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The New Asus Zenfone Max - Review

The New Asus Zenfone Max Review

After The Asus Zenfone Max just being launched in January is a new take necessary on the device after just around 6 months have passed. Let's get into the phone that Asus sent us and check for ourselves.

Introduction To The New Asus ZenFone Max

This new model of the Zenfone Max is specially launched for India as per Asus, and will be only available in India. We were astonished when we received the phone it was on for more than 10 days and had a lot of battery left and with that Asus also guarantees 38 days of standby and up to 3 days of normal usage. So let's get into the full review of the New Asus Zenfone Max.

Design

The Design is the same as the previous Zenfone Max and that is not a bad thing as as the leather textured back gives it a premium feel and the side frill though made from plastic gives a look of being made from metal and all this makes the phone appear much more highly priced than it actually is.

Power Bank

The device also comes in bundled with a Usb OTG Cable. We know that the OTG Cable is for charging other devices via the battery of the Zenfone Max, which is a very nifty feature. So, what Asus says the New Zenfone Max has so much battery that it can even full charge another device.

There is a power bank mode in the New Zenfone Max where the Zenfone turns off and goes into charging mode where it provides a charge of 1.5 Amp. for other devices to charge off of it.

Accessories in Box

  • Charging and Data Syncing Cable
  • Charger
  • OTG Cable
  • User Manual
  • Warranty Card

Battery

The Battery of the Asus Zenfone Max was the main attraction of the previous generation of the Zenfone Max but now we feel that it has been much more fine tuned and compiled with the Asus Power Saver App we feel the battery is having a bit more punch than the previous generation with all the fine tuning done to the software.

We used it with heavy apps and consistently had the phone on work but it still gave us from 2 days of battery life. Though when used without putting too much pressure on the phone we easily got 5 days of battery life and before charging the device it still had some juice left in it.

The stock charger took from about 4.5 - 5 hours for charging the device from 0-100%, so just leave it on charge for the night. It also supports fast charging so, you can charge it with a fast charger and get better results.

So, basically the battery is unparalleled to in the market at the moment and a lot has been said about it, so if you are the type of the person who runs out of phone battery too soon this phone is for you.

Performance

The New Asus ZenFone Max is a great phone and consists of at least so much of power that even a power user can also do day-to-day functions very easily. The 2GB of RAM and the Snapdragon 615 SoC keeps the device running very smoothly. The interface runs flawlessly, and apps and games load and run without any trouble. We tested game performance with the game Injustice and oh my god it was such a smooth gameplay there was heavy battery drain, but with a 5,000 mAh battery it did not matter.

The device was put through benchmark tests, and results are listed below.

AnTuTu - 35,616

Quadrant - 23,965

We already knew with the battery so big what we were getting into but it still stunned us as the battery is very powerful as it gave us around 2 days worth of usage from 1 single charge that to with very heavy multi-tasking and game play. The Max also performed well in terms of call quality, signal strength but, the sound performance from the speaker was on the lower side and we think that it could have been better.

Software

The Asus Zenfone Max comes with Android 6.0 out of the box with the ZenUI skin on it, The ZenUi has not changed much since the Zenfone 2, the software look is great but the bloatware isn't though you can uninstall it, it still feels like a chore that could have been avoided. Still missing is the fact that Asus is still using a Flashlight app rather than how android provides a widget in the top bar, we also see some apps like the Laser Ruler which let’s you measure the distance from your subject to be a good addition.

Camera

The Asus Zenfone Max comes with a 13MP Primary Camera and a 5MP secondary camera. The Primary Camera takes amazing photos, and after trying out the camera we found out that Asus has made the night mode shots much better as now we would get amazing shots in the dark also which was a little iffy in the previous Zenfones.

The camera comes with all the things that the Zenfones have ever had like laser auto focus, manual shooting modes,  super resolution, etc.. When paired with the The ZenFlash and the LolliFlash from Asus the camera gave us amazing shots, like the shots.

