Asus Zenfone Lite L1 Review: At Rs 5,999 It's Cheap And It Knows It, And It Surely Shows It

Asus recently launched two new devices in India, the ZenFone Max M1, and Zenfone Lite L1. While both are very reasonably priced, the former is expected to be the "performance" module, while the latter goes for all out bang for buck. So here's what we've seen so far.

Images courtesy: Gwyn D'Mello

Easy to hold

Right off the bat, we can say the size of the ZenFone Lite will be lauded by many users. Thanks to the current smartphone trend of bigger is better, it's refreshing to see a device in a package easier to handle. This device features a 5.4-inch (1440 x 720) display in a 5.8-inch body. Bezels are thick all around, even on the chin even though there are no hard buttons, but that does make for easy reaching all corners of the device with even one hand. For many of you complaining of not being able to fit a new device properly into your pocket, this is a plus. A shame it's not a full HD display though.

Battery life you can ignore (mostly)

Because this phone hasn't been built as a flagship, it gives pretty stellar battery life. The 3000mAh battery is more than enough for a whole day's use on a single charge, even with regular app usage. Games will drain that faster than you like though, but we'll get there in a second.

The selfie camera is passable for someone not devoted to Instagram

Poor man's face unlock

The ZenFone Lite does strangely enough feature face unlock. Though it can be a little iffy in low light, taking a second to register, it's still a mode of convenience we didn't expect on a seriously budget device.

Buy this phone and have cash left over

Which brings me to my next point, the ZenFone Lite is a seriously cheap device. At just Rs 5,999, it's about the same price as a non-expensive suit, or perhaps an extravagant night out. What I'm saying is, if you're looking for just the essentials in a device that you don't break the bank on, this is a fairly good option. Unfortunately though, there are a few drawbacks here too.

Rear camera is decent for the price. Just don't zoom into photos

The drawbacks to reconsider

If you're using the ZenFone Lite L1, you're going to have to pick and choose your games carefully. There's not a lot of processing power to draw on here, it's a 1.4GHz octa-core Snapdragon 430 here with just 2GB of RAM. Average games will work just fine, but forget about demanding titles. PUBG does seem to work on the lowest settings, though the startup time is atrocious, and you'll still encounter stuttering off and on. Additionally there's only 16GB of internal memory, of which only about 8GB is available for app installs. So you're going to have to make space for your favourites apps and leave out all the rest.

Far too much bloatware

The lack of a fingerprint scanner here is a bit of a bummer, especially considering it does have face unlock. Not a deal breaker by any means of course. What might be though is the ridiculous amount of bloatware the device ships with, not all of which can even be uninstalled. Frankly, that's unacceptable.

The verdict

If you're looking for a barebones device, the Asus Zenfone Lite L1 is as good a choice as any. While the 5MP selfie camera is mostly just namesake, the 13MP shooter on the rear is decent enough for this price range. It's not going to give you photographer-quality output, but it works well enough. That combined with the low app space and processing power, (with decent battery life though) paints a clear picture. This may not be the device for a an office-goer under 40 or even 50, unless you REALLY want a small device. However, it's exactly the kind of easy-to-handle phone you might buy for an aged parent or as a starter phone for your kid. It's not a lot of money to waste if they eventually stop using it either, so it all works out.