The Zenfone series has got some crazy reactions in the past. Well, the Zenfone 3 max is no exception to this trend. Asus has been focusing on delivering the higher specs in a budget friendly phone. This shows in this new variants. Asus has launched their Zenfone 3 series smartphones a few months back in India. In addition to the Zenfone 3, Zenfone 3 Laser, Zenfone 3 Deluxe models, the Asus Zenfone 3 Max was launched in two variants, one is 5.2 inch and the other is with a 5.5-inch display. I have the 5.5 inch version to review here.
I personally have ranted on forums about the low battery life of phones these days and how higher specs require a higher capacity battery. And with this phone in hand, I am personally happy with it. Here's my brief review on the product.
First Impressions:
Surprisingly, I wasn't surprised to find the Asus Zenfone 3 Max looking similar to Gionee's new series.
Build: 8/10
The Asus Zenfone 3 Max is slim and looks premium and classy with the metal aluminum unibody design and rounded edges on all four sides of the phone. It is definitely easy to hold but the shining finish makes the phone a bit slippery. The 5.5 inch display looks good especially when the bezels are so thin. Having said that, I still find the finger sensor placement awkward for my hand and hope the next one follows Samsung and Apple. On the right, we have volume and power buttons. We have the SIM card and microSD card slot on the left. On the back, we have 16 MP rear camera with two-tone flash and fingerprint scanner just below the camera. On the top, we have 3.5 mm audio jack and secondary noise-canceling microphone. Bottom we have the mic, speaker grill, and micro USB standard port. It has a 2.5 D contoured display glass. Below the display, we have the physical navigation buttons.
Battery:
The Asus has marketed this phone for its battery, and it is also the primary thing you will notice. I am used to checking the phone battery meter every 5 mins almost subconsciously. And then the last 2 days were different where I felt rich and satisfied just on seeing the power still left in the battery.
The phone comes with a 4100 mAh non-removable battery. The phone has the capacity of quick charge 3.0. The phone took 4 hours for me to completely charge the phone once. The battery backup is really good when compare to the same range smartphones. On a heavy usage, the battery lasts for One and a Half day (around 40 hours). Asus gives us multiple battery saving modes for different levels of usage and more performance. What's important is that the phone is also capable of reverse charging. This means that we can charge other USB compatible devices.
Camera: 6.5/10
On the rear, we have a 16 MP camera with 5 P largen lens, f/2.0 aperture, dual LED real tone flash and Blue Glass IR Filter. The camera comes with the laser and face detection. Let's just say that the camera app is fast, so you can take more photos quickly without any lag. However, if the memory does get loaded over 50%, you will start noticing the difference in this speed. You can record full HD videos. On the front, there is a 8 MP camera with f/2.2 aperture and 4 P largen lens. This is unexpectedly amazing for selfies and the detailing is clearly a winner. You can record full HD videos even from the front camera.
This Asus camera can have a continuous auto focus even when the objects are moving. I recorded sample videos in 1080p and with electronic image stabilisation (EIS), the videos are less likely to shake. I give it a 6.5 on 10 just because I have reviewed high end phones with better cameras. So at this pricing, this is a 8/10.
Screen: 5/10
The phone has a 5.5-inch full HD display which is 73% screen-to-body ratio. The screen quality is decent, where the sharpness is good and the colors are slightly over-saturated. Asus has added a blue light filter to protect your eyes while reading and night. However, if you check the video towards the end, you will see that it is highly reflective. The content on the screen is very clearly visible indoors, which means it is a problem outdoors. If you are mostly at work or in college, this is something that would not matter much.
Main Features: 6/10
In India, Zenfone 3 Max is available in two variants. But the one we have for review, is equipped with Qualcomm 64-bit Snapdragon 430 Octa-Core processor along with Adreno 505 GPU. It is supported by 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB inbuilt storage, which can be expandable up to 128 GB. The phone supports OTG so you can connect external storage devices to access data. The phone comes with the fingerprint sensor which is located on the backside of the phone just below the camera. You can save up to 5 fingerprints. There is a notification light located at the front. The phone comes with Dual SIM hybrid SIM slot supports 4G LTE with VoLTE. Both SIM slots support 4G, but you can use any one SIM with 4G at a time.
Extra Value Addition: 5/10
With this smartphone, you also get 5 GB of free ASUS WebStorage valid for the lifetime and 100GB Google Drive space for 2 years. Call me traditional but with the limited bandwidth of wireless cellular data even in metros, I do not prefer online storage and hence 5 on 10. It is a very good value add in any case.
Software: 7/10
Zenfone 3 Max runs on Android MarshMallow 6.0.1 with the brand-new ASUS ZenUI 3.0 on top. There are a lot of preloaded apps which you can uninstall and save some space. If you don’t like any app from ASUS, then you can able to disable them. I found the UI very smooth and non-buggy at start. However, after a week of good usage, downloads gameplay and , there were times when everything seemed to take extra microseconds than usual to execute. The thing is that you may not even notice it in the long run. Overall, this seems to be a nice mix of price and features that are added to the user interface.
Before you make your decision on whether to buy or not, check out this unboxing video and tips.
Verdict: 7/10
The MPR for Asus Zenfone 3 Max is Rs.17999 which is higher than other phones with the processor.
