Asus has entered the lucrative smartphone arena in India and has got the pricing of its devices bang on. Its mid-range devices have been targeted squarely at the Motorola offerings and Asus has equipped them well enough to take on the competition. The Zenfone 5 which has been launched in two guises, 8GB for Rs 9,999 and 16GB for Rs 13,999 has been launched to take on the Moto G head on. Let us take a comparative look at the two of them to find out which one fits the bill better.
Display and Processor
The Zenfone 5 comes with a 5 inch display with resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels and gets Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection on top of it. It has decent viewing angles and sunlight legibility and we don’t really have any complaints from it. Going up against it is the 4.5 inch unit of the Moto G which also has a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels and Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection on top of it. Out of the two, the Zenfone 5 makes slightly more sense if you want to go for a bigger display size. We found color reproduction and brightness to be better on Moto G.
The Moto G gets a 1.2 GHz quad core Snapdragon 400 processor which has been mated to a 1 GB RAM. The Zenfone 5 on the other hand gets a 1.6 GHz dual core Intel Atom Z2560 processor with Hyper-threading which makes the operating system believe it is a quad core unit. Both offer similar levels of performance but the application compatibility of the latter is slightly restricted.
Camera and Internal Storage
At the back of the Zenfone 5 is an 8MP camera coupled with a LED flash and the front is adorned by a 2 MP camera. The Moto G gets a 5MP at the back and a 1.3MP camera at the front. So the Moto G comes second to the Zenfone 5 in terms of the imaging hardware.
The internal storage capacity options of both the devices stand at 8 GB and 16 GB. But where the Zenfone 5 surges ahead is the expandable storage arena. It will come with a microSD card slot which will support memory cards of up to 64GB so it takes care of one of the biggest drawbacks of the Moto G pretty neatly.
Battery and Features
The Zenfone has a slightly better battery than the Moto G but it gets set off courtesy of a bigger screen. The Moto G has a 2,070 mAh battery and lasts more than a day with moderate usage. The Zenfone 5 also has a 2,110 mAh battery which will last roughly for about a day.
Moto G is running on stock Android 4.4.2 Kitkat with Android 4.4.4 Kitkat update on the cards. Moto G is also a strong contender for timely Android L update. Zenfone 5 on the other hand sports Android 4.3 Jelly bean and is expected to get Android 4.4.2 KitKat update in next few weeks. The Zen UI on top gives you a nice break from the regular stock Android and you get to use something new. But it is a matter of personal choice so we’ll call it a tie in this regard.
Key Specs
| Model | Zenfone 5 | Moto G |
| Display | 5 inch HD | 4.5 inch HD |
| Processor | 1.6 GHz dual core Intel Atom Z2560 | 1.2 GHz Quad Core Snapdragon 400 with Cortex A7 Cores |
| RAM | 2 GB | 1 GB |
| Internal Storage | 8GB/16 GB, Expandable | 8 GB/16 GB, Non-Expandable |
| OS | Android 4.3 Jelly Bean | Android 4.4 KitKat |
| Camera | 8 MP/ 2 MP | 5 MP/ 1.3 MP |
| Battery | 2,110 mAh | 2,050 mAh |
| Price | Rs 9,999/12,999 | Rs 12,499/ 13,999 |
Conclusion
The Zenfone 5’s pricing is right on the money and it takes care of all the things Moto G was falling short of. It gets a better camera, a bigger screen and the biggest benefit is the availability of expandable storage capacity. It costs less than the Moto G too to top it off and the only drawback is the processor with a slightly limited application compatibility. But overall, the 8GB Zenfone 5 for Rs 9,999 makes a lot more sense than the 16GB Moto G and is easily one of the better sub Rs 10,000 devices.
