Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom Receiving Android 7.1.1 Nougat Update, Removes Bloatware

The Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom was unveiled in January, but was made available only in May. The company delayed the availability by months in order to upgrade its specifications. However, when it finally was made available, the price tag was reduced instead of a specification upgrade. One of the biggest pain points on the specifications sheet was the dated Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, and users were not happy with that offering, as Android O was already in developer preview mode by then. To rectify this, Asus has now rolled out Android 7.1.1 Nougat update for all Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom users, with tweaks to the ZenUI as well as removal of all third-party apps.

The rollout has been confirmed on the ZenTalk forum, where Asus claims to have pushed out ZenUI version 20.31.49.2. The changelog notes that this software update upgrades the smartphone to Android Nougat. It also introduces Portrait mode on the Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom, and brings improved pixture taking experience as well. Lastly, the update also introduces bug fixes and performance improvements.

Android Police has a more detailed changelog though, and along with the above mentioned changes, the update also brings RAW file capture support. Google Now and Google Assistant have also been built into ZenUI launcher now, and the update has disabled unnecessary features like mobile manager, auto-start manager, and 'Splendid' notifications. One of the biggest change is the removal of all third-party apps reducing bloatware to a large extent. Earlier, the quick settings icon was not customisable and had pre-selected options, but with this update, the top row is now customisable to your preference. The report claims that the update size is about 1.1GB.

The Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom is priced in the US at $329 (roughly Rs. 21,300) and is available via online retailers in the country as well as the official US site. Moving on to the specifications, ZenFone 3 Zoom sports a 5.5-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) AMOLED display and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 SoC. The smartphone comes with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of inbuilt storage. The connectivity options on the smartphone include 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and NFC.

The Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom, the smartphone comes with a dual rear camera setup, with one 12-megapixel rear camera with Sony IMX362 sensor and an f/1.7 aperture, and the other 12-megapixel rear camera featuring 2.3x optical zoom. The primary camera setup features a 25mm wide-angle main lens as well. At front, the smartphone sports a 13-megapixel camera with a Sony IMX214 sensor, an f/2.0 aperture, and a screen flash feature.