While most smartphone makers — especially those from China — have flooded the Indian market with devices in the Rs 10,000-Rs 15,000 price range, Taiwan-based technology major ASUS believes there is still room in the country for luxury with superior performance and design.

ASUS launched its popular ZenFone Series in a brand new avatar in India in August, with ZenFone 3, ZenFone 3 Deluxe, ZenFone 3 Ultra and ZenFone 3 Laser smartphones.

ZenFone 3 (5.2-inch) is priced at Rs 21,999, ZenFone 3 Deluxe and ZenFone 3 Ultra at Rs 49,999 and ZenFone 3 Laser starts at Rs 18,999.

A direct take on OnePlus 3 (Rs 27,999), Xiaomi’s Mi5 (Rs 24,999) and LeEco’s LeMax 2 variant (6GB RAM and 64GB) which comes for Rs 29,999, let us see what the Rs 27,999 ZenFone 3 (5.5-inch) device has for the Indian consumers looking for luxury with super performance.

A premium flagship device, the shimmer gold-coloured smartphone fits in your palm effortlessly. Its signature ‘Zen design’ at the rear will grab eyeballs.

The device sports a 5.5-inch touchscreen display with a 1080 X 1920 pixel resolution. Powered by an octa-core updated Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor, ZenFone 3 comes with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage that can be expanded up to 128GB via a microSD card.

The device is just perfect for heavy gaming, movie viewing and multi-tasking without heating issues. The audio was superb while running Full-HD and 4K videos. The speaker is loud enough to hear someone out in a crowd or in traffic.

When it comes to the camera, Asus ZenFone 3 has 16MP primary camera on the rear and 8-megapixel front camera for selfies which worked excellent in both low and bright-light conditions. We did capture some balanced shots with the device.

What left us spellbound was the display that uses the ‘Deep Trench Isolation’ technique for natural-looking images and sharp texts.

On the software part, the duel-SIM device has the ASUS patented ZenUI 3.0 and runs the Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system.

The 3,000 mAh battery comes with ‘Quick Charge’ technology for faster charging. The battery gave us nearly 11-12 hours on one change with moderate usage like being on Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter and streaming music. Impressive battery life, indeed.

Weighing just 155 grams, ZenFone 3 accepts Micro-SIM and Nano-SIM connectivity options, like Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, FM radio, 3G and 4G/LTE. Network connectivity with even low-powered Wi-Fi was particularly good.

The device comes packed with features like excellent fingerprint scanner, proximity sensor, accelerometer and an ambient light sensor.

What does not work

We had a few issues while recording 4K videos like the device getting heated up a bit but this is generally the problem with most devices in this segment. A quick charging battery, however, helped us record videos with ease.

Conclusion: At Rs 27,999, Asus ZenFone 3 has brought in tough competition for OnePlus 3 which has received rave reviews in the Indian market. ZenFone 3, however, is your choice if you are looking for luxury, display and better performance — all packed in one.