Features

Powerful Processor and Increased Memory - Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor - RAM: 2GB/3GB LPDDR3 - Capacity: o Internal storage: 32GB o Micro SD: Up to 64GB o ASUS WebStorage: 5GB free for life o Google Drive: 100GB free space (2 years) Ultimate Energy - 5000 mAh Li-Polymer battery - Standby time: up to 914.4 hours = 38.1 days - Serves as a power bank for other devices Stunning, Strong Display - IPS Display with up to 178˚ viewing angle - Fingerprint and smudge-resistant oleophobic coating Premium Camera - 13MP main camera with dual -LED flash - 0.03 sec laser auto focus technology - Multiple camera modes for various scenarios and effects

Connectivity

The New Zenfone Max Supports GSM, HSPA, LTE; The Bands it runs are 2G, 3G, 4G. It has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot. And Supports Bluetooth Version 4.0 with A2DP. The Zenfone Max has GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, and BDS.

Specifications

Zenfone Max ZC550KL
Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 1.5 GHz, Octa-Core
Modem GSM/GPRS/EDGE; WCDMA/HSPA+/DC-HSPA+; FDD-LTE, DSDS
Peak Data Rate DC-HSPA+ (DL/UL): 42/5.76 Mbps; LTE CAT4 (DL/UL): 150/50 Mbps
RF Band Support IN
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900
WCDMA: 1/2/5/8 ; TDD-SCDMA: 34/39
FDD-LTE Band: B1, B3, B5
TD-LTE:  38/39/40/41(2555-2655MHz only)
OS Android M 6.0.1
Display 5.5" TFT LED Backlight (Typ 450 nits ) ; 1280 x 720 HD IPS
16:9 , Wide active matrix; Glare type
GFF Touch panel (Directly Bonding): Capacitive touch panel with 10 points multi-touch with 60ms response time
Dimensions 156*77.5*10.55
Weight 202g
Battery Pack & Life Typ:5000mAh, non-removable polymer battery
Memory LPDDR3 2GB/3GB
Storage eMMC 32GB
Micro SD Card Support (Up to 64GB)
Sensor 1. Accelerator
2. E-Compass
3. Proximity
4. Hall sensor
5. Ambient light sensor
WLAN Integrated 802.11b/g/n; WiFi-Direct
Bluetooth Bluetooth V 4.0 (EDR + A2DP)
Bluetooth Profile: A2DP + AVRCP + HID + PAN + OPP
FM Radio Support
GPS Support GPS, aGPS, Gloness
Interface Micro USB
Front Camera 5M wide view F2.0 / 85 degree
Main Camera 13M auto focus F2.0/ 75 degree,
Flash LED Dual Flash Real Tone LED & laser focus(40cm)
Vibrator Yes
Audio Codec integrated into PMIC
Microphone Microphone*2 (one for de-noise)
SIM Micro SIM*2
Button Power and Volume Up/Down
Accessories Standard USB Cable , Adaptor, User Manual, Warranty Card, OTG cable
Color Black/ Orange/Blue
Adaptor 5W
Features Support ─ Power Bank,  ASUSZenflash, USB flash disk, USB Keyboard, USB mouse.
OTG

Pros -

  • Great battery life
  • Good indoor and low light shots
  • Gorilla Glass 4 protection
  • Good camera hardware with laser Focus
  • Great Build Quality
  • Bright And Vivid Screen
  • Fast Charging Technology
  • Customizable UI
  • Fantastic Performance
  • MicroSD Expansion
  • Affordable

Cons -

  • Battery sealed inside
  • No Fast Charger in Box
  • A bit on the heavy side

Final Verdict -

The Asus Zenfone Max launched previous year was a solution to a problem that everyone in the market was facing daily, that was people did not have enough battery to get through the day. Though being the saviour that it was it was still lacking the necessary specifications to keep up with the market. And with the new Zenfone Max we have got a solution to that problem also with the updated processor, RAM, ROM. Keeping everything in mind even that the phone is on the heavy side the battery is what will bring you in and it is what will keep you in. That all being said the phone is a must buy as it is a beast of a phone both on the software and hardware side and will let you do whatever you want with ease.

Buy The Phone Here - Click Here

This post was last modified on June 10, 2016 5:30 pm

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