SUPERPHONE - THE INCREDIBLE ZENFONE 5

I was just about to volley the ball past the Brazilian goalkeeper when I was shaken out of my dream by the sound of my new phone ringing. It was Sahil calling. I took the call and was greeted by a really shrill "You awake?".

"Whatever happened to good morning man?", I said, stifling a yawn and failing miserably.

"It's 6 am dude! Are you ready?" His voice suggested he was frantic rather than excited. The voice was loud and crystal clear. "We've got to leave in half an hour".

"Gimme about fifteen minutes", I said half-heartedly and disconnected the call. But I stuck to my word and was in front of his gate in fifteen minutes flat.

"That awas quick! Sheesh! Didn't you have a bath?"

"Took just 2 minutes", I shrugged, matter-of-factly, "I'm clean".

"Where's your camera?", he asked, yanking out his own gadget, just to show off I assumed.

"Nah. Won't be needing that".

"You kiddin me? We're going on a nature trail for heaven's sakes!" Sahil was visibly annoyed.

"I know", I retorted. "I have all I need right here in my pocket". Saying that I pulled out my brand new phone and flashed it right in his face.

"A phone?", he sniggered, following it up with a loud burst of laughter. "Some lazy buffoon you are. I'm the one who's gonna end up with all the best pictures today".

"We'll see", I said, my confidence not wavering a bit.

"New phone huh? Lemme see."

I placed it in his hand.

"What is this? Some kinda rock?"

I smiled. "You can say that".

"How much did you get it for? Twenty grand?"

"Less than that my friend."

"Then, my friend, you have a really cheap phone, and you can't expect a cheap phone to do much except save you some money."

"You're sadly mistaken Sahil. This, my friend, is a smartphone with super powers. It's my brand new ASUS ZENFONE 5. And it's a SUPERPHONE."

"Oh, I see", he replied nonchalantly. "And what are its features?"

"You'll know, in time."

We reached the spot where the forest began, in just under a hour. The weather was cloudy, but we were hoping it wouldn't rain, just for the sake of our gadgets. Sahil pulled out his 16 megapixel digicam and clicked a selfie of both of us together. The picture was good, but the screen was just about 4.5 inches long. I knew that what his camera could do well, my Zenfone 5 could do better. So I pulled out my phone and took a selfie in the same pose. The picture was better, with natural colours, in spite of the camera being only an 8 megapixel one. Plus, the screen being bigger at 5 inches, we could see the image better. The results shocked Sahil.

"PixelMaster technology", I answered him before he could pose a question. "The rear camera is loaded with 8 megapixel resolution, a Sony BSI sensor, a 5-element lens, and largan optics. The focus gets locked in no time. It can even take shots with shallow depth field. It also has software-based image stabilisation, by the way, which makes all pictures I click with this phone virtually blur-free."

"You just got a lucky click", he dismissed my explanation. I only smiled.

We walked ahead, slowly getting deeper into the forest. We were having a great time, putting our clicking skills to the test and indulging in healthy competition. Somewhere along the way though, where the tree cover was thicker, we encountered bad light.

"What happened? Not gonna put your Superphone to the test? Too dark eh?", he chided me.

"Why not?", I said, whipping out my phone and getting a dozen pictures clicked. The results were outstanding, and Sahil was left astounded.

"The low-light mode works really well dude. Does it work in absolute darkness as well?", Sahil was curious to know.

"Sure does. Even in absolute darkness, you'll get a fairly bright picture."

"What other modes does it have?"

Sensing that I was soon getting a non-believer on board, I went in for the kill, "It has a beautification mode, Panorama mode, an HDR mode, a time rewind mode, a smart remove mode, a smile detection mode, and my favourite, a GIF animator."

"A gif animator too?", he was excited, "that's so cool."

I nodded.

"Tell me more", he demanded.

"Well, it works on an Intel Z2560 Atom chipset, 1.6 GHz dual-core, and 2 GB RAM. The Atom chipset helps it run more than 10 applications at a time, smoothly. All this, without the phone heating up."

"Amazing."

Our trip was pretty long. After 5-6 hours in the forest, we headed back homewards in our jeep. We had many stopovers, sometimes for food, for tea, and also for pictures. By But along the way, Sahil's camera conked off, having run out of battery. My phone, however, was up and running.

"The battery is amazing too?", his jaw dropped.

"Yup, With a 2,110 mAh battery, you can keep the phone running for practically the whole day."

"Dude, this sure is a masterpiece." He was already floored.

"Nope", I interrupted him. "It's a SUPERPHONE".

To learn more about the ASUS ZENFONE 5, visit this link ==> ASUS ZENFONE 5