Asus 6Z, (Asus Zenfone 6 in global markets) comes with a motorized flip camera for offering a full-screen display having no notch or hole. The motorized flip camera gives a different kind of photography experience and makes it easier to capture panorama and a few other kinds of creative shots. The company also claims a lot about the camera. I recently started using this phone and tested the camera. Here is my camera review.
Asus 6Z camera specs
The phone has dual camera setup located on the flip module. This flip module can rotate the camera up to 180 degrees and you can stop it in between for getting creative angles. Here is the detail of camera hardware.
48MP main camera:
- ½ inch Sony IMX586 Exmore RS sensor
- 12MP with pixel binning to create 1.6 µm pixel size
- 26mm equivalent lens
- 79 degrees field of view
- Dual LED flash
- Laser autofocus
- f/1.8 aperture
13MP wide-angle camera:
- 125 degrees field of view
- 11mm equivalent lens
The phone has a flip camera setup, so rear camera module rotates to be the front camera. That is the reason Asus 6Z’s front camera is most powerful among all smartphones out there. You get a dual camera with 48 megapixels Sony IMX586 camera and a 13 megapixels wide-angle camera. It comes with RAW photo support, UHD4K video recording and LED flash to the front side even without having a notch or hole on the display.
The camera app is pretty impressive. It is quick and responsive. It has a carousel below the viewfinder for switching from one mode to another. Changing from one to another takes a bit of time. There is a standard/wide camera switch toggle just above the shutter button. That allows you to quickly switch from the primary camera to wide angle camera.
At the right side of the shutter button, there’s a toggle button for switching from rear camera to front camera. Tapping it will open the flip for the front camera. You can also tap and hold on the toggle button to open the slider for getting the camera flip to the desired position. You can also use volume rockers to control the camera flip.
The camera also has a Pro mode that lets you manually control the camera settings including focus, white balance, ISO and shutter speed. ISO ranges from 25-3200.
The most interesting part of the camera is PANO mode that lets you capture Panorama shots with almost no error. When you hold the camera horizontally to capture the Panorama, camera module automatically starts moving to capture Panorama. Tap on the shutter button to start and tap again to stop. If you don’t stop, the camera module travels to 180-degree to capture the Panorama.
Motion Tracking video mode is another interesting thing that you cannot find in any other smartphone camera. That has been made possible due to the rotating camera module. When you are into Motion tracking mode, lock the object by tapping on it. Now if the object moves horizontally, camera module auto rotates to keep the object on focus. That’s pretty interesting and works well. Watch the video review to see how this feature works.
Now lets talk about the camera performance.
Daylight
The camera of Asus 6Z performs well in daylight. It uses Daylight effectively and photos turn out to be good. It captures natural colors and proper details. There is no sign of over-saturation in any photo. The amount of detail it captures is surprising. I mostly use the camera to capture 12MP pixel-binned shots. If you zoom at photos, you will realize how well it captured the details even of the smaller object. 48 megapixels isn’t really designed to use for 48 megapixels shots but you can capture 48 megapixels shots if you want. I will still recommend you to use 12 megapixels shots for a better photo.
Wide angle camera is not as good due to the lower-spec sensor but that is also good enough. You can use it to capture a wider area while capturing landscape shots.
Portrait mode
The camera performs well in portrait mode. Edge detection is good in most of the photos creating realistic depth effect by blurring the background. I could find noticeable edge detection error in a few photos but that’s still fine. You also have an option to select the blur level by tapping on the aperture icon. It gives an option to select blur level virtually from f/0.95 to f22.
Low light
I captured several photos in the night using both photo mode and Night mode. The camera does a good job but doesn’t impress. Images come with a good amount of noise but preserve details. The performance also varies depending on the light conditions. When there is no light, flash tried to help but these also become the most disappointing shots. Night mode tries to add more light to the image and reduces noise a bit. The wide-angle camera doesn’t impress in low light and you see a good amount of noise in shots and fewer details.
Selfie
It is the best selfie camera available in the market. The camera app uses a different processing mechanism to improve selfies. It captures natural skin tone and proper details. Portrait shots were also great with good edge detection.
You have a wide-angle camera, that lets you bring more people in your shot. But it also creates a long arm that may look weird.
Here are the video recording capabilities of Asus 6Z
- up to 4K UHD (3840 by 2160) video at 30 / 60fps for primary camera, at 30fps for secondary camera
- 3-axis electronic image stabilization
- Motion Tracking video (1080p FHD video at 60fps)
- 4K UHD Time Lapse video
- Slow Motion video (1080p at 240fps / 720p at 480fps)
- Capture a photo while recording video
Asus 6Z supports electronic stabilization and that works even with 4K at 60 fps. You can choose between the H.264 and H.265 codecs. Video quality is excellent and I prefer videos at 60 fps because 30 fps videos are more sharped. EIS does a good job and stabilizes videos whether you are walking or panning to offer stable videos. Colors are rendered accurately and dynamic range is also good. The ultra wide-angle camera can only record 4K30 footage and that is also good.
Asus 6Z is a good camera phone that works well in daylight and indoor conditions. Video recording also impresses. The ultra-wide smooth panorama shots and motion tracking videos are not available in any other phones. Taking unconventional shots are much easier because of its unique flip camera. Low light performance could have been better. Lack of OIS is also a downside. For selfies, this phone is one of the best. Vloggers may prefer this phone for awesome smooth 4K vlogs with fewer effort.
You have also seen the camera samples, so you are free to judge and make verdicts about the camera. If you have any question, you can leave a comment. Don’t forget to watch the video and subscribe to our channel.
