Trusted Reviews is supported by its audience. If you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a commission. Learn more.

Asus Zenfone 6 Review - Screen Review

Asus Zenfone 6 – Screen

However, let’s move onto what the Zenfone 6 is all about, the great big screen. It’s a 6-inch display, a middle ground between top-end phones like the Samsung Galaxy S5 and small tablets like the Nexus 7.

For some it’ll be the perfect compromise. You can still fit in your pocket (just about), but it’s also large enough to work as a decent little miniature TV/tablet.Asus Zenfone 6 21

The is an issue, though. Resolution is just 720p, and for a phone of the Zenfone 6’s stature, that’s not a great deal.

The display looks a good deal softer than it would with a 1080p panel. It’s quite noticeable compared to something like the LG G2. There’s no ‘Retina’ level sharpness here, so be aware if that’s going to be a deal-breaker.

The clarity is still decent – 1,280 x 720 pixels at six inches gets you 245ppi – but it really does feel like things have moved on, even at this price.

Asus Zenfone 6 29
The Zenfone 6 screen is not obviously pixellated, but it is a bit soft

However, after using the phone for a week or so, we found that the actual results are still pretty good. As you tend to hold the phone a little further from your face, in normal use you’re not confronted by the lower-res display in a truly distracting way.

And sometimes having a bigger screen is better than having a smaller, sharper one. For example, to use as a little screen while you’re at the gym the Zenfone 6 is great. It’s also arguably superior for watching films on during a work commute than a 1080p 5-inch screen: although that’s open to debate.

Actual screen quality aside from pure sharpness is very good, if predictably not quite on the level of the top-end phones.
Asus Zenfone 6 19

The Asus Zenfone 6 uses an IPS panel, the kind used in most high-end phones. It offers good, mostly natural-looking colour and good viewing angles. These are just as important boxes to tick as the resolution one, and Asus also offers some customisation over the tone of the screen through Asus Splendid.

This app lets you alter the temperature and saturation of the screen. We reduced saturation a tad from the  out-of-box settings for a more natural look, but the slider’s there if you like your colours a little more intense than natural too.

Where the Asus Zenfone 6 reveals it doesn’t quite have a screen to match, say, the Xperia Z3, is with its slightly worse black level and a very slight colour tint when viewed from an angle. These are minor issues, though, and the people bothered by them are likely to also be turned off by the resolution.

The Zenfone 6 is in a tricky spot. There aren’t many high-profile 6-inch Android phones and last year’s ones like the Sony Xperia T2 Ultra have already slipped off shelves. We ended up pretty happy with the Zenfone 6’s screen, but it’s noticeably worse than some 5-inch alternatives that don’t cost much more – we’re talking about the Nexus 5 and LG G2. So make sure you need that extra inch.        

We test every mobile phone we review thoroughly. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly and we use the phone as our main device over the review period. We’ll always tell you what we find and we never, ever, accept money to review a product.

Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.

Used as our main phone for the review period

Reviewed using respected industry benchmarks and real world testing

Always has a SIM card installed

Tested with phone calls, games and popular apps

Why trust our journalism?

Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.

Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.

author icon

Editorial independence

Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.

author icon

Professional conduct

We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.

Trusted Reviews Logo

Sign up and get the best deals straight to your phone

Skip the hunt - get the latest discounts delivered directly to WhatsApp by signing up to the Trusted deals Whatsapp Channel.

Get Access