The Asus ZenFone 3 Deluxe is a big phone, but not in a bad way. Asus’s latest flagship phone manages to pack a large 5.7″ display into a svelte .3″ aluminum unibody design with diamond cut edges that weighs just six ounces. When you hold it, it feels too light to be that big, and we like that a lot. On the other hand, its 1080p 386 ppi AMOLED display is below average when compared to other smartphones of its size, but it’s still a solid display with vibrant colors and bright visuals. A one-handed mode built into the UI makes it easier to navigate the large display.

The 23 MP camera on the ZenFone 3 Deluxe packs in features like laser autofocus and optical image stabilization. Unfortunately, photos are mediocre. Photos taken outdoors in adequate light came out fine, but low-light photos and photos taken indoors struggled with blurriness. The camera is also slower than average when it comes to snapping photos. Fortunately, the camera does offer a lot of manual controls, so you can easily adjust white balance, ISO, shutter speed, and lighting modes, which can all help you put together a better photo with some effort and tweaking.

Software-wise, the phone runs Android 6.0.1 with the Zen UI overlay, which we’re not big fans of. It’s clunky and adds 11 unremovable apps to the system, which can only be disabled. That said, some Zen UI additions are more useful than others. For example, it’s possible to change your theme, icons and wallpaper, which we do find pretty fun. But, system apps like the mobile manager app can be irritating. That app nominally helps manage apps and save power, but we found it to be a pest because it frequently popped up on us.

Fortunately, the ZenFone 3 Deluxe screams performance thanks to a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset and 6 GB of RAM. The phone earned a Geekbench multi-core score of 3793 and a score of 137611 in AnTuTu.

The 3,000 mAh battery inside the ZenFone 3 Deluxe is pretty average. We got about seven to eight hours on the ZenFone 3 Deluxe with moderate use, which should get you through most of the day. The phone also has Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 for fast charging. When it comes to making calls, call quality is OK. Volume is adequately loud, but voices often sounded crackly.

Read on for the verdict…