Asus ZenFone 2 Laser ZE551KL (Unlocked)

The original ZenFone 2 from Asus is an affordable, Intel-powered smartphone that offers a ton of power for the price. The new Asus ZenFone 2 Laser has a lot in common with its predecessor, save for a bit less power, the addition of a laser-assisted autofocus system in the camera, and an even lower price—$199 (for the 16GB model). With its potent combination of performance and price, the unlocked Laser presents stiff competition to the affordable Moto G and Alcatel OneTouch Idol 3.

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Design and Battery Life
At a glance, the ZenFone 2 Laser looks nearly identical to the ZenFone 2, with the same faux-brushed metal back, the same 5.5-inch display, and the same button layout, including a rear-facing Volume button. It measures 6.0 by 3.0 by 0.4 inches (HWD) and weighs 6 ounces. The OneTouch Idol 3 5.5 is thinner (6.0 by 3.0 by 0.3 inches) and lighter (5.0 ounces), with a sleeker, classier look.

There's a removable back cover, which provides you access to the dual SIM slots, the microSD card slot (which accepts cards up to 128GB), and the 3,000mAh removable battery. Many budget phones have at least one of these—both the Idol 3 and the Moto G have microSD slots, for instance—but it's rare to see a phone with all three.

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The Laser's 5.5-inch, 1,920-by-1,080 in-plane switching LCD isn't common on phones at this price level (the Idol 3 costs $50 more for the display). With a dense 401 pixels per inch, everything looks sharp and crisp. Unfortunately, the screen is rather dim. This only becomes an issue outdoors, where it can be difficult to see in bright sunlight, but you should be fine most of the time.

Battery life on the Laser is stellar. We clocked 7 hours, 21 minutes in our rundown test where we stream full-screen video over LTE at maximum brightness. This is a lot better than the Idol 3 (4 hours, 12 minutes), and a decent improvement over the Moto G (6 hours, 32 minutes). You should have no trouble getting a full day's worth of use out of the Laser. And the battery is removable, so you can always carry a spare.

Network Performance
The ZenFone 2 Laser is unlocked, and supports 2G, 3G, and 4G LTE GSM networks. It is also capable of Cat 4 LTE, with support for bands 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/17/20, so it will work on AT&T and T-Mobile's networks in the U.S., with Canadian and European roaming. Note that it is missing T-Mobile's band 12, which will limit coverage outside of urban areas. I tested the phone in midtown Manhattan on AT&T. Network connectivity was reliable and reasonably speedy everywhere I went.

Earpiece volume and noise are and suitable for making voice calls in a noisy environment. Speakerphone quality, on the other hand, is tinny and muffled. 

The phone doesn't support dual-band Wi-Fi or NFC. This is common among budget  though both are present in the Idol 3. The lack of NFC doesn't matter much, but having access to the 5GHz band would almost certainly improve Wi-Fi performance.

Processor and Camera
Despite a midrange Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor, the Laser offers pretty solid performance. It scored 37,783 on the AnTuTu benchmark, beating out the Idol 3 (28,990), which shares the same chipset. Naturally, higher-end devices like the Nexus 5X (51,880) and the Moto X Pure Edition (49,257) blow the Laser out of the water in terms of benchmarks. But they're also far more expensive, so you get what you pay for.

The 3GB of RAM here is more than enough for general multitasking, and an improvement on the Idol 3's 2GB. Gaming performance is comparable between the two devices. The Laser's Adreno 405 GPU had no trouble humming along while playing graphics-intensive games like Asphalt 8 and GTA: San and graphics looked crisp and well-rendered.

The 13-megapixel camera is solid. It definitely benefits from its namesake laser autofocus, which allows it to focus quickly and reliably, even in low-light settings. Compared with the Idol 3, pictures taken with the Laser are clearer and more detailed, and video is more stable. The only area the Idol 3 5.5 has an advantage is in low-light shooting, thanks to better noise reduction.

The 5-megapixel front-facing camera isn't bad though the phone has a Beautification mode turned on by default, which over-processes selfies. You should turn it off for images.    

See How We Test Cell Phones  

Software and Conclusions
The Laser runs Android 5.0.2 Lollipop, but Asus has made some pretty extensive changes to the UI. There are many modifications to the settings menu, and some of the features seem a bit dubious. For instance, the task killer app Clean Master comes preinstalled, as well the UI-integrated Power & Boost, neither of which are actually all that useful. There's also a lot of bloatware. The phone I tested came with a nearly 7GB software load. The third-party apps can be uninstalled, but you're stuck with all of the Asus-specific apps.

The ZenFone 2 Laser offers more bang for your buck than many unlocked budget phones, with an attractive combination of solid performance, camera quality, and battery life. It's a solid alternative to the Moto G if you're looking for a dual-SIM device, though the Moto G has a brighter display and a much cleaner Android software build with far less bloatware. If the 5-inch Moto G is too small, the Laser's main competition is the Alcatel One Touch Idol 3. Once again, the Idol 3 has a lighter Android skin and a brighter display, while the Laser has longer battery life and better call quality. All three are solid phones, so it really comes down to which one best meets your needs.