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Asus has been a brand which has not been consistent with launching phones, on the other hand there are brands which announce new phones like every week or so. We don’t expect Asus to be like that but atleast 2-3 phones? In 2020 only the ROG Phone 3 is has been launched in India that too caters the gaming audience. Unfortunately the Zenfone 7 series couldn’t make its way in India. The reason could be that Asus couldn’t make the prices aggressive enough for the Indian market as internationally itself the lower variant i.e. Zenfone 7 costs $770 which translates to Rs. 57,000 (approx.) but Asus has been pretty well pricing it’s phones recently like the ROG Phone 2 and ROG Phone 3 which pack in so much. The custom UI i.e. ZenUI has been matured so much over the years.They could have pulled of a OnePlus move here by pricing it way cheaper then the international price.

But that doesn’t stop Asus’ custom skin UI to land in India i.e. ZenUI 7. This new iteration of ZenUI debuted with the ROG Phone 3 couple of months back and ZenUI 6 already being so minimal and simple, ZenUI 7 refines things and adds some features here and there. Asus finally decided to get rid of it’s cartoonish UI in 2019 with the launch of ZenUI 6 on Zenfone 6 aka Asus 6z which marked a stock Android approach. It got rid of tones and tones of bloat back then which the changelog for Zenfone 5z’s Android 10 update speaks for itself. I have been personally using ZenUI 6 for over a year now and boy it is just a breeze to use this UI. It has everything you need and nothing you don’t (I know I stole Poco’s tagline). Even after 2 years of using the Zenfone 5z it still performs every task in a jiffy. That’s also thanks to Asus’ optimisation of software that even without this stock Android approach the performance and day to day usage would have been quiet similar.

ZenUI 7: Refinements on what’s already good

ZenUI 7 will roll out to the Zenfone 6 and ROG Phone 2 and we can expect the roll-out for the Zenfone 6 as early as November end or slightly earlier then that. Both the Zenfone 6 and Zenfone 7 have now received couple of betas of Android 11 already and though ZenUI 7 is based on Android 10 as both Zenfone 7 and ROG Phone 3 have Android 10 out of the box, it’ll arrive to 2019 Asus phones with the Android 11 update. Now this makes me wonder that even the Zenfone 5z is running Android 10 and is clearly capable of ZenUI 7 if not Android 11. The 2 major Android updates have been provided so there’s highly slim chances of Android 11 for that phone but nonetheless ZenUI 7 can still be provided if Asus wishes to. Only time will tell what’s more in store for the Zenfone 5z. Let’s hope for the best for ZenUI 7 for Asus 5z.

Here are some of the new features in ZenUI 7 and what’s changed from ZenUI 6 along with that a mini review of the features.

1. Slight UI changes to stock ZenUI apps

The functions and features in stock ZenUI apps haven’t changed much but a slight layout shift has been done. This change now more complies with the stock Android or Google Pixel apps i.e. the settings menu of stock apps is now no longer extremely left aligned but rather a slight shift towards the right.

This is a glimpse of how the stock ZenUI 7 apps look like. This is just the Game Genie (ZenUI’s gaming mode) settings but major apps have been revamped to go by this layout. Personally I liked this changes as it freshen things a bit.

2. New Battery Management/Care Features

Asus and Apple were one of the first OEMs which implemented measures to maintain the longevity of the battery. As you might know batteries degrade over time and more the charging cycles it goes through, the faster it degrades especially with the fast charging solutions these days. In order to prevent that Asus and Apple introduced a charging feature which will initially fast charge the phone then at 70% or 80% the charging speeds would fall drastically and reach 100% according to the pre-defined time (in Asus’ case) or it may also learn the charging routines and accordingly reach 100% when the charger is usually unplugged (in Apple’s case). Asus has added new ZenUI 7 features in the charging/battery department.

