Did you miss this unique part of the ASUS ZenFone 7 launch? ASUS did not allow websites with review units to publish camera results in their early reviews. Smart move we say!
This has been something we’ve commented on in the past and it’s great to see ASUS has taken positive action. Can we toot our own horn on this one? Not to suggest we had anything to do with this but it’s an unusual request by a company and it’s something you don’t see others doing.
The dilemma is this. Who gets the early review units so that when the product is unveiled those reviews hit the web moments after the launch event? You guessed it. The titans of tech. The Engadgets of the word with their millions of readers get the early review units and those early impressions have a massive and prolonged impact on how a product is viewed.
We have followed enough ZenFone launches to know that the camera is the most tweaked aspect of the phones right after launch. There is plenty of optimization that takes place right at the front end of a ZenFone product launch. Of course these firmware roll-outs take place AFTER those early reviews get published onto the world wide web.
The madness of course is that photo and video samples hit those early reviews that millions of people see. The tweaks and improvements via firmware updates are forgotten about. The damage has already been done in a sense. It’s not like the big tech websites will go back and update their camera reviews after various firmware and optimizations that ASUS rolls out like clockwork.
So ASUS made the bold move. They made some stipulations this time around. As a number of early reviewers mentioned they would love to show some photo and video samples but ASUS asked them not to post any as the firmware on those review units was not fully optimized and tweaked.
We are a bit selfish on this subject because we depend on the ZenFone series doing well. We thought it rather unjust to know that such high traffic reviews may not be accurate and representative of the ZenFone capabilities. So we will simply say thank you to ASUS for listening! Give yourself a fair shake.
Oh, before we close this one out, uncle ASUS, do you think you could request reviewers disclose their software version(s) used for the basis of their review? Some minor complaints in reviews are sometimes whisked away with a new software update but readers would never know otherwise.
This would be good were it not for the fact that unfortunately several YouTube ‘tech expert’ channels, scrambling as they always do to be first, plus some sites, including the ironically named “Android Authority” have already described camera performance as “middling”, and I’ve seen people comment underneath “I was going to go for it – but after the camera results might go for Samsung instead”. I still have my Zenfone 6 Edition 30 for almost a year now and the camera has disappointed me only a handful of times in all of it’s use.
ASUS should be proactive and consider who doesn’t get early review units next time. Compliance is pretty key. If you get a review unit and there are stipulations, follow them or lose the privilege. Am I over simplifying this?
I wish they would be that pro-active. The problem is, when you have a YouTube channel with 3 million subscribers, a lot of clueless people will only hear the first review of the camera. And with all the videos and sites I’ve read there is NO caveat saying “oh but ASUS are probably going to issue an update for the camera”. This is just sloppy tech journalism as per usual.
But I’ve also seen a LOT of people listed as interested or pre-ordering the phones on sites which is great. Also I don’t know how you rate Alza but they have BOTH models hovering under the £800 mark.
https://www.alza.co.uk/asus-zenfone-7-pro-black-d6122969.htm