Take bokeh-fied portrait images with your ASUS ZenFone 3 Zoom now

ASUS is rolling out Android 7.1.1 Nougat to the ZenFone 3 Zoom today. Here’s everything that’s new with this update.

As with most Android 7.1.1 Nougat updates, you will get access to the whole suite of improvements that come with this newer version of the operating system. You get access to a multi-window split screen view by tapping your recents key once and dragging your desired window to the top of the screen. There’s also a quick switch feature that lets you swap between two recent applications by double tapping the recents key.

Android Nougat also lets you reply directly in the notifications tray so you don’t have to enter the app itself. Then, you’ve got a bunch of small improvements like a data saver, 72 new emojis, notification controls, and the ability to change the size of texts and icons.

Besides the goodies that come with Nougat, ASUS has also added some improvements into the phone’s camera app like RAW image support and a new Portrait mode. While RAW image support means you have more freedom when editing your images in post, Portrait mode lets you take bokeh-fied images easily.

Much like the iPhone 7 Plus, the ZenFone 3 Zoom uses its dual cameras to sense depth and recognise faces and objects. Once the subject has been identified, the software will selectively blur out the background to give your images DSLR-like bokeh effects.

We’ve given it a try on our own ZenFone 3 Zoom and found that it works best with faces. However, even then it’s a little hit or miss. What’s more, the bokeh effects look pretty digitised. One other interesting feature we found is that now users have the ability to add a watermark to their images by accessing the settings menu in the camera app (top left gear icon) and checking the “ASUS watermark” option.

You should be receiving an update automatically on your ZenFone 3 Zoom but in the event that you haven’t, you can perform a manual updates check. Just go into your phone’s settings, scroll to the bottom and find “System update” then in there hit on “Check update”.