THE FLIP CAMERA OF THE NEW ASUS ZENFONE 7 PRO TO THE TEST

ASUS is certainly an authority when it comes to personal computers, whether these are for study and work or for gaming, with the famous ROG badge. For years, however, the Taiwanese manufacturer has also brought excellent smartphones to the market , on Everyeye we know the ROG Phone range very well, designed especially for mobile gaming, but the Zenfone range is also available , now in its seventh generation.

A range that at its best offers the new ASUS Zenfone 7 Pro , a device costing € 799 and that today we want to take back in our hands for a focus on the cameras . The Zenfone 7 Pro is truly one of a kind when it comes to cameras, thanks to oneFlip Camera able to rotate , so as to have the three main cameras also for self-portraits. Those who love selfies therefore will not have to make any compromises, but how do the three cameras installed on board the Zenfone 7 Pro take? Let's go find out.

A double-sided camera

Let's start from the main wide-angle sensor: a Sony IMX686 from 64 MP , with pixels from 0.8 µm and a size of 1 / 1.73 ". A fairly common sensor on the current market, present on many devices, including the ASUS ROG Phone 3 which we recently analyzed . In this case, however, the manufacturer has customized it with an F1.8 aperture, 16MP Quad Bayer technology , a 26.6mm focal length lens (35mm equivalent) and optical stabilization 4-axis .

This main camera is flanked by an ultra wide-angle camera with 12MP Sony IMX363 image sensor, with pixels from 1.4 µm and a size equal to 1 / 2.55 ", equivalent to a focal length of 14.3 mm and capable of correcting distortions in real time . We close the package with a telephoto lens equivalent to 80 mm, stabilized on 4 axes and capable of an 8 MP 3x optical zoom, which in digital can become 12x.

As you can imagine, ASUS has certainly not spared on the various support software modes such as Night Mode, Portrait, Auto Panorama and support RAW files for up to 32 seconds of extended exposure thanks to manual controls Before actually going to analyze the shots we collected with the Zenfone 7 Pro, let's take a look at the stock camera app.

64 MP between choices and compromises

As a tradition, we have to deal with a complete application rich in options, from the possibility of getting help from the AI for the recognition of the scenes to the collaboration with Google for the search of the framed objects ( Google Lens ). Among the settings we can choose the format of our photo, the ASUS watermark, the automatic detection of night scenes and much more, even going through the adjustment of the yellow light in the shots.

The only real drawback of the offer is perhaps represented by the choice of resolution, unfortunately common to many devices of the latest release: taking advantage of the actual 64 MP of the main sensor means giving up the other two support cameras .

So if we want the highest quality we have to stick with the main camera, and then manually change the resolution to make the other focal lengths visible too, which tires very quickly and makes us forget about 64 MP - when an option that could change would have been enough automatically the highest possible resolution. Sin. But now it's finally time to shoot.

Artificial intelligence

Shooting in optimal lighting conditions, with bright sun and blue skies, is simple and fun. The phone, also helped by the AI, recognizes the clear sky and shoots with the best possible settings, even if you have to pay attention to the clouds (which sometimes risk being a little muddy, as we had also seen on the ROG Phone 3 ) and to illuminated portions. particularly "on" - for example the reflections on the Generali Tower are a little burnt but it is in the order of things, difficult to obtain different results with a smartphone.

We want to add that the photos were taken with Auto HDR, which works very well in most situations. At the level of general lighting management, all three cameras work in a similar way, as you can see with the shots taken with the 80mm telephoto lens.

While ASUS has focused mainly on the 26.6mm camera, it must be said that the ultra wide angle works very well, with vivid colors and acceptable distortion, corrected behind the scenes by the software. Perhaps its viewing angle is not "extreme" as on other competing terminals but the balance of performance makes ASUS's choice understandable and acceptable.

Good results even at night, with the camera app taking several seconds to get the best possible shots, all we have to do is hold the device as still as possible and wait.

The main camera is also able to do good "macro", focusing on a close subject and blurring the background naturally - a function that will come in handy especially if you love to photograph food, with well-made and not at all artificial bokeh. since the effect is entirely optical due to the focus.

Outdoors and at night, the new ASUS Zenfone 7 Pro performs as you would expect, but how are things indoors? Even in this case few problems, with the cameras able to handle every situation quite well, maintaining an acceptable dynamic range and without debasing the colors too much.

We also brought the new Zenfone 7 Pro to our Milan studio on the days when we were having fun with Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit , in a corner lit in a not particularly effective way but with the phone capable of taking well-made photos.

Speaking of colors, the phone tends to naturally enhance the blue and green in some situations, as in the photo of the Biblioteca degli Alberi with the Unicredit Tower in the background, while everything is more balanced when the sun is also present, as in the photo of the gallery of Piazza Duomo.

It is not really a mistake, it is the software that naturally opts for a colder color temperature in certain situations, let's say that if you want you can also intervene in post-production later to change the situation slightly.

Shooting in RAW this operation is even more effective and marked in Lightroom Mobile , but remember that in this way you are going to lose all the potential of the software such as Automatic HDR and other "behind the scenes" processing, which is why it has been '(since the arrival of computational photography in the mobile environment) that we tend to advise against this shooting mode.

Looking at the shots of the gallery just above, we notice how even at dusk, with the sky completely cloudy, the phone behaves in an excellent way, making both the shadows and the lights of the buildings clearly legible. We have already underlined how the main camera is able to create an excellent natural blur when we are shooting close-up pictures, while in the photo at Porta Garibaldi it is good to note the flawless behavior of the HDR - which in this case was also more effective than other more famous and expensive competing phones.

We close by making a final applause to the 80mm lens, a truly effective 3x optical zoom outdoors , as you can see in the shots of Piazza Gae Aulenti and the "spire" of the Unicredit Tower.

 

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