Asus ZenFone 5 LTE Smartphone Review

1. Introduction2. Packaging and Bundle3. Design4. Display5. Software6. Performance7. Camera8. Battery9. Closing Thoughts10. View All Pages

Upon release, the ZenFone 5 LTE shipped with Android 4.3 Jellybean. It is now upgradable to KitKat 4.4.2, and Lollipop is coming to the entire ZenFone range in April.

This means all the ZenFone devices come with the same software and UI – named ZenUI. So rather than go over what we said about the OS when we reviewed the ZenFone 6, here we will look at features we didn't have space for previously.

One of these modes is the ASUS ‘fast-boot' setting which the ZenFone 5 LTE features. With the mode disabled, our sample took 42.7 seconds to go from switched off to the lock screen – very slow. With fast-boot enabled, the boot time was just 8.2 seconds, a remarkable improvement and a very useful feature as many phones are slow to turn on again.

Also included is a ‘glove mode', which increases touch sensitivity when wearing gloves. This is also useful, though it did have a slight issue where occasionally it would over-compensate for the gloves, resulting in a jerking response to our touch. Mostly, though, it improved responsiveness while wearing gloves, a definite success.

ASUS Keyboard is another feature worth looking at, as many people don't change the stock keyboard when they get a new phone. We found it to be a fast and responsive keyboard, with a nifty feature where if you flick a letter up or down, the keyboard changes to upper or lower-case, saving you pressing shift every time.

We have been effusive in our praise of ZenUI previously, and this does not change. It is also great to see the cool features ASUS have also included, as well as a solid stock keyboard. On the whole, this OS is smooth and user-friendly.

Become a Patron!