to the quality of the shots that we took, well, they’re great as expected.

The details that we’re getting on the smartphone’s camera along with the accurate colors make the smartphone one of my favorite ones when it comes to camera and since the triple-lens camera of the smartphone is also your selfie camera, our selfies on the smartphone were excellent too.

ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip Review: Verdict

The ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip didn’t change much from the previous generation when it comes to the design. The processing power inside makes it really interesting as the Snapdragon 888 processor is very powerful and yes, the design and construction of the smartphone are premium and sturdy despite the flip mechanism. The camera of the smartphone is excellent as expected as the quality of our shots on the smartphone was great. The display is big and excellent too but it’s still at 90hz.

However, the smartphone might have a powerful processor inside but the temperatures of the smartphone were too high especially when playing games which makes it a not so attractive choice for gamers. The battery of the smartphone was disappointing too and it only uses up to 30W charging instead of 65W that we’ve seen before on the ASUS ROG Phone 5.

Despite the flaws, the ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip is still attractive due to its price of Php39,995.

ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip Specs

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G Chipset
• 6.67-inch Samsung All-Screen AMOLED Full HD+ Display, 90Hz refresh rate, 110% DCI-P3, Gorilla Glass 6
• 8GB RAM
• 256GB UFS 3.1 Internal storage
• 64MP IMX 686 main camera + 12MP ultra wide camera + 8MP telephoto camera
• 5G
• USB-C
• In-display fingerprint scanner
• 30W Charging
• 5000mAh battery
• Android 11 with ZenUI 8