There's no sticky review thread yet, so I'm just posting mine here.
Just got the phone today, I'm about 6 hours in. I'm coming from an HTC One M8 and compared to that, this thing is a beast. It runs circles around the M8. It even bests my Galaxy Tab S 10.5 in some games. It's really that fast and they weren't kidding about multitasking working very well.
Hardware-wise, build quality is solid but I'm not a big fan of the feel of the plastic back (got the silver). The Nexus 5 plastic is much nicer. I'm hoping those Illusion back covers are nicer quality.
It fits well in my hand, but my index finger never falls right in the middle of the phone. So those volume buttons are just a huge hassle to get to and that power button is too flush to press easily. And while some people might not like the fixed capacitive nav keys, I'm a fan. Software keys take up screen space and require extra swipes when they're hidden. Plus Google has implemented them to always show up on the right side which irks me as a lefty.
Compared to the M8, the Zenfone 2 doesn't get anywhere near as hot either. Played some games while charging and the M8 would get too hot to hold. The ZF2 was not much more than warm.
The screen quality is decent. Next to a flagship, it's obviously worse but it's perfectly acceptable for a $300 phone.
Software-wise, I'm actually pretty impressed with Asus here. Yes there's bloat, quite a lot of it actually, but some of it is perception also, Asus has lots of tiny apps that many other manufacturers would hide as settings. There's an app called Splendid that handles the vivid screen settings for example. And in the Asus apps, if there's any new menu items after a software update, Asus helpfully puts a little 'N' icon to indicate it's new.
Some misc notes:
Sound quality of the speaker is bad, as expected. But at least with headphones on, you get a full equalizer instead of HTCs Beats On/Off control.
I've successfully used a USB thumb drive and it shows up ok in the File Manager so that's supported unlike in Nexus devices.
I ran into some weird screen tearing while slowly scrolling pages up and down but can't seem to replicate it now.
The rewards tab in the Starbucks app crashes consistently. I wonder if that's an issue with the Intel proc. Haven't ran into problems with any other apps.
Overall, a very good buy at $299.
Just got the phone today, I'm about 6 hours in. I'm coming from an HTC One M8 and compared to that, this thing is a beast. It runs circles around the M8. It even bests my Galaxy Tab S 10.5 in some games. It's really that fast and they weren't kidding about multitasking working very well.
Hardware-wise, build quality is solid but I'm not a big fan of the feel of the plastic back (got the silver). The Nexus 5 plastic is much nicer. I'm hoping those Illusion back covers are nicer quality.
It fits well in my hand, but my index finger never falls right in the middle of the phone. So those volume buttons are just a huge hassle to get to and that power button is too flush to press easily. And while some people might not like the fixed capacitive nav keys, I'm a fan. Software keys take up screen space and require extra swipes when they're hidden. Plus Google has implemented them to always show up on the right side which irks me as a lefty.
Compared to the M8, the Zenfone 2 doesn't get anywhere near as hot either. Played some games while charging and the M8 would get too hot to hold. The ZF2 was not much more than warm.
The screen quality is decent. Next to a flagship, it's obviously worse but it's perfectly acceptable for a $300 phone.
Software-wise, I'm actually pretty impressed with Asus here. Yes there's bloat, quite a lot of it actually, but some of it is perception also, Asus has lots of tiny apps that many other manufacturers would hide as settings. There's an app called Splendid that handles the vivid screen settings for example. And in the Asus apps, if there's any new menu items after a software update, Asus helpfully puts a little 'N' icon to indicate it's new.
Some misc notes:
Sound quality of the speaker is bad, as expected. But at least with headphones on, you get a full equalizer instead of HTCs Beats On/Off control.
I've successfully used a USB thumb drive and it shows up ok in the File Manager so that's supported unlike in Nexus devices.
I ran into some weird screen tearing while slowly scrolling pages up and down but can't seem to replicate it now.
The rewards tab in the Starbucks app crashes consistently. I wonder if that's an issue with the Intel proc. Haven't ran into problems with any other apps.
Overall, a very good buy at $299.
)
And I have the phone in a wallet case most of the time, but I like the feel of the red back when I take it out of the case. Maybe not quite as much as my N5, though. 
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram