Asus Brings a Powerhouse Phone To Consumer Hands : Zenfone Max 2016 Review

Taiwan based smartphone maker ASUS on Monday updated its ZEN smartphone portfolio with its newly launched ASUS Zenphone MAX. The smartphone offers a more powerful processor and comes in two memory variants with a 3GB RAM and a 2GB RAM priced at Rs 12,999 and Rs 9,999 respectively.The new ZenFone Max variants run Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow and has a built in memory of 32 GB.

Design and Built Quality

In terms of Design, this is a typical Asus zenfones Design, and the body fully made up with Plastic with metal effect bezel. On the front the phone has three physical touch capacitive buttons without backlit. On the right hand side we have typical volume rocker keys and Power wake up button, on the other side we have nothing. At the back is the removable panel, underneath the panel are the 5000 mAh capacity battery which is a non-removable battery. The back side we have nice textured matt finished back panel, which is help to hold in hand with good grip. The overall design and built quality is pretty decent, slightly slim, pretty stylish too and phone doesn't feel cheap.

                

Display Quality 

This device comes with 5.5 inch IPS 720p Half HD display with Corning Gorilla Glass 4 Protection. The display touch responsive is flawless and butter smooth. The color reproduction looks good and almost all viewing angles are pretty good. The outdoor visibility could be better otherwise decent display. The overall display is not sharp or crisp however decent made, but in my opinion display quality and Pixel Density could be better. 

                               

Processor and Battery

Asus Zenfone Max now comes with 1.5 Ghz octa-core Snapdragon 615 processor, which is an upgrade from the older version. Its just three days since its launch and nothing can be said in detail about the performance of the phone as of now, but as a first impression, after watching a couple of videos, the phone did not show any tendency to hang or shut. The smooth display made swiping between apps a lot more easy.

The biggest plus point of the phone is its powerful 5000 mAh battery. The smartphone easily gives a battery backup of 2 to 3 days, depending upon the usage. A power saver mode has been installed in the phone, (which is common feature in most high-end smartphones) to adjust processor performance, screen brightness and restricts access to features that use up more battery.  

Performance

The mobile engine comes with Snapdragon 615 chipset which is a Quad Core processor clocked at 1.5 GHz coupled with 2 GB RAM and Graphical Processing Unit is stronger than previous generation . It runs on Android v6  based on Asus ZenUI . The performance is smooth without any lags even game play also good, barely lags are noticed. 2 GB RAM able to handle high muli-tasking without stutter/lags. When playing high end games or continuous usages the back side are slightly warm but not uncomfortable. To considering this price point certainly Zenfone Max is a good performer, however, if you are a gamer planning to via Phone for playing Game this is not for your. It can play moderate games with good quality, but this phone not meant for very heavy gaming because there is not enough RAM and CPU power to push the heaviest of games.

Camera Quality 

Zenfone Max comes with 13 Mega Pixel Laser Auto Focus camera with Dual color tone LED flash[Which helps to capture natural images in Flash]. With the combination of laser auto-focus a and Pixel Master technology, the primary camera can capture decent images indoor lighting condition but in outdoor lighting condition images are over exposure. The 5 MP front facing camera capable of capturing good selfies with beautification and HDR modes. Although this device has combinations of laser auto focus and 13 sensor, it doesn't make great camera but it can capture decent images. 

Battery Life 

This handset comes with 5000 mAh capacity battery which is not user replaceable battery. With regular usage it should easily make it through a couple of days before having charger. But, without fast charging support the 5000 mAh battery needs 4 hours to fully charging. 

Asus Zenfone Max Specifications

Brand Asus

Model ID           ZC550KL

Price              INR.9,999

Network            GSM[2G]/HSPA[3G]/LTE[4G]

Body Weight        202 g

Body Dimensions    77.5 x 156 x 10.55 mm

Sim                Sim-Dual[4G+3G]

Type-              Micro(Dual Stand-by)

Display Type-      IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen with 16M colors

Size-              5.5 inches

Pixel Per Inch-    (~267 ppi)

Resolution-        720 x 1280 HD Display

Multitouch-        [Yes] Up to 10 Fingers

Protection         Gorilla Glass 4 -Yes

Dragontrail Glass  -No

Water Resistant    -No

Body Material      Plastic with non-metallic Frame

Operating System   OS-Android

Version-           v6

Mobile Engine Chipset-Qualcomm Snapdragon 615

CPU-Octa Core      1.5 GHz

Camera Primary Camera-13 MP AF with Dual tone LED flash

Laser Auto Focus-  Yes

Optical Image Stabilization-No

Features-          Geotagging,touch focus,facedetection,panorama,HDR

Primary Camera Video-1080p@30fps

Front Camera-      5 MP, f/2.0

Connectivity NFC   -No

Radio-             Yes

Blutooth-          [Yes] v4.1 A2DP, EDR

GPS-               Yes with A-GPS, GLONASS

WiFi-              802.1.1 b/g/n, Hotspot, WiFi Direct

USB-               Standard microUSB v2.0

Sensors Accelerometer-Yes

Proximity-         Yes

Compass-           Yes

Ambient Light-     Yes

Hall Sensor-       Yes

G-Sensor-          No

Finger Print-      No

Memory & RAM RAM-  2 GB LPDDR3

Internal Memory-   32GB[24.5 GB User Available]

Expandable Memory- [Yes] Up to 64 GB

Sound & Mic Loud Speakers-Single

3.5 mm headphone jack-Yes

Active Noise Cancellation Mic-Yes

Battery Type-      Lithium Polymer

Capacity-          5000 mAh

Reverse Charging-  Yes[via USB OTG]

User Replaceable-  No

Colors Black, White,blue,orange


We Recommend this device if you want a good battery backup and a decent camera in this price segment.

we give 9.4/10 score as it is a value for money device.