Back to back Asus has introduced so many successful devices last year as well as this year and the top devices are Zenfone 2, Zenfone 2 Laser, Zenfone Selfie. With these smartphones Asus has also launched some devices for specific audience like Zenfone Zoom which is specific for those who want a good camera. And now Zenfone Max which we are going to review is another audience specific device and this is for those who really want a long lasting battery life. Well lets chekout this Zenfone Max aka Smartphone with inbuilt Powerbank Review.
Key Features of Asus Zenfone Max
- 5.5-inch HD display with Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection
- 1 GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon 410 processor
- Adreno 306 GPU
- 2GB RAM
- 16GB internal storage
- External memory up to 64GB with microSD
- Android 5.0 (Lollipop) with Zen UI 2.0
- 13MP rear camera with f/2.0 aperture, Laser Auto Focus, Real Tone flash
- 5MP front camera with f/2.0 aperture
- Dual SIM
- 4G LTE / 3G HSPA+, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS
- 5000mAh (non-removable) battery
Hardware & Build Quality
Starting from the back, Asus Zenfone Max looks feels very nice in hand due to its rubberized finish back cover which gives you a smooth feel while handling. The dimensions of this smartphone is 156 x 77.5 x 10.6 mm with 202 g body weight which is also good for handling. The display of this smartphone is 5.5-inch which is quite large.
At the bottom of this smartphone the mic and 3.5 mm USB port are placed. At the top of the device the Audio port is placed. Coming to the back there is a 13 MP camera with Laser Auto Focus and Real Tone flash. The Volume rocker buttons and the Power buttons are placed on the right side of the body. This is a good move from Asus as we find in so many Zenfone variants the volume rocker buttons are placed on the top. So when coming to the hardware the smartphone is solidly built and looks very premium.
Display
The Asus Zenfone Max has a 5.5-inch HD display with 69.0% screen-to-body ratio and 267 ppi pixel density. The display has an IPS capacitive touchscreen with 16M colors which is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 4. The color contrast, saturation, brightness levels are pretty good. But the screen is too glossy I will say. It is hard to use in sunlight sometimes and in bright light. The viewing angles are satisfactory. Unlike other Zenfones the this device also has auto brightness in the notification shutter and it works quite well.
Performance & Gaming
Asus Zenfone Max is powered by 1 GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon 410 processor along with Adreno 306 GPU and 2GB RAM. 2GB RAM ensures the performance of this smartphone. The phone runs quite well while multitasking. But some Apps are not responding well and buggy, even when we downloaded officially from Google Play.
We have tested some heavy games like Asphalt 8 Airbone, Modern Combat 5 as well as some simple games like Subway Surfers and Clash Royale but the gaming experience was very bad. Games were laggy and some games were not running at all. Overall gaming experience was bad.
Camera
The rear camera of Zenfone Max is 13MP with Real Tone flash, f/2.0 aperture and Laser Auto Focus. It produces very good pictures. Specially the App made by Pixelmaster offers so many options to select. The color depth is good enough but pictures are good in good lighting condition only. At indoor the camera doesn’t perform as expected. The pictures are grainy in low light. The video quality are also also average. The camera can record upto 1080p videos but if you do a lot of video recording then this is not a good to go device. But for casual recording it is okay.
The front-facing camera 5MP with f/2.0 aperture and 85-degree wide-angle lens performs pretty good in lighting condition. But again it is the issue in low light. The picture gets a bit grainy.
OS and Software
The Asus Zenfone Max is powered by Android 5.1 Lollipop with Zen UI 2.0 on the top of it. It is expected that Max will get Android Marshmallow 6.0 upgrade also. Zen UI is one of the heaviest UI and the phone has so many pre-installed softwares. The UI is pretty good though with so many customization options. The software and OS is mixed up well and runs smoothly.
Battery and Sound
Well you might have waited a lot for this feature only. Asus Zenfone Max is just awesome when it comes to the battery backup. It has a huge 5000mAh battery which runs like unlimited days. Well that was a joke though. With heavy usage you can easily get upto 2days of battery backup with average 10-12 hrs Screen on Time. There are some power management options though and using that you can optimize your battery performance.
The speakers are placed at the bottom of the back. The speakers are good enough while playing games and listening music. Obviously you can listen it while you are on the other room. The call quality is also good with no noisy sounds.
Final Verdict
So is Asus Zenfone a really good to smartphone? Well if you are looking for a huge battery smartphone it is a good to go phone but if you looking for other purposes then there are so many options available like Redmi Note 3 with 4000mAh battery and Gionee Marathon M4 with a 5000mAh battery.
The Asus Zenfone Max is available in Black and White variants from Flipkart at the price of Rs. 9999.
