As the name suggests, the Max comes with a massive 5,000mAh battery
ASUS launched the new Zenfone Max at a price of Rs 9,999, this is the successor of its previous Max version with better specifications. Let’s check if the smartphone is really a good successor and worth a buy or not.
Build and Design
The ASUS Zenfone Max comes with the same candybar design like its predecessor with the curved back panel. The furnished back side helps in holding it in a better way, despite its big body. The device is a bit bulky as we are getting a bigger battery. Its size also makes it a bit uncomfortable to hold and use with a single hand.
The rear panel comes with the ASUS logo towards the middle, Zenfone scripted at the lower-side above the speaker. The rear camera is at the top along with the dual flash and the sensors. The back side can be popped out, it contains a 5,000mAh non-removable battery and a pair of micro-SIM slots with microSD card slot.
The front panel camera and sensors at the top of the display, the capacitive buttons are at the bottom. The bezels are thick and make the device body bigger. The power and volume rocker keys are at the right edge, along with the 3.5-mm audio jack at the top and microUSB at the bottom edge.
Display
The ASUS Zenfone Max offers a 5.5-inch Full HD IPS display with 1,280 x 720 pixels resolution. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The display of the smartphone is really impressive as it has good colour reproduction, and remains vibrant and sharp. The display can be seen under direct sunlight as well.
Hardware and Software
The ASUS Zenfone Max is coupled with 64-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor clocked at 1.5GHz with 2GB of RAM and Adreno 405 GPU. The processor is the main upgrade from its predecessor. You can also purchase a more powerful version of the phone with 3GB of RAM. It comes with 32GB of inbuilt memory and a 64GB expandable storage. Out of 32GB users gets 24GB of free space to use. The specs are good and comparable to the device of similar price range.
The smartphone performs very well in multitasking, touch and running apps. Although the apps take up a lot of memory, you’ll not feel any difference in performance. Plus, you can optimise the RAM memory with a single click.
The gaming performance of the smartphone is really impressive, all the games like Modern Combat 5, Asphalt and Dead Trigger 2 runs smoothly. You can even run these apps simultaneously and they don’t lag. The heating issue is very minimal on the device, and only noticeable while charging and after a continuous gaming session.
The benchmark performance of the Asus Zenfone Max is impressive and better than the predecessor. It scores 41718 and 27418 in AnTuTu and Quadrant Standard.
Regarding the sound and video quality, the smartphone also performs pretty well. It has a good bass and clarity.
The smartphone is running on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with Zen UI on the top of it. ASUS gives user complete customization settings, users can do any changes to the screen, theme, icons almost everything. The thing in which ASUS lags is the Bloatware, as the phone comes with a lot of it like Asus Mobile Manager, Mini Movie, My Asus, Zen Talk and many more.
Camera
The rear camera is of 13-megapixel and supports features like PDAF, Auto Focus, Panorama, HDR and Dual-LED flash. The camera captures really good images, they contain a good amount of details. Images taken lack saturation but they are sharp and vivid. The LED flash helps a lot to take images at low light mode, however the images taken at night are not up to the mark and could have been better.
The front camera is of 5-meagpixel and captures good selfies. Selfies are not artificial like some of the camera makes them.
The camera app of the Zenfone is amazing, it contains a lot of customization factors for the users. Separate modes for the different modes and time. It also has creative modes to modify the images.
Battery and Connectivity
The ASUS Zenfone Max is backed by a massive 5,000mAh of battery and promises users a full two-day battery backup with moderate usage. The good thing is that the device lives up to the claim. While using it as my primary smartphone, I was able to run it for complete two days and half day with a full charge. This factor really impressed me a lot. Simple users will be able to run it for almost three to four days with a single charge.
It is a Dual-SIM smartphone with 4G LTE connectivity on both, however you can run 4G on only one slot at a time. Both the micro SIM is accepted on both slots. The calling facility of the smartphone is pretty good. However, I faced some call drop and connectivity issues in it.
Gizmo Verdict
At a price tag of Rs 9,999 for 2GB version and Rs 12,999 for 3GB variant, the smartphone is good in terms of battery and performance, but it’s not the best in this price range. There are far better smartphones available in its segment. However, if the battery power is what you’re looking for along with decent specs, then the ASUS ZenFone Max is your best bet.
