ASUS ZenFone 5: First Camera Samples

ASUS's new ZenFone 5 is a promising upper mid-range smartphone designed for performance and photography.

Dual cam!

Related: ASUS ZenFone 5 Review - 2018's Mid-range All-rounder?

At the back, the the ZenFone 5 boasts 12MP f/1.8 Sony IMX363 primary shooter paired with an 8MP f/2.0 OV8856 wtih a 120-degree wide-angle lens. It also has Tri-tech AF, Dual Pixel technology ala Galaxy S8, OIS, EIS, and dual tone LED flash.

Only 8MP in front

For selfies, it isn't that impressive. It only has an 8MP f/2.0 OV8856 snapper with 83-degree wide-angle lens.

But, its dual camera setup behind is probably the best at this price point. ASUS even dubbed it as the "camera phone" to beat. (Of course they will say that)

Let's see! Here's our first camera samples.

Camera Samples

Daylight 1

Wide 1

Daylight 2

Wide 2

Indoor 1

Indoor wide

Sunset shot

Indoor lowlight

Outdoor lowlight 1

Outdoor lowlight 2

Wide lowlight

Selfie portrait mode well-lit

Selfie indoor

Selfie portrait mode lowlight

For us, the new ASUS ZenFone 5 is way ahead of the ZenFone 4 in terms of mobile photography. 

It can even compete or beat most of the phones at this price point. Details are mostly crisp and colors are vibrant. It is a bit saturated at times though, but dynamic range and contrast are pretty good for the price.

The wide-angle mode of ASUS is one of the best in the market and it can give the wide-angle mode of the LG G6 a run for its money. It is still detailed and has decent dynamic range in well-lit conditions.

The point and shoot lowlight performance of the primary camera can also compete with most 2017 flagship phones. That's impressive for a PHP 20K device. But, the wide-angle mode and selfie cameras are far from great in lowlight.

So far, the new ZenFone 5 is an impressive photography phone with full manual controls. It is better than at least 90 percent of phones in the under PHP 25K range.

Just don't compare it with the flagships over 30K range.