With the Zenfone Max pro M1, Asus is trying to make a comeback in the budget smart phone market.
Right now, this phone is available in two variants – 3 GB RAM and 32 GB storage variant is available at Rs. 10,999, while 4GB RAM and 64 GB storage at Rs. 12,999.
It is really a good price for all the features that this phone has to offer.
We have got the black one here, but if you look at it under bright light . It is actually deep blue and not black like most of the phones in this price range, max pro also comes in metal black with plastic on the top which goes along both the sides and all the way to the bottom of the back. This helps with better antenna reception. This metal back is rounded towards the edges, so you won’t feel too uncomfortable if you use it for long time, but this design style also makes it a little slippery. The back also catches lot of fingerprints which are difficult to wipe off.
Display :
Speaking of the display it’s a 5.99 inches IPS LCD panel, with resolution of 2160×1080 pixels.
It is nice and beautiful for consuming media and the display calibration is pretty accurate as well. It gets bright enough to be visible outside and I think it is the brightest if you compare with other smartphones in this price range, so that’s good.
Above the display we get an earpiece , which gets loud enough for audio calls. LED notification light and 8 megapixel camera with a front facing flash, proximity and ambient light sensor.
There are no capacitive navigation buttons or fingerprint sensor on the lower bezel. The fingerprint sensor is placed at the back. While the sensor is accurate. It is not the fastest by ay means.
Let’s talk about call quality of this phone before we get into the specs. Cellular reception and the call quality on this phone is excellent. The earpiece speaker is pretty loud and clear.
I took a few calls in very crowded area, but I had no issues with hearing what the other person was saying.
Unlike any other phones in it’s price range, this one supports dual 4G or dual VOLTE. So, if you have two sim cards which supports 4G or VOLTE, you won’t have any problem, using both of them at the same.
It takes two nano SIM cards, and the sim tray has a dedicated slot for a micro SD card, if the internal memory gets full.
Since we are on the topic of storage, 3GB Ram variant with 32 GB of storage at 11,000 Rs.Sounds fantastic and you might even be tempted to get a 32 GB or 64 GB Micro SD card to expand the storage, which will cost you another 800-1500 Rs. depending on the storage capacity. Asus has also made sure, to include all the necessary sensors like accelerometer, compass, gyroscope and so on.
You get 5 magnet single bottom firing speaker inside this phone. The sound output is cleaer and louder than some of the other phones in this price range. It comes with a MaxBox which is supposed to amplify and enhance the sound from this speaker.
Performance :
Overall day to day performance of this phone is really fantastic. I’m amazed to see how good these budget devices have got in terms of their general day to day performance.It is powered by Snapdragon 636 processor and adreno 509 GPU. This new processor is very powerful and efficient at the same time.
Software :
Part of the credit goes to Android 8.1 that Asus is running on this device. Now with skin or UI, you definitely get a few new features and more customisation options but, I much appreciate the simplicity, speed and faster software update that this almost pure android operating system brings along.
Camera :
The dual camera setup at the back, houses a 13 Mp primary camera with f/2.2 and a 5MP secondary camera with F2.4 aperture, for depth sensing at the front you get 8 MP sensor with f/2.2 aperture and LED flash. Asus is using Qualcomm’s snapdragon camera app. You get a lot of modes to choose from and these are beauty and portrait mode on both rear and front facing cameras.
Battery :
Coming to the battery life, this phone manages to back in a massive 5000 mAh battery in a 8.5mm thin body you can easily get close to 7 to 7 and half hours of screen on time.
It still uses a micro USB cable for charging and not new USB type C one. It takes about 2 and half hours to go from 5-100% , but considering that it has a mammoth 5000mAh battery, this seems like a good time.
So to sum it up you get 5.99” full HD plus display with a modern looking 18:9 aspect ratio, metal back, snapdragon 636 processor, Dual VOLTE support, dedicated micro SD card slot, 5000mAh battery, best set of the cameras, almost stock like pure android experience and all of the other necessary sensors and you are getting all of the mentioned thing at a starting price of 10,000 Rs., I would have to say I am impressed with this phone.
With the launch of Zenfone Max Pro at such a competitive price, I think Asus is going to create some buzz in smartphone industry.
So what do you think about Asus Zenfone Max Pro ?