This techniques of preserving the battery’s longevity is now also being implemented by OnePlus and other OEMs. In ZenUI 7 Asus takes it’s Battery Care feature (Asus’ battery management) even further in which you can limit charging the battery till 80% or 90% and 100% which is naturally the limit of charging a battery.

Asus took a page from Samsung and LG’s book and went ahead and gave the slow charging option which means it’ll make no use of the quick or fast charging whatsoever. This is a great option to preserve life of the battery especially if you plug in the charger whole night.

ZenUI 6 only had the scheduled charging feature in which the phone will charge till 100% only when required according to the start and end time set beforehand. This changed with ZenUI 7 as two new functions have now been provided.

3. Game Genie from ROG Phone

In my opinion, Game Genie is the best gaming mode manager out there just because its so easy to fire it up. Just swipe from the edges where the navigation bar resides and in corner the game genie welcomes you. Meanwhile in other OEM skins you’ll have to access it from the notification shade and good luck finding the gaming mode when you have tons of notifications. It’s just a hassle! This has become even better with ZenUI 7 where Asus decided to port the exact Game Genie from its ROG Phone lineup to the Zenfones. The Zenfone 7 comes out of the box with this Game Genie while Zenfone 6 will receive it whenever the ZenUI 7 aka Android 11 update lands.

As you can see from the comparison image, tons and tons of features and functionality has been provided in the new iteration of ZenUI. My personal favorite Among Us (these) is the real time info in which an overlay element displays the phone’s temperature, battery percentage and real time FPS meter all in real time. It means no need external FPS measuring apps.

Also read ZenUI 6: A Whole New Level of Freshness for complete in depth changes found in ZenUI 6 from ZenUI 5

4. New Pixel like Customisation

Pixel phones like customisation includes the styling of status bar icons, icon shapes of both apps and notification shade icons and accent colours. This was an Android 10 feature atleast on the Pixel phones but will land on Asus phones 1 year later i.e. with the ZenUI 7 update on Zenfone 6 and ROG Phone 2 & 3.

5. Miscellaneous Changes in ZenUI 7

Some of the miscellaneous changes for ZenUI 7 for Zenfone 6 aka Asus 6z and Zenfone 7 are as follows :-

• Remap the smart key to any app – Initially when the Zenfone 6 was launched with ZenUI 6 on top of Android 10, it did provide customizing the smart key button to various functions like one tap for screenshot, double tap for flashlight etc. but what was missing was the ability to open any app. With ZenUI 7 this has been finally brought in and you can now remap it to any app.
• OneUI like notification shade – With ZenUI 6 being a one handed centric UI, ZenUI 7 takes it further with the option to set the notification shade reachable by one hand as all the icons/shortcuts are placed below as seen in Samsung’s OneUI.

The best part is that it’s only optional unlike other UIs in which this type of notification shade is default and no option to customise or change it.

• AI Ringtone renamed to Smart Ringtone – Since the early days of Android Oreo Asus bragged alot about it’s AI centric software with the launch of Asus 5z. But unfortunately only a few of them worked perfectly. It is removing the essence of the term “AI” from time to time like in ZenUI 6 it completely removed AI charging which never really worked and now with the ringtone.
• Dark Mode Schedule – This was ought to come as it’s an Android 11 feature. Google should have provided in Android 10 itself but it what it is.
• ZenUI Dialer and contacts – No UI change treatment has been provided to the ZenUI dialer and contacts app which means its still unsightly and looks like its an app from the Android Jellybean days.

The ZenUI 7 is a step towards more refinement. On the other hand only OnePlus’ Oxygen OS was an OEM Skin which was very alike stock Android but that has completely changed with Oxygen OS 11 in which there’s very little to no esseance of stock Android. This has now given Asus the opportunity to rise and show enthusiasts what they are capable of. Personally I prefer the UI which is simple and minimal but not even that simple like Pixel phones which do not have major features like long screenshots, screen recording (which only came with Android 11), app lock, call recording etc. Asus’ ZenUI provides all of that that too with a simple UI approach and I am sure many would also prefer that.