Review: ASUS LolliFlash

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With the selfie craze increasing day to day, smartphone manufacturers have been investing a lot of effort into enhancing the selfie experience, by coming up with a variety of features and accessories that help improvise your selfies. Asus, the Taiwanese tech-giant too has taken that route, by launching the LolliFlash, an external LED flash which enhances selfies in low light, at the Asus Zenfestival Global launch event recently. 

In the recent past too, we have seen manufacturers come up with similar devices such as the iblazr, an external LED flash. The Asus LolliFlash although offering a similar solution, differs from the iblazr in terms of functionality. While you can just plug the Asus LolliFlash into the audio port and expect it to work, the iblazr works through an app that needs to be installed on your phone.

According to Asus, the LolliFlash is an accessory that works primarily to make selfies look better in low light conditions, but in our review, we experimented it with the primary camera as well. Here's what we have to say about this accessory.

Design: (7/10)

Lolliflash_intro

The ASUS LolliFlash bears a simplistic design and weighs just about 8g. Its light weight is what makes it easy to record videos for hours on end without feeling any discomfort. In terms of design, the LolliFlash resembles a lollipop. The upper circular part hosts the dual-tone LEDs at the centre. These LEDs are placed in a concave crater on the front side of the accessory, which helps in minimising the scattering of light. There is a small indicator above the LEDs, slightly towards the left, which turns red when the LolliFlash is charging, and green when it reaches full charge. This entire circular part is covered with a plastic layer in order to protect it from accumulating dust. Additionally, with the box, you also get three different coloured filters (blue, pink and white) which can be attached to the circular part in order to give a different kind of tint to the images. For instance, you can attach a pink filter to get a pink tint effect in your images. At the bottom-left side is a Micro-USB slot for charging the LolliFlash, and a power button on the right side. At the back is the ASUS logo. The LolliFlash has a 3.5mm audio jack-like connector which is made entirely of plastic and is used only to mount this accessory onto your smartphone, and is in no way internally connected to it. All in all, the Asus LolliFlash bears a simple build and feels quite durable.

Performance: (7/10)
While the LolliFlash is just an accessory for your smartphone, we wondered whether it really fulfilled any purpose and if it was really worth carrying around. The LolliFlash produces some amount of extra light to make your selfies look better, especially in low light conditions. That said, the images captured were on the warmer side. To corroborate this, we captured images with the Sony Xperia Z2 (keeping the flash on) and the LolliFlash. The images captured were on the warmer side. But these can always be edited to reduce the temperature in order to get a much more natural look.

Lolliflash_ Performance

We did not witness any red-eye effect in the images, as the LolliFlash is a continuous light emitting source unlike the flashlight on smartphones. Additionally, shadows in low light images are also significantly low. You can also soften the light emitted by the LolliFlash by using the filters that come along with it. After having tried the three filters, we personally preferred the white one. It produced more detail and a clearer image as compared to the other two. Having said that, you can always use each of these filters for different effects.

Performance_1

Images captured at low brightness levels had a significant amount of noise in them. We recommend that you use this accessory at high brightness levels in order to get images with better clarity. When we used the LolliFlash with the primary camera, though, the images captured were pretty decent as the LolliFlash has a 70-degree beam angle. The major issue that we faced with this accessory was its placement on smartphones. For instance, when we used the LolliFlash with the Xperia Z2, our experience was hassle-free since the audio port is placed at the top on the Z2, however when we used it with the iPhone 5s, the images captured had deep shadows, as the audio port is located at the bottom on the iPhone 5s. In addition to that, the light emitted from the LolliFlash has a lot of glare in it, as a result of which, it may strain your eyes resulting in not-so-desirable selfies.

Performance_2

Battery:
ASUS claims that the LolliFlash can capture more than 3000 images in a single charge which lasts for up to three hours on low brightness levels. So, we tested the LolliFlash at high brightness level to capture a bunch of selfies. It lasted for 20 minutes, which according to us, was quite disappointing. The LolliFlash is more likely to last for two-odd hours if used in low and medium brightness levels. It has a 65mAh Li-Ion battery which takes up to one hour and 10 minutes to reach full charge.

Battery

Conclusion:
The ASUS LolliFlash is available in five different colours – black, blue, red, white and yellow. For selfie enthusiasts, the LolliFlash is quite a handy accessory to own. It helps in capturing images in low light that have decent details in them, especially when compared to the flash on smartphones. That said, it also has a few setbacks such as the warmer-than-regular images, and the high intensity of light.

Overall the simplistic design, ease of carrying the accessory, rechargeable battery, and the availability in catchy colours are what make the toy-like LolliFlash a decent purchase at a price of Rs. 899. Do keep in mind, though, that the whole point of this accessory is lost if one happens to break the audio jack-like connector because you will no longer be able to mount it on a smartphone anymore.

Final Score: 7/10

Pros:

  • Simple design
  • Lightweight and portability
  • Rechargeable battery
  • Can be used as a torch light

Cons:

  • Colour filters come off very easily
  • Extremely intense glare at high brightness levels
  • Awkward to use with smartphones that have an audio port located at the bottom