We go hands-on with ASUS’ recently announced Zenfone Live

Despite ASUS launching several Zenfone 3 devices last year, the Taiwanese company has always had a hole in its lineup in the budget segment. And while price cuts have brought down the pricing of the 5.2-inch Zenfone 3 Max to under 10K, there hasn’t really been a solid smartphone contender for the budget market since last year.

Well, that ends today – ASUS launched their Zenfone Live alongside the Zenfone Zoom in two simultaneous launches earlier tonight. While the Zenfone Live’s existence compliments ASUS’ current ZenFone Go smartphone instead of outright replacing it, it’s really the best budget smartphone that ASUS has in its stable right now.

ASUS ZenFone Live specs

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 octa-core processor
• 2GB of RAM
• 5-inch HD IPS display, 720 x 1280 resolution
• 16GB of expandable storage
• 13-megapixel rear camera, f/2.0 aperture lens, AF, LED flash
• 5-megapixel front camera, f/2.2 aperture lens, LED flash
• Dual SIM
• 3G, LTE
• WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, A-GPS
• 2650mAh battery
• Android Marshmallow with ZenUI

A phone for livestream generation

The ZenFone Live was once rumored to be the company’s replacement for their current (and aging) ZenFone Go, but the powers-that-be determined that the phone had potential to be more than just a budget smartphone in their lineup. The highlight feature of the ZenFone Live is its ability to use its beautification feature in real time during livestreams, thus the name.

The BeautyLive feature works on both Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, and you’re able to determine the Beauty Level throughout your stream from 1 to 10. And just like the Beautify feature on most other phones, the effect looks progressively more artificial the higher the setting is – realistically you’ll probably keep the Beauty Level at around 5 or lower, else you risk looking like a pasty caricature of yourself during your streams.

Speaking of streams, the front facing camera of the ZenFone Live is a 5-megapixel deal, paired with a f/2.2 aperture lens and LED flash.

The rest of the phone is what you’d expect from a typical budget device. It’s primarily made out of plastic with an outer shell treated to look like metal from afar. The gold coloration helps, and you’re certainly going to fool people with it until they actually get to hold it in their hands.

The phone looks like your typical ASUS budget handset, with the phone possessing physical Android navigation keys on the chin right below the 5-inch HD display. Power and volume buttons are on the right, with the 3.5mm jack on top. The USB port and speaker grille are located on the bottom of the phone.

The phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 chipset paired with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage. There’s Android Marshmallow on board with ASUS’ ZenUI baked in, along with a 2650mAh battery.

While Snapdragon 410 is certainly a dated processor, it’s good enough for most tasks that the ZenFone Live will be subjected to. Sure, more graphically intense games will certainly lag on it, but the ZenFone Live isn’t a phone that’s supposed to be doing that anyway.

That’s pretty much it for this hands-on. The Zenfone Live is priced at Php 6,995.