Entertainment
ASUS Zenfone 4 Selfie (Dual Camera): Decent overall performer (Tech Review)
By Krishna SinhaChaudhury
New Delhi, Dec 2 (IANS) With dual-camera phones fast gaining popularity in the cut-throat Indian smartphone market, ASUS recently introduced three smartphones in its Zenfone 4 selfie series in the country.
The Taiwanese company introduced a total of six smartphones — Zenfone 4, Zenfone 4 Pro, Zenfone 4 Max, Zenfone 4 Max Pro and Zenfone 4 Selfie (two variants) — in Taipei but brought only three selfie-centric devices to India.
We received Rs 14,999 Zenfone 4 Selfie (Dual-Camera) and here is what we think of it.
At 144 grams, the smartphone is impressively light and easy to operate with one hand.
It sports a unibody design with metallic finish with stripes at the top and bottom ends that give it an attractive look.
We especially liked the design language used around the camera lens that reminded us of ASUS’ trademark concentric circle design.
The 5.5-inch HD LCD display topped with 2.5D curved glass blends well with the chassis. The display is bright with decent viewing angles.
Above the display lies the LED flash, dual-camera set-up, earpiece and the proximity sensor.
The fingerprint sensor sits below the display which was pretty quick to unlock the device.
The selfie shooter of the device has a 20MP sensor (aperture of f/2.0) and an 8MP secondary sensor (aperture of f/2.4) that lets the user click decent selfies — a high point of Zenfone 4 Selfie (Dual Camera) smartphone.
The user can also select the portrait mode that adds “Bokeh” effect to the selfies.
In our opinion, the selfies taken in standard mode fared better than the wide-angle selfies.
The front shooter also features “Live Beautification” mode that lets the user add artificial beautification to their image from level 1 to 10.
The 16MP rear camera takes good images and close-up shots in proper lighting had enough detail.
The phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 chipset coupled with 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage that ensures smooth everyday performance.
The device runs its custom Zen UI based atop Android 7.1.1 Nougat operating system (OS).
ASUS has not bundled unnecessary pre-installed apps in the smartphone, which is a welcome change.
The 3,000mAh battery lasted a little more than 12 hours on moderate usage with 4G running on one SIM slot, on a single charge.
What does not work?
The Snapdragon 430 processor does its job well in keeping the smartphone cool and gets daily tasks done, but considering the price, we would have loved to see a Snapdragon 625 chipset in this one.
Photos taken in low-light conditions had much noise.
The sunlight legibility of the display could have been better.
Conclusion: With decent overall performance, Zenfone 4 Selfie (Dual Camera) smartphone is a competent attempt by ASUS to make a mark in the selfie smartphone race in this price range.
(Krishna SinhaChaudhury can be contacted at [email protected] )
–IANS
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Entertainment
Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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