Asus Zenfone 2 - Is it worth it?

                Ever since Asus announced Zenfone 2, their latest flagship phone,  last January of this year 2015, people have been excited over it and can't wait the release date. So what's the hype about? First we take a look of the specifications of Asus Zenfone 2. The model released here in the Philippines is the Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML with two versions. First one is the Intel Atom Z3560 Quadcore 1.8GHz with 2GB Ram and the second one is has an Intel Atom Z3580 also a Quadcore CPU with a clock speed of 2.3GHz and a 4GB Ram.

Full Specification of Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML

System on Chip/CPU :	Intel Atom Moorefield Z3560 4x Silvermont @ 1.8GHz	Intel Atom Moorefield Z3580 4x Silvermont @ 2.33GHz
Ram:	2GB LPDDR3	4GB LPDDR3
Graphics Processing Unit/GPU:	PowerVR G6430 @ 533MHz
NAND Memory:	16GB + microSDXC up to 64 GB	64GB + microSDXC up to 64 GB
Display:	5.5" 1920x1080 Resolution IPS LCD
Camera:	13MP rear camera Toshiba sensor  with F/2.0 aperture 5MP Front Facing with F/2.0 aperture
Operating System:	Android 5.0 .2 Lollipop with ASUS Zen UI  upgradable to Android 5.1 and Android M
Cellular Connectivity:	2G / 3G / 4G LTE (Intel XMM7262 Category 6 LTE) Second SIM 2G GSM (Intel XMM2230)
Other Connectivity:	802.11a/b/g/n/ac + BT 4.0, GNSS, NFC, microUSB2.0
SIM Card Slots:	Dual-MicroSIM slots
Dimensions:	77.2 x 152.5 x 10.9 mm, 170g
Battery:	Non-removable Lithium Polymer 3000 mAh battery (11.4Wh)
Price:	Php9,995 Philippine Price (Price may vary on each store and variant) $199	Php13,995 Philippine Price (Price may vary on each store and variant) $299

When specs on paper,  Asus Zenfone 2 is an amazing smartphone but how does it do in real life usage?  Like its predecessor the Zenfone 5, Zenfone 2 also has an Intel  Atom chipset and this is one of the drawbacks of this phone. Like we all know, Intel Atom is a CPU designed for computers. It's performance is great for netbooks so Asus also tried to integrate it to their smartphones and achieve the same capability. The main problem is Intel Atom is still not yet fully optimized to run in smartphones and thus it sucks out  the battery power of the Zenfone 2. Another flaw is Asus over clocked the Intel chipset from 1.8GHz and the maximum speed of 2.3GHz and the effects are more heat generated and the battery life is consumed faster. As we all know, in computers, with this kind of speed they require a heat sink and fan to cool down the CPU. Developers of Alcatel Flash Plus know this mistake so they lowered down the clock speed from 1.7GHz to the later version of a speed 1.5Ghz. In one of the reviewers of Alcatel Flash Plus, he showed the battery strain test and it resulted to 10hrs screen time while in Zenfone 2 only lasted to 5hrs. From what I know 1.3GHz-1.5GHz is enough to run Android Applications and Games without lags so why does Asus overclocked their chipsets? Because of the race to 2.0Ghz. Most smartphones right now wants to achieve this speed to show raw performance disregarding the battery life. And these maybe the reasons why Asus is also releasing Arm Versions of Zenfone 2 which has a Qualcomm Snapdragon and Mediatek chipsets in these devices. Other cons of Zenfone 2 is the weight. The weight  is a little heavy for its size 170 g (6.00 oz).  Another problem of Zenfone 2 is the buggy OS. Some users say it is laggy and there is also the problem with the memory leakage. In the 4GB ram version there is 2GB free ram while the 2GB version only has more than 500MB of free ram. It doesn't differ from my previous phones which has a 1GB ram and have 500MB free ram. Maybe they should have installed Android Kitkat first then upgraded to Android 5.1. Overall those are the only cons of Zenfone 2. The design is good while some says it looks cheap and not a premium one, it doesn't bother me. The camera is also great for taking pictures.  Display is crisp and vivid. Performance in gaming is also good, only downside is you can also use it for a few hours because of the power hungry Intel chipset. The speaker is mediocre but I don't frequently use it.  If you're thinking of buying one, you should wait for the Arm Version of Zenfone 2. So is it worth it? The Arm version is surely worth it, the intel based is meh. You know what is the best thing about Asus branded phones? It's the support. Continuous fast updates and compatible new android versions.