Welcome to the world of selfies and live video. Smartphone makers seem every bit keen to cash in on this self-indulgence on social media and otherwise, as is evident from the flurry of selfie-focused phones that are in the market. Asus has taken it a notch further with its Zenfone Live, launched in the country on May 24. The phone is made primarily for live streaming on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube, and comes with ‘BeautyLive’, the world’s first such feature for live ‘beautification’ of your face.

The review unit came with its own tripod stand and a pink mirror that would be at home in a make-up studio. The Zenfone Live (ZB501KL) is well designed and is a good looker.

I got the ‘Shimmer Gold’ variant and if you get beyond the fact that almost every phone in the market tries to ape the iPhone so much, you appreciate the Zenfone’s build. It’s all metal and glass with a 2.5D curved display and a 75 per cent screen to body ratio. The matte finish ensures that fingerprint smudges are kept to a minimum.

Beauty live Power up the handset, and Android 6.0 topped with the ZenUI brings the screen to life. Right on your home screen, you will spot the ‘BeautyLive’ icon. Tap on it, and a scale of zero to 10 shows up. Zero is for the way you look naturally, and as you go up, your skin gets lighter and blemish-free. You can choose your live-streaming app from BeautyLive itself, and the beautifying toggle stays on the bottom of your screen so you can adjust it as you like. But even if you choose your preferred app from BeautyLive, it just opens the app and you have to select the live-streaming feature there all over again. I went live on Instagram and the changes the beautification had on my skin were very evident; although, under bright light, it looked like I had an unpleasantly large amount of make-up applied.

Camera and other specs The phone has a 13MP rear ‘PixelMaster’ camera with f/2.0 aperture that clicked good quality images during the day and under well-lit conditions. However, under low light and at night, it let in some noise, despite the low light and night modes. The camera has modes such as a ‘Children’ mode, which automatically clicks when it detects a child’s face and a selfie mode to click selfies using the rear camera.

The 5MP front shooter is made for selfies, with the beautification mode (also available on the rear camera), letting you do all sorts of things like lightening your skin tone, making your eyes look bigger, and making your cheeks look thinner. (for real, all of these are actually options).

It’s powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon quad core processor with 2GB of RAM that lets you multitask fairly seamlessly. It comes with 16/32GB of internal memory expandable to 128GB. A 2,650mAh battery juices the Zenfone and I was able to squeeze a day’s worth quite easily. However, there is no fast charger in the box. The Zenfone supports dual SIM and 4G and VoLTE and has an impressive 1280x720 full HD display.

Asus looks like it has made this phone mainly for one intended customer base — the selfie and live video aficionados. If you’re one of them, give it a look.

Price: ₹9,999

Pros: Pretty looks, light weight, BeautyLive mode, easy live video streaming

Cons: Beautification under low light not too good, average camera

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