Other than that, the navigation buttons are not backlit which is disappointing for night use. The fingerprint sensor's response time is one of the fastest and it can take you to the camera mode in an instant. There was no significant lag and definitely no heating issues that I found in previously reviewed phones. Balancing out the cons in this phone is the heavy duty 4100 MAh battery and I give ASUS a big thumbs up for this. Hopefully the other brands follow the trend and understand the usage driven by each feature.
@vaistorm @vaimasters
I personally have ranted on forums about the low battery life of phones these days and how higher specs require a higher capacity battery. And with this phone in hand, I am personally happy with it. Here's my brief review on the product.
First Impressions:
Surprisingly, I wasn't surprised to find the Asus Zenfone 3 Max looking similar to Gionee's new series.
Build: 8/10
The Asus Zenfone 3 Max is slim and looks premium and classy with the metal aluminum unibody design and rounded edges on all four sides of the phone. It is definitely easy to hold but the shining finish makes the phone a bit slippery. The 5.5 inch display looks good especially when the bezels are so thin. Having said that, I still find the finger sensor placement awkward for my hand and hope the next one follows Samsung and Apple. On the right, we have volume and power buttons. We have the SIM card and microSD card slot on the left. On the back, we have 16 MP rear camera with two-tone flash and fingerprint scanner just below the camera. On the top, we have 3.5 mm audio jack and secondary noise-canceling microphone. Bottom we have the mic, speaker grill, and micro USB standard port. It has a 2.5 D contoured display glass. Below the display, we have the physical navigation buttons.
Battery:
The Asus has marketed this phone for its battery, and it is also the primary thing you will notice. I am used to checking the phone battery meter every 5 mins almost subconsciously. And then the last 2 days were different where I felt rich and satisfied just on seeing the power still left in the battery.
The phone comes with a 4100 mAh non-removable battery. The phone has the capacity of quick charge 3.0. The phone took 4 hours for me to completely charge the phone once. The battery backup is really good when compare to the same range smartphones. On a heavy usage, the battery lasts for One and a Half day (around 40 hours). Asus gives us multiple battery saving modes for different levels of usage and more performance. What's important is that the phone is also capable of reverse charging. This means that we can charge other USB compatible devices.
On the rear, we have a 16 MP camera with 5 P largen lens, f/2.0 aperture, dual LED real tone flash and Blue Glass IR Filter. The camera comes with the laser and face detection. Let's just say that the camera app is fast, so you can take more photos quickly without any lag. However, if the memory does get loaded over 50%, you will start noticing the difference in this speed. You can record full HD videos. On the front, there is a 8 MP camera with f/2.2 aperture and 4 P largen lens. This is unexpectedly amazing for selfies and the detailing is clearly a winner. You can record full HD videos even from the front camera.
This Asus camera can have a continuous auto focus even when the objects are moving. I recorded sample videos in 1080p and with electronic image stabilisation (EIS), the videos are less likely to shake. I give it a 6.5 on 10 just because I have reviewed high end phones with better cameras. So at this pricing, this is a 8/10.
Screen: 5/10
The phone has a 5.5-inch full HD display which is 73% screen-to-body ratio. The screen quality is decent, where the sharpness is good and the colors are slightly over-saturated. Asus has added a blue light filter to protect your eyes while reading and night. However, if you check the video towards the end, you will see that it is highly reflective. The content on the screen is very clearly visible indoors, which means it is a problem outdoors. If you are mostly at work or in college, this is something that would not matter much.
Main Features: 6/10
In India, Zenfone 3 Max is available in two variants. But the one we have for review, is equipped with Qualcomm 64-bit Snapdragon 430 Octa-Core processor along with Adreno 505 GPU. It is supported by 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB inbuilt storage, which can be expandable up to 128 GB. The phone supports OTG so you can connect external storage devices to access data. The phone comes with the fingerprint sensor which is located on the backside of the phone just below the camera. You can save up to 5 fingerprints. There is a notification light located at the front. The phone comes with Dual SIM hybrid SIM slot supports 4G LTE with VoLTE. Both SIM slots support 4G, but you can use any one SIM with 4G at a time.
Extra Value Addition: 5/10
With this smartphone, you also get 5 GB of free ASUS WebStorage valid for the lifetime and 100GB Google Drive space for 2 years. Call me traditional but with the limited bandwidth of wireless cellular data even in metros, I do not prefer online storage and hence 5 on 10. It is a very good value add in any case.
Software: 7/10
Zenfone 3 Max runs on Android MarshMallow 6.0.1 with the brand-new ASUS ZenUI 3.0 on top. There are a lot of preloaded apps which you can uninstall and save some space. If you don’t like any app from ASUS, then you can able to disable them. I found the UI very smooth and non-buggy at start. However, after a week of good usage, downloads gameplay and , there were times when everything seemed to take extra microseconds than usual to execute. The thing is that you may not even notice it in the long run. Overall, this seems to be a nice mix of price and features that are added to the user interface.
Before you make your decision on whether to buy or not, check out this unboxing video and tips.
The MPR for Asus Zenfone 3 Max is Rs.17999 which is higher than other phones with the processor.
Other than that, the navigation buttons are not backlit which is disappointing for night use. The fingerprint sensor's response time is one of the fastest and it can take you to the camera mode in an instant. There was no significant lag and definitely no heating issues that I found in previously reviewed phones. Balancing out the cons in this phone is the heavy duty 4100 MAh battery and I give ASUS a big thumbs up for this. Hopefully the other brands follow the trend and understand the usage driven by each feature.
@vaistorm @vaimasters
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