We pit Samsung’s latest flagship against ASUS’ Zenfone 2!

If you haven’t heard, we’re here in Indonesia currently to cover the regional launch of the Zenfone 2. One of the main draws of the newest flagship from ASUS is its PixelMaster camera, which can take better photos in both low-light and backlit situations without too much of a performance hit. We’ll be putting those photo claims to the test by pitting it against Samsung’s latest flagship, the Galaxy S6 Edge.

See also: A detailed look at the ZF2 and Galaxy S6 camera comparo

A small note: we did the tests (specifically low-light and HDR) in ASUS’ own test rigs, so treat the photos below as preliminary results until we get our hands on a review unit. Shot settings for the devices are as follows: Low light test was night mode on auto, HDR auto for the S6 Edge, while the ZF2 had its low-light mode on. For the HDR mode test, the S6 Edge had its HDR settings set to on (the Galaxy S6 has auto HDR but we manually turned it on), ASUS Zenfone 2 had its HDR turned on. For the macro shots, both were taken with manual mode on. Ambient light test had both phones on auto.

While we’re reducing the images on the site, you can click on the photos for the full resolution version.

LOW LIGHT TEST:

HDR TEST:

MACRO TEST:

See also: A detailed look at the ZF2 and Galaxy S6 camera comparo

AMBIENT LIGHT SHOT:

 

SUPER HIGH RES TEST:

See also: A detailed look at the ZF2 and Galaxy S6 camera comparo

We’re very impressed with the camera performance of the Zenfone 2 so far. At more than half the price of the Galaxy S6 Edge, the Zenfone 2 ZE551ML managed to meet and exceed the performance of the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, at least in ASUS’ low-light and HDR test booths. In real life tests however, the ZF2 stumbles a bit, and there’s definitely a huge hit to sharpness and detail. We’ll be revisiting the camera performance of  both phones again once we get our hands on our review unit.